The Butcher Of Congo: King Leopold The Second Of Belgium

King Leopold II of Belgium did some very bad things in the late 1800s to people in Congo, Africa. He wanted to make a lot of money from the rubber plants there, so he treated the people very poorly to get it. He pretended to help the people through an organization, but he actually used it to control them and take their land and resources. Because of this, 10 million people in Congo died or were hurt very badly.

Leopold never went to Congo himself, but he had people working for him who did terrible things to make sure he got what he wanted. They would hurt or kill people who didn't collect enough rubber for them. Even the leaders of the Congo tribes were tricked into giving away their people's land for almost nothing.

Other countries were doing similar bad things in different parts of the world: 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. But what happened in Congo was so awful that many people talked about it and wanted it to stop. After Leopold died, the money he made went to the Belgian government.

Congo is now called the Democratic Republic of Congo and has a lot of valuable minerals. It became independent from Belgium in 1960, but has had a lot of problems since then with different leaders and conflicts. The country is still trying to recover from all the bad things that happened under Leopold's rule and afterwards.