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. 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. Because his only son had predeceased him, Leopolds nephew Albert I succeeded to the throne. Stanley, still hopeful for British backing, brushed him off. If a media asset is downloadable, a download button appears in the corner of the media viewer. Inside the palatial walls of Belgium's Africa Museum stand statues of Leopold II - each one a monument to the king whose rule killed as many as 10 million Africans. Rather than control the Congo as a colony, as other European powers did throughout Africa, Leopold privately owned the region. But numerous surviving records from the rubber-bearing land in the adjoining French Congo, which closely followed the model of the Leopoldian forced labor system, also suggest a population loss there of around 50 percent. King Leopold II and the Congo The European colonization of Africa was one of the greatest and swiftest conquests in human history. The secret mine that hid the Nazis' stolen treasure. Belgian King Leopold II ruthlessly seized control of the African continent on February 5, 1885, establishing the Congo Free State as a . Morel soon quit his job and in short order turned himself into the greatest British investigative journalist of his time. L'histoire du Congo 18761900. 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 . 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. The movement, in fact, eventually forced Leopold to relinquish his private ownership of the Congo to the Belgian state in 1908. Birmingham Protest March Leopold's eventual response was extraordinary in its hubris and simplicity. 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. 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. Pakenham, Thomas (1991). Leopold II, King of the Belgiansas his coun, c. 1875 He wrongly justified his actions by saying that the people of the Congo were inferior, and deserved the treatment they received. Leopold was an intelligent and ruthless man who wasn't afraid to lie or kill in order to expand Belgium's power. On December 12, 1963, the flag of independent Kenya billowed over the capital city of Nairobi f, Martin Luther King, Jr. 1929-1968 2019Encyclopedia.com | All rights reserved. The European colonization of Africa was one of the greatest and swiftest conquests in human history. However, the date of retrieval is often important. When you reach out to him or her, you will need the page title, URL, and the date you accessed the resource. OF DECOLONIZATION When you visit the site, Dotdash Meredith and its partners may store or retrieve information on your browser, mostly in the form of cookies. States and then all the major nations of Europe to recognize his claim. It was the world's only major colony owned by one man. "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. E. V. Sjblom of Sweden was one of the first and most outspoken missionaries in the Congo. Updates? Oxford, U.K.: Clarendon Press. Why did King Leopold want to take over areas of Africa? Within the Cite this article tool, pick a style to see how all available information looks when formatted according to that style. 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. Leopold II was the second son of Leopold I, first king of the Belgians, and his second wife, Marie-Louise of Orlans. 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. Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/congo-free-state-atrocities-rubber-regime-43731. William Roger Louis and Jean Stengers. Joseph Conrad, who spent six months in the Congo in 1890, draws a memorable portrait of this rapacious trade in his novel Heart of Darkness. "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). 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. Last week a statue of Leopold II in the city of Antwerp was set on fire, before authorities took it down. Tens of thousands of others were shot down in failed rebellions against the regime. Imperialism in Africa Assignment and Quiz Flashcards | Quizlet Read about our approach to external linking. 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. Several years later he hired the explorer Henry Morton Stanley to be his man in Africa. Ascherson, Neal (1963). But for over 20 years he had been agitating for Belgium to take its place among the great colonial powers of Europe. Bennett, Norman Robert. Henry Morton Stanley (2011). The history of Colonialism as a policy or practice go, THE CAUSE OF DECOLONIZATION 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. He died the following year. Many of the women hostages starved, and many of the male rubber gatherers were worked to death. Many more suffered from disease and torture. Why did King Leopold II own the Belgian Congo colony 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. A short history of colonialism in Congo, 1885-1997 | libcom.org For information on user permissions, please read our Terms of Service. 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. GENEALOGY OF THE TERM DECOLONIZATION Instead, the ships carried soldiers, and large quantities of firearms and ammunition. After Morel orchestrated a protest resolution by the British Parliament, the government, in response, asked its representative in the Congo to investigate his charges. Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive content. The Rights Holder for media is the person or group credited. The Congo Free State was founded by Belgian King Leopold II on February 5, 1885, after he violently annexed the African continent. Why did Leopold want the Congo? Morel's History of the Congo Reform Movement. Stanley made his way back to Europe with a sheaf of signed treaties in 1884. It is at this point that Leopold II of Belgium took a part. For thousands of years, that territory had been conquered by nearby Netherlands, France, Germany, and Luxembourg. Belgian King Establishes Congo Free State - National Geographic Society "In the Heart of Darkness". Leopold spoke of bringing civilization to the Africans and sent a small but heavily armed Belgian force into the Congo. The current protests are not the first time Belgium's ugly history in Congo has been contested in the streets. "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). Nothing was being sent to the Congo to pay for the goods flowing to Europe. Leopold II may never have set foot there, but he poured the profits into Belgium and into his pockets. 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. 