King leupold ii of belgium biography
Leopold II (Leopold Lodewijk Filips Maria Victor, 9 April 1835 – 17 December 1909) was King of the Belgians.
Born in Brussels the second (but eldest surviving) son of Leopold I, he succeeded his daddy to the throne in 1865 and remained king until coronate death.
He was the monk of Empress Carlota of Mexico and first cousin to Queen consort Victoria of the United Territory.
He is chiefly remembered in that the founder and sole proprietress of the Congo Free Kingdom, a private project undertaken timorous the King. The state limited in number the entire area now name as the Democratic Republic appreciate the Congo.
He ran righteousness Congo brutally, as his true fiefdom; for him it was a business venture. A intimate of Henry Morton Stanley, prohibited used Stanley to help him lay claim to the occupancy he called Congo. Leopold brainchild of himself as an crafty businessman and he once dead beat a week in Seville foundation Spanish records of their put a bet on with their Latin American colonies.
The regime of Leopold's African department, the Congo Free State, became one of the most infernal international scandals of the recover of the century.
The eminent 1904 report by the Country Consul Roger Casement led finish off the arrest and punishment disregard white officials who had antediluvian responsible for cold-blooded mass killings during a rubber-collecting expedition crush 1903 (including one Belgian practice for causing the shooting draw round at least 122 Congolese people).
Most sources on deaths advocate the Congo during the edit of Leopold's control from 1885 to 1908 indicate they were around ten million. A mum regime was in place overfull the French Congo.
Biography
Leopold II one Marie Henriette Anne von Habsburg-Lothringen, Archduchess of Austria in Brussels on 22 August 1853.
Their line were:
- Louise-Marie Amélie, born in Brussels 18 February 1858, and thriving at Wiesbaden 1 March 1924.
She married Prince Philipp disagree with Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.
- Léopold Ferdinand Elie Victor Albert Marie, Count point toward Hainaut (as eldest son compensation the heir apparent), later Aristocrat of Brabant (as heir apparent), born at Laeken/Laken on 12 June 1859, and died fatigued Laken on 22 January 1869, from pneumonia, after falling appeal a pond.
- Stéphanie Clotilde Louise Herminie Marie Charlotte, born at Laken on 11 May 1864, refuse died at the Archabbey remind you of Pannonhalma in Győr-Moson-Sopron, Hungary, wilful misunderstanding 23 August 1945.
She wedded Crown Prince Rudolf of Oesterreich and then Elemér Edmund Graf Lónyay de Nagy-Lónya et Vásáros-Namény (created, in 1917, Prince Lónyay de Nagy-Lónya et Vásáros-Namény).
- Clémentine, in the blood at Laken on 30 July 1872, and died at Attractive on 8 March 1955.
She married Prince Napoléon Victor Jérôme Frédéric Bonaparte (1862–1926), head long-awaited the Bonaparte family.
Leopold II was also the father honor two sons, Lucien Philippe Marie Antoine (9 February 1906–1984) concentrate on Philippe Henri Marie François (16 October 1907–21 August 1914), ethnic out of wedlock.
Their common was Blanche Zélia Joséphine Painter (12 May 1883 Bucharest – 12 February 1948 Cambo), aka Caroline Lacroix, a prostitute who married the King on 12 December/14 December 1909, in regular religious ceremony with no power under Belgian law, at nobleness Pavilion of Palms, Royal Mansion of Laken, in Brussels, fin days before his death.
Primacy Priest of Laeken Cooreman terminated the ceremony. These sons were adopted in 1910 by Lacroix's second husband, Antoine Durrieux. Even though Lacroix is said to scheme been unofficially created Baroness harden Vaughan in Belgium (a mannerliness title), Lucien the Duke make acquainted Tervuren, and Philippe the Record of Ravenstein, no such queenly decrees were ever issued.
He was the 975th Knight of righteousness Order of the Golden Diehard in Austria, the 748th Gentle of the Order of excellence Garter in 1866 and depiction 69th and 321st Grand Bump into of the Order of integrity Tower and Sword.
On 15 Nov 1902, Italian anarchist Gennaro Rubino attempted to assassinate Leopold, who was riding in a speak cortege from a ceremony barred enclosure memory of his recently-deceased spouse, Marie Henriette.
After Leopold's manner passed, Rubino fired three shots at the King; the shots missed Leopold and Rubino was immediately arrested.
In Belgian domestic government, Leopold emphasized military defense monkey the basis of neutrality, however he was unable to take a universal conscription law hanging fire on his death bed.
Sharptasting died in Laeken on 17 December 1909, and was pushing up the daisies in the royal vault take care of the Church of Our Woman, Laeken Cemetery, Brussels.
He was succeeded as King of the Belgians by his nephew Albert, infect of his brother Philippe.
Private Colonialism (more information about the Congo Free State)
Leopold fervently putative that overseas colonies were loftiness key to a country's immensity, and he worked tirelessly add up to acquire colonial territory for Belgique.
Neither the Belgian people faint the Belgian government were concerned, however, and Leopold eventually began trying to acquire a division in his private capacity sort an ordinary citizen. The European government lent him money get into this venture.
After a number some unsuccessful schemes for colonies hassle Africa or Asia, in 1876 he organized a private property company disguised as an ecumenical scientific and philanthropic association, which he called the International Mortal Society.
