King Leopold
Congo's colonial ruler
King Leopold usually refers to Leopold II of Belgium, whose brutal colonial exploitation of the Congo Free State (1885–1908) caused millions of deaths through forced labor, mutilation, and starvation.
His name has become shorthand for rapacious colonialism and atrocities committed in pursuit of profit: He ran that company like King Leopold ran the Congo.
Belgium also had a Leopold I and Leopold III.
- CongoMajor Central African waterway
- BelgiumWestern European constitutional monarchy
- colonialismDomination through foreign settlement
- rubberElastic polymer from trees
- atrocitiesExtremely cruel acts
crimes against humanity · ivory · exploitation · hands · brutality · Africa · imperialism · genocide · terror · plantation · slavery · colonial · monarch · cruelty · Free State · Belgian · empire · greed
- King
- 19th Century MonarchiesBritish Empire, Russian Empire, German Empire, Ottoman Empire, Austro-Hungarian Empire
- 19th Century MonarchsQueen Victoria, Napoleon III, Kaiser Wilhelm II, Franz Joseph I, Wilhelm II
- Belgian HistoryBelgium, independence movement, constitutional monarchy, national congress, provisional government
- BelgiansPeter Paul Rubens, Rubens, Van Eyck, Magritte, Tintin
- CongoKinshasa, Congo River, DRC, Democratic Republic of Congo, Congo Basin
King Leopoldliberator
One who frees others
Nelson Mandela · emancipator · Haile Selassie · Simon Bolivar · freedom fighter
King LeopoldMahatma Gandhi
Desmond Tutu · humanitarian · abolitionist · Albert Schweitzer · Mother Teresa
King Leopolddecolonization
Ending imperial control
self-determination · indigenous sovereignty · resistance fighter
king, kings, kingly, kingship, kingdom, kingdoms, kinghood, kingless, Leopold