When was belgium colonized

Despite being effectively removed from power, the international scrutiny was no major loss to Leopold or the concessionary companies in the Congo.

By then Southeast Asia and Latin America had become lower-cost producers of rubber. Along with the effects of resource depletion in the Congo, international commodity prices fell to a level that rendered Congolese extraction unprofitable.

Just prior to releasing sovereignty over the CFS, Leopold had all evidence of his activities in the CFS destroyed, including the archives of the departments of finance and of the interior. Leopold lost the absolute power he had had there, but the population still had a Belgian colonial regime, which had become heavily paternalistic, with church, state, and private companies instructed to oversee the welfare of the inhabitants.

This led to massive profits for the Belgian colonists in the Congo and increased exploitation of the native population. In the Congo Free State, colonists brutalized the local population into producing rubber, for which the spread of automobiles and development of rubber tires created a growing international market. Rubber sales made a fortune for Leopold, who built several buildings in Brussels and Ostend to honor himself and his country.

To enforce the rubber quotas, the army, the Force Publique , cut off the limbs of the natives as a matter of policy. To monopolize the resources of the entire Congo Free State, Leopold issued three decrees in and that reduced the native population to serfs.

The Congo rubber genus Landolphia came from wild vines in the jungle, which cannot be cultivated, unlike the rubber from Brazil Hevea brasiliensis , which was tapped from trees and could be cultivated. The intense drive to collect latex from these wild plants was responsible for many of the atrocities committed under the Congo Free State.

To extract the rubber, instead of tapping the vines, the Congolese workers slashed them and lathered their bodies with the ensuing latex. When the latex hardened, it was painfully scraped off the skin, taking the hair with it.

Leopold ran up high debts with his Congo investments before the beginning of the worldwide rubber boom in the s. Prices increased throughout the decade as industries discovered new uses for rubber in tires, hoses, tubing, insulation for telegraph and telephone cables, and wiring.

By the lates, wild rubber had far surpassed ivory as the main source of revenue from the Congo Free State. The peak year was , with rubber fetching the highest price and concessionary companies raking in the highest profits. However, the boom sparked efforts to find lower-cost producers. Congolese concessionary companies faced competition from rubber cultivation in Southeast Asia and Latin America. As plantations were started in other tropical areas—mostly under the ownership of the rival British firms—world rubber prices started to dip.

Competition heightened the drive to exploit forced labor in the Congo to lower production costs. Meanwhile, the cost of enforcement and the increasingly unsustainable harvesting methods ate away at profit margins. A cartoon depicting Leopold II as a rubber vine entangling a Congolese rubber collector. Any interactives on this page can only be played while you are visiting our website. You cannot download interactives.

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Skip to content. Photograph courtesy Wikimedia. Twitter Facebook Pinterest Google Classroom. Background Info Vocabulary. A diplomatic conference on the future of Belgium opened in London on the November 4th. The great powers of the time recognised the secession of Belgium from the Northern Netherlands. In he was succeeded by his son Leopold II - Under their reign Belgium became the second most important industrial power.

Both kings wanted to secure Belgium's economic independence by promoting colonial expeditions, but they were not successful in this until the end of the 19th century. He entered into agreements with local chiefs which resulted in a confederation of states.

At first the Belgian government and parliament had no hand in the king's operations. Since Leopold II had been the first occupant of areas in Central Africa, he held a strong position at the Conference of Berlin in His demands were met. In control of Congo was transferred to the Belgian state. Like statues of racist historical figures vandalised or removed in Britain and the US, Leopold II's days on Belgian streets could now be numbered.

On Monday the University of Mons removed a bust of the late king, following the circulation of a student-led petition saying it represented the "rape, mutilation and genocide of millions of Congolese". For activists the holy grail is the giant statue of Leopold II on horseback at the gates of the Royal Palace in Brussels. A petition calling on the city for its removal has reached 74, signatures. I never imagined this happening in my lifetime," Ms Kayembe adds.

It would be "really significant for Congolese people, especially those whose families perished," she explains. She does not believe it will not be quick or easy. There are at least 13 statues to Leopold II in Belgium, according to one crowd-sourced map , and numerous parks, squares and street names.

Warning: This piece contains graphic pictures. One visitor to the Africa Museum, where an outdoor statue was defaced last week, disagreed with the idea of removing them - "they're part of history," he explained.

On Friday the younger brother of Belgium's King Philippe, Prince Laurent, defended his ancestor saying Leopold II was not responsible for atrocities in the colony "because he never went to Congo". The royal palace is yet to give its own response. For many years Leopold II was widely known as a leader who defended Belgium's neutrality in the Franco-Prussian war and commissioned public works fit for a modern nation.

In , former Belgian foreign minister Louis Michel and the father of future prime minister Charles Michel, called Leopold "a hero with ambitions for a small country like Belgium". He promised a humanitarian and philanthropic mission that would improve the lives of Africans. In return European leaders, gathered at the Berlin Conference, granted him 2m sq km , sq miles to forge a personal colony where he was free to do as he liked. He called it Congo Free State. It quickly became a brutal, exploitative regime that relied on forced labour to cultivate and trade rubber, ivory and minerals.