King Leopold II of Belgium was responsible for the deaths and mutilation of 10 million Congolese Africans during the late 1800’s.
He was the second King of Belgium and through own efforts, the “owner” and absolute ruler of Congo Free State from 1885-1908
Leopold ascended the throne in 1865. A man of great charm, intelligence, ruthlessness, and greed, he was openly frustrated with inheriting the throne of such a small country (Belgium), and in doing so at a time when European kings were rapidly losing power to elected parliaments
He had long wanted a colonial empire, and in Stanley ( his helmsman) he saw someone who could secure it for him. The Belgian cabinet of the day was not interested in colonies. But for Leopold this posed no problem; he would acquire “his own”. that the major European powers attended. In 1885 he proclaimed the existence of the misnamed État Indépendant du Congo, or, as it was known in English, the Congo Free State, with himself the King-Sovereign.
In later years he sometimes referred to himself as the Congo’s proprietor. It was the world’s only major colony owned by one man
Leopold’s administration of the Congo was characterised by atrocities, including torture and murder, resulting from notorious systematic brutality.
He extracted a fortune from the territory, initially by the collection of ivory, and after a rise in the price of natural rubber in the 1890s, by forced labour from the native population to harvest and process rubber
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. Army officers and colonial officials earned bonuses based on the amount of rubber collected in areas under their control. These were an incentive for ruthless, devastating plunder
Many women hostages were raped and a significant number starved to death. Male rubber gatherers often died from exhaustion. And under such circumstances people tended to stop having children, so the birthrate plummeted as a result
The hands of men, women, and children were amputated when the quota of rubber was not met and millions of the Congolese people died
In the 23 years (1885-1908) Leopold II ruled the Congo he massacred more than 10 million Africans by cutting off their hands and genitals, flogging them to death, starving them into forced labour, holding children ransom and burning villages.
The ironic part of this story is that Leopold II committed these atrocities by not even setting foot in the Congo.
Humankind will never know the exact level of of atrocities with certainty, but beyond any doubt, what happened in the Congo was one of the greatest catastrophes of modern times
He died without a Male Child to succeed his throne and so the kingship was permanently cut off his immediate family
Credit to Maji Isah
