@@Robert_2001 The cruelty natives show each other does not excuse the cruelty of their colonizers. They are both cruel. I agree. Native people's aren't all sunshine and rainbows before colonizers arrive. Humans have this tendency to be terrible to each other. It's probably why Leopold's Congo got so many African soldiers who were completely desensitized to everything and were willing to do all these horrible acts. Nothing really changed for them whether their leader was black or white.
Everyone always speaks of colonialism on the subject of Africa. I am from Nigeria and I would like to request more to show the prominent yet overlooked role of other African nations on enabling the trans Atlantic slave trade. Particularly by the Madinka tribe.
Slavery had always existed in western Africa but I wouldn't say any one particular tribe specifically "enabled" it. That was more so the Europeans whose demand for slave labor caused the market to sky rocket higher than it was before
@@Spongebrain97 But one would think the demand for slave labor wouldn't be so high if other African tribes weren't so willing to enslave their fellow man to sell off to the Europeans for all their goodies, don't'cha think?
@@ravensthatflywiththenightm7319 and those topics are readily available. Just make sure it's in good faith and not aimed to absolve the Europeans of their blame as well.
Much support from Belgium, time to face the facts and remember history... As a Belgian i am glad to see more attention to this black pages in Belgian/Congolese history and teach to our children that every country has his devils... (Like mr.Purtler is holding africa hostage in terms of grain supply...) Many warm greetings
According to some Portuguese Historians, King Carlos I of Portugal did write a letter condeming Leopold's actions in the Congo, tho the later migth had been destroyed during WWII
Quite believable. Portuguese Angola shares a long border with the Congo and the happenings there would have led to refugees and other spillover in Portuguese territory.
I've seen plenty of stupid comments saying Belgians don't know about this. I am from Belgium and here is the truth: It is mandatory, it's in the highschool curriculum meaning every highschool student is taught what happened in the Congo. It's mandatory history.
nice at least you belgiums are like Germans you both acknowledge your disastros history and you try to be better while still regreting what you did unlike Britian and France especially the french who are now trying to become the victims by saying that the migrants from their ex-colonies are terriorists and btw the French still has their military and controls the economy of north western Africa mostly their ex-acfrican colonies and hundreds of billions of dollars of the french economy depends on the exploitation and resources that they can easily access and get from their ex-colonies because they have their military there and they literally control their currencies and one time they assasinated a president from one of these countrys for being against france and Britian well Conservatives would just say ''wE ciViLized tHeM'' Too pathetic.
@@hishamalaker491 Honesty Arabs didn't teach about their slavery history, until today, they didn't mention it even in the media, and I never hear a single cleric criticizes slavery, and the general idea the slavery is OK, specially on gulf state country, since they considered everyone work there as their own slave or (servant) they don't say it publicly but the treatment that foreign workers had said it all.
I remember having to do a summer book report in high school. I normally hate summer reading, but I’m a huge history nerd and wanted to learn more about the horrors of colonial Africa so I chose to read “Heart of Darkness”. This was a great video summary of the horrors of the Congo under Leopold II.
I’ve been watching these videos for a while, and there’s something I’ve noticed that i really like. From the time they’ve started this channel (in this current form) they’ve stuck with the same art style, yet evident in this video, improved the quality and detail of the animations too. Amazing channel
One correction to this: Rubber trees are not found in the Congo basin, but the vines are. One of the reasons for Leopold pushing the native population to such extremes was precisely because tree cultivation in Brazil and Malaysia was vastly more efficient. To remain competitive using the inferior wild vines of the Congo basin, he simply cranked up the exploitation. The main problem is that to extract rubber from the vines, they have to be slashed, killing them. The more rubber was produced from the wild vines by a settlement, the more the immediate forest was denuded of them, meaning the harvesters had to travel further and further and spend longer looking for the remaining vines. Rather than waste resources trying to cultivate the vines or introducing rubber trees, it was simpler to just threaten and terrorise the people into increasingly desperate acts to meet the quota... though in the end production still declined and terror and murder became ends in and of themselves.
Did leopold ever think of just importing rubber trees from other parts of the world into Congo? Still would be an invasive species but at least they would have an actual way to cultivate rubber instead of just doing inefficient stuff
@@tiramisu7544 There was some half hearted attempts to introduce the rubber tree, as well as an attempt to cultivate the wild vine in plantations, but the Free State had very very few European administrators present on the ground, let alone botanical experts who were familiar with establishing and maintaining viable plantations. The Belgian colonial population in the Free State era was never more than a few thousand across the entire country, so the most plantations failed, and the others never became significant enough to replace the "terrorise the locals into servitude" approach. It's worth remembering this was literally a private estate, not a state-backed colonial venture with the full force and resources of a government at it's disposal.
"Around about 1900 the Europeans had learned that quinine was a useful defense against Malaria." Only off by about 300 years. Perhaps quinine was not fully understood, isolated, or synthesized in a form resembling modern pharmacological use until about 1900, but quinine was identified by Europeans as medicinal in the 1500s and as early as the 1600s it was used in Europe specifically as an anti-malaria treatment.
Man this is horrible. I can't even imagine something like that happening to my own family members right infront of my eyes, even though I'm from a place which was stricken by war for nearly a decade that resulted in numerous deaths. These crimes need more awareness and the public should know more about the vile history of colonials like leopold just as much as we learned about hitler.
@@Jahabbeez İt's probably the İran-İraq war since it lasted almost a decade i.e. 1980-1988 - keep in mind that Shah Reza (the king of İran from 1941-1979 who lost power after the İslamic Revolution happened) was installed by the C--İ--A plus the Brits
One of my favorite books, King Leopolds Ghost, is an amazing novel that explains many of the aspects of Leopold's Congo and is definitely worth a read.
The American education system is horrible. Its sad. As great and wealthy a nation like America is, it fails educating its citizens. College is too expensive and all kids care about are grades and passing classes. They don’t even care about LEARNING. Ask an American citizen what the capital of Greenland is? Majority WONT know. They don’t even know capitals of states within the US! Insane!! But we know y= mx + b right?!
There's another aspect you missed. To meet the impossible quotas, the tribes were forced to steal from each other, and this resulted in a large portion of the deaths that occurred.
@@PROVOCATEURSK "Working harder" wasn't an option. Their "choice" was "get their hand chopped off" or "steal". And that only made things worse; if you were a tribe that was able to gather enough rubber, but 2 days before you were supposed to deliver the rubber a neighboring tribe stole your rubber, what options did you have? Get your hands lopped off or steal from another neighbor. And thus the tribes ended up murdering each other to avoid being the one being murdered by the Belgians. This wasn't even ruthlessly efficient; tribes spending all their time fighting weren't gathering rubber. It was just inhumane for the sake of being inhumane.
Man, the coloring and animations of your videos have really improved over time. Fantastic work, and Simple History has one of the best narrators I've heard. I'm glad Simple History is a thing.
The sub Saharan slave trade was 80 times greater then the Atlantic slave trade. Interesting , are you aware of the Arab conquest from the seventh century on. Have you ever known of a high population of Africans in the Middle East? There’s a big reason why.
The thing is when it comes to anything that won't be a big issue or tragedy for them, they just won't care at all. I mean look what the Americans did to the native.
We have so called "civilised" beings just like Leopold roaming free, spilling their bile every day of the week. Wether it be in House of Commons, House of Lords, Congress in USA and other so called "governments". They just speak smarter, faster and deny and project. They lobby , they own and they control. They cancel the voices of others and they are sadly ramping up their carnage on our streets and on streets thousands of miles away with little or no effective opposition.
Belgium is a made up country and rightfully part of the Netherlands but stolen by the French by a phoney proxy revolution that caused the French minority to oppress the Dutch majority. Leopold was a stinky frog and not Dutch.
classic victim behaviour I would say. Later commiting the same violences you had to go through...happens a lot individually speaking: abused children becoming abusing parents. Sad but true.
"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." - Alexis Henri Brialmont
We Congolese have faced a lot. We continue to strive for a better future, like our father Lumumba dreamed of. Long live Congo and one day it’s children will enjoy the prosperity of their nation. 🇨🇩✊🏾
People are putting all the accusations on Belgium but let's not forget it was mostly our own African brothers who assisted and carry out these atrocities. These men had a choice to treat their fellow Africans with dignity
@@my8thaccount236 I beg to differ the 1300 - 1500 saw the rise of many african kingdoms such as Mali , Mutapa and Kongo who even sent a ambassador to meet with the pope before shortly falling ill in my opinion if Africa wasn't colonized during this period it would of been much better
Hey love your videos, was wondering if you could ever possibly cover the Japanese unit 731 atrocities of WW2. The experiments undertaken there were horrific but I don’t think many people know about it, would be awesome to see one of your videos on it. Thanks, keep up the great work!
@@noktinnkynoktinnky1329 oh they sent people outside with no clothes in winter and then poured boiling water on them they forcibly impregnated people and opened their body to remove it put people in a pressure chamber until their eyes poped out and also infected them with deadly illnesses
A similar episode would take place later in the Peruvian-Colombian border, when company "Casa Arana" exploited the Huitoto natives as slave workforce and committed genocide against them.
