Charismatic Franco/Italian explorer who secured for the French the African territory of Congo situated on the north bank of the Congo River, after whom Brazzaville, the capital of the French Congo, was named. Brazza competed with Henry Morton Stanley (at that time under the employ of Belgian King Leopold II) to establish hegemony on behalf of France over the area of the Stanley Pool, a broad area of the Congo River where the two capitals of Brazzaville and Kinshasa currently occupy opposing banks, and as much related territory as possible. Ultimately Leopold of Belgium claimed the south bank and most of the Congo basin while Brazza on behalf of the French established the smaller territory based on his explorations of the Ogoue River - a tributary of the Congo - between 1879 and 1882.

Brazza was named Governor-General of the French Congo in 1886. There he established a regime in stark contrast to that of the famously cruel and exploitative personal fiefdom of the Congo Frees State claimed by King Leopold II. By highlighting the excesses of the Belgium control of trade along the Congo River Brazza made many powerful enemies, and was subject to a lengthy smear campaign in the French press which ultimatelyled to his dismissal in 1898.

Seven years later Brazza was commissioned to examine conditions in the French colonies, and after doing so produced a report so damning of colonial authority that it was suppressed by the French National Assembly. Brazza died abruptly that year of fever whilst in the Senegalese capital of Dakar. Rumours later circulated that he was poisoned.