Congo Video Notes

- Dismembered limbs, bodies and heads were used to scare locals into submission.

- Leopold had a human zoo in Belgium and populated them with the people of the Congo.

- Modern weaponry was provided to Leopold’s militia only under specific terms. They must
provide proof of how they used the weapons (hands, legs, etc.) This inspired terror and
obedience.

- Crop rotation was replaced with a network of rubber monocropping. This degraded the soil and
caused decades of bad crop production. This also eventually led to malnutrition.

- At the beginning of the free state, profitability was at $260,000 Belgian franks. By 1905,
profitability was at $47 million, and all of this only benefited the Belgian people, not the
Congolese.