The Butcher Of Congo: King Leopold The Second Of Belgium

King Leopold II of Belgium did some very bad things to people in the Congo, Africa, a long time ago in the late 1800s. He wanted to make a lot of money from the rubber plants there because rubber was very important for making things in Europe. To do this, he pretended to help the people of Congo but actually hurt them and made them work very hard without being nice to them at all. He even hurt people who didn't work fast enough or tried to say this was wrong. A lot of people, as many as 10 million, were hurt or died because of him.

Leopold didn't even go to Congo himself but he had soldiers who did the terrible things for him. Even though he was very rich because of this, many people didn't know how he was getting his money or how badly the people in Congo were being treated. Some people did find out and tried to tell the world how bad it was. Other countries committed terrible acts on other native groups as well: Britain on the Aborigines in Australia, the United States on Native Americans and Filipinos , French on Northwest Congolese, Spanish on the north and central Native Americans, Portuguese on the Angolans and Amazonians and Germans on Southwest Africans.

After Leopold died, Congo became its own country but had a lot of problems. There were some leaders who tried to help but also some who made things worse. Congo has a lot of valuable minerals and could be a very rich place if things were done in a good way.

It's important to know this story so we can understand how being greedy and not caring about others can cause a lot of harm and sadness.