King Leopold II by Tegan Thielke

background information

8564911 — 2025-04-22 15:53:42 UTC

Before colonizing Congo, King Leopold II was king of a small country named Belgium. Because Belgium was such a small country, Leopold wanted more power and wealth. When the Berlin Conference took place, there were a bunch of European powers. This is when they talked about the "Scramble of Africa", where Europeans colonized Africa. King Leopold took the place of this event, and ended up colonizing a country called Congo. The main reason he choose this country is because of there raw materials, specifically rubber.

Evidence #3

8564911 — 2025-04-22 21:02:16 UTC

King Leopold II wanted power and money. He was willing to pay "for all of the weapons used to terrorize the Congolese."

Evidence #1

8564911 — 2025-04-22 21:14:46 UTC

One reason why King Leopold II is responsible for the death of 10 million Congolese people is he built and supported a violent system of exploitation. As mentioned before, Leopold colonized Cong for the supply of rubber. He wanted the rubber to make him gain wealth. He forced the local workers in Congo to gather rubber for him. According to Nation Geographic, it states "The people of the Congo were forced to labor for valued resources, including rubber and ivory, to personally enrich Leopold."

Reasoning to evidence #1

8564911 — 2025-04-22 21:18:35 UTC

As stated in the evidence, King Leopold II forced the Congolese people to gather materials such as rubber for his wealth. This proves that King Leopold II was responsible for the death of ten million Congolese people because he was physically abusing the Congolese people. This could make it very likely for him to be responsible for their death.

Evidence #2

8564911 — 2025-04-23 15:42:34 UTC

Another reason why King Leopold II was most responsible for the 10M Congolese death is because he was the main person behind all of the labor forces used to force the Congo people into labor. According to the schoology document, it states that "you were the mastermind behind the colonization of Congo"

Reasoning to evidence #2

8564911 — 2025-04-23 16:00:48 UTC

This text proves that King Leopold II was responsible for 10,000,000 deaths. As shown in evidence #2, he was the "mastermind" behind all of the abuse and labor that caused trauma towards the Congolese people. King Leopold was the person who hired Henry M Stanley. He hired Henry M Stanley because he knew he was familiar with the Congo land, because Stanley was the first person to travel across the land. Essentially, King Leopold II ordered Stanley, who ordered the soldiers to kill the Congolese people. Therefore, because King Leopold ordered Henry M. Stanley, and made the decision, King Leopold II is responsible for the death of ten million people, because without him, the people would have never died.

Reasoning to evidence #3

8564911 — 2025-04-23 16:06:31 UTC

This evidence shows how King Leopold II is the person who should be blamed for the death of the ten million Congolese people that lost their lives. Even though King Leopold II had never killed a human with his own hands, the systems and expeditions he funded caused millions of deaths. He ordered Henry M Stanley to have soldiers sent to kill the Congolese people. The makes him responsible for the deaths of ten million Congolese people.

Argument

8564911 — 2025-04-23 21:02:12 UTC

King Leopold is responsible for ten million Congolese people because of his abuse towards them and the systems he was head of. King Leopold forced the Congolese to work for him, and gather rubber for his wealth. King Leopold was also head of the forces that ended up killing all ten million people. Without him, Henry M Stanley would have never ordered soldiers to go out and kill them ( King Leopold ordered it through Stanley).

King Leopold II

8564911 — 2025-04-24 15:10:18 UTC

Evidence #4

8564911 — 2025-04-24 16:01:47 UTC

The last reasoning as to why King Leopold II killed 10,000,000 Congolese people is according to National Geographic it states " Estimates vary, but about half the Congolese population died from punishment and malnutrition."

Reasoning to evidence #4

8564911 — 2025-04-24 16:03:12 UTC

This evidence proves that King Leopold II killed ten million people. The text shows that not only did his orders through Henry M Stanley kill the Congolese people, but so did his labor forces that were used to gather rubber.