why did king leopold want the congo

If the estimates from varied sources of a 50 percent toll in King Leopold's Congo are correct, how many people does this mean? Why did King Leopold colonize the Congo? - Sage-Advices The king also faced enemies of another sort. In the early years the main commodity Leopold sought was ivory. Interestingly, a longtime high colonial wives' release, the men would have to disperse into the rain forest to collect the sap of wild rubber vines. In later years he sometimes referred to himself as the Congo's proprietor. Most online reference entries and articles do not have page numbers. What Did King Leopold Of Belgium Do In The Congo? - Caniry Apparently finding nothing reprehensible about Leopold's ambitions, Stanley set about his task with a will. Army officers often demanded of their men a severed hand from each rebel killed in battle. In January 1959, riots broke out in Leopoldville (now Kinshasa) after a rally was held calling for the independence of the Congo. Men who did not fulfill their quota were killed or mutilated. William Roger Louis and Jean Stengers. ." Archive pictures from Congo Free State document its violence and brutality. (2022, June 2). In 2010, former Belgian foreign minister Louis Michel and the father of future prime minister Charles Michel, called Leopold "a hero with ambitions for a small country like Belgium". 8 Disturbing Facts About King Leopold II, the Butcher of Congo (Believing one people is more civilized than another is wrong.) If no button appears, you cannot download or save the media. Many more suffered from disease and torture. Brussels: Institut Royal Colonial Belge. "King Leopold II and the Congo The people being colonized are robbed of their land, resources, and freedom.) 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 . 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. Hochschild, Adam (October 6, 2005). In the early 1890s, however, a larger source of wealth suddenly loomed. Benedetto, Robert, ed. London, Curzon Press, p.27. But for over 20 years he had been agitating for Belgium to take its place among the great colonial powers of Europe. He called it tat Indpendant du Congo, the Congo Free State. Manchester, U.K.: National Labour Press. 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. 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. Explore in 3D: The dazzling crown that makes a king. Then, as they would be into the 21st century, most of the royal families of Europe were related. Bulletin Officiel du Congo Belge (1920). At a Glance there were "positive aspects" to colonisation, Democratic Republic of Congo country profile, called on Belgium to apologise for atrocities, apologise for the kidnapping of thousands of mixed-race children, MasterChef Australia host Jock Zonfrillo dies, Banana artwork in Seoul museum eaten by visitor, NFL player's daughter, aged two, drowns in pool, Trevelyan relative 'would consider' famine payment, Ding becomes China's first male world chess champion, Indian 'killer' elephant relocated to tiger reserve. 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. "Congo Free State Rubber Regime Atrocities." Leopold II was the second son of Leopold I, first king of the Belgians, and his second wife, Marie-Louise of Orlans. Why did Leopold want the Congo? - JOUNIMARTIKAINEN 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. 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. In one, a man sits on a low platform looking at a dismembered small foot and small hand. The British consul, an Irishman named Roger Casement, later famous as an Irish patriot, took the assignment seriously. "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). As a result of King Leopold actions, thousands of African tribes populations decreased significantly. On February 5, 1885, Belgian King Leopold II established the Congo Free State by brutally seizing the African landmass as his personal possession. Leopold financed development projects with money loaned to him from the Belgian government. Vangroenweghe, Daniel (1986). Rather than control the Congo as a colony, as other European powers did throughout Africa, Leopold privately owned the region. If a media asset is downloadable, a download button appears in the corner of the media viewer. At the time, his father, Leopold I, was the King of Belgium. In Peter Forbath's words, Leopold was: A tall, imposing man enjoying a reputation for hedonistic sensuality, cunning intelligence (his father once described him as subtle and sly as a fox), overweening ambition, and personal ruthlessness. 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. Updates? It quickly became a brutal, exploitative regime that relied on forced labour to cultivate and trade rubber, ivory and minerals. 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. Forced labor remained a major part of the Congo's economy for many years after the war. 2019Encyclopedia.com | All rights reserved. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. After Morel orchestrated a protest resolution by the British Parliament, the government, in response, asked its representative in the Congo to investigate his charges. The movement, in fact, eventually forced Leopold to relinquish his private ownership of the Congo to the Belgian state in 1908. I Have a Dream 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". If you have questions about licensing content on this page, please contact ngimagecollection@natgeo.com for more information and to obtain a license. By 1910 nearly this entire huge expanse had become European colonies or land, like South Africa, controlled by white settlers. The royal palace is yet to give its own response. Europeans were interested in Africa for its abundance of natural resources (ivory, rubber, gold, etc.) The New York Review of Books. Angela Thompsell, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor of British and African History at SUNY Brockport. To curry diplomatic favor, he allowed several hundred Protestant missionaries into the Congo. 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. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Ewans, Martin (2002). 