King Leopold in the Congo

King Leopold II in the Congo

By Armando Ally, Brandon Lee, Dylan D'souza and John Abdala

• Born on April 9th, 1835 King Leopold II was destined to be king after his brother died and he became the heir to the throne in 1865.
• Leopold fervently believed that overseas colonies were the key to a country's greatness, and he worked tirelessly to acquire colonial territory for Belgium. Neither the Belgian people nor the Belgian government was interested, however, and Leopold eventually began trying to acquire a colony in his private capacity as an ordinary citizen. The Belgian government lent him money for this venture.
• In 1866, Leopold instructed the Belgian ambassador in Madrid to speak to Queen Isabella II of Spain about ceding the Philippines to Belgium. However, knowing the situation fully, the ambassador did nothing. Leopold quickly replaced the ambassador with a more sympathetic individual to carry out his plan.
• In 1868, when Isabella II was deposed as Queen of Spain, Leopold attempted to take advantage of his original plan to acquire the Philippines. But without funds, he was unsuccessful. Leopold then devised another unsuccessful plan to establish the Philippines as an independent state, which could then be ruled by a Belgian. Because both of these plans had failed, Leopold shifted his aspirations of colonization to Africa.

• This Political European country ruled by King Leopold II had an average economic wealth and were trying to take over and gain some colonies so that they could be superpower in the developed world of Europe.Before the Congo, Belgium had a country of people in search of colonies over seas to prosper from, but it never worked until the major conference held in Berlin in 1884 in which Africa, was to be divide and, each county was given and equal amount of land to gain its riches from.

• This economically and environmentally poor African province was known for its natural rubber even before the Belgians took over it. The Congo as early as 650 BC were known for its huge traditions of iron smelting, in which people use heat and a chemical reducing agent to decompose the ore, driving off other elements as gasses or slag and leaving just the metal behind. The reducing agent is commonly a source of carbon. The Congo was an average colony but they should have been invited to the conference but they weren't so, because if that they became part of Belgium's "slave" colony.

• Superpowers around the world met up to divide Africa in 1884. Known of as the Berlin conference Austria-Hungary, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Britain, Italy, the Netherlands, the Ottoman Empire, Portugal, Russia, Spain, Sweden-Norway, and representatives of the United States met in Berlin to divide Africa among each other. They did so to avoid conflicts with other imperial powers, protect existing trade routes, and gain control of the continent. During this conference the superpowers had decided to give King Leopold II of Belgian and the central and the heart of Africa...The Congo.

• The Congo was one of the main countries affected after the Berlin Conference in 1884. King Leopold was grateful because of the land given to him because in this land they had lots of rubber trees from which they could harvest rubber and in this land he and his country could be rich.this country before, during, and after his rule were poor and because of this they are digitally divided from the countries of the earth. for example this country and many others did not know about transport or media before 1920s, but this country is still poor today and it still has not been up to date with the latest technological advances.
• This supply of rubber was very precious to the Belgians to make them prosper but, the Congolese did not know about it.If they had known about it, they would have been wealthy with the supply of rubber and they would have been able to sell it across the globe to different countries to prosper themselves and not be poor.
• In the year 1885, Leopold II being greedy and not thinking about his Indigenous people forced the people of the Congo to give up most of their land and made them slaves to harvest and to get natural rubber for the home country of Belgium. Many indigenous people who had resisted harvesting for the mother country were punished in by many cruel belgian men who would cut of their right hand and/or either be killed because of not behaving or acting as the laws says. but many who had succeeded had another day to live because in that rough period people who didn't listen got their hands cut of even killed if they had done it again.many who bought less than expected had their right hand cut off.
• It would be a different country today if it wasn't for Congo's rubber.For example Some of the buildings built in Leopold II reign were made from the money that the Congo's rubber brought to Belgium.if there was no rubber Belgium would have the poorest region in Africa

King Leopold II

Before the Congo

Who Wants What?

References

• http://madmonarchist.blogspot.ca/2010/05/monarch-profile-king-leopold-ii-of.html
• http://www.pancrack.tv/subject.html
• http://wwp.greenwichmeantime.com/images/europe/belgium.jpg
• http://jackiett.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/congo-map.jpg
• http://loki.stockton.edu/~kinsellt/projects/hod/history.html
• \\8411es04\userdirs$\students\1042001\My Documents\social\social pics\world_map.gif
• http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/1123933.stm
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leopold_II_of_Belgium
• http://hwaairfan.wordpress.com/2010/08/03/our-africa-europes-debt-pt-1/scramble-for-africa/
• http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x1934472
• http://www.reunionblackfamily.com/apps/blog/show/11410954-letter-from-one-of-the-most-evil-king-leopold-ii-of-belgium-to-colonial-missionaries-1883
• http://www.africafederation.net/Crime_of_Kongo.htm
• http://www.gislain23.com/congo.htm
• http://mapsof.net/map/belgium-flag-map
• http://wps.pearsoncustom.com/wps/media/objects/2426/2484749/chap_assets/images/img_wc4_p016.html
• http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQPeF_IxfWOe2qgSmXb7DuKdtjW0eOgJfkhPkToe7XH15mTPkEepA
• http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-caGZvvHhx30/TbeJMG95vGI/AAAAAAAAFpU/MQCoJ332FV0/s1600/king%2Bleopold4.jpg
• http://www.ebay.com/ctg/Greedy-Leopold-II-Butcher-Congo-Tod-Olson-2008-Paperback-/111425476
• http://www.morevectors.com/3d-africa-map-vector-design/

Aftermath

The people of the Congo use to speak a native language but because of Belgium invading their land their main language now is French and they lost their native language. The Congo faced major depopulation mainly threw death or slavery. 10 million people died. The european thought themselves as superiors because of this it lead to many people becoming slaves.

The Symbol Of The Congo

The explanation behind the symbol, our group has chosen is, a Congolese with his right hand cut off holding a very insufficient amount of rubber. We chose this symbol because it represented how the Congolese were treated and how men and women got theirs hands cut off and/or even killed because of this natural source of rubber found in the Congo and, it shows how rubber made everybody in Belgium rich and the Congolese poor because in the years of Belgium's rule people gave up everything to work and to get nothing in return.

Belgium

Belgium

Before The Exploitation

Congo

Present Day Belgium And Congo

Congo

Before Colonization

Sap from a rubber tree

Iron smelting