Why did King Leopold the II want the Congo? What did his - Brainly Leopold II of Belgium - Wikipedia The colony in the Congo - the Congo Free State - was personal property for the Belgian king and there was little oversight over what happened there. 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. Belgian King Leopold II ruthlessly seized control of the African continent on February 5, 1885, establishing the Congo Free State as a . 2 volumes. Forbath, P. The River Congo: The Discovery, Exploration, and Exploitation of the World's Most Dramatic River, 1991 (Paperback). First, the system of exploitation established there became a model for colonial rule in other parts of central Africa. How did King Leopold gain control of the Congo? When the ships turned around and steamed back to Africa, however, they carried no merchandise in exchange. Estimates suggest more than 50% died there. 24 February 2004. The iconic images to emerge from this terror, though, were the baskets full of smoked hands and the Congolese children who survived having a hand cut off. It was the last part of the continent to be colonized. When you visit the site, Dotdash Meredith and its partners may store or retrieve information on your browser, mostly in the form of cookies. New York: Random House. 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. It is clearly understood that in this project there is no question of granting the slightest political power to the negros. ADAM HOCHSCHILD. 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. "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. 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. Retrieved September 22, 2017. 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. Setting out from Zanzibar, Henry Morton Stanley, a British-born American journalist and explorer aimed to find the famous Dr. Livingstone. Throughout the 1870s, Leopold cunningly established a reputation as a great philanthropist and humanitarian who wanted to spread Christianity and civilization to Africa. 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. He is remembered in Belgium for some of what he built with his Congo wealth, such as the monumental Arcade du Cinquantenaire in Brussels, and for his advocacy of strong fortifications in the eastern part of the country, which slowed the advance of German troops in 1914 at the beginning of World War I. Encyclopedia of Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity. Encyclopedia.com. The army become known for its brutality, with the officers and soldiers being accused ofdestroying villages, taking hostages, raping, torturing, and extorting the people. For the earlier Bantu colonization, see. New York: Africana Publishing Company, 1986. The history of Colonialism as a policy or practice go, THE CAUSE OF DECOLONIZATION From 1874 through 1877 the British explorer and journalist Henry Morton Stanley (18411904) crossed Africa from east to west. In 1924 the first territory-wide census, when adjusted for undercounting, placed the number of colony inhabitants at some ten million. London, Curzon Press, p.27. He wrote articles, appeared at public meetings, lobbied the rich and powerful tirelessly; and always his theme was the boundless opportunity for commercial exploitation of the lands he had discovered or, in his own words, to "pour the civilisation of Europe into the barbarism of Africa". With women as hostages and men forced to tap rubber, few able-bodied adults were left to hunt, fish, and cultivate crops. Army officers and colonial officials earned bonuses based on the amount of rubber collected in areas under their control. He made further progress toward realizing his objective at a diplomatic conference in Berlin in 1884 and 1885 that the major European powers attended. [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. They belonged to his five-year-old daughter, who was later killed when her village did not produce sufficient rubber. 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. In DR Congo itself, no-one has really noticed the Belgian protests, says Jules Mulamba, a lawyer in the south-eastern city of Lubambashi. Killings, famine and disease combined to cause the deaths of perhaps 10 million people, though historians dispute the true number. 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. Belgium's Heart of Darkness | History Today "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. June 11th, 2020. 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. Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive content. The king then embarked on an ultimately successful effort to make a vast fortune from his new possession. The bloodiest single episode in Africa's colonization took place in the center of the continent in the large territory, known as the Congo. 6.2 Reading Check.docx - Name Ahmed Kamel Date 2/17/22 The king's colonial officials quickly set up a brutal but effective system for harvesting wild rubber. Colonization of the Congo Basin refers to the European colonization of the Congo Basin of tropical Africa. 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. He became duke of Brabant in 1846 and served in the Belgian army. After Morel orchestrated a protest resolution by the British Parliament, the government, in response, asked its representative in the Congo to investigate his charges. Arab vs. European: Diplomacy and war in Nineteenth-Century East Central Africa. Rather than control the Congo as a colony, as other European powers did throughout Africa, Leopold privately owned the region. GENEALOGY OF THE TERM DECOLONIZATION 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. On December 12, 1963, the flag of independent Kenya billowed over the capital city of Nairobi f, Martin Luther King, Jr. 1929-1968 In 1853 he married Marie-Henriette, daughter of the Austrian archduke Joseph, palatine of Hungary, and became king of the Belgians on his fathers death in December 1865. Most populous nation: Should India rejoice or panic? Colonization of the Congo Basin - Wikipedia 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. She or he will best know the preferred format. Why did King Leopold want the Congo ? - Brainly.com 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. Updates? For instance, Leopold II was a first cousin of Queen Victoria of Britain. Read about our approach to external linking. He established his control over the colony through the use of brute force in an attempt to wean the Congolese into submission. 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). For all his social shortcomings in European society, he was undoubtedly the right man for the job. 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. "King Leopold II and the Congo Men who did not fulfill their quota were killed or mutilated. 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. Henry Morton Stanley (2011). Throughout the world's tropics people rushed to establish rubber plantations. Unlike previous European nations that spread their influence over 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. But new rubber trees often require fifteen years of growth before they can be tapped. Morel soon quit his job and in short order turned himself into the greatest British investigative journalist of his time. wives' release, the men would have to disperse into the rain forest to collect the sap of wild rubber vines. At the time, his father, Leopold I, was the King of Belgium. Around the BBC. Nzansu's men fought on sporadically for five years more, and no record of his fate exists. As the price of rubber soared, the quotas increased, and as vines near a village were drained dry, men desperate to free their wives and daughters would have to walk days or weeks to find new vines to tap. Nor was there a strong humanitarian interest in the continent now that the American slave trade had been extinguished. 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. Many women hostages were raped and a significant number starved to death.
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