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. Europeans were interested in Africa for its abundance of natural resources (ivory, rubber, gold, etc.) As he put it, he did not want to miss out on the opportunity of getting a slice of "this magnificent African cake." King . However, disease of any kind always takes a far greater toll on a traumatized, half-starving population, with many people already in flight as refugees. 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). 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. 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. Forbath, P. The River Congo: The Discovery, Exploration, and Exploitation of the World's Most Dramatic River, 1991 (Paperback). For decades, colonial history has been barely taught in Belgium. 6.2 Reading Check.docx - Name Ahmed Kamel Date 2/17/22 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 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. says Ms Kayembe. SCLC Formed Because of his actions King Leopold should be condemned as a criminal for his exploration and abuse to the Congo land and people. 2023 . . "It is indispensable", instructed Leopold, "that you should purchase for the Comit d'tudes[fr] (i.e., Leopold himself) as much land as you can obtain". Benedetto, Robert, ed. Leopold (18351909) had ascended to the throne in 1865. In the early 1890s, Leopold's private African army, the Force Publique (Public Force), drove the powerful Muslim slave traders out of the Congo. At the time, his father, Leopold I, was the King of Belgium. 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. Flament, F., et al. King Leopold II's Colonization Of The Congo | ipl.org In addition to the MLA, Chicago, and APA styles, your school, university, publication, or institution may have its own requirements for citations. 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. "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. Marchal, Jules (1996). 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. Read about our approach to external linking. In May 1885, Leopold took possession of his colony and named it the Congo Free State. King Leopold's legacy of DR Congo violence. Most populous nation: Should India rejoice or panic? Leopold bought half of the Congo as his own private possession after convincing the European community that his actions would be humanitarian and philanthropic. Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. He had long wanted a colonial empire, and in Stanley he saw someone who could secure it for him. The king also faced enemies of another sort. Tens, possibly hundreds, of thousands of Congolese fled their villages to avoid being impressed as forced labourers, and they sought refuge deep in the forest, where there was little food and shelter. In one, a man sits on a low platform looking at a dismembered small foot and small hand. New York: Africana Publishing Company, 1986. State troops pursued them, trapping Mulume Niama and his soldiers in a large cave. The New York Review of Books. Like statues of racist historical figures vandalised or removed in Britain and the US, Leopold II's days on Belgian streets could now be numbered. He provided for no education or vocational training, which would stunt future Congolese leaders from making sound economic and political policies. The army become known for its brutality, with the officers and soldiers being accused ofdestroying villages, taking hostages, raping, torturing, and extorting the people. POST-1945 HISTORICAL CONTEXTS 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. There seemed no economic sense to investing energy in Africa when the returns from other colonies were likely to be both richer and more immediate. They were the very first royal family of Belgium, because the country was just 5 years old. In Britain he founded the Congo Reform Association, and affiliated groups sprang up in the United States and other countries. t. e. Colonization of the Congo Basin refers to the European colonization of the Congo Basin of tropical Africa. Several rebellions were mercilessly put down under Leopold's direction. Any interactives on this page can only be played while you are visiting our website. 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. Throughout the world's tropics people rushed to establish rubber plantations. 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. 06/29/2020. National Geographic Headquarters 1145 17th Street NW Washington, DC 20036. And under such circumstances people tended to stop having children, so the birthrate plummeted as a result. "Everyone is waking up from a sleep, it's a reckoning with the past," explains Debora Kayembe, a Congolese human rights lawyer who has lived in Belgium. Leopolds reign over the Congo Free State, however, has become infamous for its brutality. Why did Leopold want the Congo? - JOUNIMARTIKAINEN 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". 657, 660, 662). Chicago: University of Chicago Press. What Did King Leopold Of Belgium Do In The Congo? - Caniry King Leopold II and the Congo | Encyclopedia.com (Believing one people is more civilized than another is wrong.) He established his control over the colony through the use of brute force in an attempt to wean the Congolese into submission. 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 called it Congo Free State. Encyclopedia of Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity. This makeover of Leopold's image produced an amnesia that persisted for decades. The British consul, an Irishman named Roger Casement, later famous as an Irish patriot, took the assignment seriously. In DR Congo itself, no-one has really noticed the Belgian protests, says Jules Mulamba, a lawyer in the south-eastern city of Lubambashi. In 1870 roughly 80 percent of Africa south of the Sahara Desert was governed by indigenous kings, chiefs, and other rulers. DR Congo: King Leopold's legacy - DW - 06/29/2020 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. London, Curzon Press, p.27. Reform in Leopold's Congo. From 1874 through 1877 the British explorer and journalist Henry Morton Stanley (18411904) crossed Africa from east to west. You cannot download interactives. The only way to do that was through the use of terror. (1996). 