Cite this article Pick a style below, and copy the text for your bibliography. Unfortunately, for the Congo, it was one of the only places in the world to have a large supply of wild rubber, and the government and its affiliated trading companies quickly shifted their focus to extracting the suddenly lucrative commodity. Having found the new ruler of the upper Congo, Stanley negotiated an agreement with Tippu Tip to allow him to build his final river station just below Stanley Falls (which prevented vessels sailing further upstream). Hochschild, Adam (1998). Tippu Tip, the most powerful of the Zanzibari slave traders of the 19th century, was well known to Stanley, as was the social chaos and devastation that slave-hunting brought. 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. 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. The king of Belgium wanted the Congo for the vast amounts of wild rubber it held, and to establish a colony as he thought kings were supposed to do. Setting out from Zanzibar, Henry Morton Stanley, a British-born American journalist and explorer aimed to find the famous Dr. Livingstone. At a Glance William Morrison, a white man, and William Sheppard, the first black missionary in the Congo, were Presbyterians from Virginia whose acts of witness so infuriated Congo colonial authorities that they put the men on trial for libel. Stanley, still hopeful for British backing, brushed him off. "Leopold II certainly does not deserve a statue in the public domain," agrees Bambi Ceuppens, scientific commissioner at the Africa Museum. Within three years, his capacity for hard work, his skill at playing one social group off against another, his ruthless use of modern weaponry to kill opponents, and above all his relentless determination opened the route to the Upper Congo. Belgian officers were afraid that the rank and file of the Force Publique would waste bullets, so they demanded a human hand for each bullet their soldiers used as proof that the killings had been done. [12] At the end of his physical resources, Stanley returned home, to be replaced by Lieutenant Colonel Francis de Winton, formerly a British Army officer. Leopold acquired the Congo through unethical means and thus took the people's chances away at self-rule. In addition to the MLA, Chicago, and APA styles, your school, university, publication, or institution may have its own requirements for citations. Shocked by recent local census statistics that showed less than one child per woman, the official Commission Institue pour la Protection des Indignes made a similar reckoning in 1919. Beyond removal of statues, far more work is required to dismantle racism, protesters and black communities argue. The king's colonial officials quickly set up a brutal but effective system for harvesting wild rubber. It is clearly understood that in this project there is no question of granting the slightest political power to the negros. "Civilisation" was at the core of Leopold II's pitch to European leaders in 1885 when they sliced up and allocated territories in what became known as the Scramble for Africa. In return European leaders, gathered at the Berlin Conference, granted him 2m sq km (770,000 sq miles) to forge a personal colony where he was free to do as he liked. Detachments of his 19,000-man private army, the Force Publique, would march into a village and hold the women hostage, forcing the men to scatter into the rainforest and gather a monthly quota of wild rubber. In the period from 1885 to 1908, many atrocities were perpetrated in the Congo Free State (today the Democratic Republic of the Congo) which, at the time, was a state under the absolute rule of King Leopold II of the Belgians.These atrocities were particularly associated with the labour policies used to collect natural rubber for export. And under such circumstances people tended to stop having children, so the birthrate plummeted as a result. However, Leopold persisted and eventually Stanley gave in. Why did King Leopold II own the Belgian Congo colony His most important legacy, however, remains the human catastrophe that the rubber forced-labour system brought to the Congoa heritage that continued to echo in that region more than a century after Leopolds death. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive content. ADAM HOCHSCHILD. One particularly notorious practice grew out of the suppression of those rebellions. The King Incorporated: Leopold II in the Age of Trusts. But for Leopold this posed no problem; he would acquire his own. To curry diplomatic favor, he allowed several hundred Protestant missionaries into the Congo. Benedetto, Robert, ed. Regions that were hard to access or lacked profitable resources escaped much of the violence that was to follow, but for those areas directly under the rule of the Free State or the companies it leased land to, the results were devastating. Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. New York: Random House. Women and children were often taken hostage until men fulfilled a quota; during which time the women were raped repeatedly. 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 Province of Angola). But numerous surviving records from the rubber-bearing land in the adjoining French Congo, which closely followed the model of the Leopoldian forced labor system, also suggest a population loss there of around 50 percent. When Stanley returned to Europe in 1878, he had not only found Dr. Livingstone (an event remembered to this day), resolved the last great mystery of African exploration, and ruined his health: he had also opened the heart of tropical Africa up to the outside world. Leopolds reign over the Congo Free State, however, has become infamous for its brutality. In two ways the Congo's rubber boom had lasting impact beyond the territory itself. Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students. Updates? Livingstone had not been heard from in several years and was, in fact, exploring the upper reaches of a great navigable inland river called the Lualaba, which Livingstone hoped was connected to the Nile, but which turned out to be the upper Congo. Initially, government and commercial agents focused on acquiring ivory, but inventions, like the car, dramatically increased the demand for rubber. 27 Apr. In Britain he founded the Congo Reform Association, and affiliated groups sprang up in the United States and other countries. 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). Chicago: University of Chicago Press. The horrors, though, are only one part of the story. Morel, E. D. (1919). ThoughtCo, Jun. Leopold bought half of the Congo as his own private possession after convincing the European community that his actions would be humanitarian and philanthropic. This article is about the European colonization of the Congo region. 