Then began for Leopold a very interesting and important period. By touring the world and visiting foreign countries, he prepared himself for the principal task of his royal life--to teach the Belgians how to take up commercial and colonial expansion. For, if Leopold I especially consolidated the young Belgian kingdom, from an interior as well as from an exterior point of view, King Leopold II was the pioneer of the expansion which resulted in the commercial and industrial prosperity of his country. From 1854 to 1855, Leopold visited successively Egypt, Palestine, Greece, Italy, and Switzerland; he met with a splendid reception at Jerusalem. In 1860, he undertook a new journey in Turkey and Asia Minor. In 1862-63 he went through Spain, Algeria, Tunisia, Malta, and Egypt. Finally, he spent the years 1864 and 1865 visiting India. It is then not surprising to hear him, when, in 1855, he made his first speech in the Senate, saying: “We must show the Belgian flag all over the world. A young nationality must be daring and always love progress.” He showed henceforth great interest in science and arts and public works and recommended many times the creation of Belgian navigation lines. In 1859 he began his great campaign for colonial expansion. He told the Belgians they should create everywhere markets for their commerce and exchanges for their industry. In connection with this scheme, he enjoined them to make the port of Antwerp the best and greatest port of the Continent. All this was done and said before Leopold himself became a king. On December 17, 1865, he succeeded his father as king of the Belgians. During his reign he kept pleasant relations with all the countries of Europe, and this friendship was sealed by the visits many kings paid to Brussels. The Belgian capital greeted successively William I of Prussia, William III and Queen Emma of the Netherlands, Alfonso XII of Spain, William II, the young German Emperor. Leopold himself went, in 1872, to visit England and took part at a great dinner where the celebrated Disraeli welcomed him and spoke with much respect of the late King Leopold I, the wise man, “who was virtually a British prince.” Peace and international friendship thus favored the first years of Leopold’s reign, when suddenly, in 1870, the Franco-German War broke out.