"to Hitler. The book was controversial in Belgium but widely praised by American scholars and critics. Leopold II remains a controversial figure in the Democratic Republic of Congo. His statue in the capital Kinshasa (known until 1966 as Leopoldville in his honor) was removed after independence. Congolese culture minister Christophe Muzungu decided to reinstate the statue in 2005. He noted that the beginning of the Free State had been a time of some economic and social progress. He argued that people should recognize some positive aspects of the king as well as the negative; but hours after the six-metre (20"
"his African realm up to , about 75 times larger than Belgium. The Congo Free State imposed such a terror regime on the colonised people, including mass killings and forced labour, that Belgium, under pressure from the Congo Reform Association, ended Leopold II's rule and annexed it in 1908 as a colony of Belgium, known as the Belgian Congo. The brutality of King Leopold II of Belgium in his former colony of the Congo Free State, now the Democratic Republic of the Congo, was well documented; up to 8 million of the estimated 16 million native inhabitants died between 1885"
"and of collaborating with the Nazis during the occupation of Belgium. In 1946, a juridical commission was constituted in Brussels to investigate the King's conduct during the war and occupation. During this period, the king and his family lived in exile in Pregny-Chambésy, Switzerland, and the King's younger brother, Prince Charles, Count of Flanders, was made regent of the country. The commission of inquiry eventually exonerated Leopold of the charges and he was able, in 1950, to return to Belgium and resume his royal duties. Political agitation against the King continued, however, leading to civil disturbances in what became known"
"anointed to write a report on the atrocities that were being made against the natives by Belgian soldiers. Congo was at that time a personal property of King Leopold II of Belgium and he exploited the local population fiercely to profit from increased rubber demand. Methods of coercion included whipping, hostage-taking, rape and murder, and burning of gardens and villages. (The most famous atrocity, the severing of a hand or foot, was undertaken by native soldiers to prove to their white officers that they had not wasted ammunition, and was not a punishment for rubber shortfalls.) Casement was in a"
"own account. With support from a number of Western countries, Leopold achieved international recognition for a personal colony, the Congo Free State, in 1885. By the turn of the century, however, the violence used by Free State officials and international mercenaries against indigenous Congolese and a ruthless system of economic exploitation led to intense diplomatic pressure on Belgium to take official control of the country, which it did by ratifying the Colonial Charter on the Belgian annexation of the Congo Free State, thus creating the Belgian Congo in 1908. At the beginning of the 20th century, the Belgian press and"
"Belgian colonial empire Belgium controlled two colonies during its history: the Belgian Congo from 1885 to 1960 and Ruanda-Urundi from 1916 to 1962. It also had a concession in China, and was a co-administrator of the Tangier International Zone in Morocco. Roughly 98% of Belgium's overseas territory was just one colony (about 76 times larger than Belgium itself) — known as the Belgian Congo. This had originated as the personal property of the country's king, Leopold II, rather than being gained through the political or military action of the Belgian state. Belgium, a constitutional monarchy, received its independence in 1830"
"Atrocities in the Congo Free State In the period from 1885 to 1908, many well-documented atrocities were perpetrated in the Congo Free State (today the Democratic Republic of the Congo) which, at the time, was a colony under the personal rule of King Leopold II of Belgium. These atrocities were sometimes collectively referred to by European contemporaries as the ""Congo Horrors"", and were particularly associated with the labour policies used to collect natural rubber for export. Together with epidemic disease, famine, and a falling birth rate caused by these disruptions, the atrocities contributed to a sharp decline in the Congolese"
"who held the Congo Free State as his private property, ordered his Secretary of the Interior to create military and police forces for the state. In 1908, under international pressure, Leopold ceded administration of the colony to the government of Belgium as the Belgian Congo. It remained under the command of a Belgian officer corps through to the independence of the colony in 1960. The ""Force Publique"" saw combat in Cameroun, and successfully invaded and conquered areas of German East Africa, notably present day Rwanda, during World War I. Elements of the ""Force Publique"" were also used to form Belgian"
"his personal control to strip the county of vast amounts of wealth, largely in the form of ivory and rubber. These labor-intensive industries were serviced by slave labor, and the local peoples were forced to work through various means, including torture, imprisonment, maiming and terror. Christian missionaries and a handful of human rights organizers internationally publicized these atrocities. Slowly, various nations, including Great Britain and the United States of America, began to object to Leopold's tyranny with the result that the country's administration was transferred to Belgium. Little changed inside the country, however, until the ivory and rubber were exhausted."
