Equipped with repeating rifles, cannons, and machine guns and fighting against Africans with only spears or antiquated muskets, King Leopold's 19,000-man army (black conscripts under white officers) gradually took control of the vast territory. Last week a statue of Leopold II in the city of Antwerp was set on fire, before authorities took it down. 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. 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. Thus was the Belgian Congo created. . 27 Apr. Read about our approach to external linking. "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. 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. 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. With most able-bodied adults prisoners or forced laborers for several weeks out of each month, villages had few people who could plant and harvest food, or go hunting or fishing, and famine soon spread. "Leopold II certainly does not deserve a statue in the public domain," agrees Bambi Ceuppens, scientific commissioner at the Africa Museum. He established his control over the colony through the use of brute force in an attempt to wean the Congolese into submission. In articles in church magazines and in speeches throughout the United States and Europe on visits home, they described what they saw: Africans whipped to death, rivers full of corpses, and piles of severed handsa detail that quickly seared itself on the world's imagination. Apparently finding nothing reprehensible about Leopold's ambitions, Stanley set about his task with a will. 2023 . 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. He was the architect of one of history's greatest, if lesser known, crimes against humanity. In DR Congo itself, no-one has really noticed the Belgian protests, says Jules Mulamba, a lawyer in the south-eastern city of Lubambashi. 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. New York: Africana Publishing Company, 1986. For centuries African slave dealers had raided parts of this area, selling their captives to American and European captains who sailed Africa's west coast, and to traders who took slaves to the Arab world from the continent's east coast. Cite this article Pick a style below, and copy the text for your bibliography. official, Major Charles C. Liebrechts, made the same estimate in 1920. Forced labor remained a major part of the Congo's economy for many years after the war. ThoughtCo, Jun. A hundred lashes of the chicotte, a not infrequent punishment, could be fatal. The people of the Congo did not suffer these injustices without fighting back. It was down to rubber. A detachment of soldiers would march into an African village and seize the women as hostages. Red Rubber: The Story of the Rubber Slave Trade Which Flourished on the Congo for Twenty Years, 18901910. Standing close by, one visitor said, "I didn't know anything about Leopold II until I heard about the statues defaced down town". Dec 14, 2022. She does not believe it will not be quick or easy. [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. National Geographic Society is a 501 (c)(3) organization. Manchester, U.K.: National Labour Press. But for over 20 years he had been agitating for Belgium to take its place among the great colonial powers of Europe. Leopold (18351909) had ascended to the throne in 1865. Please select which sections you would like to print: Also known as: Leopold Lodewijk Filips Maria Victor, Leopold-Louis-Philippe-Marie-Victor. 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. Belgium's Heart of Darkness | History Today E. V. Sjblom of Sweden was one of the first and most outspoken missionaries in the Congo. Explore in 3D: The dazzling crown that makes a king. Biography of Ernesto Che Guevara, Revolutionary Leader, Top Ten Villains of Latin American History, War of the First Coalition in 1790s France, 10 Facts About the Independence of Texas From Mexico, Events Leading to the Scramble for Africa, A Photo Gallery of the Mexican Revolution, Biography of Emiliano Zapata, Mexican Revolutionary, Ph.D., History, University of Michigan - Ann Arbor, M.A., History, University of Michigan - Ann Arbor, B.A./B.S, History and Zoology, University of Florida. Because his only son had predeceased him, Leopolds nephew Albert I succeeded to the throne. In 2019, the cities of Kortrijk and Dendermonde renamed their Leopold II streets, with Kortrijk council describing the king as a "mass murderer". Eventually, the price fell and wild rubber supplies began to run out, but by that time World War I had begun, and large numbers of Africans were forced to become porters, carrying supplies for Belgian military campaigns against Germany's African colonies. Leopold II implemented a forced-labour system in the Congo that was quickly copied by other European colonial powers. Belgium's education minister announced this week that secondary schools would teach colonial history from next year. The Belgian cabinet of the day was not interested in colonies. The couple's first son, Louis Philippe, died in infancy prior to Leopold II's birth. In order to enforce the near impossible rubber quotas imposed on villages, agents and officials called on the Free States army, the Force Publique. (2022, June 2). If a media asset is downloadable, a download button appears in the corner of the media viewer. Oxford, U.K.: Clarendon Press. Hoornaert, Andr and O. Louwers (1924). It is false to assume that one group of people is more civilized than another. A petition calling on the city for its removal has reached 74,000 signatures. Leopold II: Belgium 'wakes up' to its bloody colonial past These men were generally from other parts of the Congo or other colonies entirely, and the orphans and enslaved people had often been brutalized themselves. Estimates suggest more than 50% died there. In the early 1890s, however, a larger source of wealth suddenly loomed. "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). The museum is largely protected by heritage law but, in the streets outside, monuments to a monarch who seized a huge swathe of Central Africa in 1885 have no such security. For decades, colonial history has been barely taught in Belgium. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. says Ms Kayembe. She or he will best know the preferred format. The kings stated goal was to bring civilization to the people of the Congo, an enormous region in Central Africa. A short history of colonialism in Congo, 1885-1997 | libcom.org 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. 2 volumes. They were the very first royal family of Belgium, because the country was just 5 years old. All failed. Colonial administrators also kidnapped orphaned children from communities and transported them to "child colonies" to work or train as soldiers. The history of Colonialism as a policy or practice go, THE CAUSE OF DECOLONIZATION The first nationwide Congolese political party, the Congo National Movement, was launched in 1958 by Patrice Lumumba and other Congolese leaders. L'tat libre du Congo: Paradis perdu. 2 volumes. 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. When you reach out to him or her, you will need the page title, URL, and the date you accessed the resource. With women as hostages and men forced to tap rubber, few able-bodied adults were left to hunt, fish, and cultivate crops. A renewed global focus on racism is highlighting a violent colonial history that generated riches for Belgians but death and misery for Congolese. The Atrocities of the Congo Free State Rubber Regime - ThoughtCo SCLC Formed New York: Random House. Why did Leopold want the Congo? - JOUNIMARTIKAINEN 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. Some of these soldiers were recruits, while others were enslaved people or orphans brought up to serve the colonial army. Other parts of the Congo economy, from road building to chopping wood for steamboat boilers, operated by forced labour as well. "It's a good thing that everyone is waking up, looking around and thinking 'is this right?'" 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. Most of the monarchs in western Europe had been forced to largely yield political power to the electorate by the late 19th century, so Belgiums parliament and cabinet were the real locus of power, but Leopold used the prestige of the monarchy to lobby for pet projects. Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students. In later years he sometimes referred to himself as the Congo's proprietor. View 6.2_Reading_Check.docx from HISTORY 2109320 at Coral Reef Senior High School. 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. Obtaining more precise statistics is difficult, for in 1908 King Leopold ordered the archives of his Congo state burned. Thompsell, Angela. Encyclopedia of Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity. The horrors, though, are only one part of the story. As rubber prices soared, so did the quotas. Then, as they would be into the 21st century, most of the royal families of Europe were related. As he put it, he did not want to miss out on the opportunity of getting a slice of "this magnificent African cake." King . Leopold II's reign as King of Belgium coincided with the time period of the Scramble for Africa, during which the European powers of the day raced for control of different regions . 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.
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