pwpt 4

When was King Leopold II king of the Belgians?

1865-1909

Leopold II became the duke of *_ in 1846.*

Barbant

Leopold II married Marie-Henriette, daughter of Austrian archduke Joseph (palatine of Hungary) in..

1853

When did Leopold’s father die?

December 1865

When did Belgian exploration take place?

1870s - 1920s

Who first led Belgian exploration?

Sir Henry Morton Stanley

When was the Conference of Berlin?

1885

Who went to Conference of Berlin?

* Representatives of 13 European states
* USA
* Ottoman Empire
* At the invitation of Otto von Bismarck

What did the Conference of Berlin lead to?

* heightened colonial activity by European powers
* All African states (apart from Ethiopia & Liberia) were distributed amongst European powers

When did King Leopold II name the Congo Free State?

May 29th, 1885

What were Leopold’s promises (that he broke)?

* Surpress the east African slave trade
* Free trade
* Human rights + scientific and philantrophic advances
* No import duties for 20 years

What did the anti slavery conference in 1889 lead up to?

* Leopold issued a decree
* Now, Africans could only sell their products to the state
* Ivory and rubber were the main things sold

When was the inflatable rubber tube invented? Who invented it?

John Boyd Dunlop, 1887

This eventually led to the worldwide rubber boom in the 1890s :)

What did Leopold’s decrees in 1891 and 1892 ensure?

All ivory and rubber would be handed over to the state (this created a monopoly)

How did Congo rubber (Landolphia) differ to Brazilian rubber (Hevea brasiliensis)?

Congo rubber came from non-cultivatable vines, Brazilian rubber came from cultivable trees

From *_ to _ , millions of Congolese died because of _.*

1885, 1908, exploitation and disease (such as smallpox)

Who was required to provide the hands of their victims if they didn’t meet the rubber collection quota?

Force Publique

Who wrote Heart of Darkness?

Joseph Conrad

When was Heart of Darkness written?

1899 (as a three part series in Blackwood’s Magazine)

What was the domino effect of Heart of Darkness

Joseph wrote about his experiences as a steamer captain → sparked international opposition → public outcry → British govt. investigated

Who was sent from the British Government to officially investigate Congo?

Roger Casement, the British Consul at the mouth of the Congo River.

When did Belgium annex the Congo Free State?

November 15th, 1908

When did Leopold II die?

December 1909

When did Congo gain independence?

1960

From 1971 to 1997, Congo was called *_ and governed by* _-

The Republic of Zaire, Mobutu Sese Seko

When Mobutu Sese Soko was overthrown in 1997, Congo was renamed _

Democratic Republic of the Congo