They had hoped to trade Ruanda-Urundi for a piece of northern Angola to add to their southern colony of the Congo. This did not happen. The territory became a Belgian Mandate under the League of Nations. The switch in European "ownership" of the territory had no salutary effect for the situation of the Bahutus. Belgium copied the German practice of working through the Watutsi minority in governing the region. There was little or no economic incentive for the Belgians to settle in the area or to make any substantial investments in a subsistence economy that lacked even a rudimentary infrastructure. The economy was household based, and villages were isolated from each other. Burundi did not offer Belgium a market for manufactures, and the region had almost nothing worth extracting for local use or for transport to Europe or America. .
After World War II, Ruanda-Urundi was changed from a League of Nations Mandate to a trust territory under the United Nations. This change had real importance, as the U.N. trust criteria required Belgium to prepare the population for self-rule. This meant majority rule. The new requirement threatened the Watutsi minority and gave the Bahutus hope of doing through representative government what they had been unable to accomplish through armed conflict over the centuries. .
Watutsi-Bahutu relations were uncertain when limited self-government was granted by Belgium in 1961. The Belgian Foreign Office was hopeful that the monarchy would be a stabilizing institution in Burundi. In July, 1962, Belgium recognized Burundi as an independent monarchy. It was assumed by Belgium and by U.N. officials that the monarchy had considerable support among both the Watutsis and Bahutus. Bahutus generally had been neglected by their European colonizers in the educational system and in government service. A feudal society had, apparently, bred a docile and politically muted people. .
A major setback for ethnic harmony and representative government in Burundi was generated by events outside of the country, in neighboring Rwanda.
