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why did king leopold want the congo

    why did king leopold want the congo

    . 24 February 2004. He built outposts and a road around the river's rapids and, using small steamboats, he traveled up and down the great river and its tributaries. So they outsourced the task to Leopold, who used personal diplomacy to convince the European powers to grant him control of a large portion of the Congo basin. 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. The Belgian cabinet of the day was not interested in colonies. (Colonizing other peoples, regardless of the justification, is wrong. When the ships turned around and steamed back to Africa, however, they carried no merchandise in exchange. Cookies collect information about your preferences and your devices and are used to make the site work as you expect it to, to understand how you interact with the site, and to show advertisements that are targeted to your interests. Last year a UN working group called on Belgium to apologise for atrocities committed during the colonial era. 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. [3], As a constitutional monarch, Leopold was charged with the usual constitutional duties of opening parliaments, greeting diplomats, and attending state funerals. Nzansu, a chief in the region near the great Congo River rapids, led rebels who killed a hated colonial official and pillaged several state posts, although they carefully spared the homes of nearby Swedish missionaries. Leopold II was the second son of Leopold I, first king of the Belgians, and his second wife, Marie-Louise of Orlans. Rather than control the Congo as a colony, as other European powers did throughout Africa, Leopold privately owned the region. View 6.2_Reading_Check.docx from HISTORY 2109320 at Coral Reef Senior High School. Sadly, Williams, only forty-one years old, died of tuberculosis on his way home from Africa, but not before writing several additional denunciations of what he had seen in the Congo. They were a newly independent country . Estimates suggest more than 50% died there. 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. But other scholars use even higher numbers. Several rebellions were mercilessly put down under Leopold's direction. Throughout the tropics, people rushed to sow rubber trees, but those plants could take many years to reach maturity, and in the meantime there was money to be made wherever rubber grew wild. Leopold's reign over the Congo Free State, however, has become infamous for its brutality. He used Henry Morton Stanley to help him lay claim to the Congo, the present-day Democratic Republic of the Congo. (2022, June 2). Why did King Leopold II own the Belgian Congo colony Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive content. For instance, Leopold II was a first cousin of Queen Victoria of Britain. The history of Colonialism as a policy or practice go, THE CAUSE OF DECOLONIZATION Thus was the Belgian Congo created. 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. As a result of King Leopold actions, thousands of African tribes populations decreased significantly. "It's a good thing that everyone is waking up, looking around and thinking 'is this right?'" Apparently finding nothing reprehensible about Leopold's ambitions, Stanley set about his task with a will. Although Stanley is best known as the man who found Livingstone, his trip across the Congo basin was the greater feat of exploration and had far more impact on history. The king also faced enemies of another sort. official, Major Charles C. Liebrechts, made the same estimate in 1920. E. V. Sjblom of Sweden was one of the first and most outspoken missionaries in the Congo. Outside of the Cape of Good Hope and the Mediterranean coast, Europe had no African colonies of any significance. Archive pictures from Congo Free State document its violence and brutality. If a soldier fired at someone and missed, or used a bullet to shoot game, he then sometimes cut off the hand of a living victim to be able to show it to his officer. 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. On 29 May 1885, after the closure of the Berlin Conference, the king announced that he planned to name his possessions "the Congo Free State", an appellation which was not yet used at the Berlin Conference and which officially replaced "International Association of the Congo" on 1 August 1885. Soon after Stanley returned from the Congo, Leopold tried to recruit him. ." Although he played a significant role in the development of the modern Belgian state, he was also responsible for widespread atrocities committed under his rule against his colonial subjects. In 1885 he proclaimed the existence of the misnamed tat Indpendant du Congo, or, as it was known in English, the Congo Free State, with himself the King-Sovereign. 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. 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. 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. In 1908, international pressure forced the king to turn the Congo Free State over to the country of Belgium. It was the last part of the continent to be colonized. Many of the surrounding colonies also had rain forests rich in wild rubberPortuguese-controlled northern Angola, the Cameroons under the Germans, and the French Congo, part of French Equatorial Africa, across the Congo River. She or he will best know the preferred format. OF DECOLONIZATION In 1870 roughly 80 percent of Africa south of the Sahara Desert was governed by indigenous kings, chiefs, and other rulers. wives' release, the men would have to disperse into the rain forest to collect the sap of wild rubber vines. 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. Vangroenweghe, Daniel (1986). Leopold II was born in 1835 to King Leopold I and Louise-Marie of Orleans. Thompsell, Angela. Tens, possibly hundreds, of thousands of Africans also died in two decades' worth of unsuccessful uprisings against the king's regime. A worldwide rubber boom was under way, kicked off by the invention of the inflatable bicycle tire and spurred on by the rise of the automobile and the use of rubber in industrial belts and gaskets, as well as in coating for telephone and telegraph wires. As rubber prices soared, so did the quotas. A British shipping company had the monopoly on all cargo traffic between the Congo and Belgium, and every few weeks it sent to the port of Antwerp a young junior official, Edmund Dene Morel, to supervise the unloading of a ship arriving from Africa. Du sang sur les lianes. The conference was a sham: at its close, Leopold proposed that they set up an international benevolent committee to carry on, and modestly agreed to accept the chairman's role. Interestingly, a longtime high colonial BBC World Service: 50 Things That Made the Modern . 