1 00:00:00,680 --> 00:00:03,840 Speaker 1: Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of I Heart Radio 2 00:00:04,080 --> 00:00:08,360 Speaker 1: and Grimm and Mild from Aaron Minkie. Listener discretion is advised. 3 00:00:14,800 --> 00:00:19,880 Speaker 1: In eighteen eighty nine, an American journalist named George Washington 4 00:00:20,000 --> 00:00:25,200 Speaker 1: Williams was granted an opportunity to sit down informally with 5 00:00:25,320 --> 00:00:30,880 Speaker 1: King Leopold the second of Belgium. Williams was a groundbreaking 6 00:00:31,000 --> 00:00:34,920 Speaker 1: published historian, but his life was a done fascinating history. 7 00:00:36,080 --> 00:00:39,400 Speaker 1: He was a black man born free in Pennsylvania who 8 00:00:39,520 --> 00:00:42,120 Speaker 1: enlisted to fight for the Union during the Civil War 9 00:00:42,240 --> 00:00:45,680 Speaker 1: when he was just fourteen years old. From there, he 10 00:00:45,720 --> 00:00:48,720 Speaker 1: went to Mexico and joined the army fighting to overthrow 11 00:00:48,800 --> 00:00:53,360 Speaker 1: the European Emperor Maximilian. Later, he became a college graduate 12 00:00:53,440 --> 00:00:56,400 Speaker 1: of Baptist minister and the first black man to serve 13 00:00:56,480 --> 00:01:00,880 Speaker 1: in the Ohio State legislature. By this point, Leopold Drain 14 00:01:01,040 --> 00:01:04,480 Speaker 1: he had become an expert in the trappings of monarchy. 15 00:01:05,000 --> 00:01:09,360 Speaker 1: He was a master of charm. He was friendly, self effacing, modest, 16 00:01:09,720 --> 00:01:14,480 Speaker 1: and above all diplomatic. He remembered names of wives and children, 17 00:01:14,880 --> 00:01:19,440 Speaker 1: and he always asked after them. He welcomed Williams into 18 00:01:19,520 --> 00:01:23,920 Speaker 1: his palace in Brussels and told him with obvious relish 19 00:01:24,040 --> 00:01:26,960 Speaker 1: about all of the philanthropic work he had been doing 20 00:01:27,000 --> 00:01:31,520 Speaker 1: in the Congo Free State. The meeting went incredibly well. 21 00:01:32,680 --> 00:01:36,080 Speaker 1: One side note, one has to imagine that maybe William's 22 00:01:36,200 --> 00:01:40,400 Speaker 1: youthful military service in Mexico didn't come up. After all, 23 00:01:40,480 --> 00:01:44,399 Speaker 1: the imperialist queen he had been fighting against, Carlotta of Mexico, 24 00:01:44,959 --> 00:01:49,320 Speaker 1: was Leopold's sister. But for Williams, it was difficult not 25 00:01:49,440 --> 00:01:54,880 Speaker 1: to be impressed with Leopold and with Belgium It's clean, wide, 26 00:01:54,880 --> 00:01:59,760 Speaker 1: sweeping avenues and open national parks and the stately facades 27 00:01:59,800 --> 00:02:04,960 Speaker 1: of palaces. It was a new country and a new monarchy. 28 00:02:05,080 --> 00:02:08,919 Speaker 1: The Belgian people had installed Leopold's father as the first king, 29 00:02:09,520 --> 00:02:13,000 Speaker 1: imported him from a line of German royals back when 30 00:02:13,080 --> 00:02:16,680 Speaker 1: Belgium had gained its independence from Holland in eighteen thirty. 31 00:02:17,800 --> 00:02:21,160 Speaker 1: But under Leopold the Second, the nation had become a 32 00:02:21,200 --> 00:02:25,160 Speaker 1: center of international affairs in Europe, thanks a note small 33 00:02:25,200 --> 00:02:29,520 Speaker 1: part to Leopold's passion for developing the Congo. What had 34 00:02:29,560 --> 00:02:32,400 Speaker 1: been a blank spot on the map of Africa just 35 00:02:32,480 --> 00:02:36,720 Speaker 1: a few decades ago was now, as Leopold told Williams, 36 00:02:36,760 --> 00:02:42,440 Speaker 1: a quote benevolent enterprise of local programs seeking to increase 37 00:02:42,560 --> 00:02:47,400 Speaker 1: the knowledge of the natives and secure their welfare. And so, 38 00:02:47,600 --> 00:02:51,000 Speaker 1: as Williams left the meeting and strolled down the marble 39 00:02:51,080 --> 00:02:54,919 Speaker 1: steps of the palace, he reflected on what an impressive 40 00:02:55,000 --> 00:02:59,000 Speaker 1: man the young king was. Leopold the Second was a 41 00:02:59,080 --> 00:03:04,679 Speaker 1: paradig for a new kind of compassionate modern imperialism. Out 42 00:03:04,680 --> 00:03:08,079 Speaker 1: of his own pocket, the king had funded stations along 43 00:03:08,120 --> 00:03:12,800 Speaker 1: the Congo River that were stocked with scientists, linguists, and researchers. 