The Role Of King Leopold In The Congo Free State

King Leopold II developed his dream for colonization at an early age. Before he even took the throne he was on the lookout for unconquered land that could later be in his possession. The king wanted to become rich as a result of his new land through the process of trading. Once King Leopold II set his sights on the Congo, he would not give up until the land was his. He connived, manipulated and conned his way into the land. He did not care who got hurt; he just wanted his dream to be fulfilled.

Joseph Stalin was responsible for the deaths of 49 million people while Adolf Hitler was responsible for the deaths of 11 million people. However, few people realize that King Leopold helped plan the deaths of 8 million people. The deaths of these people, still impacts the Congo today. At the Berlin Conference in 1884, King Leopold was granted the Congo for his personal territory. During his 23 years of reign, Leopold generated a significant amount of profit from the rubber business. Throughout this time, Leopold commanded the Congolese people to work until death. Thousands of people were raped, tortured and over 900 people perished daily (“Democratic Republic of Congo”). Throughout this horror, the first human rights movement began during

King Leopold’s Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa by Adam Hochschild explains the lead up to and the establishment of the Congo Free State under Belgium. Hochschild does so through many accounts of the life going on inside the Congo during the exploration of the Africa and the beginning of an established government in the Congo. The death toll during Leopold’s reign could have reached over 10 million before the Belgium government would take the Congo away from the out of control Leopold. This could make the Leopold’s Congo one of the worst genocides in human history. Unfortunately there was no basis for recording the murders by Leopold’s officers, so we will never know the exact figure of the death toll.

Leopold never actually stepped foot in Congo, he had used explorers such as Stanley Mortan and other white men to establish the colony for him. To sneakily undergo his objectives without other countries noticing, he created organizations in which he could operate under. For instance, the International African Association to stop the outspread of slavery. Leopold additionally hosted conference meetings to speak on human rights. “If he was to seize anything in Africa, he could do so only if he convinced everyone that his interest was purely altruistic”. (46) King Leopold succeeded at convincing every one of his goodwill, that he was supported financially from the Belgian government in introducing free trade and religion in the Congo.

Throughout King Leopold’s 44 year reign of the Congo, he managed to diminish his population in half, causing 8 to 10 million Africans to lose their lives. (USSLave) Some were worked to death, some lost their lives during transportation because of malnutrition, but many other’s died due to diseases that were brought over by the Europeans. The main theme that reappeared throughout Hochschild’s novel was Leopold’s goal of colonialism and how he was going to use his African people to accomplish it. This is seen when Leopold analyzes Livingstone, Stanley, and other explorers. Hochschild states, “As king of a small country with no public interest in colonies, he recognized

In the 1880s, as the European powers were carving up Africa, King Leopold II of Belgium seized for himself the vast and mostly unexplored territory surrounding the Congo River. Carrying out a genocidal plundering of the Congo, he looted its rubber, brutalized its people, and ultimately slashed its population by ten million--all the while shrewdly cultivating his reputation as a great humanitarian. Heroic efforts to expose these crimes eventually led to the first great human rights movement of the twentieth century, in which everyone from Mark Twain to the Archbishop of Canterbury participated. King Leopold's Ghost is the haunting account of a megalomaniac of monstrous proportions, a man as cunning, charming, and cruel as any of the great

The king Leopold’s ghost “Great Congo scandal” was a hit topic starting from the 19th century even till today. The King Leopold’s Ghost book consist of a wide range of topic, starting with the effort made by King Leopold II to make Congo get colonies, People who resisted the colonization of Congo, New Imperialism. The administration of King Leopold II portrayed humanitarianism and also a philanthropist to the public by gathering explorers, geographer and anti-slavery reformers to make the International African Association, but he manipulated the government and the people from other colonies by using slave trade, suffering, and Genocide and also to extract rubber and ivory form what was known as the “Congo Free State” according to Craig page 867.

Morel was one of the bigger people that helped end King Leopold's reign over the Congo. He was employed by Elder Dumpster to supervise the arrival and departure of ships coming to or from the Congo. Just like Sheppard and Williams he saw the atrocities that Leopold was doing to the territory. He did dabble with freelance writing which he then used to write about what he saw. Elder Dempster did try keep him quiet, but Morel decided to devote his life to exposing Leopold’s plans.