Can you guys do a video about the nanking massacre? I think it is one of the most brutal atrocities in the second world war, so I think y’all should cover it
I agree, The Nanking Massacre along with many other horrible atrocities that occurred throughout history are one of the few events that have been “shadowed” in history or not given as much attention to as they should.
Made me sad for a couple days fr when I first learned about it… I was around 8 years old but still I just couldn’t contemplate how the veterans were walking around still telling the stories as if it were nothing
Not belgium learn some crap .The Congo Free State, also known as the Independent State of the Congo (French: État indépendant du Congo), was a large state and absolute monarchy in Central Africa from 1885 to 1908. It was privately owned by and in a personal union with Leopold II of Belgium; it was not a part of the Kingdom of Belgium, of which he was the constitutional monarch. Leopold
@@commando2113 You are acting as if the Belgian administration and government didn't know what Leopold 2, who was their heda of the state and King, was doing in Congo. Lol! You know what that reminds me of? Europeans accusing Germans not knowing of what was happening under the NSDAP government. Lol!
@@erich2432 if you would look up thing's then you know that they did not know about it because the murc's did that brit's and french and the force public and the king does not own belgium or rule's it he is yust the gaurdian of the peopel but hey it's time that you make a new account this one is to old troll
There is so much atrocity that needs to be talked about. Those of Leopold II, or of the British Empire in the Bay of Bengal when, in order to destroy the local silk industry, they cut off the fingers of girls so that they cannot weave. Thanks for talking about these things, you do a great good.
We like to think we’re more civilized but such monsters still exist. As long as people think they are better because of the land they were born on, there will be atrocities against people born on foreign soil
@@jb894 unfortunately yes. Infamously remember going to school woth foreign students for the first time. Group of Persians shared with me their education on the crusades since they heard I went to a catholic school. Which was the beginning to the end of my relationship with religion. But I learned King Leopold II's story from a Hall Lecture that wasn't a elective. Ironically a student from Belgium gave the lecture.
The pictures were actually extremely important in reporting all this to the rest of the world. Back then communication was obviously much slower and the pictures really showed people what was happening
@@jorenbaplu5100 Makes you wonder though, why would the administrators be taking and sending pictures of the atrocities if they were the ones responsible for them?
This is unjustified violence against inocent people, men, women and children,unfortunate sons of Congo, unfortunate sons of Africa. Belgium MUST repair this, for it is unacceptable, intolérable and unforgettable. See What can human beings (so called White,Europeans) inflict to other human beings (Africans) because they are simply black. This is unforgivable.
I'm glad these and similar stories are getting more attention. Technology allows for mass distribution of information/knowledge. In this case it is being used for positive aspects. Keep up the great work!
I'm not glad these stories are getting more attention. Opportunists all over the world only use the information as a weapon to attack and dismantle western civilizations with, while completely ignoring their own mistakes that are often still ongoing in modern times. Europeans should stop being self critical and apologetic for their mistakes in history. No one else is.
@@anonymoustroll4195 why acknowledge it though. All it's gonna do is lead to more suffering. And thus the big lie of history is taught. History does nothing for us. We just fucking end up repeating the same mistakes.
@@anonymoustroll4195 the force publique consisted of local militiamen under colonial leadership. Most of the atrocities were committed by locals against locals
@@Enlightened-rd1jz They weren't locals , many of the forces came from west or East Africa and if there were local forces many of them weren't being paid neither did they get to keep the land .
@@JoedoeemMore like the white supremacists don’t want their crimes exposed to younger generations. As least that’s how it is for U.S. schools located in red states these days.
Yes everyone should know this, and that Africans are still doing similar things in Africa right now, be it law enforcement or militias. There's no need for white shaming, as the Africans do it to themselves for millennia as well - which is a fact.
@Kosorou Gaming Archives this is literally the affects of our family. The reason why we are in Europe. You think I wanted to be be brought up here? In a racist environment?
ironic coming from the president who had to declare martial law because half the country hated him and ignored him. i believe his approval rating was the lowest out of all presidents at the time, and would remain so until the great depression.
What is more terrifying is that the majority of the regime's soldiers, if I understand right judging by the lecture and animation, were African natives. Many of them might have been from Congo itself possibly. Dude that would be for instance, as if the Empire of Japan had been offered by Hitler a European territory to control in an alternate history dystopia where the Axis have supposedly won WW2 and they would use people from that area as part of their local armed forces to oppress their fellow Europeans. I am sorry for the example I just felt like such a scenario would be similar to what happened in Congo under Leopold's reign.
They did not identify as "African," they identified as part of their native tribe which would often go to war with other tribes and yes, cut off their hands. The Belgians had no need to "encourage" cruelty.
"Fellow Europeans" did not see themselves as such in that period. Let me remind you that in 19th century Europe was divided among few great powers with many natons conquered and opressed while fighting for their independence. Do not think about historical times in modern categories, it is a huge mistake which leads to many misconceptions about history.
That's divide and conquer for you. However, Belgian authorities would keep track of exactly how many cartridges those enforcers used by asking them to bring an ear or a hand for each cartridge they used. So the Belgians absolutely required this level of brutality.
The thing is, these people don't see others in the continent as like them. Many outright support the Europeans as to cement their status over the other tribes. Remember the Tutsi and Huti trubes? They are prevalent in the Congo and around it and they don't like each other. The tragedy in Rwanda was the aftermath of that animosity which the Europeans made worse. Another is Nigeria. The British favored one of the three predominant tribes comprising the country which led to the Biafra war...
Remember every country has its own dark past its important when you study history you remember that fact and keep you personal feelings or bias out of it, it does not matter if it offends your or not history is not ment to coddle your feelings its ment to teach you lessons humanity has learned over the years Edit: I realize I shouldn't have necessarily said emotions I just mean you shouldn't try to alter or ignore history because it offends people I apologize for that
Some have a darker history than other’s for way more longer than other’s, and I’m not even talking about the minerals etc I agree that you have to remain in a position to have the best objectivity but trying to minimize the action of some occidental country by saying history is not meant to cuddle your feeling is a little hypocrite first nobody said history was meant to cuddle but rather to remember and learn also even if it offend you or not, even if you have personal feeling or history the point is and I agree with you on that to analyze the historical situation with the best objectivity that being said it doesn’t allow anyone to put under the carpet or ignore the reality of pain and distress those action in the history of humanity have bring to the people and country that lived it.
It is true actually. United States: Segregation/Jim Crow laws, Italy:Mussolini’s regime, Germany:Starting the world wars and the N-zi party Russia:USSR, Cuba:Fidel Castro’s regime, China: Mao’s regime, Japan: Taking over the pacific and being an axis power in WWII, Venezuela: becoming a socialist regime, England: Mistreatment of African subjects, Columbia: helping the Roman Catholic Church kill 60,000 Protestants and non-Catholics from 1949-1953, Australia: Originally being a prison. Note: I didn’t put slavery for the US because most countries have slave labor in their history.
don't just bring up America's slavery past for your stupid agenda. like you said, every country has a dark past. European enslaving their own, African enslaving their own, Asian enslaving their own, more powerful factions oppress the weaker factions, big fish eats small fish. it was always like that. before the Europeans take over the natives' land, and the Americans expand Westward and kill the natives, the native tribes were fighting each other and taking over lands of other tribes. THIS IS THE NATURE OF MAN
What an EVIL man! This needs to be taught in schools. It also shows the importance of superior science and technology. We can see King Leopold's cruel legacy, even today. ☹️ BTW, I like this animated format. Thank you for sharing this!
So you see people, don't let the anti-wokers fool you. Racism is more then just being annoyed cz someone said the "n-word"...it goes deeper than that So when people are quick to snuff out a racist, it's not craziness or paranoia, it's cz these people have a dark and bloody history on their hands. If we ignore them and leave them to their own devices,then who knows what they'll do NEXT. Hurt me once,shame on you but hurt me twice then...I have no one to blame but myself. So I can't let it happen again
It's not true though. Leopold leased the lands to various companies, ABIR being the most notorious one, and they self ruled their domains. They were the ones using the force republique and mercenaries against the population. Leopold was thousands of kilometers away, and never even went there.
@BamBamGT1 no he was a murderer. And committed a genocide of people. Don't try to downplay this.. I hope his a** burn in he'll. If you don't like black folks then just say that s***
Glad to see someone reminding about the genocide in Congo. It is just mind-boggling how it is basically an unknown event for 90% of the public, while you can hear about 'the other genocide' about a dozen a times a day in all possible media, and there are still new generations of people trying to milk it.
Read an interesting piece where they had debunked the idea that Europeans were wandering around Africa capturing slaves. This piece seems to reinforce that stating until modern(ish) medicine could help defend against malaria and other diseases in the late 1800’s to early 1900’s, going to Africa was like going to the moon for Europeans on account of how dangerous it was. Much like how another commenter stated, we have a distorted historical view on who was capturing and selling their fellow Africans. What the Europeans did with the slaves is horrific and terrible, but from a historical point, they were not the ones doing the capturing for the most part. I believe the Portuguese were the only ones actually making Forays somewhat into Africa. What’s particularly grotesque, is that there are more slaves in the world today, than there were back then. Enjoy your Nikes and cheap apple products.
