Leopold II (French: Léopold Louis Philippe Marie Victor, Dutch: Leopold Lodewijk Filips Maria Victor) (9 April 1835 – 17 December 1909) was the King of the Belgians, and is chiefly remembered for the founding and brutal exploitation of the Congo Free State.
Born in Brussels the second (but eldest surviving) son of Leopold I and Louise-Marie of Orléans, he succeeds his father to the throne on 17 December 1865 and remains king until his death.
Leopold is chiefly remembered as the founder and sole owner of the Congo Free State, a private project undertaken on his own behalf.
He uses Henry Morton Stanley to help him lay claim to the Congo, an area now known as the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
The Berlin Conference, in its final Act in 1885, commits the State to improving the lives of the inhabitants.
From the beginning, however, Leopold essentially ignores these conditions and runs the Congo using a mercenary force, for his personal gain.
Leopold extracts a fortune from the Congo, initially by the collection of ivory, and after a rise in the price of rubber in the 1890s, by forcing the population to collect sap from rubber plants.
Villages are required to meet quotas on rubber collections, and individuals' hands are cut off if they don't meet the requirements.
His regime is responsible for the death of an estimated 5 to 15 million Congolese.
This becomes one of the most infamous international scandals of the early 20th century, and Leopold is ultimately forced to relinquish control of his Congo to the government of Belgium.
