The Belgian Congo: a case of repression

How did King Leopold develop interest in the Congo?

• 1860s- David Livingstone, a Scottish missionary traveled with a group of Africans deep into central Africa to find the source of the Nile

• 1871- Henry Stanley finds Dr. David Livingstone on the shores of Lake Tanganyika

• 1879- Stanley returned to Africa

• 1882- Stanley signed treaties with local chiefs of the Congo River Valley, giving King Leopold of Belgium personal control of these lands

• King Leopold claimed that his primary motivation was to abolish the slave trade

• Forced labor, excessive taxation and abuses

• The Congo Free State

• 1908- the Belgian government takes it over and is named the Belgian Congo

We were always in the forest to find the rubber vines, we had to go without food, and our women had to give up cultivating the fields and gardens. Then we starved…

We begged the white man to leave us alone, saying we could get no more rubber, but the white men and their soldiers said, “Go, You are only beasts yourselves…..”

When we failed and our rubber was short, the soldiers came to our towns and killed us. Many were shot some had their ears cut off; others were tied up with ropes round their necks and taken away.

-quoted in Cook, Colonial Encounters and the Age of High Imperialism

• 2 Men who fought for the people of the Congo:– Edward Morel- British Journalist– George W. Williams-Ohio Politician and Journalist