44 00:03:13,440 --> 00:03:18,000 Speaker 1: He built infrastructure to help missionaries spread Christianity, all while 45 00:03:18,040 --> 00:03:21,679 Speaker 1: helping establish a system in which black tribal leaders could 46 00:03:21,800 --> 00:03:25,280 Speaker 1: establish their own local dominions as part of a larger 47 00:03:25,560 --> 00:03:31,919 Speaker 1: organized coalition. At least that's what Leopold said he was doing. 48 00:03:33,400 --> 00:03:38,640 Speaker 1: Fascinated by Leopold's description of the Congo Free State George Washington, 49 00:03:38,720 --> 00:03:44,040 Speaker 1: Williams decided to visit for himself. What he found both 50 00:03:44,080 --> 00:03:49,880 Speaker 1: sickened and outraged him. It was a slave state in 51 00:03:50,000 --> 00:03:54,920 Speaker 1: all but name. Men, women and children who had had 52 00:03:54,960 --> 00:03:59,200 Speaker 1: their land stolen from them, either by trickery or by violence, 53 00:03:59,680 --> 00:04:03,800 Speaker 1: who are then forced to work grueling hours gathering rubber 54 00:04:03,920 --> 00:04:07,160 Speaker 1: that would be shipped back to Europe to pay for 55 00:04:07,280 --> 00:04:13,680 Speaker 1: Belgium's beautiful roads and parks. Men, women and children who 56 00:04:13,760 --> 00:04:17,320 Speaker 1: failed to meet their quota for rubber production were either 57 00:04:17,440 --> 00:04:22,720 Speaker 1: whipped or killed under the capricious and brutal authority of 58 00:04:22,800 --> 00:04:29,080 Speaker 1: black soldiers also enslaved. Meanwhile, thousands of miles away sat 59 00:04:29,160 --> 00:04:34,440 Speaker 1: civilized Leopold the Second charmingly asking about your wife by name. 60 00:04:35,680 --> 00:04:40,599 Speaker 1: George Washington Williams became the first person to interview Native 61 00:04:40,640 --> 00:04:45,919 Speaker 1: Africans about the horrific abuses they were suffering under imperialism. 62 00:04:46,040 --> 00:04:49,640 Speaker 1: From an outpost at Stanley Falls, he wrote an open 63 00:04:49,760 --> 00:04:54,040 Speaker 1: letter which he addressed to his serene Majesty Leopold, the 64 00:04:54,120 --> 00:04:58,680 Speaker 1: second King of the Belgians and Sovereign of the Independent State, 65 00:04:59,400 --> 00:05:03,159 Speaker 1: in which will Ms wrote in clear detail every one 66 00:05:03,240 --> 00:05:06,440 Speaker 1: of the atrocities in the so called Congo free State 67 00:05:06,720 --> 00:05:11,000 Speaker 1: that he came across. He consulted his notes and echoed 68 00:05:11,000 --> 00:05:14,520 Speaker 1: back the very words that Leopold had used to describe 69 00:05:14,560 --> 00:05:20,800 Speaker 1: his endeavor, the so called fostering care and benevolent enterprise 70 00:05:21,320 --> 00:05:27,880 Speaker 1: and effort to ensure the native's welfare. Williams wrote against 71 00:05:27,920 --> 00:05:35,000 Speaker 1: the deceit, fraud, robberies, arson, murder, slave rating and general 72 00:05:35,080 --> 00:05:39,200 Speaker 1: policy of cruelty of your Majesty's government. To the natives 73 00:05:39,839 --> 00:05:46,000 Speaker 1: stands their record of unexampled patience, long suffering and forgiving spirit, 74 00:05:46,640 --> 00:05:51,839 Speaker 1: which puts the boasted civilization and professed religion of your 75 00:05:51,920 --> 00:05:57,320 Speaker 1: Majesty's government to the blush. Leopold had not claimed the 76 00:05:57,360 --> 00:06:01,760 