Rubber genocide in the Congo. An exceptionally bad person - King Leopold II of Belgium

11.03.2020

Everyone already knows that the EU has extended sanctions against Russia. Brussels noted that the sanctions against Crimea and Sevastopol are part of the policy of non-recognition of the annexation of the peninsula to Russia. They were supposed to be automatically extended if the situation in this matter does not change.
Apparently the EU Council fancies itself our judges. And let's see how "free", "legal" and "democratic" they are.
When they say the word genocide, we immediately remember - the genocide directed against the Slavs, gypsies, Jews during the Second World War, but not everyone knows that such a beautiful country as Belgium staged a genocide against the people of the Congo at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. A terrible and nightmarish genocide that killed half the population of the country. But it would seem that Belgium "legally" received the right to govern this country, as far as it is possible to govern the country legally, if it was not decided by the people of the country.

“What is striking in this story is the blatant hypocrisy of King Leopold II of Belgium (1835-1909), who became the sole owner of the Congo, convincing the leaders of European states who agreed at the Berlin Conference (1885) to give him this country so that he would take care of the welfare of the local population, improve moral and their material conditions of life, fought against the slave trade, encouraged the work of humanitarian, Christian missions and scientific expeditions, and promoted free trade in the region.

Berlin Conference 1884-1885

First of all, for these purposes, he “privatized” all the lands of the “Free State of the Congo” (more than 2 million square kilometers) into personal property and made 20 million people his own slaves, who, under the supervision of a private army, were supposed to extract rubber and ivory. For 20 years, Leopold II became one of the richest people in Europe. Rubber brought him an income of 700% of the profit.
King Leopold was reputed to be a very effective business executive - he saved on everything: he did not build a single hospital for his slaves, who were dying from epidemics in tens of thousands, he urged not to waste bullets for executions, but to kill criminals in other ways. By the way, cannibal tribes were hired by the Belgians to control the population.

In the Congo, all “civilized” methods of mass violence were tested - concentration camps, child labor, a hostage system, chopping off hands, including children, for petty offenses (in edification to other slaves), torture, public rape of wives and daughters in front of husbands and fathers.

Punishment with chains for non-payment of taxes 1904.

Locals mutilated by soldiers

Children mutilated by Congo soldiers. 1905

Victims from rubber plantations being treated in a mission. 1908

For the slightest offense, workers were maimed and killed. From the fighters of the “Public Forces”, as evidence of the “target” consumption of cartridges during punitive operations, they were required to present the severed hands of the dead. It happened that, having spent more cartridges than allowed, the punishers cut off the hands of living and innocent people. Subsequently, photographs taken by missionaries of devastated villages and maimed Africans, including women and children, were shown to the world and had a huge impact on the formation of public opinion, under the pressure of which in 1908 the king was forced to sell his possessions to the state of Belgium. By this time he was one of the richest people in Europe.

In the photo, a man looks at the severed arm and leg of his five-year-old daughter, who was killed by employees of the Anglo-Belgian Rubber Company as punishment for a poorly done job collecting rubber. Congo, 1900

At the beginning of the 20th century, facts of genocide began to seep into Europe and the United States. Then King Leopold ordered the destruction of all documents and archives related to his activities in the Congo. However, exactly famous writers of that time, this tragedy was left in history: Arthur Conan Doyle wrote the book "Crime in the Congo", and Mark Twain pamphlet "King Leopold II's monologue in defense of his dominion", Joseph Conrad published the popular story "Heart of Darkness".
In Belgium they still love their king for what he built Arc de Triomphe in Brussels, the Hippodrome and the Royal Galleries in Ostend, but the main thing is that Belgium was enriched at the expense of the Congo right up to 1960 and became, thanks to democratic traditions, the capital of the European Union. "- Archpriest Vladimir Vigilyansky wrote about this genocide.

