He also built important country estates on the French Riviera, including the Villa des Cèdres and its botanical garden, and the Villa Leopolda. Their failure to perform a civil ceremony rendered the marriage invalid under Belgian law. Tip’s group had a considerable presence on the ground and sent regular shipments of slaves and ivory down to the Zanzibar coast. His first cousins included both Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom and her husband Prince Albert, as well as King Fernando II of Portugal. Millions of the Congolese people died: modern estimates range from 1 million to 15 million deaths, with a consensus growing around 10 million. The caption reads: A constitutional king. Meanwhile, the Force Publique were required to provide the hand of their victims as proof when they had shot and killed someone, as it was believed that they would otherwise use the munitions (imported from Europe at considerable cost) for hunting. Clear cutting that forest is a big job that delays the crop and cuts into profits. [34], Inspired by works such as Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness (1902), originally published as a three-part series in Blackwood’s Magazine (1899) and based on Conrad's experience as a steamer captain on the Congo 12 years earlier, international criticism of Leopold’s rule increased and mobilized. Leopold was born in Brussels on 9 April 1835, the second child of the reigning Belgian monarch, Leopold I, and of his second wife, Louise, the daughter of King Louis Philippe of France. The second, a much smaller force of 800, was led by Louis-Napoléon Chaltin and took the main road towards Rejaf. The majority of the required funds for these projects originated from the brutal exploitation of the Congo Free State. This monument at the intersection of the Avenue de Luxembourg and the Avenue de Longwy features a standing statue and a quote from Leopold II: "I undertook the work of the Congo in the interest of civilisation and for the good of Belgium. Leopold II handpicked governors, each of whom he gave dictatorial powers over their realms. Leopold commissioned a great number of buildings, urban projects and public works, largely with the profits generated from exploitation of natural resources and the population of the Congo. par _Le Grand Absent le Sam 4 Juin 2011 - 7:14 Fais gaffe : si tu oses douter de cela, c'est que tu n'es qu'une sale raciste, révisionniste, et caetera. [18] Failure to meet rubber collection quotas was punishable by death. These establishments take a lot of work to maintain, and rubber trees can’t really grow on a commercial scale in an old-growth rain forest. "[44] Michel's remarks were countered by several Belgian politicians. ", "Arlon: pétition et contre-pétition autour de Léopold II", "Brusselse meerderheid vraagt dekolonisering van openbare ruimte", "L'UMons retire un buste de Léopold II suite à une pétition", "Congo: Histoire blanche, voix noires, zones grises", "De schuld in de onschuld van een straatnaam", "Steeds meer protest in België tegen standbeelden Leopold II", "BEKIJK: Buste van Leopold II na 90 jaar weggehaald uit Zuidpark in Gent", "Statue de Léopold II déboulonnée à Auderghem : Ce n'est pas comme ça qu'on procède dans une démocratie", "Hoe Oostendse activisten met een afgehakte hand de puntjes op de i zetten", "Opnieuw beeld Leopold II besmeurd met verf", "Standbeeld Leopold II opnieuw beklad, nu naar aanleiding van dood George Floyd in Verenigde Staten", "Gent haalt beeld Leopold II weg: "Een dergelijk figuur kunnen we niet langer eren, "Stad zet Leopold II terug op zijn sokkel met boodschap: "Halle zwicht niet voor vandalen, "KU Leuven haalt borstbeeld van Leopold II weg", "Universiteit Bergen haalt standbeeld Leopold II weg", http://lampspw.wallonie.be/dgo4/site_ipic/index.php/pdf/fiche/92094-INV-1952-01, Hof- und Staats-Handbuch für das Herzogthum Anhalt, Hof- und Staats-Handbuch des Königreich Bayern, The Royal Tourist—Kalakaua's Letters Home from Tokio to London, "Agraciamentos Portugueses Aos Príncipes da Casa Saxe-Coburgo-Gota", "พระราชทานเครื่องราชอิสริยาภรณ์ที่ประเทศยุโรป (ต่อแผ่นที่ ๖ หน้า ๘๓)", Hof- und Staats-Handbuch des Königreich Württemberg, King Leopold’s Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa, "Towards a History of Mass Violence in the Etat Indépendant du Congo, 