Writing in the same year, R. P. Van Wing, a Belgian Jesuit missionary, estimated that the population of the Bakongo people, one of the territory's largest ethnic groups, had been reduced by two-thirds. It was down to rubber. Within the Cite this article tool, pick a style to see how all available information looks when formatted according to that style. Encyclopedias almanacs transcripts and maps, Encyclopedia of Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity. Shaloff, Stanley (1970). 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. The horrific consequences of rubber's toxic past - BBC News 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. Du sang sur les lianes. On December 12, 1963, the flag of independent Kenya billowed over the capital city of Nairobi f, Martin Luther King, Jr. 1929-1968 E. D. Morel contre Lopold II: L'histoire du Congo 19001910. "King Leopold II and the Congo When Leopold II died in 1909, he was buried to the sound of Belgians booing. Initially, government and commercial agents focused on acquiring ivory, but inventions, like the car, dramatically increased the demand for rubber. Leopold II, Williams declared, was guilty of "crimes against humanity." National Geographic Society is a 501 (c)(3) organization. The current protests are not the first time Belgium's ugly history in Congo has been contested in the streets. That would be absurd."[9]. First, the system of exploitation established there became a model for colonial rule in other parts of central Africa. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. Throughout the 1870s, Leopold cunningly established a reputation as a great philanthropist and humanitarian who wanted to spread Christianity and civilization to Africa. Instead, he found what he called "the Siberia of the African Continent." King Leopold II committed heinous . The focus of the great powers was still firmly on the lands that had made Europe's fortune: the Americas, the East Indies, India, China, and Australasia. 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 . The only way to do that was through the use of terror. . Statues have been daubed with red paint in Ghent and Ostend and pulled down in Brussels. Morel, E. D. (1904). 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. Vocabulary On February 5, 1885, Belgian King Leopold II established the Congo Free State by brutally seizing the African landmass as his personal possession. For information on user permissions, please read our Terms of Service. In 1870 roughly 80 percent of Africa south of the Sahara Desert was governed by indigenous kings, chiefs, and other rulers. Other parts of the Congo economy, from road building to chopping wood for steamboat boilers, operated by forced labour as well. Throughout the world's tropics people rushed to establish rubber plantations. Why did King Leopold want the Congo ? - Brainly.com L'histoire du Congo 18761900. Last week a statue of Leopold II in the city of Antwerp was set on fire, before authorities took it down. A detachment of soldiers would march into an African village and seize the women as hostages. He called it tat Indpendant du Congo, the Congo Free State. Furthermore, as in any society where men and women are separated, traumatized, or in flight as refugees, the birth rate dropped precipitously. "Congo Free State Rubber Regime Atrocities." 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. 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. For instance, Leopold II was a first cousin of Queen Victoria of Britain. Sadly, Williams, only forty-one years old, died of tuberculosis on his way home from Africa, but not before writing several additional denunciations of what he had seen in the Congo. 6.2 Reading Check.docx - Name Ahmed Kamel Date 2/17/22 For all his social shortcomings in European society, he was undoubtedly the right man for the job. 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. https://www.thoughtco.com/congo-free-state-atrocities-rubber-regime-43731 (accessed May 1, 2023). Repeated attempts to travel overland were repulsed with heavy casualties, accidents, conflicts with natives, and, above all, disease saw large and well-equipped expeditions got no further than 40 miles (64km) or so past the westernmost rapid, the legendary Cauldron of Hell. In May 1885, Leopold took possession of his colony and named it the Congo Free State. "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. Although the domestic affairs of his reign were dominated by a growing conflict between the Liberal and Catholic parties over suffrage and education issues, Leopold concentrated on developing the countrys defenses. (Believing one people is more civilized than another is wrong.) Estimates vary, but about half the Congolese population died from punishment and malnutrition. The horrors, though, are only one part of the story. But heat, tropical diseases, and the huge rapids near the mouth of the Congo River on the Atlantic had long kept the Congo's interior a mystery to Europeans. Is climate change killing Australian wine? Ascherson, Neal (1963). 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. One particularly notorious practice grew out of the suppression of those rebellions. (Colonizing other peoples, regardless of the justification, is wrong. "Congo Free State Rubber Regime Atrocities." He was, nevertheless, an extremely minor monarch in the realpolitik of the times, ruling a totally insignificant nation, a nation in fact that had come into existence barely four decades before and lived under the constant threat of losing its precarious independence to the great European powers around it. VideoThe secret mine that hid the Nazis' stolen treasure, LGBT troops take love for Eurovision to front line, Why an Indian comedian is challenging fake news rules. How did King Leopold gain control of the Congo? The Herero were traditional occupants of the temperate high plains of central Namibia. She does not believe it will not be quick or easy. Because of his actions King Leopold should be condemned as a criminal for his exploration and abuse to the Congo land and people. 