Lilia Madera ~ King Leopold II by Lil

Bio

821993 — 2025-04-24 02:57:50 UTC

King Leopold II (1835-1909) was the second King of Belgium from 1865 to his death in 1909. He is most infamously known for his exploitation of the Congo Free State, a territory in Central Africa he controlled from 1885 to 1908. Under the guise as a philanthropist and charity missions, Leopold ran the Congo as a private colony extracting rubber and ivory through forced labor, violence and cruel atrocities. Millions of Congolese suffered and died. International outcry from Edmund Dene Morel and Roger Casement who discovered what was happening forced him to relinquish control to the Belgian government in 1908.

Reasoning 1

821993 — 2025-04-24 02:57:50 UTC

Having funded Henry M. Stanley's expedition and trickery of having tribe leaders signing contracts leaving them with virtually no power. Because of the language gap the tribe leaders had no idea what they were signing in exchange for the cheap goods given to them.

Evidence 1

821993 — 2025-04-24 02:57:50 UTC

"You funded the expedition of Henry Morton Stanley, a famous explorer who mapped the Congo River...."

Reasoning 2

821993 — 2025-04-24 02:57:50 UTC

This evidence shows Edmund Dene Morel making the horrifying discovery of what was truly going on in the Congo Free State. In Morel finding this he discovered Leopold was the one supplying the Force Publique with the weapons they needed.

Evidence 3

821993 — 2025-04-24 02:57:50 UTC

"....and then you paid for the development of the railroad, steamships, and trading stations. These provided the infrastructure and technology you needed to control the country."

Reasoning 3

821993 — 2025-04-24 02:57:50 UTC

This evidence shows us that King Leopold II paid for the building of railroad, steamships and trading stations giving him the technology he needed to control the country.

Accusation

821993 — 2025-04-24 02:57:50 UTC

King Leopold II, previous King of Belgium is charged with the mistreatment and murder of 10 million Congolese people. While he did not entirely murder these people with his own hands having never set foot in Congo, he funded everything that happened all the while creating a facade of being a humanitarian. Leopold not only funded Henry M. Stanley, a famous explorers expedition of Congo, he paid for the infrastructure and technology needed to control the country. Leopold also supplied the soldiers with weapons to terrorize the Congolese people. While King Leopold II never set foot in the Congo he had a huge impact on their community, the soldiers would even cut off the hands of innocent children and adults alike to satisfy the quota their officers set of rebels they needed to kill.

Evidence 2

821993 — 2025-04-24 02:57:50 UTC

"He noticed that while the Congo Free State exported tons of raw rubber to Belgium, little was shipped back except guns and bullets. He guessed rightly that the many natives needed to collect the rubber were forced to do so at gunpoint." "You paid for all of the weapons used to terrorize the Congolese. Your wealth and power was used to enslave the people of Congo to work with you."

King Leopold II

821993 — 2025-04-24 02:57:50 UTC

821993 — 2025-04-24 04:37:17 UTC