foto Ben Kritz

Belgian interest in the Philippines is much older than most people here realize, although the slightly odd story of its beginnings does take up a couple pages in Ambeth Ocampo’s 2009 book, Looking Back. In 1866, King Leopold 2nd of Belgium, on the throne for less than a year, began an aggressive search for some place in the world where his kingdom could establish an overseas colony; much like Germany, Belgium found itself far behind rivals such as England and France in the race to establish globe-spanning empires, a disadvantage the new Belgian monarch was anxious to correct. Deciding that establishing an overseas commercial enterprise as a private citizen would be faster than working through “official” channels, Leopold obtained a loan from the Belgian government and instructed the Belgian ambassador in Spain to approach Queen Isabella 2nd (whose statue stands watch over the Puerto Isabel in Intramuros) about the possibility of Spain ceding the Philippines to Belgium, or alternately, granting Philippine independence in a way that would allow Leopold and his corporate partners to gain control of the archipelago.

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