King Leopold’s GhostA presentation on the novel by Adam Hochschild

Who was King Leopold II?

Belgian king

Selfish and greedy

Wealthy

Owned the Congo free state from 1885-1908

Formed the International African Association and the International Association of the Congo to establish himself as a philanthropist and humanitarian

Who was Henry Morton Stanley?•Claimed to be an American explorer/journalist, actually European

•First to explore all of Africa, from east to west

•First to visit the Congo

•Hired by King Leopold to visit Congo and build roads/infrastructure

What did Leopold claim?

Wanted to bring civilization to Congo region

Christianity

Infrastructure

Technology

Establish a strong society in the region

Protecting people of Congo from Arab-slave traders

What did Leopold actually do?•Stole tons of ivory, gold, and rubber

•Acquired items through slave labor industries

•Physically abused the people of the Congo through imprisonment, slavery, torture, and fear

•Through his terror-stricken rule, around 10 million Africans were killed

Other effects of his colonization

Disease from Europe brought to the Congo

Famine spread as his army destroyed villages and stole food from village

Wives and children of men who did not complete their work were brutally taken hostage by Leopold’s soldiers

“rubber terror” defines the many human rights abuses that were violated during Leopold’s reign of the Congo region

What happened next?•Few discovered Leopold’s massive genocide and publicized it

•Edmund Dene Morel: a British shipping-company employee noticed the massive amount of goods arriving into Europe from the Congo but the lack of goods being brought to the Congo•George Washington Williams: an African American journalist who publicized the torture and crimes being committed through an open letter to King Leopold

The end of Leopold’s reign

Many began to question Leopold’s intentions, and so due to international pressure, he gave up his rule to the Belgian government in 1908

Tried to burn all remaining documents of his crimes

Meanwhile, the Congo area recovered slightly, however, Leopold’s reign had a devastating effect on the population and development of the region