Congo Free State Imperialism

“No matter how full the river is, it still wants to grow,” is a proverb from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, formerly known as the Congo Free State while under King Leopold II’s rule. In short, this proverb describes the king of Belgium’s rule of the Congos in Africa; he wanted more control despite already ruling his own country. King Leopold II colonized the Congo by claiming it as his own property in hopes of gaining power, gaining more land mass, and obtaining natural resources for his own use and profit. The Congo was eventually annexed to Belgium. Given the size of the Congo, and the amount of untouched resources, King Leopold II deemed the land as desirable for personal rule; the Congo was later voted by the Belgian parliament to

One year later, 1909, King Leopold II died. Over time, the Congos had become inhabited by more and more people of European descent, most of them being from Belgium (Belgian Colonial Rule). Thus, what was previously known as the Congo Free State was renamed the Belgian Congo. Like many imperialistic powers, Belgium wanted to enlighten the people of the Congos. “The official Belgian attitude was paternalism: Africans were to be cared for and trained as if they were children. They had no role in legislation, but traditional rulers were used as agents to collect taxes and recruit labour; uncooperative rulers were deposed” (Belgian Congo). Unlike Leopold II, Belgian imperialistic powers focused on civilizing the Africans. “Belgium proclaimed its colonial mission to be that of spreading civilization… Belgium 's attention was focused overwhelmingly on the vast, resource-rich Central African territory of Congo, 75 times larger than Belgium itself. The deal was implicit: in exchange for extracting immense wealth from its colony, Belgium offered schools, roads, Christianity and, yes, civilization” (Riding). The resources that the Belgian Congo provided Belgium were crops, gold, diamonds, copper, tin, cobalt, zinc, and uranium; however, the Congolese were to work as indentured servants for 4-7 years, and roads, railroads, and public buildings were built from their forced labor (Belgian Congo). On June 30th, 1960, the Belgian Congo was granted their independence and as a result formed the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The Belgian rule of the Congos lasted from 1908 to the June of 1960 and is not to be confused with King Leopold II’s rule from the July of 1885 to the November of 1908. Belgian used its imperialistic powers to civilize the Congo and profit from its resources in