Speaker 1: Congo as a colony for Belgium. Using smoke screens of 77 00:06:01,880 --> 00:06:07,159 Speaker 1: shell corporations and meaningless charity committees, he became the sole 78 00:06:07,240 --> 00:06:12,920 Speaker 1: owner of the largest private landholding in history. Belgium did 79 00:06:12,920 --> 00:06:19,480 Speaker 1: not own the Congo. Leopold did. It was banal, bureaucratic evil, 80 00:06:19,960 --> 00:06:22,920 Speaker 1: ignored and then accepted by the rest of the world 81 00:06:23,200 --> 00:06:28,120 Speaker 1: out of sheer apathy. Leopold exploited the flimsiness of the 82 00:06:28,200 --> 00:06:33,080 Speaker 1: institutions that hold up the civilized world and the veneer 83 00:06:33,200 --> 00:06:38,760 Speaker 1: of respectability that comes from a royal title. Williams's open 84 00:06:38,839 --> 00:06:43,440 Speaker 1: letter sparked the first wave of international interest in Leopold's 85 00:06:43,440 --> 00:06:48,120 Speaker 1: Congolese endeavor, But of course Belgian officials would attempt to 86 00:06:48,120 --> 00:06:52,520 Speaker 1: discredit Williams, and Williams would die of disease before returning 87 00:06:52,520 --> 00:06:57,560 Speaker 1: home to America. It would be decades before the international 88 00:06:57,560 --> 00:07:02,719 Speaker 1: community reckoned with the stress machine of Leopold the Second, congo, 89 00:07:03,720 --> 00:07:09,800 Speaker 1: if indeed it ever really has, I'm Danis Schwartz, and 90 00:07:09,880 --> 00:07:19,600 Speaker 1: this is noble blood. Leopold the Second was not a 91 00:07:19,640 --> 00:07:24,800 Speaker 1: boy of great promise. He was gangly and awkward boy 92 00:07:24,840 --> 00:07:28,680 Speaker 1: who looked like a scarecrow in his military uniform. He 93 00:07:28,800 --> 00:07:32,560 Speaker 1: has such a nose, said Benjamin Disraeli, the British Prime Minister, 94 00:07:33,400 --> 00:07:36,240 Speaker 1: as a young prince has in a fairy tale, who 95 00:07:36,320 --> 00:07:41,280 Speaker 1: has been banned by a malignant fairy. From an early age, 96 00:07:41,440 --> 00:07:46,080 Speaker 1: Leopold's parents decided not to bother with much affection for him. 97 00:07:46,120 --> 00:07:48,440 Speaker 1: In a letter while he was off at military school, 98 00:07:48,560 --> 00:07:51,480 Speaker 1: his mother wrote, I was disturbed to see in the 99 00:07:51,520 --> 00:07:55,080 Speaker 1: colonel's report that you had again been so lazy, and 100 00:07:55,120 --> 00:07:58,800 Speaker 1: that your exercises had been so bad. Your father was 101 00:07:58,840 --> 00:08:03,120 Speaker 1: as disturbed as I by this last report. Leopold had 102 00:08:03,160 --> 00:08:06,239 Speaker 1: no expectation that he would hear directly from his father. 103 00:08:07,080 --> 00:08:09,440 Speaker 1: If you wanted to speak with his father, the King, 104 00:08:09,760 --> 00:08:12,960 Speaker 1: he was required to request a formal audience and go 105 00:08:13,080 --> 00:08:17,640 Speaker 1: through his father's secretary. When Leopold was eighteen, he was 106 00:08:17,720 --> 00:08:23,160 Speaker 1: married to Marie Henrietta and Austrian Habsburg archduchess. They hated 107 00:08:23,200 --> 00:08:27,520 Speaker 1: each other almost immediately. Marie Henrietta was athletic and an 108 00:08:27,520 --> 00:08:32,360 Speaker 1: active horsewoman, and Leopold was well, in the words of 109 00:08:32,440 --> 00:08:36,360 Speaker 1: Queen Victoria, very odd and in the habit of saying 110 00:08:36,520 --> 00:08:42,160 Speaker 1: disagreeable things to people. He was narrow minded, interested in geography, 111 00:08:42,160 --> 00:08:46,520 Speaker 1: and fastidious about keeping track of money, and exactly as 112 00:08:46,559 --> 00:08:49,600 Speaker 1: fun of a person as those two interests make him sound. 