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Leopold Ii Quotes

Browse 210 quotes about Leopold Ii.

Leopold Ii Quotes

“In accordance with my duty, I do not pursue any selfish goal. The only favor I ask is to continue to put all my personal earnings to good use in the expansion of our foreign interests. [...] What I have sought in Africa, what I shall find more and more if people follow me, that, together with the progress of civilization, is work for our industrial firms and consequently for their numerous employees.”

CivilizationCongoLeopold IiBelgiumIndustrial Revolution
Author:Leopold II
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“Even more than other nations, a country of craftsmen and traders must make an effort to secure export territories. That patriotic concern has dominated my life and has been instrumental in the creation of the African enterprise. My efforts have not proved fruitless: a young and great state, governed from Brussels, has seen the light of day peacefully. [...] Its administration is in the hands of Belgians, while other compatriots in increasing numbers make their capital bear fruit there.”

CongoLeopold IiBelgiumBrussezls
Author:Leopold II
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“When Leopold II began his great work, which today finds its culmination, he presented himself to you not as a conqueror but as a bringer of civilization. The Congo was endowed with railways, roads, shipping and air connections. Our medical facilities have freed you from many devastating diseases. Many well-equipped hospitals have been established. Agriculture has been improved and modernized. Great cities have been built. Living conditions and hygiene have improved. Mission and state schools have brought education on a large scale.”

CongoLeopold IiBelgiumBelgian Congo
Author:Baudouin I
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“It is the King who supports the State from his pocket, to challenge the State for the products of his estates is to force the King from his pocket to cover deficits, a good part of which will come from the free abandonment of the land. 'exploitation of State estates to commercial houses to fatten them on a voluntary basis, houses which not only do nothing for the progress of civilization but which have delayed it with all their might and would like to delay it further in order to be States, tyrants in the State.”

CongoLeopold IiBelgiumCongo Free StateIndependant State Of The Congo
Author:Edmund Van Eetvelde
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“Congo reformers like Morel, much to the annoyance of Hochschild, advocated either German or British colonization of the area (Congo). Morel’s view, according to Hochschild, speaking ex cathedra from the hallowed seat of modern California, “seems surprising to us today” and was among his “faults” and “political limitations.” Quite the opposite. The moment the Belgians colonized the Congo in 1908, a miraculous improvement was noted on all fronts. Seeking to debunk colonialism, Hochschild’s book demonstrates the opposite. This is the first and biggest lie at the heart of King Leopold’s Ghost.”

ColonialismLeopold IiBelgiumAdam HochschildBelgiansLeopold S GhostBruce GilleyKing Leopold S GhostEdmund Dene Morel
Book:King Hochschild’s Hoax: An absurdly deceptive book on Congolese rubber production is better described as historical fiction.
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“Hochschild is at pains to convince the reader that anyone opposing the EIC was good, whether brutal slave trader, inveterate cannibal, fetish priest, or ethnic-cleansing warlord. His treatment of the 1895 rebellion by native soldiers at a military camp named Luluabourg in the southern savannah strains to portray the rebels as noble savages pining for freedom and a return to pastoral life. In his telling, the Belgian commander Mathieu Pelzer was a “bully” who “used his fists” and thus got his comeuppance at breakfast with a knife to the throat. Actually, Pelzer had nothing to do with it. The rebels were former soldiers for a black slave king. The EIC had brought them to the southern camp to reintegrate them as government soldiers. But their loss of royal prerogatives to whore, steal, and maim caused them to rebel. The group never exceeded 300 (Hochschild speculates that it reached 2,500) and petered out in the northern jungles in 1897, a rag-tag criminal gang gone to seed.”