Monument to Leopold II in Arlon (Belgium):
"I began work in the Congo in the interests of civilization and for the good of Belgium"

pater memor (Something like remember father)

On one of the monuments to Leopold II is written "I began work in the Congo in the interests of civilization and for the good of Belgium", on the other - "With gratitude from the Congolese people for the liberation from the Arab slave traders." So briefly characterizes the achievements of our "teachers" of democracy. I don't want to learn from them. I looked at the materials on the topic of this in the internet and even regretted how disgusting and disgusting it is. And these people dare to say something about Stalin! He stopped them from making us Congilesians.

Defective king

Leopold II ascended the Belgian throne in 1865. At that time, a constitutional monarchy was established in the country, so the king's power was very limited. Leopold tried in every possible way to expand his spheres of influence. For example, he proposed to pass a law on a referendum, thanks to which the inhabitants of Belgium could express their opinion on issues important to the country.

The power of Leopold II in Belgium was limited by parliament

The king in such a case could veto depending on the results. Parliament did not pass this law - the monarch would have received too much power in this case. Disappointed, Leopold II even considered abdicating.

Leopold II

Dealer King

The king actively advocated for the transformation of Belgium into a colonial monarchy. He did not want to put up with the fact that his country did not manage to grab a tasty morsel from Africa. But this idea of the king was not supported by parliament. In 1876 Leopold held an international geographical conference in Brussels. On it, the monarch proposed to create a charitable organization that would go to the Congo - to plant Christianity among the local population, fight the slave trade and cannibalism, and in every possible way contribute to the development of civilization.

The Congo did not belong to Belgium, but personally to Leopold II

As a result, the king founded the "International Association for the Exploration and Civilization of Central Africa" and personally headed it. Leopold sponsored several explorers of the African continent, including Henry Stanley. The organization also sent its officers and missionaries to Africa, who imposed treaties on slave terms to the leaders of local tribes.

In 1884−1885, a conference of European powers was held in Berlin to discuss spheres of influence in Africa. Serious passions flared up - in those days, every state dreamed of getting a share of the untold African wealth. By that time, Leopold already controlled vast territories in the Congo Basin, but it was at the Berlin Conference that he was officially recognized as the sole ruler of the Congo Free State.

Labor camp the size of Congo

From now on, no one limited the actions of the king in the Congo. The Congolese became real slaves of Leopold II, who turned the country, 76 times the size of Belgium, into a kind of labor camp. The entire population of the Congo was obliged to work for the Belgian king - mostly people were employed on rubber plantations. The volume of rubber produced in the Congo during the reign of Leopold increased almost 200 times. The extraction of ivory also brought a large profit. Even small children worked.

Those who did not comply with the norm were beaten and maimed

Those who did not fulfill their norm were beaten and maimed. Working conditions were appalling, thousands of people died of starvation and epidemics. Leopold II, who promised at a conference in Berlin to "improve the material and moral conditions" of the Congolese, did not care at all about the quality of life of the locals. Most he spent the money he earned on the development of Belgium, for example, he sponsored the construction of the 50th Anniversary Park in Brussels and the railway station in Antwerp.

Mutual responsibility

To control the huge population of the Congo, detachments of the "Public Forces" were created. From time to time they passed through the villages and staged demonstration executions of the recalcitrant. From the fighters of the detachments, as evidence of the need to consume cartridges, they were required to provide the severed hands of the dead. If the soldiers spent cartridges in excess of the norm, they cut off the hands of living people. In Belgium, they looked at the deeds of their king through their fingers. The newspapers explained the cruelty towards the locals as a reaction to the cruel customs of the Congolese themselves - cannibalism still flourished in the country at that time. In 20 years, the country's population has almost halved - that is, about 10 million Congolese have died.

exposure

In 1899, Joseph Conrad's story "Heart of Darkness" was published, which tells about a sailor's journey to Central Africa. The author described in detail the terrible living conditions of the natives and the inhumanity of the orders imposed in the colony. Together with the report of the British diplomat Roger Casement, the story drew public attention to the atrocities of the Belgians in the Kongo that belonged to their king.

