As rubber prices soared, so did the quotas. La Force publique de sa naissance 1914: Participation des militaires l'histoire des premires annes du Congo. The king then embarked on an ultimately successful effort to make a vast fortune from his new possession. After Morel orchestrated a protest resolution by the British Parliament, the government, in response, asked its representative in the Congo to investigate his charges. On Friday the younger brother of Belgium's King Philippe, Prince Laurent, defended his ancestor saying Leopold II was not responsible for atrocities in the colony "because he never went to Congo". (1952). says Ms Kayembe. The events in King Leopold's Congo also rippled beyond its borders in a more positive way: They gave birth to the twentieth century's first great international human rights movement (see sidebar). Leopold was an intelligent and ruthless man who wasn't afraid to lie or kill in order to expand Belgium's power. "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). King Leopold's legacy of DR Congo violence. 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". Unlike previous European nations that spread their influence over The instructions were direct and to the point: "It is a question of creating a new State, as big as possible, and of running it. 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. Name Ahmed Kamel Date 2/17/22 Topic 6.2 Reading Check 1. It would be "really significant for Congolese people, especially those whose families perished," she explains. 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. POST-1945 HISTORICAL CONTEXTS For thousands of years, that territory had been conquered by nearby Netherlands, France, Germany, and Luxembourg. Although the domestic affairs of his reign were dominated by a growing conflict between the Liberal and Catholic parties over suffrage and education issues, Leopold concentrated on developing the countrys defenses. "King Leopold II and the Congo Retrieved April 27, 2023 from Encyclopedia.com: https://www.encyclopedia.com/international/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/king-leopold-ii-and-congo. "When I walk in a city that in every corner glorifies racism and colonialism, it tells me that me and my history are not valid," she explains from the capital. A cointegration analysis, CRE Working paper, n02/10, juin 2010, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Colonization_of_the_Congo_Basin&oldid=1117806574, The fever-ridden mangroves of the lower Niger by the brothers, This page was last edited on 23 October 2022, at 17:53. 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. The Congo and the Founding of Its Free State: A Story of Work and Exploration. He was interested in the Congo river basin because there were many natural resources such as rubber, minerals, ivory, diamonds, and gold. Instead, the ships carried soldiers, and large quantities of firearms and ammunition. When the 1860s explorers focused attention on Africa, Leopold schemed to colonise Mozambique on the east coast, Senegal on the west coast, and the Congo in the centre. 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. It is clearly understood that in this project there is no question of granting the slightest political power to the negros. London, Curzon Press, p.27. Leopold II, Williams declared, was guilty of "crimes against humanity." Birmingham Protest March When you reach out to him or her, you will need the page title, URL, and the date you accessed the resource. Leopold acquired the Congo through unethical means and thus took the people's chances away at self-rule. Read about our approach to external linking. Ewans, Martin (2002). In one, a man sits on a low platform looking at a dismembered small foot and small hand. The royal coffers would become a central focus of Leopolds life, and he once grumbled to German Emperor William II while watching a parade in Berlin, There is really nothing left for us kings except money! Leopold soon decided that the best way to acquire wealth would be by establishing an African colony, at a time when the great European Scramble for Africa was under way. The King Incorporated: Leopold II in the Age of Trusts. He made further progress toward realizing his objective at a diplomatic conference in Berlin in 1884 and 1885 that the major European powers attended. London: Heinemann. The audio, illustrations, photos, and videos are credited beneath the media asset, except for promotional images, which generally link to another page that contains the media credit. Vocabulary On February 5, 1885, Belgian King Leopold II established the Congo Free State by brutally seizing the African landmass as his personal possession. In 1870 more than 80 percent of Africa south of the Sahara was under the rule of indigenous chiefs or kings. 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). Many people wonder why these soldiers were willing to do this to their own people, but there was no sense of being Congolese. Many of the women hostages starved, and many of the male rubber gatherers were worked to death. He had no power to decide policy. But for Leopold this posed no problem; he would acquire his own. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. The great population movements caused by the colonial regime brought these illnesses into areas where people had not built up an immunity to them, and many would have died even under a government far less brutal than Leopold's. ." OF DECOLONIZATION Army officers and colonial officials earned bonuses based on the amount of rubber collected in areas under their control. Leopold II of Belgium - Wikipedia All rights reserved. An even greater toll was taken by disease: various lung and intestinal diseases, tuberculosis, smallpox, and, above all, sleeping sickness. 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. Leopold II became the next King of Belgium in 1865 and reigned until his death on December 17th, 1909. Why did King Leopold colonize the Congo? - Sage-Advices Stanley, still hopeful for British backing, brushed him off. In the newly christened Belgian Congo, however, the forced labor system did not immediately end. But new rubber trees often require fifteen years of growth before they can be tapped. Why did King Leopold the II want the Congo? What did his - Brainly "The rebels displayed a courage worthy of a better cause," (Flament et al., 1952, p. 417) acknowledged the army's official historywhich, remarkably, devoted fully one-quarter of its pages to the various campaigns against mutineers within the army's own ranks. Most online reference entries and articles do not have page numbers. A man of great charm, intelligence, ruthlessness, and greed, he was openly frustrated with inheriting the throne of such a small country, and in doing so at a time in history when European kings were rapidly losing power to elected parliaments. Soon after Stanley returned from the Congo, Leopold tried to recruit him. Unfortunately, for the Congo, it was one of the only places in the world to have a large supply of wild rubber, and the government and its affiliated trading companies quickly shifted their focus to extracting the suddenly lucrative commodity. In actuality, Leopold wanted to get his hands on Congo's natural resources. The only way to do that was through the use of terror. In the early years the main commodity Leopold sought was ivory. Initially, government and commercial agents focused on acquiring ivory, but inventions, like the car, dramatically increased the demand for rubber. He was a veteran of the American Civil War, a historian, a Baptist minister, a lawyer, and the first black member of the Ohio state legislature. States and then all the major nations of Europe to recognize his claim. 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. Although Leopold II established Belgium as a colonial power in Africa, he is best known for the widespread atrocities that were carried out under his rule, as a result of which as many as 10 million people died in the Congo Free State. Instead, he found what he called "the Siberia of the African Continent." In estimating situations without the benefit of complete census data, demographers are more confident speaking of percentages than absolute numbers. ." L'tat libre du Congo: Paradis perdu. It was down to rubber. First, the system of exploitation established there became a model for colonial rule in other parts of central Africa. He attributes colonial crimes to the king himself, rather than the Belgian people or state. New York: Africana Publishing Company, 1986. Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. [12] At the end of his physical resources, Stanley returned home, to be replaced by Lieutenant Colonel Francis de Winton, formerly a British Army officer. Throughout the 1870s, Leopold cunningly established a reputation as a great philanthropist and humanitarian who wanted to spread Christianity and civilization to Africa. 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. Some of these soldiers were recruits, while others were enslaved people or orphans brought up to serve the colonial army. A master of public relations who portrayed himself as a great philanthropist, the king orchestrated successful lobbying campaigns in one country after another. Thompsell, Angela. There are at least 13 statues to Leopold II in Belgium, according to one crowd-sourced map, and numerous parks, squares and street names. Red Rubber: The Story of the Rubber Slave Trade Which Flourished on the Congo for Twenty Years, 18901910. 8 Disturbing Facts About King Leopold II, the Butcher of Congo 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. That would be absurd."[9]. ADAM HOCHSCHILD. London: George Allen & Unwin. https://www.thoughtco.com/congo-free-state-atrocities-rubber-regime-43731 (accessed May 1, 2023). Last year a UN working group called on Belgium to apologise for atrocities committed during the colonial era. 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. The people of the Congo were forced to labor for valued resources, including rubber and ivory, to personally enrich Leopold. In Kinshasa, the capital of DR Congo, Leopold II's statues were moved to the National Museum. 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.
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