How does Leopold II justify Belgian expansion into the Congo?
1 Answer
To strengthen Belguim with a source of revenue and to better the lives of the people within the Congo.
Explanation:
Leopold II of Belgium (1835-1909) became King of Belgium in 1865 at the age of 30.
He worked to strengthen Belgium through the acquisition of colonies - it was common in Europe in the 19th century to view colonies as a source of resources and wealth that could be transferred back to the host European country. The difference here is that Leopold acquired a colony and owned it privately - that of the Congo.
He managed this act by contracting with Henry Stanley (he of the Stanley and Livingstone tale https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Morton_Stanley) - from 1879 to 1884 Stanley signed contracts with hundreds of local chieftains. What those chieftains didn't know was they had just signed away all of their rights to their land and everything on it.
Leopold presented his work in the Congo as being humanitarian - improving the lives of the locals, bringing Christianity, etc. What he really brought was economic exploitation, forced labour, and a brutal regime that severely punished the most minor of offences (I won't even try to detail them here - they make me ill to read them, let alone write them - examples are in the links below for the curious).
He became fabulously wealthy, built palaces, and sponsored many public works in his home country. In his wake in the Congo, it's estimated 10 million people, or roughly half of the population of the Congo, died during his reign (and that doesn't include the millions more maimed).
He managed to hide the abuses by keeping investigators out, bribing those who did come in into silence, and handing out lucrative contracts to rich families that could generate favourable press at home and abroad. However, a series of news stories began to leak out from the Congo in the early 1900s about the horrific state of the people and the land. Under intense public pressure, Leopold gave control of the Congo over to the government of Belgium in 1908, which began to scale back the atrocities.
Leopold died in 1909 believing that the world would consider him a great man who had done good things, both for Belgium and for the Congo. But he also ordered every scrap of paper from his Congo file to be burned - the fire lasted 8 days.
The devastation that Leopold wrought during that time still lingers today - being called the the "Worst place in the world" by one commentator and "Worst place to be a woman" by another.
http://historyaccess.com/leopoldiiofbelgi.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leopold_II_of_Belgium