1885–1908", Official biography from the Belgian Royal Family website, Mass crimes against humanity in the Congo Free State, The Crime of the Congo, 1909, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Archive.org, "The Historical Origins of the Sanction of Imprisonment for Serious Crime", Newspaper clippings about Leopold II of Belgium, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Leopold_II_of_Belgium&oldid=987956605, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, The statue has been vandalised several times, including with red paint by. Congolese culture minister Christophe Muzungu decided to reinstate the statue in 2005. A majority in the Brussels Parliament wants to either recontextualise or remove all Leopold II statues in Brussels, including this one in Ixelles/Elsene. Leopold's administration of the Congo was characterised by atrocities, including torture and murder, resulting from notorious systematic brutality. Under the old system of Remplacement, the Belgian army was a combination of volunteers and a lottery, and it was possible for men to pay for substitutes for service. At the Berlin Conference of 1884–1885, the colonial nations of Europe authorized his claim by committing the Congo Free State to improving the lives of the native inhabitants. Nobody knows how many people lived in the Congo Free State in 1885, but the area, which was three times the size of Texas, may have had up to 20 million people before colonization. The proposal was rejected, as it would have given the king the power to override the elected government. [9] Louis Philippe died two years later, in 1850. He envisioned "our little Belgium" as the capital of a large overseas empire. At the time of the 1924 census, that figure had fallen to 10 million. The shots missed Leopold but almost killed the king's Grand Marshall, Count Charles John d'Oultremont. [19]:25[20] Several historians argue against this figure due to the absence of reliable censuses, the enormous mortality of diseases such as smallpox or sleeping sickness and the fact that there were only 175 administrative agents in charge of rubber exploitation.[5][6]. The Liberals governed Belgium from 1857 to 1880, and during its final year in power legislated the Frère-Orban Law of 1879. Nsala of Wala contemplates the severed hand and foot of his five-year-old daughter in 1904. Elsewhere in Europe, the news of this assassination attempt was received with alarm. [5][6] In 1908, the reports of deaths and abuse and pressure from the Congo Reform Association and other international groups induced the Belgian government to take over the administration of the Congo from Leopold as a new territory, Belgian Congo. He was interred in the royal vault at the Church of Our Lady of Laeken in Brussels. [40][41][42][43] The debate then periodically resurfaced over the following 20 years. Leopold II ; Leopold II as Garter Knight, c. 1900. Chief among these was the Arab slave trader Tippu Tip. Some activists accused him of not making a full apology. "King Leopold's imperialism and the origins of the Belgian colonial party, 1860–1905. His extensive travels and interviews in the region resulted in the Casement Report, which detailed the extensive abuses under Leopold's regime. In 1890, George Washington Williams coined the term "crimes against humanity" to describe the practices of Leopold II of Belgium's administration of the Congo Free State. Bust near the entrance of the former restaurant 'Les 4 rois' (The Four Kings), Lanestraat 2 in the village of Tombeek in the municipality of Overijse. [36], Writer Arthur Conan Doyle also criticised the "rubber regime" in his 1908 work The Crime of the Congo, written to aid the work of the Congo Reform Association. [50][51] Lauwers Nathan; Georges Lorand (1860–1918): Een transnationale progressieve liberaal; VUB; 2016, As documented in several autograph letters by the two unfortunate lovers, Almanach royal officiel, publié, exécution d'un arrête du roi, Volume 1; Tarlier, 1854, Kalakaua to his sister, 28 July 1881, quoted in Greer, Richard A. [13], Leopold became king in 1865. When he was 9 years old, Leopold received the title of Duke of Brabant, and was appointed a sub-lieutenant in the army. After Leopold's carriage passed, Rubino fired three shots at the procession. Workers gained the right to be