This by far is “hands down “a very good and detailed accountability of what went on in the Congo! “Simple History” deserves a high five clearly he’s doing awesome and does not need a hand in his work! This was like a 19 century “Handed-Camera” hands up for this channel it’s going places hands down!
An interesting note that everyone should know is that the Congo was solely under the control of King Leopold, not Belgium. All the major European empires during the scramble for Africa wanted the Congo but decided it would be a “neutral” state, meaning that every European nation could take its resources equally under the control of King Leopold.
@@Enlightened-rd1jz 1. You're attacking a strawman. A combination of negligence from Belgium and belgian companies caused the deaths, and literally anyone who knows the topic knows this. Read the following as well In “Congo: The Epic History of a People,” Belgian historian David Van Reybrouck notes the exceptional cruelty of the infamous Belgian commander Leon Fievez. In his first four months of service alone, he was responsible for punitive expeditions that killed 572 people. In one expedition, he oversaw the looting and burning of more than 160 villages in a matter of days. Over the course of the expedition, nearly 1,350 people were killed and crops were destroyed. Van Reybrouck also notes that Fievez had the most profitable operation in the region. Furthermore, focusing solely on the regular army overlooks some of the main sources of violence. The coercive apparatus of the rubber industry was supplemented by irregular local forces. Some of the worst atrocities happened within the territory of concessionary companies like the Anglo-Belgian India Rubber company (ABIR). The company adopted a post system under which a couple of European administrators extracted rubber from the populace using a local militia of 60-100 sentries made up from native Congolese or former slaves. And because severed hands were accepted in lieu of tax, some Congolese would fight small wars with each other just to make up the difference in their unreasonably high rubber quotas.
King Leopold was one of those people that sat on a chair so high that he didn't see anyone suffering, and he certainly didn't want to climb down to see it for himself.
Yeah, people often say communism or fascism kill a lot of people but they forget that historically most people were killed and abused under capitalist systems
as a Belgian i hate that the atrocities performed in the Congo are not taught AT ALL in schools. Many people refuse to believe this ever happened and just ignore, i only somewhat learned what happened in the Congo when i was 12- 13 years old.
realy where do you go to schooll we where thaught this even tho it wasnt in much detail i believe when i was twelve or thirteen we recieved lessons about this maybe we just had a diffrent book.
@@trevorslinkard31 tbh the British were the first to ban slavery, in fact Arabic Nations TODAY still practice modern day Slavery on Blacks and indians and nobody talks about it, there are videos EVERYWHERE of Arabs in recent years treating Africans/Indians maids and service workers as LESS then Human. Nobody talks about it.
@@trevorslinkard31 Well considering that's been the foreign policy of every nation on planet earth since the dawn on humanity 50,000BC or longer. Then yes his point is entirely correct this does make it look tame. you think Europeans never suffered warfare? why do you think we got so good at it...
To some degree, I can agree yet we can't justify a thief. For example, a rubber plantation company in Sumatra island, Indonesia around early 1920s (at the time colonized by Dutch), most of the workers work from sunrise to sunset (roughly from 5:30 AM to 18:00 PM) not counting the time needed to walk from barracks to the plantation and vice versa (around more than 4 hours in total). With little payment that can only enough to fill their stomatch and very exshausting work, the company encourage an 'entertaiment': gambling, and lend some money to the workers for it. If you won you can earn enough money to buy new clothes, but if you lose...you know how it ends. Basically a devil trap encouraged by Dutch company at the time to secure they manpower and earn maximum profit.
Then you haven't read about the Ustasha genocide in fascist Croatia and what beasts they were in slaughtering and raping children and babies and old people.I recommend you to search it up, you'll be disgusted by reading it, search up massacre of Prebilovci, it was really demonic how they killed teacher and 120 of her children in classroom,but hey, at least you'll learn something new.
According to Geohive the population of Africa in 1885 was 126.5 million and the average population density was around 10.83/mi2. If we map this population density onto the area of the Congo free state (905 000 mi2) we can estimate the population at the time to have been around 9.8 million. However we can presume the population density of Congo to be less than this, given how much of it was jungle compared to other parts of Africa. If we look at the African countries where the government had actual population records in 1900 and map the average population density (9.439/mi2) onto the area of the Congo free state, we get 8.542 million. However, the areas of Africa that had enough bureocracy to conduct a census would naturally have higher population densities than the parts of jungle that did not, so this might be an overestimate. Patrick Manning estimated the population of the region of "Loango" (which includes the areas of modern day Congo as well as parts of Cameroon and all of Uganda) to have been 7.487 million in 1850 and 10.555 million in 1955. This would give us a population of around 8.561 million in 1885 for a region far larger than the area ruled by the Congo free state. In the report "A Hundred Year (1890 - 1990) Database For Integrated Environmental Assessments" Dr. C.G.M. Klein Goldewijk and Dr. J.J. Battjes estimated an increase in the population of Congo from 1890 to 1910 at an average 2.3% growth rate per year. They also estimated the population of Congo to be 4.103 million in 1900. The claim that the population of Congo would have been 20 million before Leopold II has clearly been exaggerated due to the preconception that 10 million had perished afterwards.
According to the Belgian Embassy in London "the cultivation of rubber was geographically restricted to the equatorial rainforest around the northern Congo basin and, to a lesser extent, to the Kasai region (totaling one fifth of Congo's territory). The estimated 10 million deaths for the whole of Congo cannot be ascribed to the Belgians, simply because at the beginning of the colonization they were not even present or active in the whole of Congo". This also calls into question whether it was possible for agents of the Congo Free State to manage to kill half of the population of Congo, whatever it may have been, since it's unclear whether they even had access to half the population. Throughout it's rule, the organization that was tasked with enforcing the rubber quotas and which was accused of mass murder was the Force Publique. According to Wikipedia "by the end of 1891, the force had 60 officers, 60 non-commissioned officers, and 3,500 black soldiers. Friendly tribes and militias were often used to help exert control over the outermost parts of the Free State. By 1900, the Force Publique numbered 19,000 men". At any given time the number of Europeans in the Congo Free State administration was roughly 200 versus around 13 - 15,000 indigenous troops. The reported strength of the Force Publique during the Congo-Arab war of 1892 was 10,000. Could this number of men be able to kill 10 million people? Also, many of the gory pictures from the Congo Free State era were taken of casualties of the war. An independent council created by Italy, Switzerland and Belgium (Belgians weren't on Leopold's side since Congo was deemed his personal property and there'd been plenty of public outcry on the matter, the parliament was entirely against it) conducted investigations in Congo and released periodical reports on the subject called "The Official Bulletin of the Congo Free State". They reported that the human rights abuses occurred almost exclusively when the Force Publique detachments were sent out WITHOUT a European commander and that the presence of European commanders was what prevented the atrocities. The investigation claimed that the mutilations were done by indigenous members of the force, particularily when the European officer was absent from the patrol. It is also known that limb mutilations had occurred in Africa before and after the Congo Free State and was by no means their policy. The argument of the investigation that condemned Leopold II was that his government wasn't proactive enough in stopping these atrocities and may have facilitated them by arming members of certain tribes who had long-running hatreds for other tribes. Looking again at the number of European Force Publique members versus the number of Africans we must conclude that every atrocity must have been committed overwhelmingly by the indigenous troops. There is no record of an order or a policy of mutilation, raping of the Congolese, or killing without cause.
Also, about the rubber quota. Throughout history, labor rendered to the State has been the most common form of taxation since most people didn't have currency. Since most people in Congo didn't have currency, the rubber quota was a way to collect taxes from the population. Leopold's tax policy was that no man's tax share should be more than 40 hours of work per month.
@@OllihuAkbar Finally somebody says this. It also makes no sense that millions of people were killed by Leopold, because the main motive of the Congo free state was profit trough rubber plantations, and dead people can’t be put to work.
Western colonialism was far darker than WWII. they had hundreds of years of slave trade, genocide, for example, when Spain conquered South America, many civilizations and people perished, I mean people born in that era lived like that from birth to death. And Western colonial rule is still the root cause of conflict in Africa and Middle East Asia. I feel that people always only talk about war crimes in WWll and never mention European crimes before that.
@Frosch Führer It's just an example, btw I'm not saying America is perfect, far from it but the world tends to ignore the terrible things Europe has done, and continue doing, not many people even know about the Congo Free State
Stalin was a great leader who industrialized the nation, improved the quality of life and made USSR a superpower, without Stalin, USSR would have 50 years behind and if you think that Stalin killed many, then explain me how did the population of ussr keep growing?
@@SteveOmnipotent Stalin was Asian incompetent imbecile that traded 27 million people for Königsberg. Population kept growing due to high birth rates and annexed territories. It would have been even higher without him.
A sadly deceased old friend called Jim, explained how he and his regiment (British and Irish peacekeeping/liberators) went to Belgian Congo and most were slaughtered at first sight. He never fully recovered mentally he eventually left the army, returned to Ireland and eventually settled in Slough, he passed away on natural causes in 2023.
I always find the fact that entire hands were cut off to be an odd one. Even Leopold himself knew this was counterproductive. Can't have good workers if they're missing limbs
He didnt order it The troops had been deep in tribal hatred and used the chance to get revenge Also everything the modern world hear about this came from a rothschild
Compatriot It's because they had plenty of workers. Not to be racist or anything but when my grandfather visited Belgian Congo in 1954 he said they treated him as some kind of god.
