BBC World Service: 50 Things That Made the Modern . Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students. Europe was less than keen on the idea: the great European scramble for Africa had not yet begun. The king's stated goal was to bring civilization to the people of the Congo, an enormous region in Central Africa. He promised a humanitarian and philanthropic mission that would improve the lives of Africans. That would be absurd."[9]. DR Congo: King Leopold's legacy - DW - 06/29/2020 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. The results of this rule were very uneven. 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. He called it Congo Free State. 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. In one, a man sits on a low platform looking at a dismembered small foot and small hand. POST-1945 HISTORICAL CONTEXTS Vangroenweghe, Daniel (1986). 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. Most online reference entries and articles do not have page numbers. Leopold II implemented a forced-labour system in the Congo that was quickly copied by other European colonial powers. Any interactives on this page can only be played while you are visiting our website. They were a newly independent country . Hochschild, Adam (1998). Leopold agreed and in deepest secrecy, Stanley signed a five-year contract at a salary of 1,000 a year, and set off to Zanzibar under an assumed name. She was not unique - chopping off the limbs of enslaved Congolese was a routine form of retribution when Leopold II's quotas were not met. 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. Civil rights leader 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. 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. William Roger Louis and Jean Stengers. ." 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". 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. He wrote three books on the Congo, several dozen pamphlets, and hundreds of newspaper articles, making much use of eyewitness testimony from the missionaries. 1996 - 2023 National Geographic Society. Hoornaert, Andr and O. Louwers (1924). A petition calling on the city for its removal has reached 74,000 signatures. Forced labor remained a major part of the Congo's economy for many years after the war. In 1924 the first territory-wide census, when adjusted for undercounting, placed the number of colony inhabitants at some ten million. The great population movements caused by the colonial regime brought these illnesses into areas where people had not built up an immunity to them, and many would have died even under a government far less brutal than Leopold's. 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. 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. Some of these soldiers were recruits, while others were enslaved people or orphans brought up to serve the colonial army. (Colonizing other peoples, regardless of the justification, is wrong. He had no power to decide policy. 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. A detachment of soldiers would march into an African village and seize the women as hostages. I Have a Dream GENEALOGY OF THE TERM DECOLONIZATION The forced-labour system for gathering rubber was swiftly copied by French, German, and Portuguese colonial officials with equally fatal results. It is clearly understood that in this project there is no question of granting the slightest political power to the negros. Leopold II may never have set foot there, but he poured the profits into Belgium and into his pockets. Why did King Leopold colonize the Congo? The New York Review of Books. No one owned more land like this than King Leopold II, for equatorial rain forest, dotted with wild rubber vines, comprised half of his Congo state. Du sang sur les lianes. 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. 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. Morel soon quit his job and in short order turned himself into the greatest British investigative journalist of his time. Congo Free State - Wikipedia "It's a good thing that everyone is waking up, looking around and thinking 'is this right?'" Ed. 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. (Believing one people is more civilized than another is wrong.) Why did the Belgian Congo happen? - Sage-Answer Reform in Leopold's Congo. European Atrocity, African Catastrophe: Leopold II, the Congo Free State and Its Aftermath. 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. [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. 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. For the earlier Bantu colonization, see. Leopold's eventual response was extraordinary in its hubris and simplicity. The country of Belgium itself was only about five years old at the birth of Leopold II, who became the eldest surviving son of Leopold I, first king of the Belgians, and his second wife, Louise-Marie of Orlans. "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). ADAM HOCHSCHILD. 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. Encyclopedias almanacs transcripts and maps, Encyclopedia of Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity. Rather than control the Congo as a colony, as other European powers did throughout Africa, Leopold privately owned the region. New York: Africana Publishing Company, 1986. 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]. 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. Leopold II of Belgium - Wikipedia 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. 2019Encyclopedia.com | All rights reserved. He established his control over the colony through the use of brute force in an attempt to wean the Congolese into submission. 24 February 2004. Benedetto, Robert, ed. In order to enforce the near impossible rubber quotas imposed on villages, agents and officials called on the Free States army, the Force Publique. Why did King Leopold the II want the Congo? What did his - Brainly However, the date of retrieval is often important. Most populous nation: Should India rejoice or panic? Although Stanley is best known as the man who found Livingstone, his trip across the Congo basin was the greater feat of exploration and had far more impact on history. In the early 1890s, however, a larger source of wealth suddenly loomed. 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. Hochschild, Adam (October 6, 2005). 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. In Kinshasa, the capital of DR Congo, Leopold II's statues were moved to the National Museum. 