The Congo Free State: Belgian Colonization

During the Berlin West Africa Conference in 1884, the Congo region of Africa became known as the Congo Free State and was ceded to Belgium, more specifically King Leopold II. Several years beforehand, King Leopold II had established the Association Internationale du Congo (Committee for Studies of the Upper Congo). The formation of this committee and its title provided Leopold with an official reason to utilize Congolese territory. However, this committee was not state-formed; it was Leopold's private investment. Therefore, he must have either used his own money or money from the state, a questionable circumstance itself. 

King Leopold II had several reasons to imperialize the Congo. He wanted to obviously expand Belgium's worldwide influence, but his primary ambition was to take advantage of the Congo's rich natural resources and sources of human labor. Wild rubber, palm oil, and ivory were the three main resources that Leopold targeted for mass production. He also planned to prosper financially and economically from the production of these resources.

Although his economic ambitions were fair during the time, his methods for acquiring labor and resources were atrocious. He hired Congolese workers to harvest all of the three resources he desired, using menace as a motivator for laborers. If workers refused to work or did not work efficiently, Belgian officers would cut off a hand and/or a foot, or simply kill them. To further enforce this policy, the Belgians hired local Congolese men to act as local officers of the Belgian government, creating a divide in the Congolese people. The Belgians also brought European disease with them, killing countless Congolese people and disrupting the natural continental immunity system. 

Two journalists during this time looked into the Belgian imperialism: Edward Morel and Roger Casement. Both wrote journal entries on the horrible treatment of Africans and truth of the matter of what was actually going on in the Belgian Congo. To effectively convince and captivate the public, these journalists took photos of children and other Congolese people without hands and/or feet. These photos were soon published, which led to Leopold's eventual withdrawal from the Congo. Some consider Leopold's use of the Congo as a genocide. Regardless, the Belgian Congo reveals the dark sides of imperialism and its inevitable consequences.