The
Congo Free State was led by Leopold. It was an extremely corrupt leadership,
for he said his aim was to benefit the local people when in reality, he
achieved the opposite. He extracted ivory, minerals, and rubber, exploiting the
region for monetary purposes as opposed to benefiting the people and developing
the land. In doing so, up to ten million people were killed. At first, I failed
to realize why so many people were put to death. This is probably because the
reason is so absurd, for if one failed to meet the rubber collection quotas,
they could be punished by death. I can imagine other harsh orders were put in
place in an effort to achieve economic success. This "success" is
questionable, for it was at the cost of millions of lives. To kill someone for
not fulfilling a quota is absurd. This insane practice was put in place because
of the poor economic conditions of the time. Regardless of economic
conditions, killing people for not meeting standards is repulsive. It almost
seems like a type of genocide, except it is not ethnically or religiously based.
Instead, it is against those who are physically inept or unable to meet the
standards set by Leopold.
Leopold’s operation peaked in 1903,
after which, competition with foreign nations out did Leopold, for their prices
for rubber were far lower than his. It was the act of a “rebellious” journalist
which ousted Leopold to the world. He
was forced to set up an independent commission of inquiry. Despite Leopold’s
claims that he would change the way he ran his regime, Belgium annexed the
republic in 1908. His rubber production was unprofitable and after the state
took over for Leopard, they had to bail out the company. This failure is well deserved for Leopold but I
pity the poor people of the state which had to endure his dictatorship and
cruelty.
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