Why did King Leopold colonize the Congo? VideoThe secret mine that hid the Nazis' stolen treasure, LGBT troops take love for Eurovision to front line, Why an Indian comedian is challenging fake news rules. Ed. But the slashing of the territory's populationthrough a combination of disease, famine, slave labor, suppression of rebellions, and diminished birthrateindisputably occurred on a genocidal scale. POST-1945 HISTORICAL CONTEXTS In one of them, a letter to the U.S. Secretary of State, he used a phrase that was not commonly heard again until the Nuremberg trials more than fifty years later. "Congo Free State Rubber Regime Atrocities." Unlike previous European nations that spread their influence over From 1874 through 1877 the British explorer and journalist Henry Morton Stanley (18411904) crossed Africa from east to west. Statues have been daubed with red paint in Ghent and Ostend and pulled down in Brussels. Forbath, P. The River Congo: The Discovery, Exploration, and Exploitation of the World's Most Dramatic River, 1991 (Paperback). "[2]:145. He wrote articles, appeared at public meetings, lobbied the rich and powerful tirelessly; and always his theme was the boundless opportunity for commercial exploitation of the lands he had discovered or, in his own words, to "pour the civilisation of Europe into the barbarism of Africa". Like statues of racist historical figures vandalised or removed in Britain and the US, Leopold II's days on Belgian streets could now be numbered. Morel, in his mid-twenties at the time, noticed that when his company's ships arrived from the Congo, they were filled to the hatch with enormously valuable cargoes of rubber and ivory. They were the very first royal family of Belgium, because the country was just 5 years old. For much of the journey he floated down the river, mapping its course for the first time and noting the many tributaries that, it turned out, comprised a network of navigable waterways more than 7,000 miles long. However, he added, "since history teaches that colonies are useful, that they play a great part in that which makes up the power and prosperity of states, let us strive to get one in our turn."[4]. These were an incentive for ruthless, devastating plunder. As he headed back to England, Stanley was assiduously courted by King Leopold II of Belgium. Nothing was being sent to the Congo to pay for the goods flowing to Europe. For a dozen years, from 1901 to 1913, working sometimes fourteen to sixteen hours a day, he devoted his formidable energy and skill to putting the story of forced labor in King Leopold's Congo on the world's front pages. Brussels: Goemaere. View 6.2_Reading_Check.docx from HISTORY 2109320 at Coral Reef Senior High School. The relentless pursuit of profits in the Congo by King Leopold II resulted in one of the worst levels of moral decadence for mankind. King Leopold II Biography: The Monster of the Congo At various times, he launched unsuccessful schemes to buy an Argentine province, to buy Borneo from the Dutch, rent the Philippines from Spain, or establish colonies in China, Vietnam, Japan, or the Pacific islands. In 1853 he married Marie-Henriette, daughter of the Austrian archduke Joseph, palatine of Hungary, and became king of the Belgians on his fathers death in December 1865. An even greater toll was taken by disease: various lung and intestinal diseases, tuberculosis, smallpox, and, above all, sleeping sickness. Leopold II and the Congo Free State - HISTORY CRUNCH Charles Michel, prime minister at the time, declined. Jolle Sambi Nzeba, a Belgian-Congolese poet and spokesperson for the Belgian Network for Black Lives, says the statues tell her she is "less than a regular Belgian". New York: Alfred A. Knopf. Morel's History of the Congo Reform Movement. Leopold's most formidable enemy surfaced in Europe. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. In Britain he founded the Congo Reform Association, and affiliated groups sprang up in the United States and other countries. In January 1959, riots broke out in Leopoldville (now Kinshasa) after a rally was held calling for the independence of the Congo. In 1876, Leopold II sponsored an international geographical conference in Brussels, inviting delegates from scientific societies all over Europe to discuss philanthropic and scientific matters such as the best way to coordinate map making, to prevent the re-emergence of the west coast slave trade, and to investigate ways of sending medical aid to Africa. He had long wanted a colonial empire, and in Stanley he saw someone who could secure it for him. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). Stanley was applauded, admired, decoratedand ignored. You cannot download interactives. However, the date of retrieval is often important. He had no power to decide policy. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Vangroenweghe, Daniel (1986). If you have questions about licensing content on this page, please contact ngimagecollection@natgeo.com for more information and to obtain a license. In 2019, the cities of Kortrijk and Dendermonde renamed their Leopold II streets, with Kortrijk council describing the king as a "mass murderer". In later years, Stanley would write that the most vexing part of his duties was not the work itself, nor negotiating with the natives, but keeping order amongst the ill-assorted collection of white men he had brought with him as overseers, who squabbled constantly over small matters of rank or status. Angela Thompsell, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor of British and African History at SUNY Brockport. Vocabulary On February 5, 1885, Belgian King Leopold II established the Congo Free State by brutally seizing the African landmass as his personal possession. He is remembered in Belgium for some of what he built with his Congo wealth, such as the monumental Arcade du Cinquantenaire in Brussels, and for his advocacy of strong fortifications in the eastern part of the country, which slowed the advance of German troops in 1914 at the beginning of World War I. The Congo Free State was founded by Belgian King Leopold II on February 5, 1885, after he violently annexed the African continent. Omissions? New York: Random House. But why was Leopold's Congo so horrific? He was, nevertheless, an extremely minor monarch in the realpolitik of the times, ruling a totally insignificant nation, a nation in fact that had come into existence barely four decades before and lived under the constant threat of losing its precarious independence to the great European powers around it. The boundaries of Colonialism, like those of many literary eras, are difficult to draw. The vicious fighting and terror of the Congo Free State is better understood as another example of the incredible capacity of people for incomprehensible cruelty. If you have questions about how to cite anything on our website in your project or classroom presentation, please contact your teacher. Retrieved September 22, 2017. Civil rights leader For many years Leopold II was widely known as a leader who defended Belgium's neutrality in the 1870-71 Franco-Prussian war and commissioned public works fit for a modern nation. Within the Cite this article tool, pick a style to see how all available information looks when formatted according to that style. 06/29/2020. "King Leopold II's Exploitation of the Congo From 1885 to 1908 - STARS States and then all the major nations of Europe to recognize his claim. King Leopold II's rule over the Congo met fierce resistance. Wearing one of his many hats, that of a journalist, Williams expected to see the paradise of enlightened rule that Leopold had described to him in Brussels. Harper & Row. Leopold agreed and in deepest secrecy, Stanley signed a five-year contract at a salary of 1,000 a year, and set off to Zanzibar under an assumed name. EUROPEAN EFFORTS TO REINVENT OVERSEA, Kenyatta, Jomo 1891(? 8 Disturbing Facts About King Leopold II, the Butcher of Congo L'tat libre du Congo: Paradis perdu. Combining gift-giving with a show of military force, he persuaded hundreds of illiterate African chiefs, most of whom had little idea of the terms of the agreement to which they were ostensibly acceding, to sign away their land to the king. The Congo and the Founding of Its Free State: A Story of Work and Exploration. The country of Belgium itself was only about five years old at the birth of Leopold II, who became the eldest surviving son of Leopold I, first king of the Belgians, and his second wife, Louise-Marie of Orlans. Leopold then used the treaties to convince other Western colonial powers that he had legal right to the Congo River basin, an area more than fifty times the size of Belgium. 1996 - 2023 National Geographic Society. He established his control over the colony through the use of brute force in an attempt to wean the Congolese into submission. As the vines near a village were often drained dry, the men would sometimes have to walk for days to find areas where they could gather their monthly quota of rubber. Leopold bought half of the Congo as his own private possession after convincing the European community that his actions would be humanitarian and philanthropic. Leopold II's rule in what is now Democratic Republic of Congo was so bloody it was eventually condemned by other European colonialists in 1908 - but it has taken far longer to come under scrutiny at home. The first nationwide Congolese political party, the Congo National Movement, was launched in 1958 by Patrice Lumumba and other Congolese leaders. Leiden, Netherlands: E.J. "King Leopold II and the Congo Congo Free State - Wikipedia Beyond removal of statues, far more work is required to dismantle racism, protesters and black communities argue. The Rights Holder for media is the person or group credited. Brussels: Institut Royal Colonial Belge. Discipline was harsh; reluctant military conscripts, disobedient porters, and villagers who failed to gather enough rubber all fell victim to the notorious chicotte, a whip made of sun-dried hippopotamus hide with razor-sharp edges. Marchal, Jules (1996). Leopold spoke of bringing civilization to the Africans and sent a small but heavily armed Belgian force into the Congo. He created a baffling series of subsidiary shell organisations, culminating in the cunningly named International African Association (French: Association internationale africaine), which had a single shareholder: Leopold himself. If a media asset is downloadable, a download button appears in the corner of the media viewer. During that window of time those who profited were the people Starting in the early 1920s, however, the system became considerably less draconian, mainly because colonial officials realized that otherwise they would soon have no labor force left. Belgium took over the colony in 1908 and it was not until 1960 that the Republic of the Congo was