William Sheppard was a black man who called out Leopold's injustice in the Congo. Interestingly enough, he was supported by white supremacists who help in the idea of getting African Americans back to Africa. He was one of the first missionary black american missionary in the Congo. He worked there for about 20 years writing articles, speeches, and a book. He worked with the Kuba people who were artists. But unfortunately, the was ransacked when King Leopold discovered the profits he could make with rubber. Leopold used forced labor and made villages meet a certain quota before letting go of hostages/food. It was pretty terrible. William Shepard came to investigate to what had happened and found destroyed villages and corpses. He then went

During the late 19th to early 20th century, King Leopold II impacted the African Continent and the larger International community more than any other European monarch. Firstly, King Leopold II sinisterly orchestrated a colonization operation that is comparative to a genocidal regime. Secondly, King Leopold II’s actions in the Congo led unified condemnation across oceans from a broad range of socioeconomic statues. Lastly, the opposition forces against King Leopold II’s colonization of Congo helped pave the way for future justice on the continent as well as internationally. Ultimately, this Europe created the competitive environment that promoted King Leopold II’s quest for colonization.

Leopold’s country was not interested in acquiring a colony, and so he realized that “a colonial push of its own would require a strong humanitarian veneer. Curbing the slave trade, moral uplift, and the advancement of science were the aims he would talk about, not profits.”Even from the beginning, Leopold knew that stating his true motives, one of them being to increase his wealth, would not convince the Belgians to be on his side and assist him in the colonization of the Congo. He planned to lie to them, telling them motives that sounded more ethical and like a worthy cause to support. When describing his cover organization, the International Association of the Congo, Leopold said it “was a sort of ‘society of the Red Cross; it had been formed with the noble aim of rendering lasting and disinterested services to the cause of progress.’ When talking to the more military-minded Germans, Leopold nimbly changed the scenery and likened his men in the Congo to the knights of the Crusades. Almost everyone was fooled.” Leopold did not even keep the same motives; he customized them to whoever was listening in order to receive applause, money, and encouragement for colonizing the

They imperialised what was previously recognized as the Democratic Republic of the Congo, but after they imperialize it is then known as the Belgian Congo. In the nineteenth century Henry Stanley explored the Congo River and came back telling his stories of the riches in the Congo, only to be ignored by Britain, but Belgium's King Leopold took advantage of this opportunity. “King Leopold presented good motives for doing this: to help the people of the Congo region and do scientific research there. In fact King Leopold’s administrators exploited the people and the environment for rubber and ivory” (Conrad). There was a book written soon after this called Heart of Darkness, focusing on the evil of Africans, creating a hatred of them.

The desperation for the Congo territory catalyzed Leopold’s developing thoughts into deceitful promises. At first when Leopold read about Henry Morton Stanley’s adventurous trips, he knew that these were the lands he wanted. His excitement quickly turned into greed and he made every effort possible to get what he desired. He became the chairman of the International African Association which set up a smokescreen for his endeavors into the Congo. In the meantime, Stanley was in Africa crossing the lands, killing villages, and fighting off diseases, making a name for himself back home. King Leopold praised this man and wanted him to join his side. He came up with secret plans to have Stanley set up bases in the Congo so he could begin quietly claiming the territory and making it his. He sent Stanley on exploration missions so his intentions would be hidden. Leopold 's lies grew and grew as did his greed. After being told he could make treaties with the natives, he sent his army to go up and down the river, signing treaties, permitting him everything he wanted. He get recognition of his territory and making it legitimate, Leopold used the connections he had to manipulate others in power that he had good intentions and ideas. Henry Shelton Sanford convinced the White house of

The film “The Ghost of King Leopold” portrays the struggles of native people in the Congo as King Leopold of Belgium drained the region of natural resources and exploited the native population. Leopold imperializes the Congo very easily because, the rest of the world took his word, when he said he was bettering the Congo region, in reality he was filling his own pockets. Leopold reigned from 1885-1908; he enslaved the native people of the Congo and used the whole region as his own personal plantation. Leopold took many things from the Congo; his largest profit margin was from the natural resources.

Africa was not treated as if African people were already living there but as “an expanse of empty space waiting to be filled by the cities constructed through the magic of European industry.” (101) What occurred in the Congo was also happening in neighboring countries by other world leaders but, the Congo had the most rubber. For example, Germany controlled Cameroon and Portugal ruled Angola by the same tactics as Leopold. However, the Congo was exploited the most due to American and British politics about WWI. In the end, “men who carried it out for Leopold were no more murderous than many Europeans elsewhere in Africa.”