Severed hands served as a record of the number of cartridges spent

Leopold II was forced to sell his African possessions to Belgium. The Free State of the Congo was renamed the Belgian Congo - under this name the colony lasted until independence in 1960.

The events in the neighboring Belgian colony of the Congo were important for understanding the mood of the Portuguese.

The Belgian Congo was a model colony. An economy based on modern mining (75% of the world's cobalt, 60% of uranium, diamonds, copper, tin, tungsten, etc.) and commercial agricultural production grew steadily at 4-5% per year, so that in terms of GDP per capita by 1960, the Congo was not only the leader in Africa, but only slightly inferior to the same Portugal or Greece.

Developed infrastructure, a network of railways and highways covered the entire country, airports in 38 cities. Beautiful modern cities.
Congo was the leader in the percentage of literacy among the indigenous population in sub-Saharan Africa (42% by 1960), had a good health care system that successfully defeated a number of tropical epidemics. A modern social system with unemployment benefits.

Yes, impressive picture. Only one question - where is the place for the indigenous people?
Everything in the Congo rested on 100 thousand white colonists, the maximum that a Congolese could achieve was to become a petty clerk, a sergeant of the colonial Force Public troops, a teacher primary school or a nurse.
Yes, literacy is high, but in parochial schools they taught only to count, read, write - moreover, contrary to the colonial practice of other countries, mainly in local languages. It was not until the mid-1950s that the first colleges for locals were opened.

And by 1960, there were 16 university graduates for every 12 million inhabitants of the Congo! Yes, in Coimbra alone, back in the late 40s, ten times more Africans studied! Moreover, all Congolese graduated from universities with a degree political science, and not a single doctor, engineer or agronomist.

Until 1953, the Congolese simply had no rights, not even the right to own property.
Only at the turn of the 1950s did the Belgians begin to do something to "assimilate" the Negroes; the category "evolue" was introduced, following the example of the French. But the very procedure for changing status was extremely complex and confusing, accompanied by humiliating checks like regular medical examinations to see if the candidate for "civilized" beat his wife. And by the mid-50s there were only 1557 evolutions. Then the procedure was noticeably simplified, and by 1960 there were already 175 thousand Evolue, which was almost 1% of the black population.
At the same time, the supposed privileges - equal status with whites - remained mostly on paper. Of the 5,000 administrators by 1960, only three were blacks. Segregation reigned in the cities.

In 1956, blacks were allowed political activity, dozens of political parties arose. Parties could be called socialist, progressive, popular, democratic, but in fact they were formed along tribal lines. The leaders were MNC (Congolese National Movement) Patrice Lumumba, ABAKO (Bakongo Alliance) Joseph Kasavubu and CONAKAT (Confederation of Katangese Tribal Associations) Moses Tshombe.
The Belgians at that time talked about the 30-year transitional stage to independence, they talked about the projects of the Belgian-Congolese Federation. But black leaders were not willing to wait.

On January 4, 1959, a peaceful demonstration in the capital of the colony, Leopoldville, develops into riots, several days of chaos, hundreds of people died.
The Belgian authorities, most of all afraid of drawing the country into a colonial war, will announce the granting of independence by 1964. Demonstrations, rallies, strikes, often turning into bloody clashes, continue.
And the Belgians surrender. In February 1960, at a round table conference in Brussels, it was decided to grant independence in June.

Elections in May brought the victory of the MNC, but it did not receive an absolute majority. As a result, power was divided, 50-year-old Kasavubu became president, 35-year-old Lumumba became prime minister.
On June 30, 1960, the Congo gained independence.

Africans are celebrating - now we have become masters instead of whites. As the American ethnographer Alan Merriam, who witnessed this process in Stanleyville, wrote: “They believed that independence would free them from white domination, that it would be possible to work less or not work at all, which would more money, will not have to pay taxes, it will be possible to freely use white houses, cars and women. " Individual enterprising residents of Leopoldville organized a "trade" in European women for 10 shillings, "guaranteeing" buyers that they would become their property after independence.

