Why did King Leopold colonize the Congo? In later years he sometimes referred to himself as the Congo's proprietor. Please select which sections you would like to print: Also known as: Leopold Lodewijk Filips Maria Victor, Leopold-Louis-Philippe-Marie-Victor. 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. In actuality, Leopold wanted to get his hands on Congo's natural resources. National Geographic Society is a 501 (c)(3) organization. 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. GENEALOGY OF THE TERM DECOLONIZATION Although neither figure is well-documented, Hannah Arendt's seminal The Origins of Totalitarianism cites an estimated minimum population loss of 11.5 million, and a Congolese historian writing in 1998, Isidore Ndaywel Nziem, estimates the loss at roughly 13 million. 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. Rather than control the Congo as a colony, as other European powers did throughout Africa, Leopold privately owned the region. 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. 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. Tippu Tip, the most powerful of the Zanzibari slave traders of the 19th century, was well known to Stanley, as was the social chaos and devastation that slave-hunting brought. Flament, F., et al. Encyclopedia of Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity. Virtually no information about the true nature of King Leopold's Congo reached the outside world until the arrival there, in 1890, of an enterprising visitor named George Washington Williams. Why did King Leopold the II want the Congo? What did his - Brainly Why did King Leopold II own the Belgian Congo colony Encyclopedia.com. He established his control over the colony through the use of brute force in an attempt to wean the Congolese into submission. Leopold continued his action, even after the Belgium Parliament refused to annex the Congo. The people being colonized are robbed of their land, resources, and freedom.) 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. 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). But rumours of abuse began to circulate and missionaries and British journalist Edmund Dene Morel exposed the regime. 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. It was not until 1867 that the Congo was explored by Europeans, and even then it was not from the sea, but from the other side of the African continent. 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. 2023 BBC. In 1908, international pressure forced the king to turn the Congo Free State over to the country of Belgium. Vocabulary On February 5, 1885, Belgian King Leopold II established the Congo Free State by brutally seizing the African landmass as his personal possession. The people of the Congo did not suffer these injustices without fighting back. Thompsell, Angela. Published in many American and European newspapers, it was the first comprehensive, detailed indictment of the regime and its slave labor system. ThoughtCo. Hochschild, Adam (1998). 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. Unlike previous European nations that spread their influence over 13(May 15). [7], Stanley, much more familiar with the rigours of the African climate and the complexities of local politics than Leopold Leopold II never set foot in the Congo persuaded his patron that the first step should be the construction of a wagon trail and a series of forts. She does not believe it will not be quick or easy. It would be "really significant for Congolese people, especially those whose families perished," she explains. 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 the earlier Bantu colonization, see. Archive pictures from Congo Free State document its violence and brutality. Other parts of the Congo economy, from road building to chopping wood for steamboat boilers, operated by forced labour as well. 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. Some writers, almost entirely in Belgium, claim that such estimates are exaggerated. Then, as they would be into the 21st century, most of the royal families of Europe were related. 1996 - 2023 National Geographic Society. Having established a beachhead on the lower Congo, in 1883 Stanley set out upriver to extend Leopold's domain, employing his usual methods: negotiations with local chiefs buying sovereignty in exchange for bolts of cloth and trinkets; playing one tribe off another; and if need be, simply shooting an obstructive chief and negotiating with his cowed successor instead. Votin, Herero Tippu Tip had raided 118 villages, killed 4,000 Africans, and, when Stanley reached his camp, had 2,300 slaves, mostly young women and children, in chains ready to transport halfway across the continent to the markets of Zanzibar. 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. Therefore, King Leopold should be condemned as a criminal for his Read More Thesis Critique Of King Leopold's Ghost Leopold spoke of bringing civilization to the Africans and sent a small but heavily armed Belgian force into the Congo. Setting out from Zanzibar, Henry Morton Stanley, a British-born American journalist and explorer aimed to find the famous Dr. Livingstone. If you have questions about licensing content on this page, please contact ngimagecollection@natgeo.com for more information and to obtain a license. 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. Beyond removal of statues, far more work is required to dismantle racism, protesters and black communities argue. Tens of thousands of others were shot down in failed rebellions against the regime. wives' release, the men would have to disperse into the rain forest to collect the sap of wild rubber vines. 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. 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. Forced labor remained a major part of the Congo's economy for many years after the war. "Congo Free State Rubber Regime Atrocities." 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. Pakenham, Thomas (1991). It was the last part of the continent to be colonized. While Leopold portrayed this as a great humanitarian act, his real purpose was to gain control of the upper Congo River and to acquire more workers. A detachment of soldiers would march into an African village and seize the women as hostages. If a media asset is downloadable, a download button appears in the corner of the media viewer. Oxford, U.K.: Clarendon Press. Du sang sur les lianes. A short history of colonialism in Congo, 1885-1997 | libcom.org Brussels: Goemaere. As rubber prices soared, so did the quotas. 