established, after a fight for independence. Leopold II, Williams declared, was guilty of "crimes against humanity." Shaloff, Stanley (1970). He spoke contemptuously of Belgiums small size, could not speak proper Dutch, the native language of more than half of its citizens, spent long winters in luxurious quarters on the French Riviera, and was estranged from two of his three daughters. European Atrocity, African Catastrophe: Leopold II, the Congo Free State and Its Aftermath. At a Glance King Leopold's legacy of DR Congo violence. Belgian King Establishes Congo Free State - National Geographic Society Forced labor remained a major part of the Congo's economy for many years after the war. Although Belgiums government felt that colonies would be an extravagance for a small country with no navy or merchant marine, that situation suited Leopold perfectly. Then, rather than perish in the impenetrable country of the cascades, Stanley took a wide detour overland to come within striking distance of the European trading station at Boma on the Congo estuary. In two ways the Congo's rubber boom had lasting impact beyond the territory itself. State troops pursued them, trapping Mulume Niama and his soldiers in a large cave. To avoid discovery, materials and workers were shipped in by various roundabout routes, and communications between Stanley and Leopold were entrusted to Colonel Maximilien Strauch. When the Belgian King Leopold II acquired the Congo Free State during the Scramble for Africa in 1885, he claimed he was establishing the colony for humanitarian and scientific purposes, but in reality, its sole aim was profit, as much as possible, as fast as possible. Birmingham Protest March It was the worlds only private colony, and Leopold referred to himself as its proprietor.. New York: Africana Publishing Company, 1986. She or he will best know the preferred format. A petition calling on the city for its removal has reached 74,000 signatures. Forty years later virtually all of it had been transformed into European colonies, protectorates, or territories ruled by white settlers. He provided for no education or vocational training, which would stunt future Congolese leaders from making sound economic and political policies. The effects were devastating. Why did Leopold want the Congo? London: George Allen & Unwin. Humankind will never know even the approximate toll with any certainty, but beyond any doubt what happened in the Congo was one of the great catastrophes of modern times. Encyclopedia of Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity. 2, 2022, thoughtco.com/congo-free-state-atrocities-rubber-regime-43731. How did King Leopold gain control of the Congo? Interestingly, a longtime high colonial In estimating situations without the benefit of complete census data, demographers are more confident speaking of percentages than absolute numbers. Its report that year to the Belgian king mostly focused on disease, but stressed that forced labor for rubber and other products "subjects the natives to conditions of life which are an obstacle to their increase" and warned that this situation, plus "a lack of concern about devastating plagues ancient and modern, an absolute ignorance of people's normal lives [and] a license and immorality detrimental to the development of the race," had reached "the point of threatening even the existence of certain Congolese peoples" and could completely depopulate the entire region (Bulletin Officiel, 1920, pp. . Why did King Leopold II own the Belgian Congo colony He attributes colonial crimes to the king himself, rather than the Belgian people or state. Women and children were often taken hostage until men fulfilled a quota; during which time the women were raped repeatedly. William Morrison, a white man, and William Sheppard, the first black missionary in the Congo, were Presbyterians from Virginia whose acts of witness so infuriated Congo colonial authorities that they put the men on trial for libel. Marchal, Jules (1996). Last week thousands in the country of 11 million joined solidarity protests about the killing of US black man George Floyd in police custody. Text on this page is printable and can be used according to our Terms of Service. He became duke of Brabant in 1846 and served in the Belgian army. 2023 . As he put it, he did not want to miss out on the opportunity of getting a slice of "this magnificent African cake." King . Throughout the 1870s, Leopold cunningly established a reputation as a great philanthropist and humanitarian who wanted to spread Christianity and civilization to Africa. CONGO.docx - Why did the King of Belgium Leopold II want The horrific consequences of rubber's toxic past - BBC News The largest mutiny involved three thousand troops and an equal number of auxiliaries and porters, and continued for three years. The focus of the great powers was still firmly on the lands that had made Europe's fortune: the Americas, the East Indies, India, China, and Australasia. Because the systems effects in the Congo could so easily be blamed on one man, who could safely be attacked because he did not represent a great power, an international outcry focused on Leopold. Tippu Tip had raided 118 villages, killed 4,000 Africans, and, when Stanley reached his camp, had 2,300 slaves, mostly young women and children, in chains ready to transport halfway across the continent to the markets of Zanzibar. When Leopold II died in 1909, he was buried to