The colonial army Force Public consisted of 600 white officers and 26,000 black privates and sergeants. On July 1, blacks from the garrison of the capital went on a demonstration, indignant at the public demotion of an African sergeant, who said that after independence there was no need to obey the Belgian officers. Commander Lieutenant General Emil Janssens orders the garrison of nearby Tiswil to return the demonstrators to their barracks. Tisville's garrison rebelled, and behind him, and throughout the country, soldiers began to kill white officers, rape their wives, and loot.
In an attempt to pacify the army, Lumumba dismissed all Belgian officers on 6 July. One sergeant-medic (and a relative of Lumumba) became a major general and commander in chief, another sergeant clerk (Joseph Mobutu) became a colonel and chief of staff.

But the unrest only grew, blacks attacked whites and each other, all semblance of order disappeared. A general flight of whites began, on which the entire economy and the state apparatus of the country rested. The Africans who tried to replace them had no experience. Trains stopped running, food became scarce in the cities, epidemics broke out.

The special envoy of the UN Secretary General, Rajeshwar Dayal, who arrived in August, described the situation as follows:
“The administration of the country was completely paralyzed ... The judicial system did not work, there was not a single Congolese who was at least approximately familiar with jurisprudence and could work in the courts. Most of the Belgian doctors abandoned their patients, and people were treated in hospitals as best they could, junior medical staff and nurses, some of them bravely but unskilledly complex operations... Customs did not work, docks and shipyards froze. Belgian personnel abandoned control towers at airports, making air travel an extremely dangerous business. Transportation by river and railways carried out on a case-by-case basis. There was a serious shortage of goods and services.

Belgium sent paratroopers to save its citizens, they established control over the main cities of the country, on July 11 Tshombe proclaimed the independence of Katanga, which provided half of the country's foreign exchange earnings, and set about creating an army led by white mercenaries.

On July 12, Lumumba asked the UN to expel the Belgian "aggressors" and annex Katanga. After 3 days, the first UN soldiers began to arrive, replacing the Belgians. The UN also sent civilian specialists to improve the work of government agencies.

Following Katanga, the province of South Kasai declared independence, and other regions called for federalization. The country was falling apart before our eyes.

After the UN refused to help Lumumba in the fight against the separatists, he turned to the USSR. With Soviet transport support, the Congolese army launched an offensive on Kasai. Accompanying it with massacres of civilians.
Because of the appeal to the USSR for help, the West recorded Lumumba as a "communist" and the ruling coalition split. On September 5, Kasavubu fired the prime minister and Lumumba the president. Both ordered Mobutu to arrest the rival. Then Mobutu on September 14 made the first of his coups, dispersing parliament.

After that, Lumumba's supporters proclaimed the independence of the Eastern Province with its capital in Stanleyville, new battles broke out, with new massacres up to ceremonial cannibalism.

In November 1960, Lumumba escaped arrest while trying to get to Stanleyville, but was captured by Mobutu's forces. On January 17, 1961, he was handed over to the Katangese, who killed Lumumba.

And all this bloody mess, when in just two years a prosperous colony fell into chaos, was happening before the eyes of the Portuguese. Reinforcing them in the opinion that the Belgians were wrong.

The Holocaust and the genocide of the Armenian population have long been known to the whole world. And few people remember about the genocide of the inhabitants of the Congo - and even few people know. V late XIX century, the Belgian king Leopold II, under the guise of "spreading civilization", appropriated vast territories in Africa and turned the Congo into his own labor camp. For more than 20 years, the Congolese were the real slaves of Leopold - during this time, the population of the Congo was almost halved. How the "dealer king" turned Belgium into a colonial power and destroyed several million Congolese - on diletant.media.

