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King Leopold ii ruled over belgium from
1865 to 1909 today the memory of his
reign still lives on and he is glorified
with golden statues of his likeness in
every major city in belgium in history
classes each generation is taught that
he was a humanitarian who brought
Christianity and the wonders of
civilization to the Congo Free State
however the truth has been kept away
from the Belgian people the reality is
the king leopold ii is responsible for
the murder and mutilation of ten million
Congolese people in the video today
we're looking at what might just be the
biggest cover-up in European history
[Music]
leopold ii was born in 1835 to king
leopold the first and Louise Murray of
olio
they were the very first royal family of
Belgium because the country was just
five years old for thousands of years
that territory had been conquered by
nearby the Netherlands France Germany
and Luxembourg they were a newly
independent country that had yet to form
a unique national identity leopold ii
had two younger siblings called philippe
and charlotte their family life was
dysfunctional to say the least
soon after Charlotte's birth in 1844
King Leopold the first met a 16 year old
girl named Arkady caresse he was 54
years old at the time but that didn't
stop him from having an affair with a
teenage girl Clarence would go on to
become a Baroness and her sons George
and Arthur were made into Baron's there
were rumours that Leopold the first had
several other Affairs so the exact
number of half siblings that Leopold ii
has is actually unknown Queen Louise
Marie was understandably miserable in a
marriage and she chose to let out her
anger on our children she would make fun
of young Leopold the seconds large nose
that he inherited from his father she
told her son that his face was
disfigured and that he had the beak of a
bird in 1853 when he was 18 years old
leopold ii had an arranged marriage with
Marie Henriette of Austria since he had
never actually seen what a loving
marriage looks like the teen couple were
incredibly awkward around one another
someone in the Belgium royal court had
commented that seeing them together was
like watching a nun and a stableboy
people thought that this was so
hilariously accurate that the phrase was
repeated amongst everyone who knew them
apparently his parents cared so little
about Leopold that they never even
bothered to tell him about the birds and
the bees Leopold's aunt Queen Victoria
of England had a great marriage with her
husband Albert and she apparently gave
her nephew a lot of sex advice this was
probably just as awkward as you are
right now imagining Leopold the second
and Marie Henry has eventually figured
it out because they managed to have two
daughters together when Leopold the
first died in 1865 Leopold the second
ascended to the throne as the new king
of Belgium since his personal life was
so dysfunctional it's really no surprise
that his happiness and satisfaction came
from attaining material things according
to William the second the ruler of
Germany he was together watching a
parade with leopold ii in berlin when he
commented there is really nothing left
for us Kings accept money
[Music]
before he died king leopold ii father
made fifty attempts to conquer a colony
for Belgium but he always failed it was
clear to him that the power of other
countries like England France Germany in
the United States was thanks to
colonisation Leopold the first believed
that without colonizing an African
nation they would never be considered
one of the world's larger powers Leopold
the seconds picked up where his father
left off but he did not want to conquer
a nation on behalf of Belgium he planned
to make an entire country his personal
property this way he could have complete
control and have direct access to the
profits he knew that if he was honest
about his greedy intentions none of the
other major powers would agree to let
him colonize an entire country for
himself so he simply told everyone that
it was his mission to spread
Christianity to the Congo he wanted to
convert and civilize those poor godless
souls in 1884 he met with 14 other
European nations at the Berlin
conference he pitched his idea for
colonizing the Congo and claiming that
he wanted to spend his own fortune
bringing missionaries to Africa out of
the goodness of his own heart he also
promised the rest of Europe that they
could freely explore and trade with his
country the Congo though it was known
for being incredibly dangerous and
difficult to colonize the rainforest in
Savannah they're filled with gorillas
lions leopards and wolves the Congo
River has man-eating crocodiles and
hippopotamuses as well as insects that
carry deadly diseases in general it was
a very wild place and not many Europeans
exactly wanted to go out there and live
it Bob ii wanted to go and take on the
challenge the other powers were pretty
much willing to say well go on then a
Welsh explorer and journalist named
Henry Morgan Stanley already had years
of experience in Africa he was sent on
projects like several different
newspapers in the United Kingdom and he
became an expert on the continents
through his writing he tried to convince
Queen Victoria that despite all of the
difficulty he believed it would be
worthwhile to colonize the Congo his
suggestions never made any impact until
king leopold ii found his work in 1879
the king sent him on a mission to
colonize the congo Henry Morton Stanley
used parlor tricks to convince the
African tribal chiefs that white men
were invincible
he used a battery-powered contraption to
make his grips so strong that Congolese
men almost collapsed from a single
handshake Stanley claims that white men
could read the tree out of the grounds
with their bare hands he also held a
magnifying glass in the sunlight and