CongoLeopold IiBelgiumCongo Free StateAdam HochschildLeopold S Ghost
Book:King Hochschild’s Hoax: An absurdly deceptive book on Congolese rubber production is better described as historical fiction.
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“Hochschild repeats the urban legend that Léopold burned all the EIC documents, going “to extraordinary lengths to try to erase potentially incriminating evidence.” Quite the opposite: Léopold was proud of the EIC and went to extraordinary lengths to leave behind an extensive record. The testimony of his military aide that Hochschild cites about “burning the State archives” and turning “most of the Congo state records to ash” was a misunderstanding: what the aide saw burning were ruined and unreadable papers among the thousands of documents that came back in crates from the Congo in 1908. Léopold left behind 14 trunks filled with his personal letters and financial statements. Everything was carefully cataloged in “a vast room that looked like a post office,” the aide recalled. Some of it went missing in the turmoil of World War II before resurfacing in the basement of a house in 1983. Just last year, researchers at the Royal Museum for Central Africa who work on the EIC archives published a new book, The Congo Free State: What Could Archives Tell Us?”

CongoLeopold IiBelgiumCongo Free StateAdam HochschildArchibesRoyal Museum For Central Africa
Book:King Hochschild’s Hoax: An absurdly deceptive book on Congolese rubber production is better described as historical fiction.
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“I will instruct the minister of war to strengthen the Gendarmerie in Brussels, to recognize the addresses and customs of the demagogues and to try to find out what is coming up, I am told that the demonstrations which are only intended as intimidation and as preparation in an unguarded moment are able to turn into something else, once they have everyone on the street they will attack the government, what measure have you taken to face such a surprise attack? Do the regiments have been ordered to march on their own accord to the Rue de la Loi and the Boulvard, where in the summer it is more difficult to summon soldiers, will they be more satisfied now, working in the open air is now impossible, if I were you I wouldn't hesitate for a minute to summon them, the responsibility is too great, you are not protected from an incident, and you will have to face a formidable riot, all yours.”

Leopold IiBelgiumBrusselsLeopold Of Belgium
Author:Leopold II
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“Dear Minister, I particularly regret that the government, as I had expressly requested, did not make the royal referendum a sine qua non, three points in the program concern the crown directly, the possibility of expanding the territory, the referendum and the princely marriages, I would have liked to see this matter implemented, we have been clear about this during our discussions, we have taken a very moderate attitude with this at a time when the most democratic constitution in Europe is being even more democratized, a constitution drawn up during a revolution, and at a time when there was no monarch, your devotee, etc.”

Leopold IiBelgiumLeopold Ii Of BelgiumLeopold Of BelgiumLeopold
Author:Leopold II
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“I was received with an overwhelming display of military and civilian tributes, all the way to the royal palace where I was to stay, troops were lined up behind which enthusiastic people were chanting their viva, it seemed to me that a major change had come in the Belgian public opinion on the importance of the Congo, when I first went there, the Belgian newspapers spouted nothing but criticism, they were completely dumbfounded, the king was recognized as the great benefactor of the nation.”

CongoLeopold IiBelgiumCongo Free StateLeopold Ii Of BelgiumHenry Morton Stanley
Author:Henry M. Stanley
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“The economic crisis which weighs on Europe since the industry took such a big development, carries the nations towards the colonial companies. Belgium could not remain a stranger to this movement without seriously compromising its material interests; our King Leopold II understood this, and this is what determined him to substitute his individual initiative for the persistent inaction of the government and the nation.”

Leopold IiBelgiumLeopold Ii Of BelgiumBelgian ColonialismBelgian Colonial EmpireBelgian ImperialismBelgian NationalismBelgian Patriotism
Author:Alexis Henri Brialmont
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“Take a serious look at yourself. Ask yourself questions about your mood, the way you view the world and people, think about your mistakes and the dangers they unleash. Today the character of a person determines whether he can exercise influence and authority, far more than all the minds on this earth. As you know, this is all the more true in Belgium, and Belgians want to see in their leader the qualities they will never want from themselves. (Leopold I In a letter to his son Prince Leopold II)”

HistoryLeopold IiBelgiumLeopold I
Author:Leopold I
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“You can find it on almost any tree. As we made our way through the forest, it was literally raining rubber juice. Our clothes were full of it. The Congo has so many tributaries that a well-organized company can easily extract a few tons of rubber per year here. You only have to sail up such a river and the branches with rubber hang almost up to your ship. (In a Letter to King Leopold II of the Belgians)”

CongoLeopold IiBelgiumCongo Free StateBelgian CongoHenry Morton Stanly
Author:Henry M. Stanley
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