Why do you think Belgium, which was not a large military power, was able to gain control of a size-able portion of central africa

Belgium's King Leopold II was very interested in obtaining a colony for Belgium. At the time of Germany's appearence as a world power, the Berlin Conference of 1884-5 was held, at which the colonial powers gave a corporation controlled by Leopold a territory of about 900,000 square miles known as "Congo Free State". Scandals related to the very bad treatment of workers under the rule of the corporation brought international pressure that forced Leopold to end his personal rule of the territory which was then annexated to Belgium as a colony.