Biography of Leopold II of Belgium

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Leopold II of Belgium was one of the most evil people in history. I decided to do this paper on him because I did not know much about him. He is behind one of the most deadly genocides in history. During his reign over Belgium he became interested in territory of central Africa. From there, he founded/sole owner of the Congo Free State. During his reign millions of Congolese were tortured and killed while supplying Leopold II with valuable resources. Leopold II was a king that demanded to grow his own wealth. With this ambition, he went on to make an attempt to build his fortune by using central Africa as a centerpiece to grow the wealth he wanted. Leopold II had a strong thirst for making Belgian a colonial power. This thirst came about as he travelled through many parts of the world. During his life he tried to build an image that he was a good and fair king, but he used this image to cover up what was happening in Central Africa.
In the beginning, Leopold II seemed innocent. He was born in the Royal Palace of Laeken which is a municipally of Brussels, Belgium on April 9th, 1835. ("King Léopold II", 2011) He was the 2nd child of then King of Belgian, Leopold I. Leopold II’s mother and wife of Leopold I was Louise of Orléans, the daughter of King Louis Philippe of France. Leopold II’s only sibling was his sister, Empress Carlota of Mexico. During the early part of his life it has been reported that Leopold II was obnoxious which could explain why he became a ruthless and genocidal king. It is said that Queen Victoria states than prince Leopold II had the tendency to blurt out disagreeable things.
During his earlier years in his life as a prince, he observed how other European countries would colonize undeveloped land throughout ...

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...ons. Questioning the Banality of Evil explains how propaganda is used to get the control of people; Leopold II accomplished this by telling the Belgian people that they would gain from Belgium being a colonial power. This was obviously not true because he was the only one that would gain.
In conclusion, King Leopold II was truly as evil as evil gets. His relentless rule over the Congo was one of the worst genocides in history. Millions of Congolese people were tortured and murdered. The reason why I choose to do this paper on this particular individual is because many people do not know about this holocaust that has occurred. It is sad that I never learned about traded during all my years of primary education. There have been many cases of genocide throughout the history of the African people. King Leopold II’s Congo Free State was most likely the worst of them all.

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