113 00:08:50,720 --> 00:08:54,760 Speaker 1: The pair honeymooned in Venice, and Marie Henrietta wept in 114 00:08:54,880 --> 00:08:58,400 Speaker 1: public because her new husband refused to let her ride 115 00:08:58,400 --> 00:09:02,600 Speaker 1: in a gondola. If God hears my prayers, she wrote 116 00:09:02,600 --> 00:09:05,400 Speaker 1: to a friend, I shall not go on living much 117 00:09:05,440 --> 00:09:10,199 Speaker 1: longer still, Even though by all accounts they barely tolerated 118 00:09:10,200 --> 00:09:13,720 Speaker 1: one another, the royal couple managed to have four children, 119 00:09:14,480 --> 00:09:17,720 Speaker 1: though their one son died at age nine from pneumonia 120 00:09:17,960 --> 00:09:22,880 Speaker 1: after falling in a pond. At his son's funeral, Leopold 121 00:09:22,920 --> 00:09:27,720 Speaker 1: broke down publicly for the first and only time, although 122 00:09:27,760 --> 00:09:31,960 Speaker 1: he did regain enough composure to ask members of Parliament 123 00:09:32,240 --> 00:09:35,240 Speaker 1: to make sure that the funeral costs would be handled 124 00:09:35,240 --> 00:09:40,040 Speaker 1: by the state. Leopold was so uninterested in his daughters 125 00:09:40,160 --> 00:09:42,480 Speaker 1: that he tried to make himself an exception to the 126 00:09:42,559 --> 00:09:46,320 Speaker 1: law in Belgium that requires one's assets to be passed 127 00:09:46,320 --> 00:09:51,160 Speaker 1: on to one's children. From that point on, Leopold simply 128 00:09:51,240 --> 00:09:54,520 Speaker 1: had no use for his wife, or really for the 129 00:09:54,559 --> 00:10:00,319 Speaker 1: Belgian government Petipe petition. Leopold would say, small coun tree, 130 00:10:00,520 --> 00:10:04,200 Speaker 1: small people. He would have no more sons, and so 131 00:10:04,360 --> 00:10:11,839 Speaker 1: his legacy would need to become something greater. Leopold became 132 00:10:11,960 --> 00:10:15,040 Speaker 1: king at thirty years old, but being king in Belgium 133 00:10:15,080 --> 00:10:18,600 Speaker 1: in the nineteenth century wasn't anything close to the power 134 00:10:18,640 --> 00:10:20,680 Speaker 1: a king would have had in Europe a few hundred 135 00:10:20,760 --> 00:10:25,120 Speaker 1: years earlier. Their family was a symbolic monarchy who served 136 00:10:25,160 --> 00:10:28,120 Speaker 1: at the pleasure of parliament, not because they were granted 137 00:10:28,160 --> 00:10:34,040 Speaker 1: absolute authority by God. Even Leopold's title was restrictive and awkward. 138 00:10:34,760 --> 00:10:38,360 Speaker 1: He wasn't the King of Belgium technically, he was the 139 00:10:38,480 --> 00:10:42,560 Speaker 1: King of the Belgians, a formality that just reinforced the 140 00:10:42,600 --> 00:10:46,480 Speaker 1: notion that his leadership was more for show than anything else. 141 00:10:47,480 --> 00:10:50,960 Speaker 1: And so Leopold decided to turn his gaze beyond his 142 00:10:51,080 --> 00:10:54,800 Speaker 1: small country and begin to focus his energy on his 143 00:10:54,880 --> 00:11:01,000 Speaker 1: earliest passion profits, but not just any prophets the profits 144 00:11:01,040 --> 00:11:05,600 Speaker 1: that came from owning a colony. Even before he had 145 00:11:05,640 --> 00:11:11,400 Speaker 1: become king, Leopold's interest in colonialization bordered on obsession. He 146 00:11:11,520 --> 00:11:15,240 Speaker 1: spent a month in Spain going through the dusty archives 147 00:11:15,280 --> 00:11:19,480 Speaker 1: in the old Exchange Building page by page to calculate 148 00:11:19,520 --> 00:11:24,200 Speaker 1: the revenue they made from their colonies in America. Unfortunately, 149 00:11:24,360 --> 00:11:29,200 Speaker 1: the people of Belgium didn't really share their king's imperialist dreams. 