I’m from Belgium , but i am really embarrassed about this. I understand if you are angry because of this situation but I’m angry too about it. I am really sorry about this.
One of the journalists that exposed Leopold was the Irishman Roger Casement, who would later also divulge the similar abuse of Amerindians in northern Peru. He would be executed in 1916 for trying to procure weapons for Irish revolutionaries from the Germans, despite previously receiving a knighthood for his journalistic work. Before his execution many people called for his repreive, including Arthur Conan Doyle and George Bernard Shaw, but they all went silent after the British authorities circulated photos of pages from Casement's diaries that revealed that he was gay. Truly a fascinating individual.
King Leopold’s crimes in the Congo need more awareness, some of the worst atrocities in human history
So true
BuT jEw ArE oPpReSsEd BiGot
Why does someone named A Rober have this exact same comment? With, "Very good job fellows!!" added?
For real man
@@Robert_2001 The cruelty natives show each other does not excuse the cruelty of their colonizers. They are both cruel.
I agree. Native people's aren't all sunshine and rainbows before colonizers arrive. Humans have this tendency to be terrible to each other. It's probably why Leopold's Congo got so many African soldiers who were completely desensitized to everything and were willing to do all these horrible acts. Nothing really changed for them whether their leader was black or white.
Everyone always speaks of colonialism on the subject of Africa. I am from Nigeria and I would like to request more to show the prominent yet overlooked role of other African nations on enabling the trans Atlantic slave trade. Particularly by the Madinka tribe.
Slavery had always existed in western Africa but I wouldn't say any one particular tribe specifically "enabled" it. That was more so the Europeans whose demand for slave labor caused the market to sky rocket higher than it was before
That’s a video I have yet to see anyone talk about good idea
@@Spongebrain97 But one would think the demand for slave labor wouldn't be so high if other African tribes weren't so willing to enslave their fellow man to sell off to the Europeans for all their goodies, don't'cha think?
@@Spongebrain97 It's still a good topic to explore. Not every single featured topic has to be about Europe.
@@ravensthatflywiththenightm7319 and those topics are readily available. Just make sure it's in good faith and not aimed to absolve the Europeans of their blame as well.
"Whenever I hear anyone arguing for slavery, I feel a strong impulse to see it tried on him personally." - Abraham Lincoln
Vae victis.
Lincoln was a hypocritical POS
If you are racist we will attack you with the north.
Abraham Lincoln
@Sahib he did
@@fascistwhiterunguard7919 source
As a Congolese, I'm deeply wounded by our history and the result of it. Thank you for putting our stories out there🙌🙌💫
Yes but at the end of the day; the congolese sold out the congolese
Much support from Belgium, time to face the facts and remember history...
As a Belgian i am glad to see more attention to this black pages in Belgian/Congolese history and teach to our children that every country has his devils... (Like mr.Purtler is holding africa hostage in terms of grain supply...)
Many warm greetings
@@yeahwhateveridc6062 what would they do about it. It was a matter of life or death. You either do what the master says or you join the slaves.
@@francismusali676 naa bro it wasn’t like that.
@@francismusali676 and i’d rather die than sell out my own folk
This is absolutely horrific. It’s hard to wrap my head around the ability for some people to easily treat other people like they aren’t even humans.
@Al lol shut up
@Al 2/10 bait
@Al Yo
@@triangulum8869 it’s not true, but that’s actually what they thought
Maybe next time defend your land better so you don't get invaded and enslaved, history is written by the victor
According to some Portuguese Historians, King Carlos I of Portugal did write a letter condeming Leopold's actions in the Congo, tho the later migth had been destroyed during WWII
Quite believable. Portuguese Angola shares a long border with the Congo and the happenings there would have led to refugees and other spillover in Portuguese territory.
Considering that portugueses were very into slavery it is shocking they condemned Leopold
@@josuemanuelparejacontreras6004 Portugal in the early 20th century is different than Portugal in the 15th century
@@gluteusmaximus8290 No, they were the same
Both hardcore Catholic
Get your facts straight
@@catholicracialist776 ok el suneo Portugal still used slavery in the 20th century
I've seen plenty of stupid comments saying Belgians don't know about this.
I am from Belgium and here is the truth: It is mandatory, it's in the highschool curriculum meaning every highschool student is taught what happened in the Congo. It's mandatory history.
nice at least you belgiums are like Germans you both acknowledge your disastros history and you try to be better while still regreting what you did unlike Britian and France especially the french who are now trying to become the victims by saying that the migrants from their ex-colonies are terriorists and btw the French still has their military and controls the economy of north western Africa mostly their ex-acfrican colonies and hundreds of billions of dollars of the french economy depends on the exploitation and resources that they can easily access and get from their ex-colonies because they have their military there and they literally control their currencies and one time they assasinated a president from one of these countrys for being against france and Britian well Conservatives would just say ''wE ciViLized tHeM'' Too pathetic.
Same thing said to me. Except I am from the Netherlands. Yes we get taught in public school what the Dutch did to their slaves.
@@hishamalaker491 Honesty Arabs didn't teach about their slavery history, until today, they didn't mention it even in the media, and I never hear a single cleric criticizes slavery, and the general idea the slavery is OK, specially on gulf state country, since they considered everyone work there as their own slave or (servant) they don't say it publicly but the treatment that foreign workers had said it all.
I must have been sleeping in class never knew this
Also in the Netherlands you’re taught this.
This is horrible, it should be taught at schools in the whole world
If you read Heart of Darkness in school like I did it's covered to better understand the book.
nobody cares nerd
I remember having to do a summer book report in high school. I normally hate summer reading, but I’m a huge history nerd and wanted to learn more about the horrors of colonial Africa so I chose to read “Heart of Darkness”.
This was a great video summary of the horrors of the Congo under Leopold II.
Your brave
Most of the atrocities were committed by Africans against other Africans. Most of the force publique men were locals
The horror...
Funded by js
He was a smart but evil Catholic king
I’ve been watching these videos for a while, and there’s something I’ve noticed that i really like. From the time they’ve started this channel (in this current form) they’ve stuck with the same art style, yet evident in this video, improved the quality and detail of the animations too. Amazing channel
I like they pointed out in the amination that the force publique were mostly locals fighting for Leopold.
Copy paste comment
@3:54 and @4:50 lmfao
GREAT animation 👌🏽
Tjjwjitjtfjfijfjrjrjdjfjtottjjefiyft😄🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🚴🚴🚴🐃🐃🐃🐃🐃🐃🐂🐘🐘🐘🐘🕹️🕹️🕹️🎰🎰🎰🎰🎰🖌️🖌️🎹👑👑💎💎💎👑👑👑👑👑👑💎💎💎🔭🔭🔭🔭🔭🔍📣📣📣📢📢📢📯🔔🔔🔔📿📿📿📿🔑
@@sheilaindaikitan1143 I feel really tempted to report this account for some reason and I can't explain why.
Belgium in Europe: “ I’m weak don’t let him kill me”
Belgium in Africa: “ POWER, UNLIMITED POWER “
“ I’m weak don’t let him kill me”. No need to be so degrading ok. (no offence)
@@acesgames5318 Have you ever watched star wars?
@@Hiroheim definitely no
I'm too weak…
@@Hiroheim Yeah why?
@@acesgames5318 Woosh!
One correction to this: Rubber trees are not found in the Congo basin, but the vines are. One of the reasons for Leopold pushing the native population to such extremes was precisely because tree cultivation in Brazil and Malaysia was vastly more efficient. To remain competitive using the inferior wild vines of the Congo basin, he simply cranked up the exploitation.
The main problem is that to extract rubber from the vines, they have to be slashed, killing them. The more rubber was produced from the wild vines by a settlement, the more the immediate forest was denuded of them, meaning the harvesters had to travel further and further and spend longer looking for the remaining vines. Rather than waste resources trying to cultivate the vines or introducing rubber trees, it was simpler to just threaten and terrorise the people into increasingly desperate acts to meet the quota... though in the end production still declined and terror and murder became ends in and of themselves.
Did leopold ever think of just importing rubber trees from other parts of the world into Congo? Still would be an invasive species but at least they would have an actual way to cultivate rubber instead of just doing inefficient stuff
@@tiramisu7544 There was some half hearted attempts to introduce the rubber tree, as well as an attempt to cultivate the wild vine in plantations, but the Free State had very very few European administrators present on the ground, let alone botanical experts who were familiar with establishing and maintaining viable plantations. The Belgian colonial population in the Free State era was never more than a few thousand across the entire country, so the most plantations failed, and the others never became significant enough to replace the "terrorise the locals into servitude" approach. It's worth remembering this was literally a private estate, not a state-backed colonial venture with the full force and resources of a government at it's disposal.
Really good to see the diversity of subjects covered by this channel. Keeping such topics like this accessable for younger generations is important.
"Around about 1900 the Europeans had learned that quinine was a useful defense against Malaria." Only off by about 300 years. Perhaps quinine was not fully understood, isolated, or synthesized in a form resembling modern pharmacological use until about 1900, but quinine was identified by Europeans as medicinal in the 1500s and as early as the 1600s it was used in Europe specifically as an anti-malaria treatment.
Well said.