Defective king

Leopold II ascended the Belgian throne in 1865. At that time, a constitutional monarchy was established in the country, so the king's power was very limited. Leopold tried in every possible way to expand his spheres of influence. For example, he proposed adopting a law on a referendum, thanks to which the inhabitants of Belgium could express their opinion on issues important to the country. The power of Leopold II in Belgium was limited by parliament

The king in such a case could veto depending on the results. Parliament did not adopt this law - the monarch would have received too much power in this case. Disappointed, Leopold II even considered abdicating.

Leopold II

Dealer King

In 1884−185, a conference of European powers was held in Berlin to discuss spheres of influence in Africa. Serious passions flared up - in those days, every state dreamed of getting a share of the untold African wealth. By that time, Leopold already controlled vast territories in the Congo Basin, but it was at the Berlin Conference that he was officially recognized as the sole ruler of the Congo Free State.

Labor camp the size of Congo

Those who did not fulfill their norm were beaten and maimed. Working conditions were appalling, thousands of people died of starvation and epidemics. Leopold II, who promised at a conference in Berlin to "improve the material and moral conditions" of the Congolese, did not care at all about the quality of life of the locals. He spent most of the money he earned on the development of Belgium, for example, he sponsored the construction of the 50th Anniversary Park in Brussels and the railway station in Antwerp.

Mutual responsibility

To control the huge population of the Congo, detachments of the "Public Forces" were created. From time to time they passed through the villages and staged demonstration executions of the recalcitrant. From the fighters of the detachments, as evidence of the need to consume cartridges, they were required to provide the severed hands of the dead. If the soldiers spent cartridges in excess of the norm, they cut off the hands of living people. In Belgium, they looked at the deeds of their king through their fingers. The newspapers explained the cruelty towards the locals as a reaction to the cruel customs of the Congolese themselves - cannibalism still flourished in the country at that time. For 20 years, the population of the country has almost halved - that is, about 10 million Congolese have died.

exposure

Leopold II was forced to sell his African possessions to Belgium. The Free State of the Congo was renamed the Belgian Congo - under this name the colony existed until independence was declared in 1960.

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The Democratic Republic of the Congo is located in Central Africa. The history of this small state, lost in the depths of the African continent, began in the Paleolithic era. Until the end of the 19th century, European countries did not seriously consider these places as their potential colonies.

But when, in the 70s of the century before last, King Leopold II of Belgium paid close attention to the territory of the present-day Congo, a truly hellish life began for the natives.

From the ancient Paleolithic to the sinister Leopold

Traces of the Lower Paleolithic - stone tools - were found by archaeologists in the territory of the Congo in the upper reaches of the Kasai, Lualaba and Luapula rivers. It is believed that in ancient times this area was inhabited by pygmies. Around the 2nd millennium BC, civilization came here with the Bantu tribes. The Bantu not only mastered metallurgy, but also determined the foundations for the unification of territories, according to which modern states will begin to form in the future.

It was the Bantu on the territory of today's Congo that created the first proto-state associations. The states of the Congo, Kakongo, Matamba and Ndongo were located in the lower reaches of the Congo River (Zaire), in the center of the country the Bantu states were created by the states of Bakuba (Bushong), Bateke (Thyo) and Bolia. In the upper reaches of the Kasai, Lulua and Lomami rivers, the states of Luba, Kuba and Lunda were located.

Victims of Leopold's policy in the Congo

The state of the Congo, one of the most significant among the 10 existing proto-state associations, arose around the 14th century, at that time it included the north of Angola. The capital of the Congo was the city of Mbanza-Kongo (San Salvador), and the rulers of the state bore the title of mani-kong.

Business contacts with European countries (and mainly with Portugal) among the Congolese were established even then. Most of their profits came from the slave trade. Slaves from the Congo also worked on American plantations. The first "money" among the Congolese were lunkans - this is how the local tribes called copper castings weighing 500-700 grams.

