LEOPOLD II

Leopold II (1835 - 1909)
. King of Belgium from 1865
. Sovereign, Independent State of Congo "(1885 - 1908)

. In 1876, Leopold II took the initiative of convening the International Geographic Conference and on behalf of established and vozgavil International African Association, . Committee for the Exploration of the Upper Congo (1979 - 80) and the International Association of Congo (IAC; allegedly since 1883),
. Acting on behalf of these organizations, Leopold II conquered vast territories in Central Africa. Made during the Berlin Conference of 1884 - 1885 he. recognition of the European states and the U.S. rights to the MAC occupied territories and possessions of the MAC conversion in August 1885 in the Independent State of Congo (NGK; under the sovereignty of Leopold II).

In 1885 he declared all "vacant" (unprocessed African population) of land in the state-owned oil and gas industry.

"I do not want to miss a chance to get their piece of this magnificent African cake" - he wrote one of his ambassadors in this year. In 1890 the territory of about 250 thousand. Q.. km was transformed into a king's domain (ie. his personal possession). It is perceived as a pleasant syupriz King of raw materials and the people of the Congo. Personal status Leopold was enormous. He made millions in the Congo, had never been there. He destroyed thousands of villages and left after his virtual presence in Africa, three million dead
. The scandal, which eventually disgraced the Belgian government and stopped 20-year-old brazen robbery, led the discovery that agents of Leopold used slave labor on rubber plantations.

. The villages that resisted enslavement, severely punished
. Rumors of atrocities of the Belgians in the Congo eventually reached London and Brussels. Among the most fearsome of them - that the Belgians-control once collected for the king to cart severed hands to show how well they do their job.

And then own ministers Leopold robbed him of his fief, the vast territory which became the Belgian Congo. But by the time Leopold was stopped, he was able to inflict enormous damage to the country, which disposed of as its own toy.