Eh, it wasn't widely used and understood by all doctors until the mid 19th century, but that still is 50 years off from their timeline.
🤓
London had malaria troubles for a disturbingly long time.
@@Tinil0 contrarians gotta contrary
Man this is horrible. I can't even imagine something like that happening to my own family members right infront of my eyes, even though I'm from a place which was stricken by war for nearly a decade that resulted in numerous deaths. These crimes need more awareness and the public should know more about the vile history of colonials like leopold just as much as we learned about hitler.
Which country?
@@theonef570 judging by his user probably Syria or iraq
@@Jahabbeez
İt's probably the İran-İraq war since it lasted almost a decade i.e. 1980-1988 - keep in mind that Shah Reza (the king of İran from 1941-1979 who lost power after the İslamic Revolution happened) was installed by the C--İ--A plus the Brits
@3:54 lmfao.
@4:50 lmfao.
One of my favorite books, King Leopolds Ghost, is an amazing novel that explains many of the aspects of Leopold's Congo and is definitely worth a read.
I have that book and my dad read it too I really like it
Ima look it up
This channel has taught me more about history than my highschool.
Looking at how public schools are run I'm not surprised
true tho
And like your highschool, it's unwise to take everything at face value.
The American education system is horrible. Its sad. As great and wealthy a nation like America is, it fails educating its citizens. College is too expensive and all kids care about are grades and passing classes. They don’t even care about LEARNING. Ask an American citizen what the capital of Greenland is? Majority WONT know. They don’t even know capitals of states within the US! Insane!! But we know y= mx + b right?!
same
By Congo Free State, Leopold actually meant **free real estate**
But it was free only from mercy ad human rights
I'm gonna leave a comment here when this blows up
.
@@eliaass6598 😇
Fun fact: In Germany we call someone who like to cut off hands of others a Belgian.
German humour living up to the myth it seems lmao
Classic Kraut. I'm sure we also have a nickname for someone who likes to start wars over nothing...
Germans should be the last ones criticizing the cruelty of others
@@scorpionz982 Shut up please. Germany has moved on from its past
I thought Germany only saw Belgium as a shortcut to Paris.
Leopold Treats congos like I treat Minecraft villagers
"Leopold II, against the savages and masturbation."
What a nice punch line.
"punch line"
Was the pun intended?
I think germany is now building the Leopold II A7 already
@@AbuHajarAlBugatti LEOPARD not leopold lol
@@gentlemanzackp6591 nah it’s definitely Leopold II for English, maybe your language is different?
There's another aspect you missed. To meet the impossible quotas, the tribes were forced to steal from each other, and this resulted in a large portion of the deaths that occurred.
They were not forced, they chose to.
@@PROVOCATEURSK "Working harder" wasn't an option. Their "choice" was "get their hand chopped off" or "steal". And that only made things worse; if you were a tribe that was able to gather enough rubber, but 2 days before you were supposed to deliver the rubber a neighboring tribe stole your rubber, what options did you have? Get your hands lopped off or steal from another neighbor. And thus the tribes ended up murdering each other to avoid being the one being murdered by the Belgians. This wasn't even ruthlessly efficient; tribes spending all their time fighting weren't gathering rubber. It was just inhumane for the sake of being inhumane.
@@PROVOCATEURSK what? U crazy🥴
@@PROVOCATEURSK they chose to when facing against the threat of torture, mutilation, or death. AKA, they were FUCKING FORCED
Sounds like my first job. Wagies stole each others "load" to get more hours. You got more hours by being busy ofc
Man, the coloring and animations of your videos have really improved over time. Fantastic work, and Simple History has one of the best narrators I've heard. I'm glad Simple History is a thing.
I mean, you can see people getting whipped better? Okay.
@@l.j.1029 Stfu pls he was talking abt the animation as a whole
@@l.j.1029 lmao he didn’t mean it like that hahahaha
@@l.j.1029 What a stupid comment
@@l.j.1029 he didn’t mean the whipping part but the animation on recent videos seem better smoothed and detailed
Remember, Kaiser Wilhelm II once addressed Leopold as a "completely evil man".
And hitler? Just asking.
Kaiser Wilhelm II is also a "completely evil man".
Very good job fellows!!
King Leopold’s crimes in the Congo need more awareness, some of the worst atrocities in human history.
Blacks seethe while euro chads impregnate their (Austrolipethicus) w*men
Some men wants to watch the world burn. But I in the other hand want to see the Oppressive King Leopold ll's Statue burn in the modern era
@@ghelmet2701 Agreed
Agreed. I stick to American history up to the end of Vietnam and had never heard of this man until this video.
The sub Saharan slave trade was 80 times greater then the Atlantic slave trade. Interesting , are you aware of the Arab conquest from the seventh century on. Have you ever known of a high population of Africans in the Middle East? There’s a big reason why.
3:30 those water graphics are great! you guys have been working hard
For once, people calling him worse than Hitler would be accurate and applicable.
ID Say worse than stalin, maybe even pol pot.
Long live belgium🇧🇪
@@sjarel_karel2845 nice
@@sjarel_karel2845 edgelord lol
Only person worse besides Stalin is Mao Zedong with 50-80 million deaths
I wonder how animals like Leopold of Belgium were left to wonder free in Europe and die a natural death after all these atrocities..
The thing is when it comes to anything that won't be a big issue or tragedy for them, they just won't care at all. I mean look what the Americans did to the native.
Dont call him an animal thats offensive to animals
We have so called "civilised" beings just like Leopold roaming free, spilling their bile every day of the week. Wether it be in House of Commons, House of Lords, Congress in USA and other so called "governments". They just speak smarter, faster and deny and project. They lobby , they own and they control. They cancel the voices of others and they are sadly ramping up their carnage on our streets and on streets thousands of miles away with little or no effective opposition.
He will go to Hades.
Belgium history in Europe: ✨😊☮️ 💕🤗
Belgium history in Africa: 👹🔪🔥😈🩸
Belgium is a made up country and rightfully part of the Netherlands but stolen by the French by a phoney proxy revolution that caused the French minority to oppress the Dutch majority. Leopold was a stinky frog and not Dutch.
For the ~150 years Belgium existed in Europe, it has really only been invaded by Germany and form the EU.
But in Africa...
@@laboskie349 well yeah but before belgium actually became a country the rest of europe all fought for it
The romans, french, Dutch, spanjards...
classic victim behaviour I would say.
Later commiting the same violences you had to go through...happens a lot individually speaking: abused children becoming abusing parents.
Sad but true.
@@stavros327
Don't forget the British
It was in Britain that the country was officially founded as a new state Belgium
Thank you for doing this video, horrific acts like these somehow seem to be forgotten about and controversial.
Bc it's made up lies.
@@carolinus7566you guys love to say every time
@@carolinus7566 proud and ignorant
"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." - Alexis Henri Brialmont
All thanks to the js
As an African l'm so sad for everyone who had to go through this 😞
I'm American and tbh same...
We Congolese have faced a lot. We continue to strive for a better future, like our father Lumumba dreamed of. Long live Congo and one day it’s children will enjoy the prosperity of their nation. 🇨🇩✊🏾
please stop giving birth
There is a university in his name in Moscow. Very famous and respected.
Blacks seethe while euro chads impregnate their (Austrolipethicus) w*men
🇧🇪🦁
Hope for the best for your country you went through a lot
"The future is in your hands"
"No more hands, no more voting"
"Chop him!"
To be honest, this video was quite and very disturbing to me.
Especially the drowning with rocks.
Good it's supposed to disturb you, colonialism is fucked up
6:57 Imagine Your Father as The Guy There And You Being The Son
@Kosorou Gaming Archives are you mentally ill ?? You need some help .
@Kosorou Gaming Archives can’t get mad at history bro
@Kosorou Gaming Archives shut up lmao.
People are putting all the accusations on Belgium but let's not forget it was mostly our own African brothers who assisted and carry out these atrocities. These men had a choice to treat their fellow Africans with dignity
Who were that group of Africans that assisted the Belgiums? What country was they from?
It was really a sad moment in Africa's history.
Compared to the rest of the world, the entire history of Africa is pretty sad and pathetic frankly.
@@my8thaccount236 True
@@my8thaccount236 I beg to differ the 1300 - 1500 saw the rise of many african kingdoms such as Mali , Mutapa and Kongo who even sent a ambassador to meet with the pope before shortly falling ill in my opinion if Africa wasn't colonized during this period it would of been much better
Blacks seethe while euro chads impregnate their (Austrolipethicus) w*men
It was
Hey love your videos, was wondering if you could ever possibly cover the Japanese unit 731 atrocities of WW2. The experiments undertaken there were horrific but I don’t think many people know about it, would be awesome to see one of your videos on it. Thanks, keep up the great work!
Lets just do another Video on Nuclear Holocaust, Im sure there are over 100,000 resons why you could agree.
anyone that knows about WW2 knows about this.
@@ambatuBUHSURK Maybe experts but casual readers dont know about unit 731
@@maxfrankow1238 yeah even I don't know what they did
@@noktinnkynoktinnky1329 oh they sent people outside with no clothes in winter and then poured boiling water on them they forcibly impregnated people and opened their body to remove it put people in a pressure chamber until their eyes poped out and also infected them with deadly illnesses
A similar episode would take place later in the Peruvian-Colombian border, when company "Casa Arana" exploited the Huitoto natives as slave workforce and committed genocide against them.