"His father never recovered. He reconciled briefly with Marie Henriette solely in the hope of producing another male heir, but the result was the birth of Princess Clémentine in 1872. Leopold thereafter lost interest in his family. He turned his attentions to the notorious creation of the Congo Free State, which was his personal fiefdom and not a Belgian colonial territory, and as such its ruthless exploitation amassed him a vast private fortune. Leopold also rejected his family for his mistresses; he had so many scandalous liaisons that he was known to his subjects as ""Le Roi des Belges et"
"His ""King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa"" (1998; new edition, 2006) is a history of the conquest of the Congo by King Léopold II of Belgium, and of the atrocities that were committed under Leopold's private rule of the colony, events that sparked the twentieth century's first great international human rights campaign. The book reignited interest and inquiry into Leopold's colonial regime in the Congo, but was met by some hostility in Belgium. According to a contemporary review in ""The Guardian"", the book ""brought howls of rage from Belgium's ageing colonials and some"
"in terms of profits from India, but not from most of the rest of its empire. The Netherlands did very well in the East Indies. Germany and Italy got very little trade or raw materials from their empires. France did slightly better. The Belgian Congo was notoriously profitable when it was a capitalistic rubber plantation owned and operated by King Leopold II as a private enterprise. However, scandal after scandal regarding very badly mistreated labour led the international community to force the government of Belgium to take it over in 1908, and it became much less profitable. The Philippines cost"
"to the Congo, King Leopold II initially ruled Congo as his personal property following the Berlin Conference. On 18 October 1908, the Belgian parliament voted to annex Congo; on 15 November 1908, Leopold formally relinquished personal control over the state to Belgium, forming the Congo Free State. During the Free State period, Congo was reputed to have been brutalised by a harsh economic policy that entailed rubber production quotas to be met by forced labour. Other crops were also farmed in the Congo. After fifty years of Congo's independence, a visit by the Belgian King Albert II was met with"
"he planned to rename his new colony ""the Congo Free State"", a name which officially replaced ""Association Internationale Africaine"" on 1 August 1885. The Congo Free State operated as a corporate state privately controlled by Leopold II through a non-governmental organization, the International Association of the Congo. The state included the entire area of the present Democratic Republic of the Congo and existed from 1885 to 1908, when the government of Belgium reluctantly annexed the area. Leopold's reign in the Congo eventually earned infamy on account of the atrocities perpetrated on the locals. Leopold II's Free State extracted ivory, rubber"
"mistress became known as ""la reine du Congo"" because the great wealth she accumulated from Leopold came from his colony. She became his companion for the last years of his life, as his estranged wife Queen Marie Henriette died in 1902. Their relationship coincided with Leopold's worsening international reputation, which was the result of his actions and orders concerning the Congo Free State. Hochschild writes that their affair ironically lost Leopold more popularity in Belgium than any of his crimes in the Congo; consequently, few of his former allies were willing to defend him once he became the target of"
"the Belgians, who made a fortune out of it. Later, the appalling abuses involved in the naked colonial exploitation that went on in the Congo Free State were exposed to public view, and international criticism compelled the setting up of a committee of inquiry in 1904 . What Conrad saw in 1890 shocked him profoundly and shook his view of the moral basis of all exploring and trading in newly discovered countries and indeed of civilization in general. As a result of Belgian outrage at the violence brought to the Congo by Leopold II, Belgium reluctantly annexed the Congo Free"
"Leopold II of Belgium, frustrated by Belgium's lack of international power and prestige, attempted to persuade the Belgian government to support colonial expansion around the then-largely unexplored Congo Basin. The Belgian government's ambivalence about the idea led Leopold to eventually create the colony on his own account. With support from a number of Western countries, who viewed Leopold as a useful buffer between rival colonial powers, Leopold achieved international recognition for a personal colony, the Congo Free State, in 1885. By the turn of the century, however, the violence of Free State officials against indigenous Congolese and the ruthless system"
