Lado Enclave
LADO ENCLAVE
colonial territory in sudan, connecting the congo and nile rivers.
The Lado Enclave was a remnant of the ambitions of King Leopold of Belgium to link his personal empire (the Congro Free State) with the Nile, whose waters flowed to the Mediterranean Sea. He appeared to have achieved his goal in 1894 when Great Britain ceded to him the Bahr al-Ghazal, which gave access to the Nile, in a futile attempt to prevent French encroachment on the vital Nile waters. Leopold yielded to French pressure to abandon the Bahr al-Ghazal but demanded his rights under a treaty with Great Britain to retain a small enclave called Lado, which would connect the two great waterways of Africa, the Congo and Nile rivers. Because the Congo Free State and the Lado Enclave were the personal fiefs of King Leopold and not of Belgium, whose government had no desire to acquire the enclave at the expense of Britain's hostility, they passed into history upon the death of Leopold on 17 December 1909. By a treaty signed between Belgium and Great Britain in 1906, the enclave was incorporated into the Anglo-Egyptian Condominium.
see also bahr al-ghazal.
robert o. collins