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. Eventually, the strain forced him to relinquish his control of the territory, and in 1908 it became the Belgian Congo. The Atrocities of the Congo Free State Rubber Regime - ThoughtCo Starting in the early 1920s, however, the system became considerably less draconian, mainly because colonial officials realized that otherwise they would soon have no labor force left. In his novella Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad, who spent six months in the Congo in 1890 as a steamboat officer, gives a searing picture of the brutal and voracious European quest for Congo ivory. "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. [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. King Leopold's Rule in Africa. L'histoire du Congo 18761900. 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. They belonged to his five-year-old daughter, who was later killed when her village did not produce sufficient rubber. Army officers often demanded of their men a severed hand from each rebel killed in battle. Because each style has its own formatting nuances that evolve over time and not all information is available for every reference entry or article, Encyclopedia.com cannot guarantee each citation it generates. Text on this page is printable and can be used according to our Terms of Service. Villages throughout the region had been burned and depopulated. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. The results of this rule were very uneven. The Rights Holder for media is the person or group credited. To avoid discovery, materials and workers were shipped in by various roundabout routes, and communications between Stanley and Leopold were entrusted to Colonel Maximilien Strauch. Benedetto, Robert, ed. . But taking the monument away does not solve the problem of racism, she believes, while creating one museum devoted to the statues would not be useful either. To prove that he had not wasted bulletsor, worse yet, saved them for use in a mutinyfor each bullet expended, a Congolese soldier of the Force Publique had to present to his white officer the severed hand of a rebel killed. New and revised edition. The horrors, though, are only one part of the story. Leopold II was the second son of Leopold I, first king of the Belgians, and his second wife, Marie-Louise of Orlans. Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students. Read about our approach to external linking. What Did King Leopold Of Belgium Do In The Congo? - Caniry On February 5, 1885, Belgian King Leopold II established the Congo Free State by brutally seizing the African landmass as his personal possession. Read about our approach to external linking. Brussels: Didier Hatier. 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. Updates? It was down to rubber. In the early 1890s, however, a larger source of wealth suddenly loomed. . Morel, E. D. (1919). 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. Demonstrations and protests demanded that Leopold end human rights abuses in the Congo Free State. Harper & Row. I Have a Dream The secret mine that hid the Nazis' stolen treasure. ." 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. Stanley was lionised across Europe. The king also faced enemies of another sort. Baskets of severed hands thus resulted from expeditions against rebels. Vangroenweghe, Daniel (1986). OF DECOLONIZATION 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. If the government of Belgium would not take a colony, then he would simply do it himself, acting in his private capacity as an ordinary citizen. King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror and Heroism in Colonial Africa. 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. )1978 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. 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. For activists the holy grail is the giant statue of Leopold II on horseback at the gates of the Royal Palace in Brussels. 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. who owned land where rubber grew wild. Morel, E. D. (1904). 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. Millions of Congolese then found themselves suffering near-famine, which made them vulnerable to diseases they otherwise might have survived. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. 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. 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. But new rubber trees often require fifteen years of growth before they can be tapped. Franklin, John Hope (1985). Hundreds of thousands of Africans were put to work as porters to carry the white men's goods, as cutters of the wood needed to fire steamboat boilers, and as laborers of all kinds. Because the systems 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. Last week a statue of Leopold II in the city of Antwerp was set on fire, before authorities took it down. Leopold's eventual response was extraordinary in its hubris and simplicity. Colonization of the Congo Basin refers to the European colonization of the Congo Basin of tropical Africa. As he put it, he did not want to miss out on the opportunity of getting a slice of "this magnificent African cake." King . Congo Free State - Wikipedia 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. 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. In return European leaders, gathered at the Berlin Conference, granted him 2m sq km (770,000 sq miles) to forge a personal colony where he was free to do as he liked. William Roger Louis and Jean Stengers. Several years later he hired the explorer Henry Morton Stanley to be his man in Africa. "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. Leopold II implemented a forced-labour system in the Congo that was quickly copied by other European colonial powers. The people of the Congo were forced to labor for valued resources, including rubber and ivory, to personally enrich Leopold. National Geographic Headquarters 1145 17th Street NW Washington, DC 20036. Throughout the world's tropics people rushed to establish rubber plantations. "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). Wearing one of his many hats, that of a journalist, Williams expected to see the paradise of enlightened rule that Leopold had described to him in Brussels. 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). Cite this article Pick a style below, and copy the text for your bibliography. . King Leopold II and the Congo | Encyclopedia.com Under his reign, the Congolese people were terrorized with forced labor and harsh treatment. Encyclopedia.com gives you the ability to cite reference entries and articles according to common styles from the Modern Language Association (MLA), The Chicago Manual of Style, and the American Psychological Association (APA).
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