"a long, detailed eyewitness report to the Crown that exposed abuses: ""the enslavement, mutilation, and torture of natives on the rubber plantations,"" becoming known as the ""Casement Report"" of 1904. King Leopold had held the Congo Free State since 1885, when the Berlin Conference of European powers and the United States effectively gave him free rein in the area. Leopold had exploited the territory's natural resources (mostly rubber) as a private entrepreneur, not as king of the Belgians. Using violence and murder against men and their families, Leopold's private Force Publique had decimated many native villages in the course of"
"descends from his nephew and successor, Albert I. Leopold became the founder and sole owner of the Congo Free State, a private project undertaken on his own behalf. He used explorer Henry Morton Stanley to help him lay claim to the Congo, the present-day Democratic Republic of the Congo. At the Berlin Conference of 1884–1885 the colonial nations of Europe authorized his claim by committing the Congo Free State to improving the lives of the native inhabitants. From the beginning Leopold essentially ignored these conditions. He ran the Congo using the mercenary Force Publique for his personal enrichment. He used"
"Spain. Finally, for [[Leopold II of Belgium|King Leopold]] (ruled from 1865 to 1909), there was the large “piece of that great African cake” known as the [[Belgian Congo|Congo]], which became his personal fiefdom. By 1914, almost the entire continent was under European control. [[Liberia]], which was settled by freed American slaves in the 1820s, and Abyssinia ([[Ethiopia]]) in eastern Africa were the last remaining independent African states. [[File:View of Kobe LACMA M.91.377.8.jpg|left|thumb|Kobe Japan and its harbor, 1865. Hand colored.]] Around the end of the 19th century and into the 20th century, the [[Meiji era]] occurred during the reign of the"
"in his palace where he was praised for stoically sharing the suffering of ordinary Belgians. Shortly before the Allies liberated the country in 1944, he was deported to Germany by the Nazis. With Belgium liberated but the King still in captivity, his brother, Prince Charles, Count of Flanders, was elected regent. The King was declared officially ""unable to rule"" in accordance with the Constitution. With the country divided along political lines over whether the King could ever return to his functions, and with the left wing dominant politically, Leopold went into exile in Switzerland. In 1950, a national referendum was"
"1965, now taking personal control. Under Mobutu's rule, the Congo (renamed Zaire in 1971) was transformed into a dictatorship which would endure until his deposition in 1997. Colonial rule in the Congo began in the late 19th century. King Leopold II of Belgium, frustrated by Belgium's lack of international power and prestige, attempted to persuade the Belgian government to support colonial expansion around the then-largely unexplored Congo Basin. The Belgian government's ambivalence about the idea led Leopold to eventually create the colony on his own account. With support from a number of Western countries, who viewed Leopold as a useful"
"earlier assassinations of Empress Elisabeth of Austria and Umberto I of Italy by other Italian anarchists. The Belgians rejoiced that the king was safe. Later in the day, in the Theatre Royal de la Monnaie before ""Tristan und Isolde"" was performed, the orchestra played the Brabançonne, which was sung loudly and ended with loud cheers, acclamations, and applause. Leopold was the founder and sole owner of the Congo Free State and all its people, a private project undertaken on his own behalf. He used explorer Henry Morton Stanley to help him lay claim to the Congo, an area now known"
"cases, Congolese people who failed to meet their quota were killed or had one of their hands cut off. The system was immensely profitable, but the population of the Congo is thought to have been reduced by as many as ten million during the period that the colony was under Leopold's control. Eventually, growing scrutiny of Leopold's regime led to a popular campaign movement, centered in Britain and America, to force Leopold to renounce his ownership of the Congo. The ""Belgian solution"" they proposed was for Belgium to annex it in order to end the overexploitation without disrupting the delicate"
"in East Africa and China owed more to political motives. The British also took an interest in Africa, using the East Africa Company to take over what are now Kenya and Uganda. The British crown formally took over in 1895 and renamed the area the East Africa Protectorate. Leopold II of Belgium personally owned the Congo Free State from 1885 to 1908, When round after round of international scandal regarding the abusive treatment of native workers forced the Belgium government to take full ownership and responsibility. The Dutch Empire continued to hold the Dutch East Indies, which was one of"