Oye, yo soy peruano y ni enterado de eso :0, a investigar
I just read about it, and the similarities are striking, even the handcutting.
Guau nunca aprendió de esas noticias tristes...
Can you guys do a video about the nanking massacre? I think it is one of the most brutal atrocities in the second world war, so I think y’all should cover it
I agree, The Nanking Massacre along with many other horrible atrocities that occurred throughout history are one of the few events that have been “shadowed” in history or not given as much attention to as they should.
Made me sad for a couple days fr when I first learned about it… I was around 8 years old but still
I just couldn’t contemplate how the veterans were walking around still telling the stories as if it were nothing
And also Jallianwala Bagh Massacre in India by the British on 13th April 1919
Belgium in history books: 🇧🇪😁🍫🍻
Belgium in Congolese history books: 😈😈😈😈
Not funny 😐
@@bigboioncrack1370 very funny
Not belgium learn some crap .The Congo Free State, also known as the Independent State of the Congo (French: État indépendant du Congo), was a large state and absolute monarchy in Central Africa from 1885 to 1908. It was privately owned by and in a personal union with Leopold II of Belgium; it was not a part of the Kingdom of Belgium, of which he was the constitutional monarch. Leopold
@@commando2113 You are acting as if the Belgian administration and government didn't know what Leopold 2, who was their heda of the state and King, was doing in Congo. Lol! You know what that reminds me of? Europeans accusing Germans not knowing of what was happening under the NSDAP government. Lol!
@@erich2432 if you would look up thing's then you know that they did not know about it because the murc's did that brit's and french and the force public and the king does not own belgium or rule's it he is yust the gaurdian of the peopel but hey it's time that you make a new account this one is to old troll
Ah yes the Monarch who had a hands off approach to ruling.
Ayy, nice one.
But he needed "hands in the Congo"
but that was bit late
💀💀💀💀💀
Pun intended, but makes sense.
There is so much atrocity that needs to be talked about. Those of Leopold II, or of the British Empire in the Bay of Bengal when, in order to destroy the local silk industry, they cut off the fingers of girls so that they cannot weave.
Thanks for talking about these things, you do a great good.
We like to think we’re more civilized but such monsters still exist. As long as people think they are better because of the land they were born on, there will be atrocities against people born on foreign soil
There will be attrocities so long as the Strong are Civilized
And as long as people think their religion is the way of life that others should live by.
Studied this at Arizona State in 2008. In full detail .... thank you for the video.
Along with crt and anti western crap?
@@jb894 unfortunately yes. Infamously remember going to school woth foreign students for the first time. Group of Persians shared with me their education on the crusades since they heard I went to a catholic school. Which was the beginning to the end of my relationship with religion. But I learned King Leopold II's story from a Hall Lecture that wasn't a elective. Ironically a student from Belgium gave the lecture.
With*
@@Primetiime32 So... Are you a BLM activists anyway?
@@johnalejandro6392 no
Seeing it animated make me forget there’s actually pictures from this time in history
The pictures were actually extremely important in reporting all this to the rest of the world. Back then communication was obviously much slower and the pictures really showed people what was happening
@@jorenbaplu5100 Makes you wonder though, why would the administrators be taking and sending pictures of the atrocities if they were the ones responsible for them?
This is unjustified violence against inocent people, men, women and children,unfortunate sons of Congo, unfortunate sons of Africa. Belgium MUST repair this, for it is unacceptable, intolérable and unforgettable. See What can human beings (so called White,Europeans) inflict to other human beings (Africans) because they are simply black. This is unforgivable.
Also They Needed Ruber
You’re a bit late, Leopold II has been dead for a long long time
I'm glad these and similar stories are getting more attention. Technology allows for mass distribution of information/knowledge. In this case it is being used for positive aspects. Keep up the great work!
I'm not glad these stories are getting more attention. Opportunists all over the world only use the information as a weapon to attack and dismantle western civilizations with, while completely ignoring their own mistakes that are often still ongoing in modern times. Europeans should stop being self critical and apologetic for their mistakes in history. No one else is.
It's sad that some people in the comments are trying to defend or deny this.
@@anonymoustroll4195 why acknowledge it though. All it's gonna do is lead to more suffering. And thus the big lie of history is taught. History does nothing for us. We just fucking end up repeating the same mistakes.
@@anonymoustroll4195 the force publique consisted of local militiamen under colonial leadership. Most of the atrocities were committed by locals against locals
@@Enlightened-rd1jz They weren't locals , many of the forces came from west or East Africa and if there were local forces many of them weren't being paid neither did they get to keep the land .
It’s incredibly sad how school isn’t teaching us these things. Thank you Simple History.
its probably cuz some weak kids would faint during the lessons but i agree
@@JoedoeemMore like the white supremacists don’t want their crimes exposed to younger generations. As least that’s how it is for U.S. schools located in red states these days.
Disgusting. May all those who extorted and manipulated these poor men and women rot for an eternity and their soul be diminished.
"disgusting" "I want a fellow human being to suffer endless pain for eternity" lol
Yes everyone should know this, and that Africans are still doing similar things in Africa right now, be it law enforcement or militias. There's no need for white shaming, as the Africans do it to themselves for millennia as well - which is a fact.
@Kosorou Gaming Archives aahh...yeah..of course there's always someone denying atrocities smdh
"I don't believe you I believe the cartoon!"
@Kosorou Gaming Archives this is literally the affects of our family. The reason why we are in Europe. You think I wanted to be be brought up here? In a racist environment?
“Those who deny freedom to others, deserve it not for themselves.”
-Abraham Lincoln
ironic coming from the president who had to declare martial law because half the country hated him and ignored him. i believe his approval rating was the lowest out of all presidents at the time, and would remain so until the great depression.
What is more terrifying is that the majority of the regime's soldiers, if I understand right judging by the lecture and animation, were African natives. Many of them might have been from Congo itself possibly.
Dude that would be for instance, as if the Empire of Japan had been offered by Hitler a European territory to control in an alternate history dystopia where the Axis have supposedly won WW2 and they would use people from that area as part of their local armed forces to oppress their fellow Europeans.
I am sorry for the example I just felt like such a scenario would be similar to what happened in Congo under Leopold's reign.
They did not identify as "African," they identified as part of their native tribe which would often go to war with other tribes and yes, cut off their hands. The Belgians had no need to "encourage" cruelty.
i would compare it to the kapos of the concentration camps
"Fellow Europeans" did not see themselves as such in that period. Let me remind you that in 19th century Europe was divided among few great powers with many natons conquered and opressed while fighting for their independence. Do not think about historical times in modern categories, it is a huge mistake which leads to many misconceptions about history.
That's divide and conquer for you. However, Belgian authorities would keep track of exactly how many cartridges those enforcers used by asking them to bring an ear or a hand for each cartridge they used. So the Belgians absolutely required this level of brutality.
The thing is, these people don't see others in the continent as like them. Many outright support the Europeans as to cement their status over the other tribes. Remember the Tutsi and Huti trubes? They are prevalent in the Congo and around it and they don't like each other. The tragedy in Rwanda was the aftermath of that animosity which the Europeans made worse.
Another is Nigeria. The British favored one of the three predominant tribes comprising the country which led to the Biafra war...
Remember every country has its own dark past its important when you study history you remember that fact and keep you personal feelings or bias out of it, it does not matter if it offends your or not history is not ment to coddle your feelings its ment to teach you lessons humanity has learned over the years
Edit: I realize I shouldn't have necessarily said emotions I just mean you shouldn't try to alter or ignore history because it offends people I apologize for that
Some have a darker history than other’s for way more longer than other’s, and I’m not even talking about the minerals etc
I agree that you have to remain in a position to have the best objectivity but trying to minimize the action of some occidental country by saying history is not meant to cuddle your feeling is a little hypocrite first nobody said history was meant to cuddle but rather to remember and learn also even if it offend you or not, even if you have personal feeling or history the point is and I agree with you on that to analyze the historical situation with the best objectivity that being said it doesn’t allow anyone to put under the carpet or ignore the reality of pain and distress those action in the history of humanity have bring to the people and country that lived it.
It is true actually. United States: Segregation/Jim Crow laws, Italy:Mussolini’s regime, Germany:Starting the world wars and the N-zi party Russia:USSR, Cuba:Fidel Castro’s regime, China: Mao’s regime, Japan: Taking over the pacific and being an axis power in WWII, Venezuela: becoming a socialist regime, England: Mistreatment of African subjects, Columbia: helping the Roman Catholic Church kill 60,000 Protestants and non-Catholics from 1949-1953, Australia: Originally being a prison. Note: I didn’t put slavery for the US because most countries have slave labor in their history.
Exactly, history should be about learning, start bickering about it and all you get is more conflict and war.
don't just bring up America's slavery past for your stupid agenda. like you said, every country has a dark past. European enslaving their own, African enslaving their own, Asian enslaving their own, more powerful factions oppress the weaker factions, big fish eats small fish. it was always like that.
before the Europeans take over the natives' land, and the Americans expand Westward and kill the natives, the native tribes were fighting each other and taking over lands of other tribes. THIS IS THE NATURE OF MAN
Gee almost like it’s a human thing and not a race thing
What an EVIL man! This needs to be taught in schools. It also shows the importance of superior science and technology. We can see King Leopold's cruel legacy, even today. ☹️ BTW, I like this animated format. Thank you for sharing this!
