“I do not want to miss a good chance of getting us a slice of this magnificent African cake.”
Thomas Pakenham, The Scramble for Africa: White Man's Conquest of the Dark Continent From 1876 to 1912, New York: Avon Books, 1992, 22.
Leopold II. aus dem Haus Sachsen-Coburg und Gotha war bis 1865 Herzog von Brabant und Prinz von Belgien und folgte seinem Vater Leopold I. auf den Thron des Königreichs Belgien. Von 1865 bis 1909 war er König der Belgier.
Leopold war Anhänger kolonialistischer Ideen und gründete in Zentralafrika den offiziell eigenständigen Kongo-Freistaat, dessen absoluter Monarch und persönlicher Eigentümer er von 1876/1885 bis 1908 war. Zu dieser Zeit wurde aus dem Kongo vor allem Elfenbein und Kautschuk exportiert. Die einheimische Bevölkerung wurde dabei grausam misshandelt und ausgebeutet. Wie viele Menschen bei den „Kongogräueln“ ums Leben kamen, ist umstritten. Adam Hochschild, ein US-amerikanischer Journalist, der sich mit der Kolonialzeit in Belgisch-Kongo intensiv auseinandergesetzt hat, nannte in einem 1998 erschienenen Buch die Schätzung „zehn Millionen Opfer“. Der Historiker Christoph Driessen bezeichnet diese Zahl in seiner „Geschichte Belgiens“ dagegen als „nicht belegt“, spricht aber von einem „Verbrechen von apokalyptischen Ausmaßen“. 1908 wurde das riesige Territorium Eigentum des belgischen Staates und im Zuge dessen in Belgisch-Kongo umbenannt.
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“I do not want to miss a good chance of getting us a slice of this magnificent African cake.”
Thomas Pakenham, The Scramble for Africa: White Man's Conquest of the Dark Continent From 1876 to 1912, New York: Avon Books, 1992, 22.
Clive Foss, The Tyrants: 2500 Years of Absolute Power and Corruption, London: Quercus Publishing, 2006, ISBN 1905204965
Documentary about former Belgian colony in Santo Tomas de Castilla, Guatemala.
Quelle: https://klara.be/leopold-ii-aflevering-3 Leopold II, Het hele Verhaal, Johan Op De Beeck Horizon, 2020] ISBN 9789463962094 Prince Leopold II In Singapore in a letter to his father King Leopold I expressing admiration for British colonialism. note: Quotes related to the Belgian Colonial Empire
ISBN 9789463962094 Prince Leopold II in a 1863 travel note in admiration for Ferdinand de Lesseps when visiting Egypt and the digging sites of the Suez Canal by tens of thousands of cheap workers.
Quelle: https://klara.be/leopold-ii-aflevering-3 Leopold II, Het hele Verhaal, Johan Op De Beeck Horizon, 2020
Quelle: Leopold II, Het hele Verhaal, Johan Op De Beeck Horizon, 2020 https://klara.be/leopold-ii-aflevering-2-0 ISBN 9789463962094 Prince Leopold II in a letter to his father Leopold I on may 1861 when recovering from a cold on vacation in villa Solitude in Austria complaining how he misses female company.
Quelle: Leopold II, Het hele Verhaal, Johan Op De Beeck Horizon, 2020 https://klara.be/leopold-ii-aflevering-2-0 ISBN 9789463962094 Prince Leopold II in his function of Senator in the Senate of Belgium.
https://klara.be/leopold-ii-aflevering-1-0 Prince Leopold II on his second wedding trip in a letter to his father Leopold I of Belgium in 1854.
Quelle: King Leopold's Ghost https://vimeo.com/ondemand/kingleopoldsghost Leopold II in a letter to the Congo Governor General: Camille Janssen, 1890.
Leopold II - Het Hele Verhaal (Aflevering 1) https://odysee.com/@BelgianCongo:3/Leopold-II-Het-Hele-Verhaal-Aflevering-1:1 Prince Leopold in a letter to his brother Prince Philippe and sister Princess Carlota, on being received by the Austrian court to meet his future bride 'Marie Henriette of Austria'.
“I have no other desire than to leave Belgium bigger, stronger and more beautiful.”
Pierre Vercauteren: A king unjustly maligned. (Page 18) https://www.memoiresducongo.be/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Leo2-Vercauteren.pdf Leopold II on the evening of his accession in 1865 confided to the baron Lambermont. Léopold II, Count Louis de Lichtervelde (p.55).
Quotes related to Belgium
“Whoever has a cold is stupid, because he just had to avoid catching a cold.”
Quelle: Did you know: Leopold II was a hypochondriac. https://www.rtbf.be/culture/article/detail_le-saviez-vous-leopold-ii-etait-hypocondriaque?id=10710184
“Our only programme is the work of moral and material re-generation.”
CONGO FREE STATE. HC Deb 20 May 1903 vol 122 cc1289-332 https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1903/may/20/congo-free-state
Quotes related to Congo
“I will give them my Congo, but they have no right to know what i did there.”
Quotes related to Congo
Quelle: King Leopold's Ghost https://vimeo.com/ondemand/kingleopoldsghost King Leopold Ii in Letter to aid, 1908.
Quotes related to the Congo Free State
Quelle: King Leopold's Ghost https://vimeo.com/ondemand/kingleopoldsghost Newspaper interview, 1906.
“Small country, small people.”