used the sun's rays to light a cigar
claiming that white men had power over
the Sun finally he handed a gun to a
native man he instructed him to step
back several yards and try to shoot him
Stanley had taken the gunpowder and
bullet out beforehand of course and when
the young man pulled the trigger Stanley
would double over dramatically only to
take his shoe off and shake the bullet
out onto the grounds he claims that
white men were spirits who could not be
killed no matter how hard they tried and
that a bullet would simply pass right
through them this was enough to terrify
the Chiefs into signing a contract which
declared King Leopold the second for new
owner of the Congo
of course the Congolese people had no
idea what the contract actually said but
it served as a legal document in the
eyes of the European people now Leopold
wanted to keep up an image that he was
doing good in the country so he named it
the Congo Free State Henry Morton
Stanley published a book about his
journey through Africa called through
the dark continent he was able to go on
a lecture tour around London and he was
even knighted in 1899
leopold ii truly was paying for all of
the start-up expenses to colonize the
congo out of his own pockets he
appointed governor general's to manage
the various territories of the country
Leopold's men eventually discovered that
the rainforests had a plentiful supply
of rubber trees this it was essentially
like stumbling across a gold mine at the
time there was a huge demand for natural
rubber in order to make tires but there
was a very small supply the only problem
of course was finding a way to pay for
all of the manual labor required the
aboard the seconds well he ordered his
men to enslave the Congolese people each
of the governor-general's had their own
tactic to achieve this usually they set
a village on fire so that there was
nowhere for anyone to hide they would
shoot and capture women of the village
and tell them that if they did not bring
back 15 kilograms of rubber by the end
of the day they would kill their wives
and daughters the Congo Free State was
anything but free king leopold ii
believed that all of these people were
his personal slaves and he could do
whatever he wanted with them King
Leopold personally handed out bonuses to
the commander's if they could produce
more rubber by any means necessary
Leopold's began to grow his own private
army in the Congo called the force
publique when his men were destroying
villages they would pick out the tallest
and strongest young men to recruit as
soldiers these soldiers were instructed
to systematically kill anyone who
disobeyed the orders of the Governor
General's they were told to not waste
any ammunition and that they must kill a
man with a single bullet they were
required to bring back one severed hand
for every bullet fired if they did not
they would be killed by their general
this led to soldiers cutting off hands
of people that were still alive whenever
they wasted ammunition meanwhile in
Europe people had no idea what was
actually going on where it got around
the king leopold ii needed more soldiers
to help with his christian missions who
colonized the congo hundreds of young
men from Belgium Italy Norway Sweden
Denmark they all signed up to join the
force publique they were taught that
these black natives were animals are not
fully human like them so they shouldn't
feel guilty about killing them whenever
necessary
after a while these men they became
desensitized to the killing some of
these soldiers would gut people and pull
out their entrails or slice off a group
of men's genitalia only
to hang them in a row some of the
governor-general's wrote letters to king
leopold ii about these scenes because
they were actually proud of their
brutality they believed that the worst
they treated the Congolese people the
heart they worked over time King
Leopold's men managed to enslave the
entire population of the country even
though it promised that the rest of the
world could visit the Congo whenever
they wanted king leopold ii became very
nervous when he learned that arabian
merchants were coming to gather some
rubber for themselves he did not want to
lose his monopoly over the industry so
he declared that they needed to go to
war with these so-called Arab slave
traders which would free the Congolese
people this sparked the - yeah Congo
Arab War in 1895 an English merchant
named Charles Stokes was on a mission
for the Germans to travel to the Congo
to purchase rubber he was hung by the
force république without receiving a
trial Germany and Britain they were
outraged that he was killed without ever
committing any crime Leopold was forced
to pay substantial fines to both
governments for violating the treaty and
the incident was called the Stokes
affair however paying this fine it was a
drop in the bucket king leopold ii made
a profit of 220 million francs which
would be worth more than a billion
dollars today
[Music]
labeled the second hired a team of
propaganda writers to published books
and articles about what a great job he
was doing
none of these writers had ever actually
traveled to the Congo Free State but
they were happy to glorify their Kings
Christian mission however journalists
from Great Britain in the United States
were beginning to travel to the Congo
Free State and report on what they saw
in the air 1890 an American Civil War
veteran named George Washington Williams
visited the Congo Free State and he was
horrified he wrote an open letter to
king leopold ii recounting the horrors
that he witnessed while visiting the
country the King never applied a man
named Edmund Denny Morel worked as a
clerk at a shipping firm in Liverpool
England Belgium ships would come and go
delivering rubber to Liverpool from the
Congo mural knew that it wouldn't be
possible for Belgium to produce such a