"buffer between rival colonial powers, Leopold achieved international recognition for a personal colony, the Congo Free State, in 1885. By the turn of the century, however, the violence of Free State officials against indigenous Congolese and the ruthless system of economic extraction had led to intense diplomatic pressure on Belgium to take official control of the country, which it did in 1908, creating the Belgian Congo. Belgian rule in the Congo was based around the ""colonial trinity"" (""trinité coloniale"") of state, missionary and private company interests. The privileging of Belgian commercial interests meant that capital sometimes flowed back into the"
"husbands and fathers to work. Flogging, starvation and torture were routine. Murder was common—tribes resisting enslavement were wiped out; administration officials expected to receive back a severed human hand for every bullet issued. Rape and sexual slavery were rampant. Workers failing to secure assigned quotas of rubber were routinely mutilated or tortured. Administration officials so completely dehumanized local peoples that at least one decorated his flower garden with a border of severed human heads. News of these atrocities brought slow, but powerful, international condemnation of Leopold's administration leading, eventually, to his assignment of the country to Belgian administration. In 1908,"
"by Adam Hochschild are speculative estimates based on little evidence. Although the Congo Free State was not a Belgian colony, Belgium was its chief beneficiary in terms of trade and the employment of its citizens. Leopold II personally accumulated considerable wealth from exports of rubber and ivory acquired at gunpoint. Much of this was spent on public buildings in Brussels, Ostend and Antwerp. Leopold achieved international recognition for the Congo Free State in 1885. By the turn of the century, however, the violence used by Free State officials against indigenous Congolese and the ruthless system of economic extraction led to"
"long and extremely difficult multi-party Civil War in Angola, and lesser insurrections in Mozambique. Belgium is a small, rich European country that had an empire forced upon it by international demand in 1908 in response to the malfeasance of its King Leopold in greatly mistreating the Congo. It added Rwanda and Burundi as League of Nations mandates from the former German Empire in 1919. The colonies remained independent during the war, while Belgium itself was cruelly occupied by the Germans. There was no serious planning for independence, and exceedingly little training or education provided. The Belgian Congo was especially rich,"
"better. The Belgian Congo was notoriously profitable when it was a capitalistic rubber plantation owned and operated by King Leopold II as a private enterprise. However, scandal after scandal regarding badly mistreated labour led the international community to force the government of Belgium to take it over in 1908, and it became much less profitable. The Philippines cost the United States much more than expected. The world's colonial population at the time of the First World War totaled about 560 million people, of whom 70.0% were in British domains, 10.0% in French, 8.6% in Dutch, 3.9% in Japanese, 2.2% in"
"at Boma in the Congo Free State, to investigate the human rights situation in that colony of the Belgian king, Leopold II. Setting up a private army known as the Force Publique, Leopold had squeezed revenue out of the people of the territory through a reign of terror in the harvesting and export of rubber and other resources. In trade, Belgium shipped guns, whips (""cocote"") and other materials to the Congo, used chiefly to suppress the local people. Casement travelled for weeks in the upper Congo Basin to interview people throughout the region, including workers, overseers, and mercenaries. He delivered"
"attempted colonies, whereas others were only considered as possibilities: Colonization of the Congo began in the late 19th century. King Leopold II of Belgium, frustrated by his nation's lack of international power and prestige, tried to persuade the Belgian government to support colonial expansion around the then-largely unexplored Congo Basin. Their refusal led Leopold to create a state under his own personal rule. With support from a number of Western countries who saw Leopold as a useful buffer between rival colonial powers, Leopold achieved international recognition for the Congo Free State in 1885. The Free State government exploited the Congo"
"wrote that the Belgian monarchy is not ""truly constitutional"". King Leopold I was head of Foreign Affairs ""as an ""ancien régime"" monarch"", the foreign ministers having the authority to act only as ministers of the king. Leopold I quickly became one of the most important shareholders of the ""Société Générale de Belgique"". Leopold's son, King Leopold II is chiefly remembered for the founding and capitalization of the Congo Free State which caused public resentment when the atrocities perpetrated by the Belgians were made public. Millions of Congolese were killed as a result of Leopold's policies in the Congo. Neither the"