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. Bierman, John (1990). Flament, F., et al. Text on this page is printable and can be used according to our Terms of Service. On February 5, 1885, Belgian King Leopold II established the Congo Free State as his personal possession. Leopold bought half of the Congo as his own private possession after convincing the European community that his actions would be humanitarian and philanthropic. Around the BBC. E. D. Morel contre Lopold II: L'histoire du Congo 19001910. "Congo Free State Rubber Regime Atrocities." [5] None of these schemes came anywhere near fruition: the government of Belgium resolutely resisted all Leopold's suggestions, seeing the acquisition of a colony as a good way to spend large amounts of money for little or no return. In the early years the main commodity Leopold sought was ivory. 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. As he put it, he did not want to miss out on the opportunity of getting a slice of "this magnificent African cake." King . They also sometimes eradicatedwhole villages that failed to meet the quotas as a warning to others. Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. https://www.encyclopedia.com/international/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/king-leopold-ii-and-congo, "King Leopold II and the Congo On Monday the University of Mons removed a bust of the late king, following the circulation of a student-led petition saying it represented the "rape, mutilation and genocide of millions of Congolese". And in 2018, Brussels named a public square in honour of Patrice Lumumba, a hero of African independence movements and the first prime minister of Congo, since renamed the Democratic Republic of Congo. You can find out more about our use, change your default settings, and withdraw your consent at any time with effect for the future by visiting Cookies Settings, which can also be found in the footer of the site. Alice Harris, a British Baptist, took photographs of the atrocities she witnessed. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. 657, 660, 662). Forty years later virtually all of it had been transformed into European colonies, protectorates, or territories ruled by white settlers. He was a figure who, one might have had every reason to expect, would devote himself to maintaining his country's strict neutrality, avoiding giving offence to any of his powerful neighbours, and indulging his keenly developed tastes for the pleasures of the flesh, rather than one who would make a profound impact on history. GENEALOGY OF THE TERM DECOLONIZATION 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. On December 12, 1963, the flag of independent Kenya billowed over the capital city of Nairobi f, Martin Luther King, Jr. 1929-1968 Omissions? In a TV debate this week, a former president of the Free University of Brussels, Herv Hasquin, argued there were "positive aspects" to colonisation, listing the health system, infrastructure, and primary education he said Belgium brought to Central Africa. Vocabulary On February 5, 1885, Belgian King Leopold II established the Congo Free State by brutally seizing the African landmass as his personal possession. Europeans were interested in Africa for its abundance of natural resources (ivory, rubber, gold, etc.) 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. Charles Michel, prime minister at the time, declined. Encyclopedia of Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity. ThoughtCo, Jun. If you have questions about licensing content on this page, please contact ngimagecollection@natgeo.com for more information and to obtain a license. Most made no protest, but some were outraged at the brutal forced labor system. Warning: This piece contains graphic pictures. To secure their Brussels: Institut Royal Colonial Belge. 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. Many people wonder why these soldiers were willing to do this to their own people, but there was no sense of being Congolese. ADAM HOCHSCHILD. 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. It is false to assume that one group of people is more civilized than another. 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). Regions that were hard to access or lacked profitable resources escaped much of the violence that was to follow, but for those areas directly under the rule of the Free State or the companies it leased land to, the results were devastating. Refer to each styles convention regarding the best way to format page numbers and retrieval dates. Shocked by recent local census statistics that showed less than one child per woman, the official Commission Institue pour la Protection des Indignes made a similar reckoning in 1919. He traveled throughout Britain speaking to large audiences and was adept at recruiting bishops, well-known writers, and other luminaries to join him on the lecture platform. Leopold II may never have set foot there, but he poured the profits into Belgium and into his pockets. 2019Encyclopedia.com | All rights reserved. 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. Presenting himself as a philanthropist eager to bring the benefits of Christianity, Western civilization, and commerce to African nativesa guise that he perpetuated for many yearsLeopold hosted an international conference of explorers and geographers at the royal palace in Brussels in 1876. The European colonization of Africa was one of the greatest and swiftest conquests in human history. 