Leupold ii of belgium biography books
King Leopold's Ghost
Book by Adam Hochschild
King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror and Heroism in Colonial Africa (1998) is a best-sellingpopular history book by Adam Hochschild that explores the exploitation of the Congo Free State by King Leopold II of Belgium between 1885 and 1908, as well as the large-scale atrocities committed during that period. The book, also a general biography of the private life of Leopold, succeeded in increasing public awareness of these crimes in recent decades.
The book was refused by nine of the ten U.S. publishing houses to which an outline was submitted, but became an unexpected bestseller and won the prestigious Mark Lynton History Prize for literary style. It also won the 1999 Duff Cooper Prize. By 2013 more than 600,000 copies were in print in a dozen languages.
The book is the basis of a 2006 documentary film of the same name, directed by Pippa Scott and narrated by Don Cheadle.
Title
The title is adopted from the 1914 poem "The Congo", by Illinois poet Vachel Lindsay. Condemning Leopold's actions, Lindsay wrote:
- Listen to the yell of Leopold's ghost,
- Burning in Hell for his hand-maimed host.
- Hear how the demons chuckle and yell,
- Cutting his hands off, down in Hell.
Content
Leopold II, King of the Belgians, privately controlled and owned the Congo Free State from 1885 to 1908. In 1908, the area was annexed by Belgium as a colony known as the Belgian Congo. Leopold used his personal control to strip the country of vast amounts of wealth, largely in the form of ivory and rubber. These labor-intensive industries were serviced by slave labor, and the local peoples were forced to work through various means, including torture, imprisonment, maiming and terror. Christian missionaries and a handful of human rights organizers internationally publicized these atrocities. Slowly, various nations, including the United Kingdom and the United States of America, began to object to
Leopold II of the Belgians: King of colonialism
While accepting that this was a biography of the man and therefore was going to talk about more than the Congo, Barbara Emerson is oddly reticent about the events there while devoting many pages to Leopold's Nile ambitions. She tells us many times that he was intelligent, well informed, controlling and hands on in all his projects and yet takes at face value his declarations that he knew nothing about the horrors unfolding in his personal domain. Several pages on the 'war' on the Arab slave trade fails to reveal the abuses of Africans forced into porterage and service for the 'white' masters and his appointment of a notorious slave trader as a provincial governor are glossed over as expedient.
Emerson wants us to believe that this able, well informed king of the capitalists had no idea that people were being worked to death to fill the coffers. She looks for excuses for his callousness from unhappy childhood, to a lack of love (primly blaming his wife at one point) while extolling his vitality and capacity for hard work which did not extend to knowing how so much rubber and ivory was being produced.
On the plus side, there is much useful background on Belgium's place in the scheme of things as 'the Great Powers' vied for land and riches, and it traces in detail the diplomatic machinations of Europe's ruling classes at the end of the 19th century. Emerson follows the money quite carefully but is detached about the consequences of the king's unbridled capitalism and obsessive imperialism for the majority of poor Belgians (they should have been grateful for all the public works, it seems, despite being amongst the poorest workers in Europe) and the African populations who suffered.
Leopold II of Belgium
King of the Belgians from 1865 to 1909
| Leopold II | |||
|---|---|---|---|
Portrait by Alexander Bassano, c. 1889 | |||
| Reign | 17 December 1865 – 17 December 1909 | ||
| Predecessor | Leopold I | ||
| Successor | Albert I | ||
| Prime ministers | |||
| Reign | 1 July 1885 – 15 November 1908 | ||
| Governors-general | |||
| Born | (1835-04-09)9 April 1835 Brussels, Belgium | ||
| Died | 17 December 1909(1909-12-17) (aged 74) Laeken, Brussels, Belgium | ||
| Burial | Church of Our Lady of Laeken | ||
| Spouses | |||
| Issue Detail | |||
| |||
| House | Saxe-Coburg and Gotha | ||
| Father | Leopold I of Belgium | ||
| Mother | Louise of Orléans | ||
| Signature | |||
Leopold II (9 April 1835 – 17 December 1909) was the second King of the Belgians from 1865 to 1909, and the founder and sole owner of the Congo Free State from 1885 to 1908.
Born in Brussels as the second but eldest-surviving son of King Leopold I and Queen Louise, Leopold succeeded his father to the Belgian throne in 1865 and reigned for 44 years until his death, the longest reign of a Belgian monarch to date. He died without surviving legitimate sons; the current King of the Belgians, Philippe, descends from his nephew and successor, Albert I. He is popularly referred to as the Builder King (Dutch: Koning-Bouwheer, French: Roi-Bâtisseur) in Belgium in reference to the great number of buildings, urban projects and public works he commissioned.
Leopold was the founder and sole owner of the Congo Free State, a private colonial project undertaken on his own behalf as a personal union with Belgium. He used Henry Morton Stanley to help him lay claim to the Congo, the present-day Democratic Republic of the Congo. At the Berlin Conference of 1884–1885, the colonial nations of Europe authorised his claim and comm
Paperback. Condition: New. Print on Demand. This book delves into the remarkable reign of King Leopold II of Belgium, a monarch whose ambitions extended far beyond the borders of his small nation. The author meticulously traces the King's unwavering pursuit of Belgian expansion, a vision that took root during his early travels and matured into a lifelong dedication to securing "exterior dependencies" for his country. Set against the backdrop of 19th-century European politics and the rise of powerful empires, the narrative explores the complexities of Belgian society, particularly the "sterile war of parties" between the Liberals and Catholics. King Leopold II navigated these turbulent waters with astute political maneuvering, leveraging his influence to champion economic development, infrastructure projects, and, above all, the establishment of a Belgian mercantile marine. The book's thematic depth lies in its exploration of the intertwined forces of ambition, colonialism, and national identity. It unveils the King's unwavering belief in Belgium's potential for greatness, his strategic approach to achieving it, and the profound impact of his reign on the nation's trajectory. By illuminating the King's vision and its realization, the book offers valuable insights into the enduring legacy of a monarch who dared to dream of an empire for his small kingdom. This book is a reproduction of an important historical work, digitally reconstructed using state-of-the-art technology to preserve the original format. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in the book. print-on-demand item.