high volume of rubber unless they were
using slave labor
he began investigating and when he
discovered the horrors about what was
actually happening he wrote several
anonymous articles for a british
newspaper called the speaker exposing
the truth about what he saw he wrote
that this was the greatest crime that
has ever been committed in the history
of the world in 1901 the shipping
company offered Morel a job to manage
the shipments of rubber to and from the
Congo they were willing to pay him a
huge salary in exchange for his silence
he turned it down and became a full-time
journalist instead he became so
passionate about the cause that he began
publishing his own newspaper called the
West African male with any new
information that he found in 1906 he
published a book called read rather
another journalist named Roger Casement
was sent to interview people of the
Congo to get their testimonies about the
human rights abuses in the country he
realized that it was crucial to convince
the white Christian missionaries to come
forward with their stories because they
had been there from the beginning and
they could prove that king leopold ii
was aware of the atrocities after roger
casements report was published king
leopold ii he knew that if he did not
respond with his own inquiry this would
be the end of him he sent his own
international commission to the congo in
the hopes that he could bribe them he
thought that he could pay them off to
publish whatever he wanted them to say
but this totally backfired a Christian
missionary named John Harris had been
living in the Congo Free State for years
he and his wife devoted their lives to
helping the Congolese people when King
Leopold's International Commission
showed up John Harris was ready for them
he gathered a group of Congolese people
who testified to the death porch a
mutilation rape and enslavement that
they suffered at the hands of the king
his wife Alice Harris was a photographer
and she was able to present them with
photographic evidence of the horrors
that they had seen when the
International Commission returned to
Belgium they published a 50 page report
on all the human rights abuses that they
had found in the Congo they submitted it
to King Leopold the second once he
realized that he could no longer get
away with his lies Leopold ordered all
of the Congo Free State records to be
burned so that there would be no
evidence of his crimes in 1908 the Congo
became a Belgian colony but they didn't
seize it from the King instead they paid
him 50 million francs for the purchase
he dies just one year later in 1909
once the Belgium government visited the
Congo they found far more profitable
resources than just rubber there were
diamonds gold and ivory that could be
sold for massive profits the government
ended slavery and employed the Congolese
people to work for wages instead
very soon after Belgium became extremely
wealthy the city of Brussels now has
some of the most breathtaking
architecture in the world complete with
golden statues of king leopold ii all
because of the money that he brought
from the congo but the belgian
government they had to make a decision
what did they tell the public leopold ii
had lied to his people for a long time
and they looked up to him like a father
figure who brought glory to the country
not only with the citizens be
disappointed but it would make belgium
look terrible to the outside world their
nation was still less than a hundred
years old at the time
England in the United States had already
outlawed slavery in the 1800s so the
king of Belgium had essentially taken a
big step backwards in humanitarian
progress the Belgian government chose to
allow their people to continue believing
the lie that king leopold ii had built
for himself they taught their children
that there was never any slavery in the
congo free state and that everything
king leopold ii did was wonderful this
lie was retold generation after
generation to the point where it became
their new truth and part of their
cultural identity before his death in
1897 leopold ii created a human zoo at
his summer estate he built a model
african village and captured 267
Congolese people to live there Dalton
people showed up to gawk at them
throwing peanuts and bananas over the
fence as if they were monkeys they were
forced to stay outdoors in this village
in all kinds of weather several of those
people died of influenza and pneumonia
after he died the King's estates became
the Royal Museum of Central Africa
errant and continued to glorify Leopold
the second achievements in colonization
decades after his death in 1958 the
governments of belgium even went as far
as to replicate his human zoo at the
brussels world fair putting Congolese
people on display like animals once
again nearly every Western nation has
some history of slavery and genocide but
in most Belgian school classes they will
never have the truth about King Leopold
the second they will say that slavery
never happened in the Congo since the
records were destroyed we were
never know just too many people Leopold
was responsible for killing some
estimate that it is roughly four million
while others believe it is as high as 10
somewhere between 70 to 90 percent of
the total population was wiped out in
the age of the internet it has become
much more difficult for Belgium to
ignore the reality of what happens in
2018 curators of the raw museum of
central Africa finally decided to change
the exhibits to honor the lives lost by
the native Congolese people however
Congolese people have visited the
exhibit said that it is still not enough
and that as long as the story is told
from the perspective of a Belgium white
person the country will never show the
full truth about the monstrous deeds of
King Leopold ii so in some way the
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[Music]