King Leopold II and Belgian Imperialism

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King Leopold II and Belgian Imperialism

In 1865, King Leopold II succeeded his father to the thrown of Belgium and thus began one of the most brutal and insensitive periods of imperialism ever to exist. From manipulative treaties to straight forward intimidation, Leopold dominated his empire like no other. He was cruel, deceptive, and downright evil, yet it took the world over twenty years to recognize this. The record of King Leopold’s atrocity is an interesting account of how a jealous man could inflict some of the most disgusting forms of oppression upon his fellow members of the human race.

When Leopold came to power in 1865, he was incredibly disappointed at Belgium’s lack of power in the imperial world. Every other western European nation by had this time had taken on colonies as part of their empire; and therefore had been acquiring incredible wealth due to their new markets and exploitation of the native peoples they encountered. Belgium, itself, was a small country, and unlike their neighboring nations, they had not yet entered into the colonial scene. This all changed when the famous explorer Henry M. Stanley accepted Leopold’s proposal to return to the Congo acting as an agent of the crown whose mission was to obtain the signatures of all the native chieftains living in the Congo. Using despicable and manipulative tactics, Stanley was able to acquire over 450 treaties which paved the way for the declaration of nearly one million square miles of the Congo River Basin as the property of King Leopold II.

The land Leopold had obtained was about eighty times larger than that of Belgium itself. Plus, Leopold was proclaimed the “sovereign” ruler of all the Congo Free Sta...

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...Bibliography

“Africa Imperialism” History of Imperialism. 1998-2002. 5 Oct. 2002.

<http://members.aol.com/TeacherNet/World.html#Africa>

Constitutional Rights Foundation. 2000. 5 Oct. 2002

< http://www.crf-usa.org/bria/bria16_2.html>.

“Leopold II- King of the Belgians” World History: King Leopold’s heart of Darkness. 2000. 5 Oct. 2002 <http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/Tielemans/hp50marc.htm.>

Other Sources

http://members.aol.com/TeacherNet/World.html#Africa

This link brings the leader to a website consisting of many links regarding African Imperialism.

http://www.crf-usa.org/bria/bria16_2.html

This link brings the reader to a website focusing on King Leopold II of Belgium.

http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/Tielemans/hp50marc.htm

This link provides the reader with a short biography of King Leopold II.

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