657, 660, 662). 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. 27 Apr. Male rubber gatherers often died from exhaustion. Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students. Former President of Kenya ThoughtCo, Jun. In addition, Leopold's regime faced resistance from within his own conscript army, whose soldiers sometimes found a common cause with the rebel groups they were supposed to pursue. Cite this article Pick a style below, and copy the text for your bibliography. 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. Why did King Leopold colonize the Congo? - Sage-Advices It is clearly understood that in this project there is no question of granting the slightest political power to the negros. 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. 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. [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. New York: Africana Publishing Company, 1986. In one, a man sits on a low platform looking at a dismembered small foot and small hand. Soldiers were also reportedly promised their freedom or given other incentives for killing the most people as proven by supplying the most hands. Did this woman die because her genitals were cut? 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. (1996). Leopold II | Biography, Facts, & Legacy | Britannica Forty years later virtually all of it had been transformed into European colonies, protectorates, or territories ruled by white settlers. For some years ivory was a principal source of the great wealth that Leopold and his associates drew from the new colony. Omissions? 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. Birmingham Protest March He established his control over the colony through the use of brute force in an attempt to wean the Congolese into submission. But rumours of abuse began to circulate and missionaries and British journalist Edmund Dene Morel exposed the regime. In order to enforce the near impossible rubber quotas imposed on villages, agents and officials called on the Free States army, the Force Publique. (Believing one people is more civilized than another is wrong.) He provided for no education or vocational training, which would stunt future Congolese leaders from making sound economic and political policies. After all, destroying the iconography of Adolf Hitler did not mean the history of Nazi Germany was forgotten, she points out. The people of the Congo did not suffer these injustices without fighting back. "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. King Leopold II Biography: The Monster of the Congo 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. GENEALOGY OF THE TERM DECOLONIZATION 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. The Hidden Holocaust: How King Leopold II - The African Exponent London: Heinemann. 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. ADAM HOCHSCHILD. La question sociale au Congo: Rapport au comit du congrs colonial national. The invention of the inflatable bicycle tire, followed soon by that of the automobile tire, triggered an enormous boom in rubber. The largest mutiny involved three thousand troops and an equal number of auxiliaries and porters, and continued for three years. These were an incentive for ruthless, devastating plunder. This was to be his most enduring legacy. Leopold, however, made the Belgian government pay him for his prized possession. Franklin, John Hope (1985). Red Rubber: The Story of the Rubber Slave Trade Which Flourished on the Congo for Twenty Years, 18901910. Many of the women hostages starved, and many of the male rubber gatherers were worked to death. La Force publique de sa naissance 1914: Participation des militaires l'histoire des premires annes du Congo. A cointegration analysis, CRE Working paper, n02/10, juin 2010, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Colonization_of_the_Congo_Basin&oldid=1117806574, The fever-ridden mangroves of the lower Niger by the brothers, This page was last edited on 23 October 2022, at 17:53. On Monday the University of Mons removed a bust of the late king, following the circulation of a student-led petition saying it represented the "rape, mutilation and genocide of millions of Congolese". With women as hostages and men forced to tap rubber, few able-bodied adults were left to hunt, fish, and cultivate crops. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). Unfortunately, for the Congo, it was one of the only places in the world to have a large supply of wild rubber, and the government and its affiliated trading companies quickly shifted their focus to extracting the suddenly lucrative commodity. 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. 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. Leopold II, King of the Belgiansas his coun, c. 1875 Published in many American and European newspapers, it was the first comprehensive, detailed indictment of the regime and its slave labor system. 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. Leopold II was the second son of Leopold I, first king of the Belgians, and his second wife, Marie-Louise of Orlans. Leiden, Netherlands: E.J. 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. 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. The secret mine that hid the Nazis' stolen treasure. In 1870 roughly 80 percent of Africa south of the Sahara Desert was governed by indigenous kings, chiefs, and other rulers. Nothing was being sent to the Congo to pay for the goods flowing to Europe. Why did Leopold want the Congo? William Roger Louis and Jean Stengers. Morel, E. D. (1919). 2023
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