Suspect Board by

King Leopold II

820928_4 — 2025-04-23 15:57:49 UTC

King Leopold II was one of the main reasons for the deaths of over 10,000,000 Congolese over the course of 23 years from 1885 to 1908. He singlehandedly commanded the Force Publique to cause the atrocities such as murders, severed limbs and assault of the innocent Congolese people slaving away in the production of rubber and ivory.

Evidence 1

820928_4 — 2025-04-23 16:04:11 UTC

According to BBC article, Leopold II: Belgium 'wakes up' to its bloody colonial past, "When Leopold II died in 1909, he was buried to the sound of Belgians booing."

Reasoning 1

820928_4 — 2025-04-23 16:06:48 UTC

As a result of the information on King Leopold II's gore spread through the media, Belgium began its hatred towards it's once beloved King. The hatred only began to die down December 17, 1909, when he passed away due to an embolism. This occurs when an obstruction or blockage in a blood vessel causes shortage of blood. Even now statues of the King are being vandalized because his effects were so large they still leave lingering negative emotions from all around the world, especially Belgium, over a century later.

Evidence 2

820928_4 — 2025-04-24 02:53:38 UTC

According to National Geographic's Feb 5, 1885 CE: Belgian King Establishes Congo Free State, "about half the Congolese population died from punishment and malnutrition."

Reasoning 2

820928_4 — 2025-04-24 03:07:14 UTC

King Leopold II commanded the Belgian army of forced Congonese natives, known as the Force Publique, resulting in the deaths of the millions of the Congonese. If a requirement for rubber or ivory, two mass selling products in the market harvested in Congo, was not met by a worker they would be murdered with processes like gun wounds, starvation and even brutal assault. No questions asked, no second thoughts, no morals, just stone-cold killing. As a result of an unsuccessful murder attempt, the worker would have a limb removed, leading to many tribe members losing a hand, or both and rarely a leg.

Evidence 3

820928_4 — 2025-04-25 02:39:36 UTC

According to the Bureau of International Labor Affairs' Combatting Child Labor in the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s Cobalt Industry (COTECCO), "The COTECCO project works to address child labor in the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s (DRC) cobalt supply chain".

Reasoning 2

820928_4 — 2025-04-29 03:34:14 UTC

King Leopold II left lasting impacts on the Congo Free State, now modernly known as DRC, Democratic Republic of the Congo. Due to his brutality embedding the idea of unsafe working environments in the country, they still continue on today. In DRC, it is now a country in which one province contains nearly two thirds of the world's cobalt supply. Cobalt is a conductive mineral used for the creation of batteries. Now of course Leopold didn't directly affect the conditions of cobalt, though he still taught Congo the unsafe style of working they have accepted. In DCR there is unsafe work such as child labor, no protection from unsafe element and poor pay for all they are making.