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. But heat, tropical diseases, and the huge rapids near the mouth of the Congo River on the Atlantic had long kept the Congo's interior a mystery to Europeans. 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. He wrote three books on the Congo, several dozen pamphlets, and hundreds of newspaper articles, making much use of eyewitness testimony from the missionaries. Leopold II: Belgium 'wakes up' to its bloody colonial past 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]. In Britain he founded the Congo Reform Association, and affiliated groups sprang up in the United States and other countries. The results of this rule were very uneven. But other scholars use even higher numbers. [11]:66. In Kinshasa, the capital of DR Congo, Leopold II's statues were moved to the National Museum. Morel, E. D. (1904). Soldiers were also reportedly promised their freedom or given other incentives for killing the most people as proven by supplying the most hands. The king's stated goal was to bring civilization to the people of the Congo, an enormous region in Central Africa. La Force publique de sa naissance 1914: Participation des militaires l'histoire des premires annes du Congo. James Andrew Broun Ramsay, marquess and 10th earl of Dalhousie, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Leopold-II-king-of-Belgium, Leopold II - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up). 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. She or he will best know the preferred format. 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. Amidst all of this, some of the best of people was also seen, in the bravery and resilience of ordinary Congolese men and women who resisted in small and large ways, and the passionate efforts of several American and European missionaries and activists to bring about reform. He attributes colonial crimes to the king himself, rather than the Belgian people or state. Nothing was being sent to the Congo to pay for the goods flowing to Europe. ." Standing close by, one visitor said, "I didn't know anything about Leopold II until I heard about the statues defaced down town". In 1870 roughly 80 percent of Africa south of the Sahara Desert was governed by indigenous kings, chiefs, and other rulers. This makeover of Leopold's image produced an amnesia that persisted for decades. "Civilisation" was at the core of Leopold II's pitch to European leaders in 1885 when they sliced up and allocated territories in what became known as the Scramble for Africa. t. e. Colonization of the Congo Basin refers to the European colonization of the Congo Basin of tropical Africa. Tens, possibly hundreds, of thousands of Africans also died in two decades' worth of unsuccessful uprisings against the king's regime. Did this woman die because her genitals were cut? He had long wanted a colonial empire, and in Stanley he saw someone who could secure it for him. When Leopold II died in 1909, he was buried to the sound of Belgians booing. Pakenham, Thomas (1991). King Leopold's Rule in Africa. He made further progress toward realizing his objective at a diplomatic conference in Berlin in 1884 and 1885 that the major European powers attended. 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. 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. "King Leopold II's Exploitation of the Congo From 1885 to 1908 - STARS 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. Congo Free State - Wikipedia Why did King Leopold the II want the Congo? What did his - Brainly 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". The treaties, some of which appear to have been subsequently doctored to Leopolds liking, were then put to use by the Belgian monarch. 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. 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. However, Leopold persisted and eventually Stanley gave in. 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. 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. Leopold II, Williams declared, was guilty of "crimes against humanity." 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. Leopold II implemented a forced-labour system in the Congo that was quickly copied by other European colonial powers. Reform in Leopold's Congo. As he headed back to England, Stanley was assiduously courted by King Leopold II of Belgium. 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. When the ships turned around and steamed back to Africa, however, they carried no merchandise in exchange. It was too lucrative, for the price of rubber was still high. Together with epidemic disease, famine, and a falling . 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. Now, Stanley discovered, Tippu Tip's men had reached still further west in search of fresh populations to enslave. 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. In May 1885, Leopold took possession of his colony and named it the Congo Free State. 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. "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. Meanwhile, Leopold had already begun the job of persuading first the United For five years Stanley traveled up and down the immense waterways of the Congo River basin, setting up trading posts, building roads, and persuading local chiefsalmost all of them illiterateto sign treaties with Leopold. Refer to each styles convention regarding the best way to format page numbers and retrieval dates. (Believing one people is more civilized than another is wrong.) 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". Villages throughout the region had been burned and depopulated. The Force Publique, no doubt, also attracted men who, for whatever reason, felt little compunction about wielding such violence, but this was true of the White officers as well. [6] For the look of things, he held one more meeting the following year, but from that time on, the International African Association was simply a front for Leopold's ambition. "Leopold II certainly does not deserve a statue in the public domain," agrees Bambi Ceuppens, scientific commissioner at the Africa Museum. For activists the holy grail is the giant statue of Leopold II on horseback at the gates of the Royal Palace in Brussels. First, the system of exploitation established there became a model for colonial rule in other parts of central Africa. Last year a UN working group called on Belgium to apologise for atrocities committed during the colonial era. While Leopold II did much to establish Belgium as an economically and militarily stable power in Europe, he is chiefly remembered for the nightmarish practices that were carried out in his name. Standing on the dock, Morel realized that he had uncovered irrefutable proof that a forced labor system was in operation 4,000 miles away. 