King Leopold's Ghost https://vimeo.com/ondemand/kingleopoldsghost Leopold II, Hair to the Belgian throne, 1866.
“We must put an end to anarchy and its continuing preaching.”
Leopold II, Het hele Verhaal, Johan Op De Beeck Horizon, 2020 https://klara.be/leopold-ii-aflevering-6 ISBN 9789463962094 Leopold II in 1885 about the protests and Social unrest due to extreme poverty among the many farmers in Belgium.
All the King's Men' A search for the colonial ideas of some advisers and "accomplices" of Leopold II (1853-1892). (Hannes Vanhauwaert), 6. Baron Auguste Lambermont (1819-1905), A key figure in the background of early Belgian colonialism http://www.ethesis.net/leopold_II/leopold_II.htm#_ftn194 Leopold II in a key letter to Baron Lambermont after the failed colonial efforts in the Philippines and Tonkin, On August 22, 1875. AMBuZa. Papiers Lambermont, volume V, section 9, Leopold II to Baron Lambermont, August 22, 1875. For publication and photographic reproduction: ROEYKENS, A. Les débuts de l'œuvre africaine de Léopold II, 1875-1879, 95-96.
Quotes related to the Belgian Colonial Empire
Leopold II, Het hele Verhaal, Johan Op De Beeck Horizon, 2020 https://klara.be/leopold-ii-aflevering-2-0 ISBN 9789463962094
“I want it to be and it will be.”
All the King's Men' A search for the colonial ideas of some advisers and "accomplices" of Leopold II (1853-1892). (Hannes Vanhauwaert), Emile Banning (1836-1898): The Don Quichotte of the ‘liberal civilization’ in Congo http://www.ethesis.net/leopold_II/leopold_II.htm#_ftn194 Banning had a final private meeting with the king, which, according to the anecdotal press, culminated in this bitter altercation. WALRAET, M. Emile Banning. Un grand Belge, 54.
Quotes related to the Belgian Colonial Empire
Quelle: Inculturation of Christian marriage in the Belgian Congo. 1919-1950. The Policy Making of the Mission Superiors on Polygamy; their directives to the missionaries and influence on the policy of the State. (Betty Eggermont) CHAPTER 3. THE COLONIZING GOVERNMENT. http://www.ethesis.net/polygamie/polygamie_deel_I_hfst_3.htm Leopold to Jean-Baptiste Nothomb in June 1876. cited in STENGERS (J.), op.cit., p.VII.
“Hopefully they won't mess up my Congo!”
Quotes related to the Congo Free State
Quelle: Mémoires du Congo - Shame or Pride https://www.memoiresducongo.be/nl/schaamte-of-fierheid/
Quotes related to the Belgian Colonial Empire
Quelle: All the King's Men' A search for the colonial ideas of some advisers and "accomplices" of Leopold II (1853-1892). (Hannes Vanhauwaert), 5. A prospectus by the military Chazal and Brialmont, The Importance of General Chazal in Colonial Politics. http://www.ethesis.net/leopold_II/leopold_II.htm#2.%20 Minister Chazal, who had little ambition in an almost impossible Chinese adventure, Confronting the French practicalities and the British stubbornness of that expedition was most likely the last thing on his mind. Even the experienced king had already given up all hope. The enthusiastic young Leopold did not give up and started to advise the minister himself. KMLKG, Papiers Chazal, 111/13, the Duke of Brabant to Chazal, October 4, 1859.
Quotes related to the Belgian Colonial Empire
Quelle: All the King's Men' A search for the colonial ideas of some advisers and "accomplices" of Leopold II (1853-1892). (Hannes Vanhauwaert), Preface:A historiographical picture of Leopold II (1835-1909) http://www.ethesis.net/leopold_II/leopold_II.htm#2.%20 STENGERS, J. “The place of Leopold II in the history of colonization.” The New Clio, I-II (1949-1950), 517.
All the King's Men' A search for the colonial ideas of some advisers and "accomplices" of Leopold II (1853-1892). (Hannes Vanhauwaert), Preface:A historiographical picture of Leopold II (1835-1909) http://www.ethesis.net/leopold_II/leopold_II.htm#2.%20 Leopold to Edouard Blondeel, the Belgian Consul in Egypt, 1855.
Quelle: Bulletin Officiel de Congo Belge - Années 1908 et 1909, page 174. https://archive.org/details/bulletin-officiel-de-congo-belge-annees-1908-et-1909/page/n373/mode/2up King Leopold II in a speech on 17 december 1865.
Quelle: All the King's Men' A search for the colonial ideas of some advisers and "accomplices" of Leopold II (1853-1892). (Hannes Vanhauwaert), 5. A prospectus by the military Chazal and Brialmont, The Importance of General Chazal in Colonial Politics. http://www.ethesis.net/leopold_II/leopold_II.htm#2.%20 KMLKG, Papiers Chazal, 65/1, Chazal aan de hertog van Brabant, 28 juni 1859.
“You just have to dare to succeed.”
Quelle: All the King's Men' A search for the colonial ideas of some advisers and "accomplices" of Leopold II (1853-1892). (Hannes Vanhauwaert), Preface:A historiographical picture of Leopold II (1835-1909) http://www.ethesis.net/leopold_II/leopold_II.htm#2.%20 Parliamentary Annals of Belgium. Legislative session of 1855-1856. Senate. Brussel, n.d., 67.