compensated for workplace accidents and were given Sundays off. Senator Pol Van Den Driessche replied, "[A] great visionary? Later in the day, in the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie before Tristan und Isolde was performed, the orchestra played the Brabançonne, which was sung loudly and ended with loud cheers and applause. [45] MPs agreed to set up a parliamentary commission to examine their country's colonial past, which was likened to the Truth and Reconciliation Committee set up in South Africa after the apartheid regime was abolished. [16], Leopold was the founder and sole owner of the Congo Free State, a private project undertaken on his own behalf. Coronation Medal Leopold II – accession to the throne on 17 December 1865 – by Léopold Wiener. [27] Missionary John Harris of Baringa was so shocked by what he had encountered that he wrote to Leopold's chief agent in the Congo, saying: I have just returned from a journey inland to the village of Insongo Mboyo. Under the reign of Leopold II, the Congo’s unique wildlife was fair game for sport killing by almost any hunter who could book passage and pay for a hunting license. ("Mon cher Sénateur, si la fatalité veut que je sois atteint, tant pis"! He had four children with Queen Marie-Henriette, of whom the youngest two have descendants living as of 2018[update]: Leopold also fathered two sons by Caroline Lacroix. Leopold had many mistresses. The king replied after the attack to a senator: "My dear senator, if fate wants me shot, too bad!" [48], Several statues have been erected to honour the legacy of Leopold II in Belgium. This was used to discharge the debt of the Congo Free State and to pay out its bond holders as well as 45.5 million for Leopold's pet building projects in Belgium and a personal payment of 50 million to him. Richard Stockton is a freelance science and technology writer from Sacramento, California. Voici ces discours accablants : Discours de Léopold II, Roi des Belges, en 1883 : ', The monument's inscription states: 'Homage to HM King Leopold II and to ALL his Limburgian assistants'. Tout particulièrement, ce discours prononcé par Léopold II, ensemble avec l’Église deux mains sur un gros ventre, mérite largement d’être connu, car jusqu’à aujourd’hui encore il demeure d’actualité, rien n’a véritablement changé. Leopold's fragile mother was deeply affected by the death of her father, and her health deteriorated. Leopold II handpicked governors, each of whom he gave dictatorial powers over their realms. What Stephen Hawking Thinks Threatens Humankind The Most, 27 Raw Images Of When Punk Ruled New York, Join The All That's Interesting Weekly Dispatch. Leopold II (Dutch: Leopold Lodewijk Filips Maria Victor; French: Léopold Louis Philippe Marie Victor; German: Leopold Ludwig Philipp Maria Viktor; 9 April 1835 – 17 December 1909) was the second King of the Belgians from 1865 to 1909 and, through his own efforts, the owner and absolute ruler of the Congo Free State from 1885 to 1908. Owing to these gifts and the unofficial nature of their relationship, Caroline became deeply unpopular among the Belgian people and internationally. This made Tip a rival to Leopold II, and the Belgian king’s pretense of ending slavery in Africa made any negotiation awkward. In 1900, he created the Royal Trust, by means of which he donated most of his property to the Belgian nation. The perhaps 10 million people who disappeared in the colony during this time were most likely dead. Marie Henriette retreated to Spa in 1895, and died there in 1902.[13]. This was replaced by a system in which one son in every family would have to serve in the military. The mortality statistics were collected through the efforts of British consul Roger Casement, who found, for example, only 600 survivors of the disease in Lukolela in 1903. ", This page was last edited on 10 November 2020, at 06:35. 