the sound of Belgians booing. Why did King Leopold colonize the Congo? - Sage-Advices Congo Free State Rubber Regime Atrocities. But rumours of abuse began to circulate and missionaries and British journalist Edmund Dene Morel exposed the regime. oliviall Answer: Since the consequences of the scheme in the Congo could too easily be blamed on one man who could comfortably be targeted because he did not serve a great power, a Leopold-focused foreign uproar. "It is indispensable", instructed Leopold, "that you should purchase for the Comit d'tudes[fr] (i.e., Leopold himself) as much land as you can obtain". Villages throughout the region had been burned and depopulated. Together with epidemic disease, famine, and a falling . That pressure finally forced him to relinquish his ownership of the territory, and it became the Belgian Congo in 1908. Army officers and colonial officials earned bonuses based on the amount of rubber collected in areas under their control. Leopold II established a colony in the Congo to gain natural resources for Belgium and wealth for himself. Virtually no information about the true nature of King Leopold's Congo reached the outside world until the arrival there, in 1890, of an enterprising visitor named George Washington Williams. For decades, colonial history has been barely taught in Belgium. Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students. Why did King Leopold want to take over areas of Africa? William Roger Louis and Jean Stengers. The Hidden Holocaust: How King Leopold II - The African Exponent This article is about the European colonization of the Congo region. says Ms Kayembe. With women as hostages and men forced to tap rubber, few able-bodied adults were left to hunt, fish, and cultivate crops. It is clearly understood that in this project there is no question of granting the slightest political power to the negros. Leopold II became the next King of Belgium in 1865 and reigned until his death on December 17th, 1909. Leopold's eventual response was extraordinary in its hubris and simplicity. He was interested in the Congo river basin because there were many natural resources such as rubber, minerals, ivory, diamonds, and gold. Now, Stanley discovered, Tippu Tip's men had reached still further west in search of fresh populations to enslave. The movement, in fact, eventually forced Leopold to relinquish his private ownership of the Congo to the Belgian state in 1908. Bulletin Officiel du Congo Belge (1920). Stanley made his way back to Europe with a sheaf of signed treaties in 1884. Why did the Belgian Congo happen? - Sage-Answer Outside of the Cape of Good Hope and the Mediterranean coast, Europe had no African colonies of any significance. p.20. If no button appears, you cannot download or save the media. On February 5, 1885, Belgian King Leopold II established the Congo Free State by brutally seizing the African landmass as his personal possession. ." If the estimates from varied sources of a 50 percent toll in King Leopold's Congo are correct, how many people does this mean? I Have a Dream [8], It was only at this point that Stanley was informed of the magnitude of Leopold's ambition: Stanley was not merely to construct a series of trading stations, he was to secretly carve out an entire nation. Leopold II implemented a forced-labour system in the Congo that was quickly copied by other European colonial powers. Warning: This piece contains graphic pictures. They were a newly independent country . The children sent to a 'holiday camp' never to come back, Russia launches pre-dawn missile attack on Ukraine, Chaos at port as thousands rush to leave Sudan. To secure their But new rubber trees often require fifteen years of growth before they can be tapped. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. Did this woman die because her genitals were cut? Published in many American and European newspapers, it was the first comprehensive, detailed indictment of the regime and its slave labor system. In addition, Leopold's regime faced resistance from within his own conscript army, whose soldiers sometimes found a common cause with the rebel groups they were supposed to pursue. Reform in Leopold's Congo. [3], As a constitutional monarch, Leopold was charged with the usual constitutional duties of opening parliaments, greeting diplomats, and attending state funerals. OF DECOLONIZATION By the end of the 19th century, the Basin had been carved up by European colonial powers, into the Congo Free State, the French Congo and the Portuguese Congo (modern Cabinda Province of Angola). Cambridge University Press. New and revised edition. Alice Harris, a British Baptist, took photographs of the atrocities she witnessed. By that point he had made a huge profit from the territory, conservatively estimated as the equivalent of more than $1.1 billion in early twenty-first century terms. Hochschild, Adam (1998). Belgian King Leopold II ruthlessly seized control of the African continent on February 5, 1885, establishing the Congo Free State as a . 