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 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. By the end of his life, Leopold was unpopular with his people, but, ironically, that had much less to do with his actions in Africa than with his conduct of his personal life. EUROPEAN EFFORTS TO REINVENT OVERSEA, Kenyatta, Jomo 1891(? A master of public relations who portrayed himself as a great philanthropist, the king orchestrated successful lobbying campaigns in one country after another. One lucrative source of wild rubber was the Landolphia vines in the great Central African rainforest, and no one owned more of that area than Leopold. Why did King Leopold give up the Congo? [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. A Bantu people, they had moved south into this region f, King of the Bingo Game by Ralph Ellison, 1944, https://www.encyclopedia.com/international/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/king-leopold-ii-and-congo. Marchal, Jules (1996). In 1924 the first territory-wide census, when adjusted for undercounting, placed the number of colony inhabitants at some ten million. When Leopold II died in 1909, he was buried to the sound of Belgians booing. Repeated attempts to travel overland were repulsed with heavy casualties, accidents, conflicts with natives, and, above all, disease saw large and well-equipped expeditions got no further than 40 miles (64km) or so past the westernmost rapid, the legendary Cauldron of Hell. 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. Any interactives on this page can only be played while you are visiting our website. Stanley, still hopeful for British backing, brushed him off. Leopold financed development projects with money loaned to him from the Belgian government. For decades, colonial history has been barely taught in Belgium. Furthermore, huge, uncounted numbers of Congolese fled the forced labor regime, but the only refuge to which they could escape was the depths of the rain forest, where there was little food and no shelter; travelers would discover their bones years later. At the time, his father, Leopold I, was the King of Belgium. The king's stated goal was to bring civilization to the people of the Congo, an enormous region in Central Africa. Eventually, the strain forced him to relinquish his control of the territory, and in 1908 it became the Belgian Congo. [1]:333, "There are 40,000,000 naked people" on the other side of the rapids, Stanley wrote, "and the cotton-spinners of Manchester are waiting to clothe them Birmingham's factories are glowing with the red metal that shall presently be made into ironwork in every fashion and shape for them and the ministers of Christ are zealous to bring them, the poor benighted heathen, into the Christian fold. Therefore, that information is unavailable for most Encyclopedia.com content. The couple's first son, Louis Philippe, died in infancy prior to Leopold II's birth. When Stanley returned to Europe in 1878, he had not only found Dr. Livingstone (an event remembered to this day), resolved the last great mystery of African exploration, and ruined his health: he had also opened the heart of tropical Africa up to the outside world. Leopold continued his action, even after the Belgium Parliament refused to annex the Congo. Ed. New York: Random House. The people of the Congo were forced to labor for valued resources, including rubber and ivory, to personally enrich Leopold. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. "We run the risk of someday seeing our native population collapse and disappear," declared the permanent committee of the National Colonial Congress of Belgium in 1924, "so that we will find ourselves confronted with a kind of desert" (Hoornaert and Louwers, 1924, p. 101). Encyclopedias almanacs transcripts and maps, Encyclopedia of Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity. Throughout the world's tropics people rushed to establish rubber plantations. In addition to the MLA, Chicago, and APA styles, your school, university, publication, or institution may have its own requirements for citations. The results of this rule were very uneven. Army officers and colonial officials earned bonuses based on the amount of rubber collected in areas under their control. . Leopold II became the next King of Belgium in 1865 and reigned until his death on December 17th, 1909. The people of the Congo did not suffer these injustices without fighting back. He provided for no education or vocational training, which would stunt future Congolese leaders from making sound economic and political policies. When you reach out to him or her, you will need the page title, URL, and the date you accessed the resource. . In the early 1890s, Leopold's private African army, the Force Publique (Public Force), drove the powerful Muslim slave traders out of the Congo. [11]:66. ThoughtCo. Many women hostages were raped and a significant number starved to death. Leopold II, French in full Lopold-Louis-Philippe-Marie-Victor, Dutch in full Leopold Lodewijk Filips Maria Victor, (born April 9, 1835, Brussels, Belgiumdied December 17, 1909, Laeken), king of the Belgians from 1865 to 1909. 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. London, Curzon Press, p.27. One by one the other great mysteries had been explored: Though the Congo had been one of the first to be attempted, it remained a mystery. Within three years, his capacity for hard work, his skill at playing one social group off against another, his ruthless use of modern weaponry to kill opponents, and above all his relentless determination opened the route to the Upper Congo. Standing on the dock, Morel realized that he had uncovered irrefutable proof that a forced labor system was in operation 4,000 miles away. In Britain he founded the Congo Reform Association, and affiliated groups sprang up in the United States and other countries. 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. (Believing one people is more civilized than another is wrong.) By 1908, Leopold II's rule was deemed so cruel that European leaders, themselves violently exploiting Africa, condemned it and the Belgian parliament forced him to relinquish control of his fiefdom. New York: Africana Publishing Company, 1986. George Washington Williams: A Biography. But for over 20 years he had been agitating for Belgium to take its place among the great colonial powers of Europe. 2023 BBC. Company agents were paid large concessions on top of their salaries for the profits they generated, creating personal incentives to force people to work more and harder for little to no pay. 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. Encyclopedia.com. )1978 Statues of Leopold II should now be housed in museums to teach Belgian history, suggests Mireille-Tsheusi Robert, director of anti-racism NGO Bamko Cran. 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. He built the Africa Museum in the grounds of his palace at Tervuren, with a "human zoo" in the grounds featuring 267 Congolese people as exhibits. Morel, E. D. (1968). Among those who weren't killed, many were punished by having a hand and/or foot amputated.

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