0:23. Leopold quickly replaced the ambassador with a more sympathetic individual to carry out his plan. As a consequence, the rubber quotas were in part paid off in chopped-off hands. Hardcover How to Prepare for the SAT II (Barron s Sat Subject Test in U.S. History) zekipawefe . [31][32], Adam Hochschild devotes a chapter of his book King Leopold's Ghost to the problem of estimating the death toll. Children younger than 12 were not allowed to work in factories, children younger than 16 were not allowed to work at night, and women younger than 21 years old were not allowed to work underground. In 1878, under the auspices of the holding company, he hired explorer Henry Stanley to explore and establish a colony in the Congo region. Leopold traveled extensively abroad from 1854 to 1865, visiting India, China, Egypt, and the countries on the Mediterranean coast of Africa. Cartoon depicting the fiftieth birthday of Leopold II. [21]:280, International opposition and criticism from the Catholic Party, Progressive Liberals [37] and the Labour Party caused the Belgian parliament to compel the king to cede the Congo Free State to Belgium in 1908. [22] In 1866, Leopold instructed the Belgian ambassador in Madrid to speak to Queen Isabella II of Spain about ceding the Philippines to Belgium. Nevertheless, Leopold II eventually appointed Tip as a provincial governor in exchange for his noninterference in the king’s colonization of the western regions. [24], Although Leopold had initially planned for the expedition to carry on much farther than the Lado Enclave, hoping indeed to take Fashoda and then Khartoum,[25] Dhanis' column mutinied in February 1897, resulting in the death of several Belgian officers and the loss of his entire force. The Congo was given independence in 1960. The conquest started with Leopold bolstering his relatively weak position by making alliances with local powers. Each official was paid entirely by commission, and thus had great incentive to pillage the soil to the maximum of his ability. After the king's death, it soon emerged that he had left Caroline a large fortune, which the Belgian government and Leopold's three estranged daughters tried to seize as rightfully theirs. Leopold in 1844, by Franz Xaver Winterhalter. What happened then was shameful. [21]:225–233, Smallpox epidemics and sleeping sickness also devastated the disrupted population. Leopold extracted a fortune from the Congo, initially by the collection of ivory, and after a rise in the price of rubber in the 1890s, by forced labour from the natives to harvest and process rubber. 5 0 obj 18:33. Just as Christopher Columbus had done in Hispaniola 400 years earlier, Leopold II imposed quotas on every man in his realm for production of raw materials. The greed of the Congo’s overlords knew no boundaries, and the lengths to which they went to gratify it were likewise extreme. The marriage became unhappy, and the couple separated completely after a last attempt to have another son, a union that resulted in the birth of their last daughter Clementine. Rubino was immediately arrested and subsequently sentenced to life imprisonment. "[44], Following George Floyd’s death at the hands of law enforcement in June 2020, after a major Black Lives Matter demonstration in Brussels, Leopold II's legacy once again became the subject of debate. These and other facts were established at the time by the 1904 Casement Report and by eyewitness testimony and on-site inspection by an international Commission of Inquiry. On 17 December 1909, Leopold II died at Laeken, and the Belgian crown passed to Albert I, the son of Leopold's brother, Philippe, Count of Flanders. Historians Louis and Stengers in 1968 stated that population figures at the start of Leopold's control are only "wild guesses", and that attempts by E. D. Morel and others to determine a figure for the loss of population were "but figments of the imagination". Lucien Philippe Marie Antoine (9 February 1906 – 1984), duke of Tervuren, Philippe Henri Marie François (16 October 1907 – 21 August 1914), count of Ravenstein. By 1908, Leopold II had no choice but to cede his land to the Belgian government. He explained his goal for his reign in an 1888 letter addressed to his brother, Prince Philippe, Count of Flanders: "the country must be strong, prosperous, therefore have colonies of her own, beautiful and calm."