King Leopold II of Belgium ruled the Congo for a long period of his life. The Christian King was able to acquire the land of the Congo through his opaque manipulation. He took advantage of this province and had a huge impact on millions of lives. People caught on to what he was doing and decided to take part in forcing him to sell the land.
Léopold-Louis-Philippe-Marie-Victor was the King of The Belgians from 1865 and 1909. He was born into royalty and started to command Belgium when it was only a 5 year old country (Hoschild). He was very interested in imperial power and knew of the opportunities generated from the Congo. Leopold made the illusion that he was a kind Christian that would bring faith to the land and gain no money in return. …show more content…
King Leopold II was able to provide for these demands. Unfortunately, the way he extracted this rubber was not from a practical or fair procedure. King Leopold II made native Congolese people work as porters, miners, rubber-tappers, woodcutters, and railway builders for European interests (Andrew). This was without any pay, the incentive was that you worked or you were gonna be killed. The congolese extracted rubber daily and if they refused, they were abused horribly;“to punish me, pulled up my skirt and put clay in my vagina.” Leopold enforced that if the troops used bullets they would need to cut off the right hand of the person they shot to count ammunition. Unfortunately, as this wasn’t already cruel enough, the Belgian troops would cut off many people's hands who didn’t even disobey, just based on the fact that they wasted ammunition. When King Leopold II’s actions were exploited, people began to be suspicious and question Leopold’s …show more content…
Morel got suspicious and made connections with various people to spy on Leopold’s force of annexation. Morel began to collect records of cargo that was being shipped in and out. The second discovery was “ that somebody was skimming handsome profits off the top. To the tune of tens of millions of today’s dollars, “ the amount of rubber and ivory brought home from the Congo in the Elder Dempster ships… greatly exceeded the amounts indicated in the Congo Government’s returns… Into whose pocket did the unavowed surplus go?( King Leopold’s Ghost)” Basically the King was getting more money for his rubber and ivory than he should have and this provided question and answers for Morel. Morel later wrote a book called,Red Rubber, and fully exploited the king's actions. This gave the Belgian government authority to kick Leopold from his reign. He was able to sell his colony to
Léopold-Louis-Philippe-Marie-Victor was the King of The Belgians from 1865 and 1909. He was born into royalty and started to command Belgium when it was only a 5 year old country (Hoschild). He was very interested in imperial power and knew of the opportunities generated from the Congo. Leopold made the illusion that he was a kind Christian that would bring faith to the land and gain no money in return. …show more content…
King Leopold II was able to provide for these demands. Unfortunately, the way he extracted this rubber was not from a practical or fair procedure. King Leopold II made native Congolese people work as porters, miners, rubber-tappers, woodcutters, and railway builders for European interests (Andrew). This was without any pay, the incentive was that you worked or you were gonna be killed. The congolese extracted rubber daily and if they refused, they were abused horribly;“to punish me, pulled up my skirt and put clay in my vagina.” Leopold enforced that if the troops used bullets they would need to cut off the right hand of the person they shot to count ammunition. Unfortunately, as this wasn’t already cruel enough, the Belgian troops would cut off many people's hands who didn’t even disobey, just based on the fact that they wasted ammunition. When King Leopold II’s actions were exploited, people began to be suspicious and question Leopold’s …show more content…
Morel got suspicious and made connections with various people to spy on Leopold’s force of annexation. Morel began to collect records of cargo that was being shipped in and out. The second discovery was “ that somebody was skimming handsome profits off the top. To the tune of tens of millions of today’s dollars, “ the amount of rubber and ivory brought home from the Congo in the Elder Dempster ships… greatly exceeded the amounts indicated in the Congo Government’s returns… Into whose pocket did the unavowed surplus go?( King Leopold’s Ghost)” Basically the King was getting more money for his rubber and ivory than he should have and this provided question and answers for Morel. Morel later wrote a book called,Red Rubber, and fully exploited the king's actions. This gave the Belgian government authority to kick Leopold from his reign. He was able to sell his colony to