In later years, Stanley would write that the most vexing part of his duties was not the work itself, nor negotiating with the natives, but keeping order amongst the ill-assorted collection of white men he had brought with him as overseers, who squabbled constantly over small matters of rank or status. 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 king's colonial officials quickly set up a brutal but effective system for harvesting wild rubber. 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. Because of his actions King Leopold should be condemned as a criminal for his exploration and abuse to the Congo land and people. Published in many American and European newspapers, it was the first comprehensive, detailed indictment of the regime and its slave labor system. If no button appears, you cannot download or save the media. Last week thousands in the country of 11 million joined solidarity protests about the killing of US black man George Floyd in police custody. 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. Now, Stanley discovered, Tippu Tip's men had reached still further west in search of fresh populations to enslave. That pressure finally forced him to relinquish his ownership of the territory, and it became the Belgian Congo in 1908. How did King Leopold gain control of the Congo? All rights reserved. Retrieved September 22, 2017. Unlike previous European nations that spread their influence over Borgloon, Belgium: Editions Paula Bellings. In the newly christened Belgian Congo, however, the forced labor system did not immediately end. who owned land where rubber grew wild. Benedetto, Robert, ed. [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 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. Harper & Row. 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. In 1879 Stanley returned to the Congo as Leopold's agent. Demonstrations and protests demanded that Leopold end human rights abuses in the Congo Free State. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. Colonization of the Congo Basin - Wikipedia Around the BBC. 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 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. 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. 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. Estimates suggest more than 50% died there. p.20. Text on this page is printable and can be used according to our Terms of Service. But new rubber trees often require fifteen years of growth before they can be tapped. "Congo Free State Rubber Regime Atrocities." Because his only son had predeceased him, Leopolds nephew Albert I succeeded to the throne. London, Curzon Press, p.27. Baskets of severed hands thus resulted from expeditions against rebels. 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. 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. Leopolds reign over the Congo Free State, however, has become infamous for its brutality. On February 5, 1885, Belgian King Leopold II established the Congo Free State by brutally seizing the African landmass as his personal possession. Retrieved April 27, 2023 from Encyclopedia.com: https://www.encyclopedia.com/international/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/king-leopold-ii-and-congo. Throughout the world's tropics people rushed to establish rubber plantations. 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. 2023 BBC. If that figure is accurate and it represents 50 percent of what the population had been in 1880, this would suggest a loss of 10 million people. Since the 15th century, European explorers had sailed into the broad Congo estuary, planning to fight their way up the falls and rapids that begin only 100 miles (160km) inland, and then travel up the river to its unknown source. Combining gift-giving with a show of military force, he persuaded hundreds of illiterate African chiefs, most of whom had little idea of the terms of the agreement to which they were ostensibly acceding, to sign away their land to the king. Why did King Leopold colonize the Congo? (Believing one people is more civilized than another is wrong.) (1996). "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. In 1870 more than 80 percent of Africa south of the Sahara was under the rule of indigenous chiefs or kings. Read about our approach to external linking. Morel, E. D. (1968). Brussels: Goemaere. The kings stated goal was to bring civilization to the people of the Congo, an enormous region in Central Africa. Brill. Instead, he found what he called "the Siberia of the African Continent." The results of this rule were very uneven. LEOPOLD II (18351909; ruled 18651909), king of Belgium and personal sovereign of the Congo Free State. Around 20,000 children born to Belgian settlers and local women were forcibly taken to Belgium to be fostered. 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 . In 1876, Leopold II sponsored an international geographical conference in Brussels, inviting delegates from scientific societies all over Europe to discuss philanthropic and scientific matters such as the best way to coordinate map making, to prevent the re-emergence of the west coast slave trade, and to investigate ways of sending medical aid to Africa. 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. European Atrocity, African Catastrophe: Leopold II, the Congo Free State and Its Aftermath. But taking the monument away does not solve the problem of racism, she believes, while creating one museum devoted to the statues would not be useful either. For much of the journey he floated down the river, mapping its course for the first time and noting the many tributaries that, it turned out, comprised a network of navigable waterways more than 7,000 miles long. 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. He called it tat Indpendant du Congo, the Congo Free State. Arab vs. European: Diplomacy and war in Nineteenth-Century East Central Africa. Why did Leopold want the Congo? Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. E. D. Morel contre Lopold II: L'histoire du Congo 19001910. ." 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. Leopold II, Williams declared, was guilty of "crimes against humanity." In 1870 roughly 80 percent of Africa south of the Sahara Desert was governed by indigenous kings, chiefs, and other rulers. "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. 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. Encyclopedia.com gives you the ability to cite reference entries and articles according to common styles from the Modern Language Association (MLA), The Chicago Manual of Style, and the American Psychological Association (APA). 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. With women as hostages and men forced to tap rubber, few able-bodied adults were left to hunt, fish, and cultivate crops. Europeans were interested in Africa for its abundance of natural resources (ivory, rubber, gold, etc.)
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