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• In practice, soldiers sometimes "cheated" by simply cutting off the hand and leaving
the victim to live or die. More than a few survivors later said that they had lived
through a massacre by acting dead, not moving even when their hand was severed,
and waiting till the soldiers left before seeking help.
Public Opinion in Media:
• 1908
– King Leopold II turned the Congo over to Belgium
for 150m francs.
1909
– Leopold II dies, booed at his funereal parade.
– “The most hated man in Europe”
• The philanthropic
intentions :
– simply a politically
convenient story for their
true ambitions.
• Economics
• Safe Target
– Blame Leopold
• Greed and Competition
• Ignore other colonies:
– Death Toll
Results:
• Leopold’s rule resulted in the torture and
murder of an estimated 10 million Congolese
between 1888 and 1908.
• Reduced the population by half.
Congo Today
• 4 million people have
been killed since 1998
• Exploitation Continues:
– Gold, Diamonds
• During the 1990s the
U.S. supplied more than
$125 million in arms
and training to 6 of the
7 states who have had
troops fighting on
several sides in Congo
Civil War
Questions?
Other Information:
Questions?
Why?
• 1876: Leopold organizes a meeting in Brussels to
discuss his plan:
– “to open to civilization the only part of our globe
where Christianity has not yet penetrated and to
pierce the darkness which envelops the whole
population”
• 1877: Henry Morton Stanley
– “There are 40 million naked people on the other
side of the rapids, and the cotton-spinners of
Manchester are waiting to clothe them...
Birmingham's factories are glowing with the red
metal that shall presently be made into ironwork in
every fashion and shape for them... and the
ministers of Christ are zealous to bring them, the
poor benighted heathen, into the Christian fold.”
– Hired by Leopold to explore and secure the Congo
Leopold II: Early Life
• Belgium founded in 1830
– Leopold I- father
• Leopold II was cousin of Queen
Victoria.
• Leopold believed that Belgium
needed colonies to ensure its
prosperity
• Tried to buy the Philippines in
1875.
• Knew Belgian People would
not support his affairs, he
worked as a private individual.
Classroom Questions: