The Congo Free State

The Congo Free State was a colony that was controlled by Leopold II, king of the Belgians. He had wanted control of the region for many years and finally Leopold formally acquired the rights to the Congo territory at the Conference of Berlin in 1885 and gave it the name of the Congo Free State. His major reason for striving to gain power of the Congo for so long was to control the profitable ivory market in Central Africa by establishing a secure trade route between the upper and lower Congo. It was also known that the colony was rich in mineral resources. Leopold eventually lost respect of the people in the Congo due to the increasingly harsh treatment of the people and the decrease of natural resources. Leopold's main objective during his reign was to gain money and power and was not concerned with the well-being or quality of life for his people.

Under Leopold's reign the Congo quickly became one of the largest international scandals of the early twentieth century. Many people died due to the brutal treatment they endured under Leopold's reign, the estimated number of deaths during these years is around ten million. The report of the British Consul Roger Casement led to the arrest and punishment of white officials who had been responsible for killings during a rubber-collecting expedition in 1903 that was aimed to expand the Congo's international market while Leopold was still in rule. Europe and the United States exposed the conditions in the Congo Free State to the public in 1900. By the year 1908, public pressure and diplomatic moves led to the end of Leopold II's rule and to the addition of the Congo as a colony of Belgium, which came to be known as the Belgian Congo. The loss of life and horrors that many experienced in the Congo Free State under the rule of Leopold II inspired great literature such as Joseph Conrad's novel, "Heart of Darkness".