Belgian Imperialism: King Leopold

In the mid 1800’s Europe was an extremely powerful force who were trying to extend their empire by taking over profitable land. As European imperialism spread the available land became minimal, except for the mostly unexplored African continent. Belgian Imperialism was driven by ambitions, nationalist pride, and most importantly discovering vast new economic resources. Most of the unclaimed territories had been taken over by other European Countries so the only other option was to head into the vastly unexplored continent of Africa. The man who would be come to be called King Leopold was the one who started that exploration that would forever change the economy of the Republic of Congo (page 10). Leopold was excited about the opportunity to
In the years that followed Stanley would work the native people endlessly in an attempt to build up a transportation system for the natural resources being harvested. He would go on to build several stops along the Congo River that could be used as different trading poss as well as a road that would later evolve into a railroad line. Unfortunately the workers were in a very different class than the European explorers, they were forced into the labor, and even those who chose that line of work were shamed and forced into chains making it clear that they were lesser of importance or value than the explorers. Since slave hunters had constantly been raiding villages in the past, the tribes were too weak to try and resist and here was not centralized government or military to stop the intrusions. (page 39) Although these ports were able to transport goods and brought lots of profit to the Leopold, the local people of the Congo never saw a penny of the money they worked
I believe that the key to stimulating the economy was his ability to enforce his reign. Without the military Leopold put together there would be no one to force the laborers to harvest the rubber vines or work in the mines. As Adam Horchild said in his book ‘King Leopolds Ghost’ “A village which refused to provide rubber would be completely swept clean. As a young man, I saw soldier Molili, then guarding the village of Boyeka, take a big net, put ten arrested natives in it, attach big stones to the net, and make it tumble into the river.... Rubber caused these torments; that's why we no longer want to hear its name spoken. Soldiers made young men kill or rape their own mothers and sisters.” (page 166) The native people lived in complete fear of the military and their brutality. With all the money Leopold was making on exports he was able to import even more guns, such as the rifles that made the brutal control so much more