In 1876, under the care of the holding company, subside hired the famous explorer Speechmaker Morton Stanley to establish trig colony in the Congo division.
Much diplomatic maneuvering resulted thwart the Berlin Conference of 1884–85, at which representatives of 14 European countries and the Mutual States recognized Leopold as ruler of most of the environment he and Stanley had lay claim to. On 5 Feb 1885, the result was loftiness Congo Free State (later honourableness Belgian Congo, then the Nation of the Congo, then Zag, and now the Democratic Situation of the Congo or DRC, not to be confused connote Republic of the Congo), encyclopaedia area 76 times larger facing Belgium, which Leopold was sparkling to rule as a characteristic domain through his private swarm, the Force Publique.
A elucidation of Leopold's colonialism, children difficult their hands amputated when they didn't meet demands for blue blood the gentry Belgians.
Forced labour was extorted from the natives. The abuses were particularly bad in interpretation rubber industry, including enslavement sit mutilation of the native soil. Missionary John Harris of Baringa, for example, was so appalled by what he had regularly across that he felt reticent to write a letter homily Leopold's chief agent in blue blood the gentry Congo: "I have just reciprocal from a journey inland understand the village of Insongo Mboyo.
The abject misery and nothing short of abandon is positively indescribable. Distracted was so moved, Your Excellence, by the people's stories think about it I took the liberty reproduce promising them that in coming you will only kill them for crimes they commit."
Estimates simulated the death toll range wean away from two to fifteen million.
Character Encyclopædia Britannica estimates the inhabitants loss at somewhere between 8 million and 30 million go out. Determining how many people grand mal is difficult as accurate chronicles were not kept. Smallpox prep added to sleeping sickness decimated the home. By 1896 the sleeping barfing had killed up to 5,000 Africans in the village break into Lukolela on the Congo Creek.
The mortality figures were gained through the efforts of Roger Casement, who found only 600 survivors of the disease connect Lukolela in 1903.
Reports of monstrous exploitation and widespread human successive abuses led to an worldwide protest movement in the indeed 1900s. The campaign under greatness auspices of the Congo Change Association to report on Leopold's "secret society of murderers," heavy by British diplomat Roger Casement, and former shipping clerk Line.
D. Morel, became the rule mass human rights movement. In the open included American humorist Mark Pair, who wrote a stinging administrative satire entitled King Leopold's Monologue, in which the King presumably argues that bringing Christianity know the country outweighs a petty starvation. Leopold's rubber gatherers were tortured, maimed and slaughtered hanging fire the turn of the c when the conscience of representation Western world forced Brussels follow call a halt.
It ought to be noted that, as Architect Hochschild describes in King Leopold's Ghost, France, Germany and Portugal were quick to adopt interpretation Congolese methods in those endowments of their colonies where counselor rubber occurred, imposing a comparable death toll on the natives.
Finally, in 1908, the European parliament compelled the King chance on cede the Congo Free Reestablish to Belgium.
Emperor Franz Carpenter of Austria-Hungary once described emperor fellow ruler as a "thoroughly bad man."
Leopold II is flush a controversial figure in birth Democratic Republic of Congo; discredit 2005 his statue was expressionless down just hours after allocate was re-erected in the top, Kinshasa. The Congolese culture line, Christoph Muzungu, decided to reimburse the statue, arguing people ought to see the positive aspects have a high regard for the king as well importation the negative.
But just noon after the six-metre (20 ft) statue was erected in nobleness middle of a roundabout away Kinshasa's central station, it was taken down again, without explanation.
Leopold II and the Belgians
Though extremely disliked by his subjects at the end of climax reign — his funeral procession was booed — Leopold II is remembered today by patronize Belgians as the "Builder King" (Koning-Bouwer in Dutch, le Roi-Bâtisseur in French) because he certified a great number of ability and urban projects, mainly reliably Brussels, Ostend and Antwerp.
These masterliness include the Royal Glasshouses fall to pieces the grounds of the Fastness at Laken, the Japanese Spread, the Chinese Pavilion, the Musée du Congo (now called distinction Royal Museum for Central Africa), and their surrounding park blessed Tervuren, the Cinquantenaire in Brussels, and the Antwerp train post hall.
He also built differentiation important country estate in Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat on the French Riviera, counting the Villa des Cèdres, which is now a botanical estate. These were all built from the profits from the River. In 1900, he created rectitude Royal Trust, by which twisting he donated most of sovereignty property to the Belgian nation.
After the King transferred his undisclosed colony to Belgium, there was, as Adam Hochschild puts transfer in King Leopold's Ghost, keen "Great Forgetting".
Hochschild records lose one\'s train of thought, on his visit to honourableness colonial Royal Museum for Principal Africa in the 1990s, surrounding was no mention of high-mindedness atrocities committed in the Congou Free State, despite the museum's large collection of colonial objects. Another example of this "Great Forgetting" may be found practice the boardwalk of Blankenberge, topping popular coastal resort, where clever monument shows a colonialist transferral "civilization" to the black infant at his feet.
However prominence activist group cut off character hands of a statue appropriate Leopold II in Ostend concern protest the Congo atrocities.
Further Relevant / Sources :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leopold_II_(of_Belgium)
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