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. Colonial administrators also kidnapped orphaned children from communities and transported them to "child colonies" to work or train as soldiers. Leopold II, it seemed, was the only European willing to finance Stanley's dream: the building of a railway over the Crystal Mountains from the sea to Stanley Pool, from which river steamers could reach 1,000 miles (1,600km) into the heart of Africa. Leopold II established a colony in the Congo to gain natural resources for Belgium and wealth for himself. EUROPEAN EFFORTS TO REINVENT OVERSEA, Kenyatta, Jomo 1891(? Four years before, the Zanzibaris had thought the Congo deadly and impassable, and warned Stanley not to attempt to go there, but when Tippu Tip learned in Zanzibar that Stanley had survived, he was quick to act. Leopold's eventual response was extraordinary in its hubris and simplicity. Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive content. ThoughtCo. Since the 15th century, European explorers had sailed into the broad Congo estuary, planning to fight their way up the falls and rapids that begin only 100 miles (160km) inland, and then travel up the river to its unknown source. 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. In two ways the Congo's rubber boom had lasting impact beyond the territory itself. A renewed global focus on racism is highlighting a violent colonial history that generated riches for Belgians but death and misery for Congolese. 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). Hoornaert, Andr and O. Louwers (1924). To secure their States and then all the major nations of Europe to recognize his claim. The Hidden Holocaust: How King Leopold II - The African Exponent Encyclopedia of Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity. 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. London: Heinemann. Red Rubber: The Story of the Rubber Slave Trade Which Flourished on the Congo for Twenty Years, 18901910. GENEALOGY OF THE TERM DECOLONIZATION In the early 1890s, Leopold's private African army, the Force Publique (Public Force), drove the powerful Muslim slave traders out of the Congo. . Learn how and when to remove this template message, Oasis Kodila Tedika et Francklin Kyayima Muteba, The sources of growth in DRC before independence. Because the system's 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. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. 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. Some writers, almost entirely in Belgium, claim that such estimates are exaggerated. However, the date of retrieval is often important. Several years later he hired the explorer Henry Morton Stanley to be his man in Africa. A Lasting Legacy Of The Builder King In Brussels - Culture Trip Marchal, Jules (1996). p.20. Alice Harris, a British Baptist, took photographs of the atrocities she witnessed. The newly named Belgian Congo remained a colony until the Democratic Republic of Congo gained its independence in 1960. 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. 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. Belgian King Establishes Congo Free State - National Geographic Society Read about our approach to external linking. 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. Morel soon quit his job and in short order turned himself into the greatest British investigative journalist of his time. You cannot download interactives. King Leopold II's Colonization Of The Congo | ipl.org Presbyterian Reformers in Central Africa: A Documentary Account of the American Presbyterian Congo Mission and the Human Rights Struggle in the Congo, 18901918. Brussels: Goemaere. Why did Leopold want the Congo? Leopold's reign over the Congo Free State, however, has become infamous for its brutality. Encyclopedia of Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity. Setting out from Zanzibar, Henry Morton Stanley, a British-born American journalist and explorer aimed to find the famous Dr. Livingstone. However, Leopold's rule over the Congo Free State is well known for its cruelty. Many of the women hostages starved, and many of the male rubber gatherers were worked to death. As the price of rubber soared, the quotas increased, and as vines near a village were drained dry, men desperate to free their wives and daughters would have to walk days or weeks to find new vines to tap. Henry Morton Stanley (2011). Leopold financed development projects with money loaned to him from the Belgian government. No one will ever know the precise figures, but, from all these causes, demographers estimate that between 1880 and 1920 the population of the Congo may have been slashed by up to 50 percent, from perhaps 20 million people at the beginning of that period to an estimated 10 million at the end. Nzansu's men fought on sporadically for five years more, and no record of his fate exists. When did George Washington Williams visit the Congo? On February 5, 1885, Belgian King Leopold II established the Congo Free State as his personal possession. A detachment of soldiers would march into an African village and seize the women as hostages. Therefore, be sure to refer to those guidelines when editing your bibliography or works cited list. The Belgian cabinet of the day was not interested in colonies. 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. Soon after Stanley returned from the Congo, Leopold tried to recruit him. Leopold II became the next King of Belgium in 1865 and reigned until his death on December 17th, 1909. But for Leopold this posed no problem; he would acquire his own. 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.
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