ACCESSION OF LEOPOLD II, KING OF BELGIUM WIENER, Leopold: Belgium, 1865, Bronze, 77 mm Leopold Louis Philippe Marie Victor (1835-1909) was
born in Brussels, where he was given the title of Duc of Brabant. In 1853
he married Marie Henriette Anne d'Autriche, Archduchess of Austria.
Leopold II became King of Belgium on the death of his father Leopold
I in 1865. He
is noted largely for his acquisition of the Belgium Congo in Africa, which
he obtained and administered through the harsh and oppressive treatment of
its native inhabitants. He accomplished this colonial expansion initially
by sponsoring the expedition of Henry Stanley to the Congo. In 1885
Leopold established the Congo Free State (now the Democratic Republic of
Congo) under his own personal rule. In 1908 Sir Roger Casement's
revelations of the exploitation of the Congolese rubber-gathers forced
Leopold to cede the Congo to the Belgian state. |
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