Belgian Congo

The Congo Free state, this was the name of King Leopold's Empire, in Africa.

This territory was oppressed by the evil king of Belgium, from the late 19th Century, to the early 20th century. The scheme was totally about the king of Belgium, who had some power in Belgium's political system, trying to create a colony for himself.

The king started his schemes in the 1870s, inspired by the tales of Livingstone and Stanley. The scheme was chosen by the king, after failed plans to launch colonies in Mexico, too the Pacific. Look at http://www.lonympics.co.uk/

Eventually the scheme was used by the King, top create a massive colony in Africa, he wanted to use his money to make more money, and he used his position as king, to make the Belgian state give him a free hand, so he created probably the worst episode of European empire building ion Africa.

His empire enslaved villages, and chopped off the hands of villagers, all so he could make them collect rubber, and sell it for massive proffits for him. Somewhere upto 27 million people died in the horrific escapade.

His imperial policy saw France's colony in Gabon was not as bad, so he told them to have a similar colonial structure and bought shares in there, and did the same to the Germans in Cameroon, as otherwise people would flee there, his spreading of sleeping sickness around Congo, also spread to CAR, then Sudan, then Uganda, So he killed possibly 30 million people 17 million in 19thC, and less in 20thC.

Only the brilliant campaign by a trader called Morel, who calculated that the profits of the society were just too high for the amount of investment, and by Casement, the Irish nationalist brought media attention to this.

So that the governments of Europe, made Belgium take the colony off the king, and ease some of the oppression on the people. The evil Belgian king was allowed to keep massive amounts of cash in this scheme, and carry on being worshipped despite killing more people than any Communist regime, or any American war, and still today many Belgians refuse to see this as the major consequence of their dynasty.

He also caused France to up it's colonial antics in it's equatorial areas, causing a million dead, and German Cameroon, which caused upto a million dead. The colonial projects in these 2 cases, saw him tell them to up their oppression, and he was among the major shareholders.

In the 19thC, this fact started to be forgotten to some extent, but then in the late 20thC, people remembered, as of certain things like books, written by great authors still being read, and encyclopedias, being able to be read more with computers, so it resurfaced, and the full horror, is now seen in history books, more, among liberal US books, to Britain, to parts of Africa, like South Africa, and even to a very small extent Brussels. But Royalists still try and keep the full horror, of this mega evil leader under wraps, purely for their image, and to forget the deaths of millions, of innocent people, It should be remembered in Belgium as showing democracy is right, and monarchy and all forms, of dictatorship especially monarchy are wrong. The civil war Congo saw after it became independent also was partly brought on by the Belgian right wanting to keep Katanga, as of what Leopold, had done, in making it needed by them. This caused more deaths, nowhere near of course as much as what Lepold had caused, but it did, and was fault of the arrogant Belgian colonials, not just Lepold in this case. People should take responsibility for their actions. But Lepold is still the most evil thing in Belgian and Congolse history by far. This was followed by the right of the west helping put a brutal dictator in power, who ran the land inefficiently, when he became ill, the regime, saw rebels who he had been attacking but who had survived in the east able to oust him. Another badly ran ex-Belgian colony Rwanda, then feared Hutsus in eastern Congo, and went in and attacked Congo which provoked the largest war in post Colonial African history. This too caused in terms of ratio of population far less deaths than what Leopold had caused but another bad event had occurred. Rwanda was badly ran in the way that Belgian colonial rulers had split Hutus and Tutsis even more than they had been before, to horrific extent, ruling via kings, and a horrificly aristocratic system, that saw massive resentment from Hutus. Which caused the 1994 genocide, Hutus fleeing to Congo, and Rwanda then invading Congo causing the war. South Africa helped push forward a peace treaty in the 2000s, for Congo which saw a democratic election and it may be becoming a stable land for once, as the Democratic Republic of Congo, though it could do with some more democratic freedom, and egalitarien ways for such a name, though stability seems a key need.

There is a strange myth in some books that Congo had a life expectancy of 55 in the 1950s, and 51 today, in actual fact the life expectancy was at most 38-39, and that is at most. The idea it had a life expectancy of 55 is ridiculous, it was land still with some forced labour, very few doctors, and few roads, to have a LE of 55 would make it have a higher one that some of the richest places in the world at the time. The fact that som,e right wing lunatic put this statement somewhere shows that holocaust deniers are still involved in this debate, standing up fopr evil brutal ideas like monarchy and colonialism.. It is highly immoral to purt forward untrue facts, and the LE 55 one, is just deranged, it would be insane to belive such a high LE, and it was lower, certainly, why Holocaust deniers want to support evil I will never know.

So despite many wars, and terrible dictators, it has still risen, showing how bad the colonial era was. Even when the 1970s dictator was really a corrupt foreign puppet in some ways he ruled better, than colonials, just imagine how much better it will be in a more peaceful era with leaders more influenced by pular democracy, yes there present ruler in 2007, is not all that democratic, but he is more than anybody before, other than maybe some post colonial leaders, who were almost anhialated by foreign troops, so a peaceful Congo will probabaly do very well, and it needs some left wing idealism, of the Patrice Lumumba.

It can be said the Belgians ruled Congo better than their kingh, but worse than even the later dictators. And the kings in my opiniopn of before Belgium, ruled worse than teh dictators and more democratic leaders, but better than the king of the Belgians and maybe better than Belgian colonial rule, as surely yes monarchy is wrong, but a rule which is like some master race philosophy over your people, is as bad and probabaly more scary and worse. . Even in 1948 a Congolese rights activist died in prison. In 1959 42 people were killed in rioting against Belgian rule. 70 in 1941. With mass poverty still there, and some forced labour in World War Two, with forced labour staying to 1960. Added to this were nye on apartheid ways by the Belgians, but not as bad as what happened in the 1890s.

Source http://66.102.9.104/search?q=cache:Y8l_-3MZSvcJ:www.lifetable.de/data/RileyBib.pdf+Congo+%22life+expectancy%22+1940&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=uk

For sources read

King Leopold's Ghost: Books: Adam Hochschild

Buy the Classic Work the book King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa

The Congo from Leopold to Kabila: A People's History
Georges Nzongola-Ntalaja

http://freedomspeace.blogspot.com/2005/12/leopolds-congo-docudrama.html

LEOPOLD THE UNLOVED By Ludwig Bauer

The Crime of the Congo Conan Doyle

Improve yourself http://www.lonympics.co.uk/improveyourself.htm

King Leopold's Soliloquy. Mark Twain

Heart of Darkness Joseph Conrad

King Leopold's Rule in Africa ED Morel