60 years after independence, traces of the system of exploitation and violence that Leopold II and colonial-era Belgium created still remain in DR Congo. The king of Belgium wanted the Congo for the vast amounts of wild rubber it held, and to establish a colony as he thought kings were supposed to do. If the government of Belgium would not take a colony, then he would simply do it himself, acting in his private capacity as an ordinary citizen. Among those who weren't killed, many were punished by having a hand and/or foot amputated. In the far south, for example, a chief named Mulume Niama led warriors of the Sanga people in a rebellion that killed one of the king's officers. Tens of thousands of others were shot down in failed rebellions against the regime. In the newly christened Belgian Congo, however, the forced labor system did not immediately end. The couple's first son, Louis Philippe, died in infancy prior to Leopold II's birth. Most populous nation: Should India rejoice or panic? The colony in the Congo - the Congo Free State - was personal property for the Belgian king and there was little oversight over what happened there. He called it Congo Free State. Exhausted, Stanley returned to Europe, only to be sent straight back by Leopold, who promised him an outstanding assistant: Charles 'Chinese' Gordon (who did not in fact take up Leopold's offer but chose instead to go to meet his fate at Khartoum). The results of this rule were very uneven. Belgian officers were afraid that the rank and file of the Force Publique would waste bullets, so they demanded a human hand for each bullet their soldiers used as proof that the killings had been done. And under such circumstances people tended to stop having children, so the birthrate plummeted as a result. Encyclopedia.com. ." Rather than control the Congo as a colony, as other European powers did throughout Africa, Leopold privately owned the region. Montgomery Bus Boycott However, Leopold persisted and eventually Stanley gave in. "Almost all of them", he wrote, "clamoured for expenses of all kinds, which included wine, tobacco, cigars, clothes, shoes, board and lodging, and certain nameless extravagances"[10]:71 (by which he meant attractive slaves to warm their beds). He died the following year. Read about our approach to external linking. E. V. Sjblom of Sweden was one of the first and most outspoken missionaries in the Congo. A master of public relations who portrayed himself as a great philanthropist, the king orchestrated successful lobbying campaigns in one country after another. Leopold financed development projects with money loaned to him from the Belgian government. Renting a missionary steamboat, he spent more than three months traveling in the interior. In the period from 1885 to 1908, many atrocities were perpetrated in the Congo Free State (today the Democratic Republic of the Congo) which, at the time, was a state under the absolute rule of King Leopold II of the Belgians.These atrocities were particularly associated with the labour policies used to collect natural rubber for export. Seeing what profits Leopold was reaping from forced labor, officials in these colonies soon adopted exactly the same systemincluding women hostages, forced male labor, and the chicottewith equally fatal consequences. Between the time that Leopold started to assume control of the Congo (around 1880) and when the forced labor system became less severe (after 1920), what happened could not, by strict definition, be called genocide, for there was no deliberate attempt to wipe out all members of one particular ethnic group. The rapids and falls, had they known it, extended for 220 miles (350km) inland, and the terrain close by the river was impassable, and remains so to this day. Initially, government and commercial agents focused on acquiring ivory, but inventions, like the car, dramatically increased the demand for rubber. King Leopold II committed heinous . "It's a good thing that everyone is waking up, looking around and thinking 'is this right?'" This brutal practice was a catastrophe for the population of the Congo, and Leopold was eventually forced to give up his hold on the colony. Moreover, he had a well-known penchant for teenaged girls, and, when he was age 65, he began a liaison with a teenaged former prostitute who bore him two additional children. Read about our approach to external linking. Corrections? Keen on establishing Belgium as an imperial power, he led the first European efforts to develop the Congo River basin, making possible the formation in 1885 of the Congo Free State, annexed in 1908 as the Belgian Congo and now the Democratic Republic of the Congo. 27 Apr. If that figure is accurate and it represents 50 percent of what the population had been in 1880, this would suggest a loss of 10 million people. Instead, he found what he called "the Siberia of the African Continent." [7], Stanley, much more familiar with the rigours of the African climate and the complexities of local politics than Leopold Leopold II never set foot in the Congo persuaded his patron that the first step should be the construction of a wagon trail and a series of forts. Leopold was the founder and sole owner of the Congo Free State, a private project undertaken on his own behalf as a personal union with Belgium. He did however apologise for the kidnapping of thousands of mixed-race children, known as mtis, from Burundi, DR Congo and Rwanda in the 1940s and 1950s. I never imagined this happening in my lifetime," Ms Kayembe adds. When did George Washington Williams visit the Congo? The newly named Belgian Congo remained a colony until the Democratic Republic of Congo gained its independence in 1960. After leaving Livingstone, Stanley sailed for 1,000 miles (1,600km) down the Lualaba (Upper Congo) to the large lake he named Stanley Pool (now called Pool Malebo).