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King Leopold 2 Research Paper

1221 Words5 Pages

King Leopold II was a selfish man who in effect, used his status as king to provide a lavish lifestyle for himself as he neglected his own country and forced the Natives of the Congo into ruin. He put dollars over the lives of millions and eventually this caused his downfall as king. He used his position as king to lobby Belgium's Parliament to take on certain projects that would benefit him, one of which was the Congo free state of 1885(Hochschild 1). While he did help to create Belgium into the country it is today, he is known almost exclusively for the atrocities he created with the creation of the Congo free state. He was eventually found to be at fault for these atrocities and stepped down as king, only to die soon after. Leopold Lodewijk …show more content…

Then in 1853, likely in preparation for his eventual reign as King,he married Marie-Henriette. This marriage was set up for diplomatic reasons(Frost 2) but soon his son Leopold was born in 1859(Frost 2). The couple also had two daughters but his only son, whom he never took for granted, and treasured more than anything else(Frost 2), died of an phenomena at the age of 9(Frost 2). He continued to serve in the Belgian army until his father's death in December of 1865. Without delay he took over his father's position and became the new king of …show more content…

He turned his “Congo free state” into a massive labour camp and made a fortune for himself(Dummett 1). Instead of protecting the natives way of lives and spreading Christianity, he spread war and destruction, all in an effort to gain wealth for himself. By the early 1890s the worldwide rubber boom had begun(Hochschild 4). When the ivory stopped being lucrative, he moved onto rubber for more profit. Leopold ordered his troops to hold the women and children of the villages hostage until the men returned with their daily quota of Landolphia vines, used to make rubber(Hochschild 4). Things got so bad with the natives that revolts began, only to lead to the deaths of up to 10 million natives(Hochschild 5), due to being worked to death or killed for resisting. No matter how many times the natives tried to put an end to this slavery, it always made things worse for them. Leopold's soldiers needed to prove that they were not wasting ammo by showing their commander the severed hand of whoever they fired a round at(Dummett 2). If they did not show their commander a hand, they would be severely beaten or sometimes killed, this only led to the soldiers killing innocent victims to avoid punishment(Dummett

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