Trial of King Leopold II by

The Person on Trial

835698 — 2025-04-22 17:39:47 UTC

The person on Trial here, and who is accused of being responsible for the deaths of over 10,000,000 people from the Congo free State, is King Leopold II. King Leopold was the leader of Belgium from 1865 to 1909. He wasn't very satisfied with his power though because the country he led was quite tiny and didn't have any colonies of his own, so he felt small compared to the other bigger countries. He wanted the Congo for his own personal use after Africa was split up between Europe, so he could have control over his own personal colony.

Evidence 1 : Leading the Torture

835698 — 2025-04-22 17:44:41 UTC

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

Reasoning 1: Leading the Torture

835698 — 2025-04-22 21:13:52 UTC

This piece of evidence shows how despite the fact that King Leopold's army is technically the people who killed all these people and went through with it, King Leopold is the one who gave them the directions to do this. He gave them all of the weapons and ammo to murder them and make sure all of them continued working for his own personal wealth. He funded the construction of the infrastructure that helped take over the country. And if the people of the army didn't follow through with this, who knows what could possibly happen to them? While King Leopold never technically set foot in the Congo, or killed one of them himself, he still led all the people that were sent there and did do that. He controlled the people that killed them, so it's practically the same as if he had killed all of those people himself.

Why He's Responsible

835698 — 2025-04-23 17:13:03 UTC

He wanted to exploit the people of the Congo for all of the resources that they had, and made their leaders sign contracts that let them take over. He then used this state to fuel his own wealth. He's the one that controlled all of the abuse and torture that was happening in the Congo, and he did all this while hiding it to the majority of the public and pretending to be a humanitarian who cared about life, and all of these reasons and more are why he should be considered responsible for the deaths of so many people.

Evidence 2: Creating the System

835698 — 2025-04-23 17:24:05 UTC

"Your wealth and power was used to enslave the people of Congo to work with you. The power you abused resulted in the death of approximately 10 million human beings."

Reasoning 2: Creating the System

835698 — 2025-04-23 17:39:43 UTC

While this piece of evidence doesn't exactly say it, it's quite clear that it shows that he was the one that created the system to exploit millions of Congolese people. He designed this system to make as much profit as possible, no matter how the people are affected. This system was designed so that these people worked as much as possible to get the most product, and if anyone either didn't meet the quota or not follow the exploitation, they would either be killed, tortured, or both. And in the end, this system ended up being the cause of all of the deaths that we previously mentioned, all just so he can make profit for himself, not the workers he tortured, not Belgium, just himself.

Evidence 3: Hiding it All

835698 — 2025-04-23 20:23:59 UTC

"You paid off journalists like Mary French Sheldon to write newspaper articles about you as a philanthropist who was interested in the economic development of Congo. You created organizations with humanitarian-sounding names like the International African Association and International Association of the Congo. But you were just using these organizations as a facade for your real motives"

Reasoning 3: Hiding it All

835698 — 2025-04-23 20:33:21 UTC

This piece of evidence shows us that he not only did all of these horrific things, he tried to hide it behind the idea that he was a humanitarian and cared about human life. This also reveals to us that he knew that if the public found out that he was doing this, that they would recognize how much of a horrible person he was. He wasn't just some delusional person who didn't understand what he was doing, he clearly recognized that what he was doing to these people was horrible. And instead of stopping, he just tried to hide what he was doing through making it sound like he was helping them, and that he was a great person. Not only is he responsible for the deaths of over 10,000,000 people, he didn't regret it. And that's why he should be held responsible.