The Congo and Belgium

Belgium (recently independent) - Led by King Leopold II

  • Congo leaders unknowingly signed treaties to give power to Belgium

  • L’État Indépendant du Congo

  • women sexually abused and children starved

  • people executed if they didn’t meet quotas

  • if rubber quotas weren’t met, the Belgians cut off hands (rubber terror)

    • high demand for rubber in Europe

    • Leopold II wanted to maximize profits from the Congo’s resources

      •  imposed harsh quotas on rubber production and enforced them through a system of forced labor

      • The atrocities of the Rubber Terror were documented by various individuals and organizations, including missionaries, journalists, and human rights activists, who sought to expose the horrors of the Congo Free State to the international community

  • 1890 - George Washington Williams called Leopold out

    • Roger Casement as well (Irish)

    • The efforts of Casement, Williams, and others who documented and publicized the abuses in the Congo Free State helped to generate international pressure on Belgium to address the situation

  • 1960 - Congo gained independence

  • driven primarily by the quest for resources, particularly rubber, ivory, and minerals, as well as the desire for colonial expansion and economic gain

    • Imperialism in the Belgian Congo was fueled by a combination of economic interests, racial attitudes, and the desire for power and prestige

  • Leopold II secured international recognition for his control over the Congo at the Berlin Conference

  •  Leopold's agent, Henry Morton Stanley, a British-American explorer whose expeditions paved the way for European penetration into the interior of the continent and provided valuable information about its resources

  • the Belgian government took over control of the colony from Leopold II. The colony was renamed the Belgian Congo and became a formal colony of Belgium in 1908

    • this didn’t stop oppression and exploitation

  • Congolese villages were raided by Leopold's agents, known as "sentinels" or "capitas," who kidnapped men, women, and children to work as forced laborers in the rubber plantations and collection camps

  • estimated millions of Congolese died due to the violence