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During the late 19th Century, the Force Publique of the Congo Free State (1878-1908) found itself engaged in almost continuous fighting. Its campaigns against indigenous peoples, mutineers, interloping African Empires, and wars of expansion against the Mahdists, constitute some of the most diverse examples of frontier warfare of the period. They nevertheless remain largely unknown compared to the colonial campaigns of Britain and France, despite offering similar lessons. This article will explore the means through which the Force Publique learnt from experience and developed a colonial military tradition independently – though with many degrees of similarity – from its colonial neighbours. In doing so, it will reflect on the degree to which there were inherent overlaps in European approaches to late 19th Century frontier warfare.

This article explores current historical thinking regarding the ‘small wars’ fought on the frontiers of European empires during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. By drawing on a variety of examples ranging from South Africa to Bolivia and Australia to the Congo, the authors identify three major themes - the expansionist aims of imperial governments often being shrouded in a veneer of benevolence, the brutal fighting that occurred when Indigenous populations challenged the loss of traditional lands, and the speed with which the ostensibly ‘civilised’ European colonists discarded battlefield norms when they waged what were in effect wars of annihilation. In a challenge to the thematic or narrow temporal boundaries that have traditionally dominated scholarship, the authors avoid characterising these wars in discrete national terms. For though every frontier conflict possessed its own unique character, there are broad similarities that can be explored through an analysis of European thinking regarding these ‘small wars’ and the violence and destruction that accompanied them.