So you see people, don't let the anti-wokers fool you. Racism is more then just being annoyed cz someone said the "n-word"...it goes deeper than that
So when people are quick to snuff out a racist, it's not craziness or paranoia, it's cz these people have a dark and bloody history on their hands.
If we ignore them and leave them to their own devices,then who knows what they'll do NEXT.
Hurt me once,shame on you but hurt me twice then...I have no one to blame but myself. So I can't let it happen again
@@youjustgotburned3980 👋🏽👨🏾⚕️✊🏾
It's not true though. Leopold leased the lands to various companies, ABIR being the most notorious one, and they self ruled their domains. They were the ones using the force republique and mercenaries against the population. Leopold was thousands of kilometers away, and never even went there.
@@BamBamGT1 Really ? I need to research this. Thank you for the information.
@BamBamGT1 no he was a murderer. And committed a genocide of people. Don't try to downplay this.. I hope his a** burn in he'll. If you don't like black folks then just say that s***
I love this channel.
This absolutely disgusting. So very sad thanks for spreading light.
Glad to see someone reminding about the genocide in Congo. It is just mind-boggling how it is basically an unknown event for 90% of the public, while you can hear about 'the other genocide' about a dozen a times a day in all possible media, and there are still new generations of people trying to milk it.
How about the white genocide that is happening right now? Are you doing something to raise awarness about that?
@@mariusss95What genocide? The Genocide of albino Africans?
always glad to see more light being brought to leopold II and the horrors he did more people need to be aware of this
As a black African.... honestly this hurts more than you can imagine .....may karma take charge that's all I'll say
It did, look at what happened to Belgium in ww1 and ww2
Karma doesn't exist but I do find it interesting as to what happened to Belgium in both World Wars.
Read an interesting piece where they had debunked the idea that Europeans were wandering around Africa capturing slaves. This piece seems to reinforce that stating until modern(ish) medicine could help defend against malaria and other diseases in the late 1800’s to early 1900’s, going to Africa was like going to the moon for Europeans on account of how dangerous it was. Much like how another commenter stated, we have a distorted historical view on who was capturing and selling their fellow Africans. What the Europeans did with the slaves is horrific and terrible, but from a historical point, they were not the ones doing the capturing for the most part. I believe the Portuguese were the only ones actually making Forays somewhat into Africa.
What’s particularly grotesque, is that there are more slaves in the world today, than there were back then. Enjoy your Nikes and cheap apple products.
Yes, but you can't use that to push an agenda. A one-sided narrative is much more politically convenient.
You also can’t name every contributing factor or the narrative would go on for all time
"Cheap apple products" cheap to make maybe lol
Different species, different environment. We needed to artificially adapt with medicines and vaccines.
@@garymct6860 "species" bro.....
Words fail to describe how disgusted i am by this...
Why though i thought he did a good job on this video
Blacks seethe while euro chads impregnate their (Austrolipethicus) w*men
🤓Words fail to describe how disgusted I am by this..🤓
This by far is “hands down “a very good and detailed accountability of what went on in the Congo! “Simple History” deserves a high five clearly he’s doing awesome and does not need a hand in his work! This was like a 19 century “Handed-Camera” hands up for this channel it’s going places hands down!
mf thinks he’s smart with these dumb puns ffs
You’re crazy😂
God damn, this is one of the most brutal episodes you guys have done.
The animation is getting better, love the effort put into videos, keep up the great effort
Okay I knew that hands were cut off but holy I did not know that this much happened. Thanks for informing us.
Belgium today be like: “Hmm let’s forget everything and make good chocolate”
no
This was grotesque, brutal and beyond savage. Why this isn’t covered as much as the Holocaust is beyond me.
Was on a Simple History marathon while I'm having my vomiting attacks.. Very therapeutic
Belgium seen in the whole world:🧇🍟☮✌
Belgium in Congo:
An interesting note that everyone should know is that the Congo was solely under the control of King Leopold, not Belgium. All the major European empires during the scramble for Africa wanted the Congo but decided it would be a “neutral” state, meaning that every European nation could take its resources equally under the control of King Leopold.
Also the Force publique soldiers were mostly native under colonial leadership which means these atrocities were committed by natives.
@@Enlightened-rd1jz
1. You're attacking a strawman. A combination of negligence from Belgium and belgian companies caused the deaths, and literally anyone who knows the topic knows this.
Read the following as well
In “Congo: The Epic History of a People,” Belgian historian David Van Reybrouck notes the exceptional cruelty of the infamous Belgian commander Leon Fievez. In his first four months of service alone, he was responsible for punitive expeditions that killed 572 people. In one expedition, he oversaw the looting and burning of more than 160 villages in a matter of days. Over the course of the expedition, nearly 1,350 people were killed and crops were destroyed. Van Reybrouck also notes that Fievez had the most profitable operation in the region.
Furthermore, focusing solely on the regular army overlooks some of the main sources of violence. The coercive apparatus of the rubber industry was supplemented by irregular local forces. Some of the worst atrocities happened within the territory of concessionary companies like the Anglo-Belgian India Rubber company (ABIR). The company adopted a post system under which a couple of European administrators extracted rubber from the populace using a local militia of 60-100 sentries made up from native Congolese or former slaves.
And because severed hands were accepted in lieu of tax, some Congolese would fight small wars with each other just to make up the difference in their unreasonably high rubber quotas.
@Okbok Tregmas And that was very good. The government did an excellent job compared to its predecessor. Thank you for mentioning
This is word for word the top comment
@Okbok Tregmas wherent they forced to occupy it by the other european countries?
Love this channel! Gose more deeper than history books. Can we get ones about The KMS Bismarck and Roke's Drift next please?🙏🙏🙏
Why not our victory at Blood river seeing as you're into that sort of history?
You should look up simmon whistler he covers all things history and more you wont be disappointed by his channels
Deeper as in inaccurate yes, their videos are concise but filled with inaccuracies and misconceptions for easy clickbait.
@@taserrr whatever you say
@@taserrr and I assume with that comment you're a historical expert
King Leopold was one of those people that sat on a chair so high that he didn't see anyone suffering, and he certainly didn't want to climb down to see it for himself.
Belgium in Europe: I'm too weak dont kill me...please...
Belgium in Africa:
UNLIMITED POWAAAAHHHH
germany: shortcut to france
The irony of belguim naming its colony as Congo "free" state.
Simplehistory, can I ask something, you ever upload a brief overview of WW2, can you make a brief overview of a country history?
They did once, as one of their first videos
You could watch Overly Sarcastic Productions for country histories.
Oh man this is what happened when greed is way outta control . . .
Yeah, people often say communism or fascism kill a lot of people but they forget that historically most people were killed and abused under capitalist systems
@@jorenbaplu5100 no not really capitalism is flwed too and someone or some group will abused it for their own gains
Taiwan
The world is still the same, the greed is way worse now.
Belgium in Europe: Nooo Germany pls don't eat me
Belgium in Africa:
Germany in Namibia: Pot labelling the kettle black.
Thank you for this information . It obtained all of what we needed . ✌🏽
This is why "the good ol' days" is a questionable statement
"ah, the good old days"👴🏻
@@KChow-nb1pz “Shieet, my hands bruh” 🧑🏿🦱
Colonialism was a mistake, though not the reasons commonly cited.
@@LilNeenerMcWomanRaypist LOL
I think what's more questiomable is you thinking this happened in living memory.
as a Belgian i hate that the atrocities performed in the Congo are not taught AT ALL in schools. Many people refuse to believe this ever happened and just ignore, i only somewhat learned what happened in the Congo when i was 12- 13 years old.
realy where do you go to schooll we where thaught this even tho it wasnt in much detail i believe when i was twelve or thirteen we recieved lessons about this maybe we just had a diffrent book.
every high school in TSO ASO history class has the congo and the crimes in detail its an entire simester usualy in the fifth or 6th year
who are the people that refuse to believe this happened, i'm pretty sure most people accept that this happened
Jeez the other colonial powers were pretty tame by comparison
There is nothing tame about the theft of one’s land and the destruction of one’s culture at the expense of one’s greed.
@@trevorslinkard31 what he said.
@@trevorslinkard31 tbh the British were the first to ban slavery, in fact Arabic Nations TODAY still practice modern day Slavery on Blacks and indians and nobody talks about it, there are videos EVERYWHERE of Arabs in recent years treating Africans/Indians maids and service workers as LESS then Human. Nobody talks about it.
@@trevorslinkard31 Well considering that's been the foreign policy of every nation on planet earth since the dawn on humanity 50,000BC or longer.
Then yes his point is entirely correct this does make it look tame. you think Europeans never suffered warfare? why do you think we got so good at it...
To some degree, I can agree yet we can't justify a thief.
