Leopold II
1835 - 1909
- King of the Belgians
- Leopold Lodewijk Filips Maria Victor
- Lived 74 years, 8 months, 7 days
Leopold was the founder and sole owner of the Congo Free State, a private project undertaken on his own behalf.He ran the Congo using the mercenary Force Publique for his personal gain. 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. Leopold's administration of the Congo was characterised by atrocities, including torture and murder, resulting from notorious systematic brutality. The hands of men, women, and children were amputated when the quota of rubber was not met. Millions of the Congolese people died: modern estimates range from 1 million to 15 million deaths, with a consensus growing around 10 million.
