King Leopold's Congo Research Paper

Leopold’s Congo

During the nineteenth century many of the European empires raced for an exclusive access to new territories in search of natural resources or new markets for produced goods. The process of colonization was always a form of exploitation of the weak and underdeveloped countries. Belgian King Leopold II was one of the ambitious monarchs interested in acquiring a “slice of African Cake”. Ultimately, his reign over his Congo Free State was a regime of terror and monumental atrocities. The Belgium King, under a humanitarian pretense, was the person behind massive exploitation of African Congo. In his effort to maximize the profits from ivory and wild rubber, Leopold II imposed a system of torture, slavery and slaughter.
Ivory was in a very in high demand in Europe at the time, as it could be easily carved into many items, anything from jewelry pieces to false teeth. Leopold gave a clear command to Stanley to “purchase all the ivory which is to be found on the Congo” (Hochschild, 70). His orders were soon obeyed by Congo State officials and their African subordinates. Indeed, they got their hands on all the ivory they had stumbled upon, except that they did not “purchase” anything. In most cases they simply confiscated the goods. Since transactions in money were not allowed in the Congo, the Africans were paid in small amount of clothes, beads or the bran rod (territory’s main currency decreed by the state). Furthermore, the state officials forbade to sell or deliver ivory to anyone else than Leopold’s
Both ideas were met with strong opposition from Belgian legislators. In 1888 Leopold organized his African mercenaries into the Force Publique, which soon included over nineteen thousand soldiers and thus became the most powerful army in Africa (Hochschild, 123). The use of Force Publique fully allowed Leopold II to rule the Congo as his personal domain. This private army was first utilized in suppressing the many rebellions against Leopold’s regime. Ultimately, this army of slaves became an integral part of the rubber collecting process. Armed with modern weapons and the chicotte — a whip made of hippopotamus hide – the Force Publique became Leopold’s “weapon of mass destruction”. This cruel army was responsible for the countless crimes on the Congolese people: mutilations, beheadings, rape and murder, and those he escaped them were still likely to die from starvation, exhaustion or wide spreading diseases. Although most of the records were destroyed, it has been estimated that during Leopold’s twenty-three year regime over Congo, its population had been reduced by approximately ten million people (Hochschild,