Sunday, March 6, 2011
People in the News - Leopold II of Belgium
Leopold II of Belgium was the king of Belgium from 1865 until 1909. He is chiefly remembered for his control of the Congo Free State, which he founded (with the aid of Henry Morton Stanley). However, he was not a good ruler for those people, as he ignored almost all of the regulations and agreements the Berlin Conference had set up, and ran things in Africa with only the goal of personal gain. The people were treated brutally, and it was common for a hand or foot to be chopped off if a worker was not collecting enough rubber or such. He was indirectly responsible for the deaths of over a million people, but was eventually forced to relinquish control of the Congo.
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