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. Standing on the dock, Morel realized that he had uncovered irrefutable proof that a forced labor system was in operation 4,000 miles away. SCLC Formed As he put it, he did not want to miss out on the opportunity of getting a slice of "this magnificent African cake." King . In 1870 roughly 80 percent of Africa south of the Sahara Desert was governed by indigenous kings, chiefs, and other rulers. How did King Leopold gain control of the Congo? Meanwhile, Leopold had already begun the job of persuading first the United He had long wanted a colonial empire, and in Stanley he saw someone who could secure it for him. They refused to surrender, and when troops finally entered the cave three months later, they found 178 bodies. After Morel orchestrated a protest resolution by the British Parliament, the government, in response, asked its representative in the Congo to investigate his charges. One lucrative source of wild rubber was the Landolphia vines in the great Central African rainforest, and no one owned more of that area than Leopold. official, Major Charles C. Liebrechts, made the same estimate in 1920. 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. Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/congo-free-state-atrocities-rubber-regime-43731. It had only been through Tippu Tip's help that Stanley had found Livingstone (who himself had survived years on the Lualaba by virtue of Tippu Tip's friendship). 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. . In May 1885, Leopold took possession of his colony and named it the Congo Free State. 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. Therefore, that information is unavailable for most Encyclopedia.com content. Omissions? Stanley made his way back to Europe with a sheaf of signed treaties in 1884. June 11th, 2020. Leopold continued his action, even after the Belgium Parliament refused to annex the Congo. On February 5, 1885, Belgian King Leopold II established the Congo Free State by brutally seizing the African landmass as his personal possession. LEOPOLD II (18351909; ruled 18651909), king of Belgium and personal sovereign of the Congo Free State. Nzansu's men fought on sporadically for five years more, and no record of his fate exists. 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. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. In January 1959, riots broke out in Leopoldville (now Kinshasa) after a rally was held calling for the independence of the Congo. Corrections? Leopold II was born in 1835 to King Leopold I and Louise-Marie of Orleans. States and then all the major nations of Europe to recognize his claim. 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. 2, 2022, thoughtco.com/congo-free-state-atrocities-rubber-regime-43731. Encyclopedia of Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity. The movement, in fact, eventually forced Leopold to relinquish his private ownership of the Congo to the Belgian state in 1908. https://www.encyclopedia.com/international/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/king-leopold-ii-and-congo, "King Leopold II and the Congo Encyclopedia.com. 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. 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. Forty years later virtually all of it had been transformed into European colonies, protectorates, or territories ruled by white settlers. 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. Congo Free State Rubber Regime Atrocities. With women as hostages and men forced to tap rubber, few able-bodied adults were left to hunt, fish, and cultivate crops. King Leopold's legacy of DR Congo violence. He did however apologise for the kidnapping of thousands of mixed-race children, known as mtis, from Burundi, DR Congo and Rwanda in the 1940s and 1950s. London, Curzon Press, p.27. Yet, in the most astonishing and improbable way imaginable, he managed virtually single-handedly to upset the balance of power in Africa and usher in the terrible age of European colonialism on the black continent. For information on user permissions, please read our Terms of Service. In addition to the MLA, Chicago, and APA styles, your school, university, publication, or institution may have its own requirements for citations. 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 audio, illustrations, photos, and videos are credited beneath the media asset, except for promotional images, which generally link to another page that contains the media credit. https://www.thoughtco.com/congo-free-state-atrocities-rubber-regime-43731 (accessed May 1, 2023). Why did King Leopold give up the Congo? 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. King Leopold II's Colonization Of The Congo | ipl.org Why did King Leopold colonize the Congo? - Sage-Advices From the start the regime was founded on forced labor. 657, 660, 662). However, as he approached Stanley Falls at the junction between the Congo proper and the Lualaba (close to the general vicinity of Central Africa where he had found Livingstone six years before), it soon became clear that Stanley's men were not the only intruders. First, the system of exploitation established there became a model for colonial rule in other parts of central Africa. Apparently finding nothing reprehensible about Leopold's ambitions, Stanley set about his task with a will. His most important legacy, however, remains the human catastrophe that the rubber forced-labour system brought to the Congoa heritage that continued to echo in that region more than a century after Leopolds death. "I will dance if it comes down. King Leopold's Rule in Africa. 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. 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. Initially he was most interested in ivory, a material that was greatly valued in the days before plastics because it could be carved into a great variety of shapesstatuettes, jewelry, piano keys, false teeth, and more. Statues have been daubed with red paint in Ghent and Ostend and pulled down in Brussels. Is climate change killing Australian wine? says Ms Kayembe. Many of the women hostages starved, and many of the male rubber gatherers were worked to death. The only way to do that was through the use of terror. Army officers and colonial officials earned bonuses based on the amount of rubber collected in areas under their control. (Believing one people is more civilized than another is wrong.) Vocabulary On February 5, 1885, Belgian King Leopold II established the Congo Free State by brutally seizing the African landmass as his personal possession. King Leopold II committed heinous . When Leopold II died in 1909, he was buried to the sound of Belgians booing. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. "Congo Free State Rubber Regime Atrocities." 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. 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. Thompsell, Angela. It was the worlds only private colony, and Leopold referred to himself as its proprietor.. Red Rubber: The Story of the Rubber Slave Trade Which Flourished on the Congo for Twenty Years, 18901910. Alice Harris, a British Baptist, took photographs of the atrocities she witnessed. [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. Renting a missionary steamboat, he spent more than three months traveling in the interior. 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.