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. Other parts of the Congo economy, from road building to chopping wood for steamboat boilers, operated by forced labour as well. A master of public relations who portrayed himself as a great philanthropist, the king orchestrated successful lobbying campaigns in one country after another. However, Leopold's rule over the Congo Free State is well known for its cruelty. 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. It would be "really significant for Congolese people, especially those whose families perished," she explains. Encyclopedias almanacs transcripts and maps, Encyclopedia of Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity. Having found the new ruler of the upper Congo, Stanley negotiated an agreement with Tippu Tip to allow him to build his final river station just below Stanley Falls (which prevented vessels sailing further upstream). 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. Cite this article Pick a style below, and copy the text for your bibliography. If no button appears, you cannot download or save the media. New and revised edition. CONGO.docx - Why did the King of Belgium Leopold II want Europe was less than keen on the idea: the great European scramble for Africa had not yet begun. 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. Obtaining more precise statistics is difficult, for in 1908 King Leopold ordered the archives of his Congo state burned. 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. Retrieved April 27, 2023 from Encyclopedia.com: https://www.encyclopedia.com/international/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/king-leopold-ii-and-congo. Soon after Stanley returned from the Congo, Leopold tried to recruit him. I never imagined this happening in my lifetime," Ms Kayembe adds. Published in many American and European newspapers, it was the first comprehensive, detailed indictment of the regime and its slave labor system. Charles Michel, prime minister at the time, declined. Brussels: Goemaere. Refer to each styles convention regarding the best way to format page numbers and retrieval dates. 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. 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. 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). 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. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. 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 Province of Angola). In the newly christened Belgian Congo, however, the forced labor system did not immediately end. European Atrocity, African Catastrophe: Leopold II, the Congo Free State and Its Aftermath. 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. 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. Among those who weren't killed, many were punished by having a hand and/or foot amputated. Shaloff, Stanley (1970). "King Leopold II and the Congo Humankind will never know even the approximate toll with any certainty, but beyond any doubt what happened in the Congo was one of the great catastrophes of modern times. Video, The secret mine that hid the Nazis' stolen treasure, US black man George Floyd in police custody, statues of racist historical figures vandalised or removed, "rape, mutilation and genocide of millions of Congolese". [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. 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. It was down to rubber. Why did King Leopold give up the Congo? Livingstone had not been heard from in several years and was, in fact, exploring the upper reaches of a great navigable inland river called the Lualaba, which Livingstone hoped was connected to the Nile, but which turned out to be the upper Congo. The newly named Belgian Congo remained a colony until the Democratic Republic of Congo gained its independence in 1960. Interestingly, a longtime high colonial I Have a Dream Paris: Editions L'Harmattan. He made further progress toward realizing his objective at a diplomatic conference in Berlin in 1884 and 1885 that the major European powers attended. For all his social shortcomings in European society, he was undoubtedly the right man for the job. Leopold II (1835-1909) wanted his country to join the league of European empires, but the Belgian state refused to finance its part in western Europe's expensive scramble for Africa. Angela Thompsell, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor of British and African History at SUNY Brockport. The results of this rule were very uneven. Encyclopedia.com. But other scholars use even higher numbers. Leopold II ruled Belgium from 1865-1909 - activists want this statue in Brussels removed due to his brutal regime in Congo Free State, Before a renovation in 2018, Belgium's Africa Museum was known as the world's "last colonial museum", Thousands marched in Black Lives Matter protests in Belgium, This TV image shows a statue of Leopold defaced and damaged by fire being removed in Antwerp, Colonial officials amputated and mutilated Congolese people, including children, as punishment, A now infamous photo capturing atrocities committed in Congo Free State, Congolese people were forced to be human exhibits in a "zoo" in Belgium in 1897, Missionaries documented amputations while investigating abuses committed in Congo Free State, Congolese independence hero Patrice Lumumba is commemorated in a Brussels square, This bust of Leopold II was removed on Friday in Auderghem, near Brussels, Colony built on forced labour and brutality, The secret mine that hid the Nazis' stolen treasure. 27 Apr. It is clearly understood that in this project there is no question of granting the slightest political power to the negros. The relentless pursuit of profits in the Congo by King Leopold II resulted in one of the worst levels of moral decadence for mankind. 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. Ed. But for Leopold this posed no problem; he would acquire his own. 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. In the early 1890s, however, a larger source of wealth suddenly loomed. In one of them, a letter to the U.S. Secretary of State, he used a phrase that was not commonly heard again until the Nuremberg trials more than fifty years later. From the start the regime was founded on forced labor. Leopold acquired the Congo through unethical means and thus took the people's chances away at self-rule. Votin, Herero Leopold was the founder and sole owner of the Congo Free State, a private project undertaken on his own behalf as a personal union with Belgium. In later years he sometimes referred to himself as the Congo's proprietor.
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