At the end of the 15th century, the first Christians appeared on the territory of the Congo, “these were the Portuguese. A similar expansion of the zone of influence of Portugal led to an uprising several decades later. The active resistance of the natives prompted the Portuguese colonists to limit their presence in this region.

The beginning of the XVIII century in the Congo is marked by the emergence of an anti-European movement, called the Antonian heresy. It is noteworthy that the leader of the rebels was a heresiarch woman with the Christian name Beatrice. She called herself Saint Anthony and preached that the Kongo was the birthplace of Jesus and all the saints, and that the Catholic clergy were deeply hostile to the Bakongo people. In early 1709, the uprising was crushed.

Truly dark times for the numerous tribes of the Congolese came at the end of the 19th century. In 1876, the International Association for the Exploration and Civilization of Central Africa was organized by the Belgian King Leopold II.

In fact, this organization served only as a cover for other, geopolitical actions. Deftly using the contradictions that existed at that time between countries capable of claiming the territory of the Congo, Leopold II took control of a vast territory.

Currency - severed hands

De jure, the Congo became a Belgian colony, and de facto became the patrimony of the Belgian king. Leopold II was not a noble missionary. The only thing that interested him was the maximum extraction of profit in any way. Congo, with the knowledge of the new owner of the country, was flooded with gangs of punishers led by European officers. These gangs plundered the country with impunity. No one was going to reckon with the local population: if the Europeans didn’t like something, the Congolese were killed by entire villages.

Most of the local population was forced to work on hevea plantations. The Belgians came up with a monstrous, but exclusively effective way increase in labor productivity. This "stimulus" for 10 years of its use has allowed to increase the production of rubber in the Congo by 40 times.

If a person, be it a child, a woman or an old man, did not fulfill the norm for collecting rubber, his hand was cut off. The “humanism” of this measure of influence was that failure to comply with the norms was generally punishable by execution. But the scrupulous Belgian government had every patron counting.

Punishers were required to provide the severed hand of the executed as evidence of the use of the cartridge for its intended purpose. The killers were spurred on by the prospect of receiving a reward for each victim.

Thirst for profit pushed the thugs to cunning - in the end, the executioners began to simply chop off the hands of the Congolese. It got to the point that the limbs turned into a currency, a kind of equivalent of value. The insane epidemic of chopping off human hands swept not only the Belgian punishers, but also the local population.

The inhabitants of peaceful villages, not fulfilling the norm for collecting rubber, which turned out to be too high for them, driven by animal fear, attacked other villages and chopped off the hands of their neighbors in order to pay the Belgian king a terrible tribute.

The largest amount of rubber in the Congo was mined in 1901-1903. It was during this period that the severed hands of slaves were measured in baskets. The village that did not meet the rubber collection quota had to provide the Belgian authorities with two baskets of hands. Often, in order to force local residents to work, the colonists took hostage women and children who were imprisoned during the entire rubber harvest season.

Path to Independence

In the Congo, the birth rate was rapidly falling, hunger and disease were widespread. During the reign of Leopold II in the Congo, the population of the country decreased by 10 million people. The king sold his fiefdom to the Belgian government only in 1908, shortly before his death. Leopold II did not feel remorse for the millions of maimed and killed people, because, apparently, he did not consider the Congolese as such at all.

In 1908, the former possession of the king turned into a colony of the Belgian Congo. This stage in the history of the country lasted more than 50 years. In 1959, the National Movement of the Congo, led by Patrice Lumumba, won elections to the local parliament, and on June 30, 1960, the state gained independence and became known as the Republic of the Congo. Subsequently, over the course of several decades, rulers changed in the country as a result of coup d'état, and only by the beginning of the 21st century did the political situation there more or less normalize.

The reign of the bloody Leopold is still remembered there. Evidence of his atrocities - in numerous photographs. So the Nazis subsequently acted - like the Belgian colonists, the actual atrocities were not enough for them. The Nazis also filmed everything for history.

Nikolai SYROMYATNIKOV