[14]. Eventually, tales of the nightmare unfolding in the Free State reached the outside world. During the international George Floyd protests against racism (May – July 2020), several statues of Leopold II were vandalised, while several petitions that called for the removal of some or all statues were signed by tens of thousands of Belgians. [23] After rubber profits soared in 1895, Leopold ordered the organization of an expedition into the Lado Enclave, which had been overrun by Mahdist rebels since the outbreak of the Mahdist War in 1881. The city council initially placed a sign near the statue that read: 'The city council regrets the many Congolese victims that have perished during the Free State. Le génocide de Léopold II, roi des Belges, au Congo (part 2) Nzwamba. The younger Leopold died in 1869 at the age of nine from pneumonia after falling into a pond. Statues of him were erected in the 1930s at the initiative of Albert I, while the Belgian government celebrated his accomplishments in Belgium. Every district had quotas for producing ivory, gold, diamonds, rubber, and anything else the land had to give up. Absolutely not. The king eventually did this in the most destructive way possible: he raised a proxy army of Congolese mercenaries to fight against Tip’s forces all over the densely populated areas near the Great Rift Valley. He served in the army until his accession in 1865, by which time he had reached the rank of lieutenant-general. [21]:62 Much diplomatic maneuvering among European nations resulted in the Berlin Conference of 1884–1885 regarding African affairs, at which representatives of 14 European countries and the United States recognized Leopold as sovereign of most of the area to which he and Stanley had laid claim. [39] Leopold's reign of exactly 44 years remains the longest in Belgian history. Nonetheless, Chaltin continued his advance, and on 17 February 1897, his outnumbered forces defeated the rebels in the Battle of Rejaf, securing the Lado Enclave as a Belgian territory until Leopold's death in 1909.[26]. His funeral cortege was booed by the crowd[38] in expression of disapproval of his rule of the Congo. They were adopted in 1910 by Lacroix's second husband, Antoine Durrieux. On 30 June, the 60th anniversary of the Democratic Republic of the Congo's independence, King Philippe released a statement expressing his "deepest regret" for the wounds of the colonial past, and the "acts of violence and cruelty committed" in the Congo during colonisation[46] but did not explicitly mention Leopold's role in the atrocities. Discours prononcé par Léopold II, roi des Belges, en 1883, devant les missionnaires se rendant en Afrique, sujet d'entrainement au texte argumentatif, épreuve de français au bac. ", "Colonial Terrorism, Global Capitalism and African Underdevelopment: 500 Years of Crimes Against African Peoples", "King Leopold's legacy of DR Congo violence", "The 'Leopold II' concession system exported to French Congo with as example the Mpoko Company", "Le rapport Casement annoté par A. Schorochoff", "How Belgium is being forced to confront the bloody legacy of King Leopold II", "Ex-commissioner calls Congo's colonial master a 'visionary hero, https://inews.co.uk/news/world/king-leopold-ii-congo-belgium-genocide-slave-state-legacy-statue-455658, "Belgian king expresses regrets for colonial abuses", "Belgium's King sends 'regrets' to Congo for Leopold II atrocities -- but doesn't apologize", "BELGISCHE KOLONIALE GESCHIEDENIS IN HET KATHOLIEK MIDDELBAAR ONDERWIJS: VERGETEN VERHAAL OF KRITISCH DISCOURS? The abject misery and utter abandon is positively indescribable. [11] Leopold pushed for a reform in military service, but he was unable to obtain one until he was on his deathbed. [7] The French Revolution of 1848 forced his maternal grand-father Louis Philippe to flee to the United Kingdom. 0:27. Caricature of Leopold II. [28], Estimates of the death toll range from one million to fifteen million,[29][30] since accurate records were not kept. His death was a source of great sorrow for King Leopold. Tip used his position to ramp up his slave trading and ivory hunting, and the generally anti-slavery European public brought pressure on Leopold II to break it off. [39], In 2010, Louis Michel, a Belgian member of the European Parliament and former Belgian foreign minister, called Leopold II a "visionary hero." [21]:84–87 On 5 February 1885, the Congo Free State, an area 76 times larger than Belgium, was established under Leopold II's personal rule and private army, the Force Publique. Leopold amassed a huge personal fortune by exploiting the natural resources of the Congo. At first, ivory was exported, but this did not yield the expected levels of