Todays history lesson is about a human monster who makes Hitler, Satan, Stalin, and Pol Pot combined seem like Gandhi in Mr. Rogers neighborhood in comparison. Perhaps the least know of all the wretched abominations ever produced by the human species. I present The Butcher of Congo: Leopold II King of the Belgians [9 April 1835 – 17 December 1909] One of histories most despicable and unsavory characters. Leopold was the founder and sole owner of the Congo Free State, a private project undertaken on his own behalf, an area 80 times the size of Belgium. Leopold extracted 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 were required to meet quotas on rubber collections, and individuals hands were cut off if they did not meet the requirements,.... a particularly gruesome practice. His regime was responsible for the death of an estimated 2 to 15 million Congolese. The most recent estimations put the death toll closer to the 15 million count. By the time of his death his atrocities had been exposed and he was actually loudly booed at his funeral. His statue in the capital, Kinshasa, was removed after independence. Congolese culture minister Christoph Muzungu decided to reinstate the statue in 2005, but just hours after the 20 foot statue was erected in the middle of a roundabout near Kinshasas central station, it was taken down again by the same workers that had erected it under threat of nationwide rioting. By ~~~Wayne Kay~~~~
Posted on: Tue, 26 Aug 2014 02:37:24 +0000
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