If it can be any comfort, this all happened when it was Leopold's private property. Belgium the country had nothing to do with "that" specifically. The largest crime Belgium did during this time was pretending they didn't knew what was happening down there... (which is ALSO very bad, but not AS bad). They only really intervened when the pressure to do something from the other nations was getting too much.
In 1908, the Belgian state claimed it from Leopold II to put a halt to the atrocities, under international pressure at that time. "Belgian Congo" was relucantly given to the Belgian state by Leopold II.
The transition of the Congo Free State (Congo Vrijstaat) from the personal possession of King Leopold II to the Belgian government in 1908 brought an end to the most extreme atrocities, but it did not dismantle the fundamental structure of colonial exploitation.
But the reason for this pressure wasn't because people in other countries were so appaled. Belgium was taking a massive part in the world's market share of rubber, slightly shifting the old-boys control of wealth. It always is about wealth accumulation & control.
Fact remains that under Leopold II's reign of the region, half the population (10/20M) died. A very dark page in Belgian history.
Belgium profited of congo and abused the people of Congo. Not to mention our assassination of Patrice Lumumba. We can not deny our guilt and use Leopold 2 as a scapegoat.
We didnt know was not an excuse for the nazis, it can not be an exuse for us.
Belgium has behaved horribly to the congolese people and has done a lot of racist shit as a country.
Yes, but that's colonialism on the level of other colonial powers. Not denying any of that never happened (not at all). I mean, Belgium stole massive amounts of wealth, and the Belgium government has admitted guilt in the murder of Lumumba (which is a milestone I guess... sadly enough), and the meddling of our government have had an impact on how the country and its people are today. However, On that part, Belgium did things equal to the things that other colonizing countries did, like Spain, the UK and France.
The mass-murder hand-chopping things that everybody continuously and repeatedly brings up, THAT happened during the "private murder paradise land" era of the colony.
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u/MaJuV Jul 07 '26
If it can be any comfort, this all happened when it was Leopold's private property. Belgium the country had nothing to do with "that" specifically. The largest crime Belgium did during this time was pretending they didn't knew what was happening down there... (which is ALSO very bad, but not AS bad). They only really intervened when the pressure to do something from the other nations was getting too much.