revenue. %�쏢 Rubber plantation workers in Boma, wearing their neck chains. Why Isn’t Belgium’s King Leopold II As Reviled As Hitler Or Stalin? Prêtres, vous allez certes pour l’évangélisation, mais cette évangélisation doit s’inspirer avant tout des intérêts de la Belgique. Charles de Kavanagh Boulger, Demetrius (1898). [11], Leopold's public career began on his attaining the age of majority in 1855, when he became a member of the Belgian Senate. But without funds, he was unsuccessful. View our listings & use our detailed filters to find your perfect home. ", "Dit zijn de organisatoren van de Belgische Black Lives Matter-betogingen", "Pourquoi les opposants à Léopold II continuent-ils à vandaliser les statues de l'ancien Roi ? [33] By 1896, African trypanosomiasis had killed up to 5,000 Africans in the village of Lukolela on the Congo River. [47], Leopold II remains a controversial figure in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Most of the statues date from the interwar period, the peak of colonial-patriotic propaganda. Thinking of the future after his death, Leopold did not want the collection of estates, lands and heritage buildings he had privately amassed to be scattered among his daughters, each of whom was married to a foreign prince. To save time and money, the king’s agents routinely depopulated villages – where most of the clearance work had already been done – to make room for the King’s cash crop. The first revision of the Belgian constitution came in 1893. un faux discours de Léopold II (1883) Il circule depuis plusieurs mois sur internet une vidéo mettant en scène et en paroles "le discours ignoble de Léopold II, roi des Belges, aux prêtres chargés d'évangéliser le Congo belge" (1883) : par exemple sur You Tube ici. [21] Leopold eventually began to acquire a colony as a private citizen. stream This bust was defaced with red paint in November 2008 by activist group De Stoete Ostenenoare, This statue was vandalised in October and November 2018 and in July 2019, while activists demanded it be removed, along with all references to Leopold II, such as street names. ... maybe colonisation was domineering and acquiring more power, but at a certain moment, it brought civilisation. According to Michel, "To use the word 'genocide' in relation to the Congo is absolutely unacceptable and inappropriate. Leopold went to great lengths to conceal potential evidence of wrongdoing during his time as ruler of his private colony. 16:44. If the man could not be caught, or if he needed both hands to work, Forces Publique men would cut the hands off of his wife or children. L'action de Stanley permet qu'une personne privée — Léopold II — devienne le propriétaire de 2,5 millions de kilomètres carrés ainsi que de la force de travail de ses habitants [E 22]. Leopold's reign was marked by a number of major political developments. ", Standing statue near Saint Elisabeth's Church in, This statue is located in front of Saint Elisabeth's Church at the intersection of the Rue des Fossés and the Rue Boulengé de la Hainière in, The bust was originally located in the entrance hall of the Warocqué Faculty for Economics and Management of, This statue has been deliberately damaged several times, most recently in 2017. In 1885, various socialist and social democratic groups drew together and formed the Labour Party. He extracted a fortune from the territory, initially by the collection of ivory, and after a rise in the price of natural rubber in the 1890s, by forced labour from the native population to harvest and process rubber. As Hochschild describes in King Leopold's Ghost, many of Leopold's policies, in particular those of colonial monopolies and forced labour, were influenced by Dutch practice in the East Indies. The eligibility requirements for the senate were reduced, and elections would be based on a system of proportional representation, which continues to this day. Modern estimates range from one million to fifteen million, with a consensus growing around 10 million. Domain has 369 Real Estate Properties for Sale in Leopold, VIC, 3224 & surrounding suburbs. He took an active interest in the senate, especially in matters concerning the development of Belgium and its trade,[11] and began to urge Belgium's acquisition of colonies.
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