For example, a rubber plantation company in Sumatra island, Indonesia around early 1920s (at the time colonized by Dutch), most of the workers work from sunrise to sunset (roughly from 5:30 AM to 18:00 PM) not counting the time needed to walk from barracks to the plantation and vice versa (around more than 4 hours in total). With little payment that can only enough to fill their stomatch and very exshausting work, the company encourage an 'entertaiment': gambling, and lend some money to the workers for it. If you won you can earn enough money to buy new clothes, but if you lose...you know how it ends. Basically a devil trap encouraged by Dutch company at the time to secure they manpower and earn maximum profit.
Congo I love my country.
People just don't know the history and stories, we came along way
God bless 🙏
Pure Brutal, Can you make the Video about the Khmer Rouge and the Cambodian Genocide.
Yep were working on that one
Pol Pot moment
@@Simplehistory we’re* (I’m jk)
ye
time traveler
It may only speak to my own ignorance, but I'm astonished that this is the first time I hear of a genocide on this magnitude.
This is the second genocide I heard that is that happened before 1936 The first being the Armenian genocide
@@titanicbigship i Also Heard That The Armenian Genocide Never Happened..
Idk If the Source is Trustworthy Thought..
Then you haven't read about the Ustasha genocide in fascist Croatia and what beasts they were in slaughtering and raping children and babies and old people.I recommend you to search it up, you'll be disgusted by reading it, search up massacre of Prebilovci, it was really demonic how they killed teacher and 120 of her children in classroom,but hey, at least you'll learn something new.
@@Uros_06_ it was only 600k
@@DraskoCobra Највише 700 хиљада
According to Geohive the population of Africa in 1885 was 126.5 million and the average population density was around 10.83/mi2. If we map this population density onto the area of the Congo free state (905 000 mi2) we can estimate the population at the time to have been around 9.8 million. However we can presume the population density of Congo to be less than this, given how much of it was jungle compared to other parts of Africa.
If we look at the African countries where the government had actual population records in 1900 and map the average population density (9.439/mi2) onto the area of the Congo free state, we get 8.542 million. However, the areas of Africa that had enough bureocracy to conduct a census would naturally have higher population densities than the parts of jungle that did not, so this might be an overestimate.
Patrick Manning estimated the population of the region of "Loango" (which includes the areas of modern day Congo as well as parts of Cameroon and all of Uganda) to have been 7.487 million in 1850 and 10.555 million in 1955. This would give us a population of around 8.561 million in 1885 for a region far larger than the area ruled by the Congo free state.
In the report "A Hundred Year (1890 - 1990) Database For Integrated Environmental Assessments" Dr. C.G.M. Klein Goldewijk and Dr. J.J. Battjes estimated an increase in the population of Congo from 1890 to 1910 at an average 2.3% growth rate per year. They also estimated the population of Congo to be 4.103 million in 1900.
The claim that the population of Congo would have been 20 million before Leopold II has clearly been exaggerated due to the preconception that 10 million had perished afterwards.
According to the Belgian Embassy in London "the cultivation of rubber was geographically restricted to the equatorial rainforest around the northern Congo basin and, to a lesser extent, to the Kasai region (totaling one fifth of Congo's territory). The estimated 10 million deaths for the whole of Congo cannot be ascribed to the Belgians, simply because at the beginning of the colonization they were not even present or active in the whole of Congo".
This also calls into question whether it was possible for agents of the Congo Free State to manage to kill half of the population of Congo, whatever it may have been, since it's unclear whether they even had access to half the population.
Throughout it's rule, the organization that was tasked with enforcing the rubber quotas and which was accused of mass murder was the Force Publique. According to Wikipedia "by the end of 1891, the force had 60 officers, 60 non-commissioned officers, and 3,500 black soldiers. Friendly tribes and militias were often used to help exert control over the outermost parts of the Free State. By 1900, the Force Publique numbered 19,000 men". At any given time the number of Europeans in the Congo Free State administration was roughly 200 versus around 13 - 15,000 indigenous troops. The reported strength of the Force Publique during the Congo-Arab war of 1892 was 10,000. Could this number of men be able to kill 10 million people? Also, many of the gory pictures from the Congo Free State era were taken of casualties of the war.
An independent council created by Italy, Switzerland and Belgium (Belgians weren't on Leopold's side since Congo was deemed his personal property and there'd been plenty of public outcry on the matter, the parliament was entirely against it) conducted investigations in Congo and released periodical reports on the subject called "The Official Bulletin of the Congo Free State". They reported that the human rights abuses occurred almost exclusively when the Force Publique detachments were sent out WITHOUT a European commander and that the presence of European commanders was what prevented the atrocities. The investigation claimed that the mutilations were done by indigenous members of the force, particularily when the European officer was absent from the patrol. It is also known that limb mutilations had occurred in Africa before and after the Congo Free State and was by no means their policy.
The argument of the investigation that condemned Leopold II was that his government wasn't proactive enough in stopping these atrocities and may have facilitated them by arming members of certain tribes who had long-running hatreds for other tribes. Looking again at the number of European Force Publique members versus the number of Africans we must conclude that every atrocity must have been committed overwhelmingly by the indigenous troops. There is no record of an order or a policy of mutilation, raping of the Congolese, or killing without cause.
Also, about the rubber quota. Throughout history, labor rendered to the State has been the most common form of taxation since most people didn't have currency. Since most people in Congo didn't have currency, the rubber quota was a way to collect taxes from the population. Leopold's tax policy was that no man's tax share should be more than 40 hours of work per month.
@@OllihuAkbar Finally somebody says this. It also makes no sense that millions of people were killed by Leopold, because the main motive of the Congo free state was profit trough rubber plantations, and dead people can’t be put to work.
Brilliantly done
Did you minus the area of sahara desert from your Africa size which basically have no people?
Western colonialism was far darker than WWII. they had hundreds of years of slave trade, genocide, for example, when Spain conquered South America, many civilizations and people perished, I mean people born in that era lived like that from birth to death. And Western colonial rule is still the root cause of conflict in Africa and Middle East Asia. I feel that people always only talk about war crimes in WWll and never mention European crimes before that.
Slave: *This task is impossible!*
Guard: *Need a hand?*
4:50
POV: you're watching the average Johnny Test episode.
LMAO
We learnt about this along with colonization in South Africa as part of our syllabus in in South Africa. Really sad what happened.💔
Europe to America: American history is so disgusting, WTF
Europe for the past 500 years alone: MINE!
@Frosch Führer It's just an example, btw I'm not saying America is perfect, far from it but the world tends to ignore the terrible things Europe has done, and continue doing, not many people even know about the Congo Free State
@@HanGhost99 are you comparing the 1880s to today?
In my opinion, Leopold II is in the same level as Hitler/Stalin/Pol Pot.
Lenin was the worst of them all
Completely agree, man was a tyrannical psychopath
Stalin was a great leader who industrialized the nation, improved the quality of life and made USSR a superpower, without Stalin, USSR would have 50 years behind and if you think that Stalin killed many, then explain me how did the population of ussr keep growing?
@@SteveOmnipotent 👍🏿👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏿👍🏿
@@SteveOmnipotent Stalin was Asian incompetent imbecile that traded 27 million people for Königsberg. Population kept growing due to high birth rates and annexed territories. It would have been even higher without him.
This is what made Europe rich, not democracy or capitalism.
A sadly deceased old friend called Jim, explained how he and his regiment (British and Irish peacekeeping/liberators) went to Belgian Congo and most were slaughtered at first sight. He never fully recovered mentally he eventually left the army, returned to Ireland and eventually settled in Slough, he passed away on natural causes in 2023.
I always find the fact that entire hands were cut off to be an odd one. Even Leopold himself knew this was counterproductive. Can't have good workers if they're missing limbs
He didnt order it
The troops had been deep in tribal hatred and used the chance to get revenge
Also everything the modern world hear about this came from a rothschild
Compatriot
It's because they had plenty of workers.
Not to be racist or anything but when my grandfather visited Belgian Congo in 1954 he said they treated him as some kind of god.
@@Danny-vl2ym lol Congolese have inferiority complex
"omg this is horrible"
*uses apple and wears nikes*
I once wrote my first academic essay about the colonial crimes the congo. I like that this dark episode in history dealt about on this channel.
I’m from Belgium , but i am really embarrassed about this. I understand if you are angry because of this situation but I’m angry too about it. I am really sorry about this.
can we get a video on the Iranian genocide in 1917-1919 caused by colonisation and labeled as "famine"
Its truly so appaling that this happened
This is horrible
They only talk about Leopold atrocities in the Congo but before him for many centuries the Arabs were already their enslaving it's people
One of the journalists that exposed Leopold was the Irishman Roger Casement, who would later also divulge the similar abuse of Amerindians in northern Peru. He would be executed in 1916 for trying to procure weapons for Irish revolutionaries from the Germans, despite previously receiving a knighthood for his journalistic work. Before his execution many people called for his repreive, including Arthur Conan Doyle and George Bernard Shaw, but they all went silent after the British authorities circulated photos of pages from Casement's diaries that revealed that he was gay. Truly a fascinating individual.
When being gay was a death sentence, even though most authorities were perverts of the worst sort
@@prophecyrat2965hmmm😅 being gay is still rightfully a death sentence in my country. Most of us don't like that shiid😂
@@prophecyrat2965and yesss, theres some hypocrities but a GOOD amount of us like me live what we preach.
@@JemimaNta you can come out as gay, but there is no hidding your skin color/race.
@@JemimaNta thats good.