King Leopold II of Belgium established a colony called the Congo Free State in central Africa in the late 1800s and treated it as his personal property, exploiting the land and people for rubber and other resources through brutal means such as forced labor, murder, and torture. Missionaries and others reported on the atrocities, including soldiers forcing villagers to collect rubber and cutting off hands to prove they had not wasted ammunition. It is estimated that Leopold's regime led to the deaths of over 10 million Congolese people through murder, disease, and declining birth rates. International pressure eventually forced Leopold to relinquish control of the Congo in 1908.

1.  “For almost 100 years evidence has lain
dormant of one of the greatest mass
murders. Millions of Africans died in
one man’s quest for wealth and glory.
Until Adolf Hitler arrived on the scene,
the European standard for cruelty was
set by a king …”
LEOPOLD II

2. KING LEOPOLD II OF BELGIUM

3. Birth
 Born April 9th 1835 in Brussels, the capital of
Belgium. He is the eldest son of Léopold I,
first king of the Belgians. His full name is
Léopold Louis Philippe Marie Victor.
 At the age of 18, Léopold married the 17 year
old Archduchess of Austria, Marie Henriette
Anne von Habsburg-Lothringen on August 22
1853.

4. The happy couple
The couple was noted
for fighting on their
honeymoon, as
Leopold would not
ride with Marie in a
gondola. Marie began
crying, setting the
tone for an
uncomfortable 49
years of marriage.

5. In search of a colony
 Leopold’s father had made over 50 attempts
to get a colony, all to no avail. His son would
be more successful.
 Leopold, disappointed with the small country
of Belgium, believed that he needed colonies
to increase his wealth and prestige. He began
looking for colonies in Africa and Asia with
little success.

6.  “My ambition is to make Belgium greater,
stronger and more beautiful.”
-Leopold II
 The elevation of Belgium was the elevation of
Leopold himself

7. Settling on the Congo
At the start of Leopold’s reign, the Congo
region was virtually unknown to Europeans.
For Leopold it represented his last chance.
The Congo was to be his new colony at any
cost.

8. Henry Morton Stanley
• “Dr. Livingston, I presume?”
•Born in Wales but pretended to be American
• The first Westerner to cross from the Eastern to
Western coasts of Africa
•Leopold commissioned Stanley to explore the
Congo River effectively opening up the Congo region
for further exploration.

9.  Leopold began convincing Europe and
America that his efforts in the Congo were
completely charitable and of a Christian
nature.
 International African Association and the
Congo Association were established as
charitable organizations
 The Congo Association was run exclusively for
profit

10. Keep them ignorant
 “Care must be taken not to let it be obvious
that the Congo Association and the African
Association are different, the public doesn’t
grasp that.” – King Leopold II
 Bribes and trickery were used by Stanley’s
men to coerce Congolese leaders to sign over
land and resources to Leopold. Similar to how
Manhattan Island was traded for beads by
Native Americans.

11. The “Congo Free
State” is established
 Leopold instituted a local military known as
the “Force Publique” to carry out orders.
These police officers were local Congolese
who reported to Belgian (and other
European) superiors.
 Leopold installed forced labor camps for
collecting valuable natural resources.

12. Berlin Conference
 By 1884 the great powers were meeting in
Berlin, ready to hand over the Congo to the
King. No Africans were invited
 The Berlin Conference gave Leopold
everything he wanted. He had promised free
trade for Europeans into the Congo region.

13. Rubber saves the investment
 Despite Leopold’s armed soldiers and forced
labor camps, his investment in the Congo was
not profitable (at first).
 With John Dunlop’s invention of the
pneumatic tire the demand for rubber
skyrocketed. The Congo had the world’s
largest supply of rubber!

14. Harsh conditions
 With European markets demanding rubber,
Leopold told his officers to draw out as much
as possible.
 A common practice was to capture a village
and ransom women and children, forcing the
men to venture into the forest to collect
rubber.
 By 1900 the Congo Free State is the most
lucrative colony in Africa

15. Force Publique Uniform

16. Missionaries Speak Out
 George Washington Williams
publishes an Open Letter to
the King in 1890 detailing atrocities
 William H. Sheppard
Came to Congo as part of
“back to Africa” movement
Traveled extensively and learned of
abuses through contact with locals –
reported his findings in the US press

17. The most well known practice of punishment at
the time was the cutting off of a person’s right
hand.

18. Testimonial from Swedish Missionary
 “When I crossed the stream I saw some dead
bodies hanging down from the branches in
the water. As I turned my face away at the
horrible sight one of the native corporals who
was following us down said “Oh, that’s
nothing, a few days ago I returned from a
fight and brought the white men 160 hands
and they were thrown into the river.””

19. Why the hands?
 Each militiaman was issued a fixed number of
cartridges before a raid
 Pay was low so militiamen frequently used
their rifles to hunt
 To prove he hadn’t wasted any cartridges, a
militiaman would bring back a hand for each
cartridge that he’d fired.

20. 10 million deaths in the
Congo
 There are no exact figures for the loss of life
during Leopold’s reign
 Accounts of individual populations routinely
show half of the adult males as missing
 In 1920 the population of the Congo was 10
million . Thus it is assumed that in 1880 the
population had been twice that (20 million)
 In some districts the loss rose to 60-90% of
the male population

21. It all comes to an end…
 International pressure mounts
 Many articles are published outlining
the horrors taking place in the Congo
 Author Mark Twain campaigns to end
Leopold’s reign in Congo with King
Leopold’s Soliloquy
 In 1908 Leopold is forced to turn control of the
Congo over to the Belgian government – now to
be called the Belgian Congo
 Leopold dies in 1909