Georges Brunon Joseph Marie Moulaert (19 May 1875 – 17 September 1958) was a Belgian colonial administrator. He was deputy governor general of Équateur Province in the Belgian Congo from 1917 to 1919. Later he became a businessman, head of several large enterprises in the Congo, and director of others. He drew criticism for his forced recruitment of Congolese workers in the Kilo-Moto gold mines.
Early years (1875–1901)

Georges Brunon Joseph Marie Moulaert was born in Bruges, Belgium, on 19 May 1875.[1] His father was a doctor, and the family as well to do. He studied the classics in school, then entered the Royal Military School in 1892. He became a 2nd lieutenant of the engineers on 22 December 1894, based in Antwerp at the Compagnie special des Pontonniers et des torpilleurs (Special pontoon and torpedo boat company).[1]

Moulaert became a member of Antwerp's "Club africain", where he met colonials who had returned to the country. He decided to enter the service of the Congo Free State, and was accepted after an interview with Charles Liebrechts, secretary general of the Interior Department of the Free State. He was seconded to the Military Cartographic Institute, used by the Belgian state to make soldiers available to King Leopold II's private colony. Three of his brothers also spent time in the Congo, including Julien Moulaert and Maurice Moulaert.[1]
Colonial service (1901–1919)
Peacetime service (1901–1914)

Moulaert left for the Congo in January 1902 as a lieutenant of the Force Publique.[2] That year he was promoted to captain of the Force Publique.[1] He was assigned to the Fort de Shinkakasa, designed to protect the lower Congo, and completed the work on this structure. During leave in 1905 he drew up plans for additional works related to the fort.[2] During this first tour of duty he also experimented with wireless telegraphy and in 1903 took part in the mission to delimit the border between the Congo Free State and the French Congo in the Manianga (Bas Congo) region.[1]
Workers at the Port of Léopoldville c. 1905

In 1905 Moulaert became a colonial civil servant with the rank of interim district commissioner 1st class.[1] He was promoted to district commissioner 1st class in 1908.[2] He became commissioner general in 1910. He was in charge of the Stanley Pool / Moyen Congo District (Léopoldville). He reorganized the urban supply system of Léopoldville and laid the foundations for its subsequent urban development. He developed a new vision for the city layout, organized the "indigenous" quarter and designed the port.[1] In 1911 he requested that the port of Léopoldville, which was too close to the rapids, be moved upstream to the plain of Kinshasa. This was done twenty years later.[2] Moulaert criticized the Catholic Church's fermes-chapelles (farm chapels), mistreatment of the Congolese, seizure of land and failure to pay taxes. His reports were used by socialists in Belgium in their campaign against the Catholic Church in the Congo.[1]

In addition to his civil service duties, from 1907 to 1915 Moulaert was in charge of the Upper Congo navy.[2] He met Prince Albert in 1909, when the prince was making a long tour of what had just become the Belgian Congo. From 1911 the king's special fund financed several of Moulaert's projects for river traffic, and in later years Moulaert directly requested the king's support.[1] He created what grew into the beacon service and the hydrographic services. He built up the fleet, equipped the shipyard in Léopoldville and organized the lumber stations. He advocated coordination between different types of transport. This led to the establishment of Sociéte Nationale des Transports Fluviaux au Congo (Sonatra), Union Nationale des Transports Fluviaux (Unatra) and then Office des Transports Coloniaux (OTRACO) in 1935. He was promoted to Commandement du Génie (Commander, Engineers) in 1909.[2]

In 1913 Moulaert married Louise Beckers (born 1883), daughter of an engineer. They had three children.[1]
World War I (1914–1918)
Baron Dhanis on Lake Tanganyika, 19 January 1916

In May 1914 Moulaert requested a second ten-year term in the colony, which was granted on 1 August 1914, a few days before the start of World War I (1914-1918). As commander of the Upper Congo Navy he organized and directed, from Léopoldville, the Belgian military expedition with the steamer Luxembourg which joined with the French in the Sangha operations in the Kamerun campaign against the Germans. In December 1914 he asked to be reinstated in the Belgian army so he could fight in Europe, petitioning the king directly, but was refused. In Léopoldville he argued abou