King Leopold II
In the 1870s, King Leopold II of Belgium colonized the Congo, one of the last regions to not have been colonized by another European country. The Belgium government did not finance the country to join the league of European empires, so Leopold convinced the European power countries to gain control of the Congo basin, promising to "bring civilization to the dark continent". He also intended to spread Christianity to "poor Africa". Leopold origially said that his motives for imperialism were to stop slave trade, benefit the economy, and promite humanitarian and scientific ideas; this was highly inaccurate, in fact, George Washington Williams, an African man from a poor family in Congo, proved to the Africans that the King tricked them.
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King Leopold II of Belgium |
Access to Natural Resources
The Congo provided an abundance of natural resources that included rubber, ivory, timber, palm oil, and copper. By colonizing the region, King Leopold wanted to increase trade and commerce to earn more money. When he first imperialized the area, the economy began to suffer; that was until the automobiles and tired became popular internationally and the demand for rubber skyrocketed.
Exploiting WorkersAfter rubber was in high demand, Leopold used workers to collect as much of the material as possible. Unfortunately, he went about this using inhumane treatments. Leopold, along with the Force Publique, a group of white officers of the state, help families of rubber collectors hostage until they met requirements of the amount of rubber they were to provide. Congolese workers were sent into the jungle to slash down vines and layer their skin with rubber later. This would then scrape off their skin, flesh and hair. The labor was intense and there were many injuries. Workers carried heavy loads of food and equipment through dangerouse areas. If they did not work fast enough, they were whipped. The environment could have been labeled as a "slave plantation". Those who failed to create the amout of rubber had their villages burned, children murdered, shot, whipped by hipppopotamus hide, or their hands chopped off. The Force Publique were forced to show the hands of the victims to prove they were not hunting for food. It is estimated that King Leopold is responsible for the death of up to 15 million people due to these work conditions.
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