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 . Last week a statue of Leopold II in the city of Antwerp was set on fire, before authorities took it down. He is remembered in Belgium for some of what he built with his Congo wealth, such as the monumental Arcade du Cinquantenaire in Brussels, and for his advocacy of strong fortifications in the eastern part of the country, which slowed the advance of German troops in 1914 at the beginning of World War I. "We run the risk of someday seeing our native population collapse and disappear," declared the permanent committee of the National Colonial Congress of Belgium in 1924, "so that we will find ourselves confronted with a kind of desert" (Hoornaert and Louwers, 1924, p. 101). In DR Congo itself, no-one has really noticed the Belgian protests, says Jules Mulamba, a lawyer in the south-eastern city of Lubambashi. Estimates vary, but about half the Congolese population died from punishment and malnutrition. As the price of rubber soared, the quotas increased, and as vines near a village were drained dry, men desperate to free their wives and daughters would have to walk days or weeks to find new vines to tap. In May 1885, Leopold took possession of his colony and named it the Congo Free State. 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. there were "positive aspects" to colonisation, Democratic Republic of Congo country profile, called on Belgium to apologise for atrocities, apologise for the kidnapping of thousands of mixed-race children, MasterChef Australia host Jock Zonfrillo dies, Banana artwork in Seoul museum eaten by visitor, NFL player's daughter, aged two, drowns in pool, Trevelyan relative 'would consider' famine payment, Ding becomes China's first male world chess champion, Indian 'killer' elephant relocated to tiger reserve. The largest mutiny involved three thousand troops and an equal number of auxiliaries and porters, and continued for three years. Shaloff, Stanley (1970). Many more suffered from disease and torture. From 1874 through 1877 the British explorer and journalist Henry Morton Stanley (18411904) crossed Africa from east to west. Millions of Congolese then found themselves suffering near-famine, which made them vulnerable to diseases they otherwise might have survived. Cambridge University Press. The Scramble for Africa: The White Man's Conquest of the Dark Continent from 1876 to 1912. Using a wide variety of local and church sources, Jan Vansina, professor emeritus of history and anthropology at the University of Wisconsin and the leading ethnographer of Congo basin peoples, calculates that the Congo's population dropped by some 50 percent during this period, an estimate with which other modern scholars concur. (Believing one people is more civilized than another is wrong.) Brussels: Didier Hatier. Warning: This piece contains graphic pictures. Leopold II established a colony in the Congo to gain natural resources for Belgium and wealth for himself. A master of public relations who portrayed himself as a great philanthropist, the king orchestrated successful lobbying campaigns in one country after another. Around the BBC. Flament, F., et al. Why did King Leopold give up the Congo? Men who did not fulfill their quota were killed or mutilated. It had only been through Tippu Tip's help that Stanley had found Livingstone (who himself had survived years on the Lualaba by virtue of Tippu Tip's friendship). A petition calling on the city for its removal has reached 74,000 signatures. However, he added, "since history teaches that colonies are useful, that they play a great part in that which makes up the power and prosperity of states, let us strive to get one in our turn."[4]. Name Ahmed Kamel Date 2/17/22 Topic 6.2 Reading Check 1. In 1924 the first territory-wide census, when adjusted for undercounting, placed the number of colony inhabitants at some ten million. When the 1860s explorers focused attention on Africa, Leopold schemed to colonise Mozambique on the east coast, Senegal on the west coast, and the Congo in the centre. Morel, E. D. (1968). Jolle Sambi Nzeba, a Belgian-Congolese poet and spokesperson for the Belgian Network for Black Lives, says the statues tell her she is "less than a regular Belgian". Text on this page is printable and can be used according to our Terms of Service. As the vines near a village were often drained dry, the men would sometimes have to walk for days to find areas where they could gather their monthly quota of rubber. The focus of the great powers was still firmly on the lands that had made Europe's fortune: the Americas, the East Indies, India, China, and Australasia. Most online reference entries and articles do not have page numbers. Army officers and colonial officials earned bonuses based on the amount of rubber collected in areas under their control. 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. European Atrocity, African Catastrophe: Leopold II, the Congo Free State and Its Aftermath. Virtually no information about the true nature of King Leopold's Congo reached the outside world until the arrival there, in 1890, of an enterprising visitor named George Washington Williams. But the slashing of the territory's populationthrough a combination of disease, famine, slave labor, suppression of rebellions, and diminished birthrateindisputably occurred on a genocidal scale. Several years later he hired the explorer Henry Morton Stanley to be his man in Africa. Encyclopedias almanacs transcripts and maps, Encyclopedia of Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity. For thousands of years, that territory had been conquered by nearby Netherlands, France, Germany, and Luxembourg. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. The royal palace is yet to give its own response. Rather than control the Congo as a colony, as other European powers did throughout Africa, Leopold privately owned the region. First, the system of exploitation established there became a model for colonial rule in other parts of central Africa. In the early 1890s, however, a larger source of wealth suddenly loomed. 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. Under his reign, the Congolese people were terrorized with forced labor and harsh treatment. Angela Thompsell, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor of British and African History at SUNY Brockport. Statues of Leopold II should now be housed in museums to teach Belgian history, suggests Mireille-Tsheusi Robert, director of anti-racism NGO Bamko Cran. He established his control over the colony through the use of brute force in an attempt to wean the Congolese into submission.
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