150 00:11:30,040 --> 00:11:34,559 Speaker 1: Their nation was new and small, Focusing on a colony 151 00:11:34,720 --> 00:11:38,840 Speaker 1: seemed like an expensive luxury, especially when they didn't have 152 00:11:38,880 --> 00:11:43,280 Speaker 1: a merchant fleet, let alone in navy. But Leopold wouldn't 153 00:11:43,320 --> 00:11:46,680 Speaker 1: be deterred, even as they elected officials with the real 154 00:11:46,760 --> 00:11:50,839 Speaker 1: power in the country continued to demure when Leopold approached 155 00:11:50,880 --> 00:11:53,640 Speaker 1: in the halls of the Palace with a new idea 156 00:11:53,720 --> 00:11:58,280 Speaker 1: for a place to plant the Belgian flag. After returning 157 00:11:58,280 --> 00:12:02,040 Speaker 1: from one of his many scouting trips, Leopold brought the 158 00:12:02,120 --> 00:12:06,000 Speaker 1: finance minister two gifts, a piece of marble from the 159 00:12:06,040 --> 00:12:11,280 Speaker 1: Acropolis and a locket with his portrait. Inside the locket, 160 00:12:11,520 --> 00:12:17,160 Speaker 1: Leopold wrote, Belgium must have a colony if Belgium was 161 00:12:17,200 --> 00:12:20,160 Speaker 1: ever going to be a world power. If Leopold was 162 00:12:20,200 --> 00:12:23,200 Speaker 1: ever going to have any real power, he needed to 163 00:12:23,240 --> 00:12:27,120 Speaker 1: claim land from somewhere else on the globe. The power 164 00:12:27,360 --> 00:12:31,560 Speaker 1: was by the end of the eighteen hundreds, unclaimed land 165 00:12:31,320 --> 00:12:36,000 Speaker 1: would become harder to find. Leopold scoured maps of the world. 166 00:12:36,640 --> 00:12:39,400 Speaker 1: Could someone buy those tiny islands off the coast of 167 00:12:39,440 --> 00:12:43,959 Speaker 1: South America is Fiji for sale? Could he buy the 168 00:12:43,960 --> 00:12:49,199 Speaker 1: Philippines from Spain. Leopold even floated the idea of buying 169 00:12:49,440 --> 00:12:52,560 Speaker 1: lakes in the Nile Delta so that he could drain 170 00:12:52,640 --> 00:12:57,040 Speaker 1: them and claim the land. For the moment, he wrote, 171 00:12:57,440 --> 00:13:01,360 Speaker 1: neither the Spanish, nor the Portuguese, nor the Dutch are 172 00:13:01,400 --> 00:13:06,120 Speaker 1: inclined to sell. I intend to find out discreetly if 173 00:13:06,160 --> 00:13:14,600 Speaker 1: there's anything to be done in Africa. It's at this 174 00:13:14,679 --> 00:13:17,920 Speaker 1: point in the story that we need to introduce another character, 175 00:13:18,880 --> 00:13:22,240 Speaker 1: a writer turned explorer born in Wales with the name 176 00:13:22,440 --> 00:13:28,200 Speaker 1: John Rowlands. Rowlands had a miserable childhood, born out of wedlock, 177 00:13:28,400 --> 00:13:32,480 Speaker 1: abandoned by his mother, and bounced around among extended family 178 00:13:32,840 --> 00:13:35,680 Speaker 1: until he landed at a workhouse for the poor, like 179 00:13:35,760 --> 00:13:39,800 Speaker 1: a character in a Charles Dickens novel. But as soon 180 00:13:39,840 --> 00:13:43,000 Speaker 1: as he turned eighteen, like a character in a Mark 181 00:13:43,080 --> 00:13:46,920 Speaker 1: Twain novel, John Rowlands made his way to the Mississippi River. 182 00:13:47,960 --> 00:13:51,520 Speaker 1: He eventually settled in New Orleans, and this is where 183 00:13:51,800 --> 00:13:57,360 Speaker 1: Rowland's story becomes more myth than fact. According to him, 184 00:13:57,400 --> 00:14:01,360 Speaker 1: he saw the wealthy trading magnet, Henry Hope Stanley, sitting 185 00:14:01,400 --> 00:14:04,600 Speaker 1: on his porch and boldly asked if he could have 186 00:14:04,640 --> 00:14:07,920 Speaker 1: a job. The man became such a mentor to the 187 00:14:07,960 --> 00:14:11,959 Speaker 1: younger boy that he eventually adopted him, and Rowlands took 188 00:14:12,000 --> 00:14:18,440 Speaker 1: on his new father's name, rechristening himself Henry Morton Stanley. 189 00:14:19,120 --> 00:14:23,280 Speaker 1: Henry Morton Stanley wrote all about his unconventional upbringing in 190 00:14:23,360 --> 00:14:28,000 Speaker 1: his autobiography. He wrote about how tragically the senior Stanley 191 00:14:28,120 --> 00:14:32,440 Speaker 1: died just two years after his adoption, but Henry Hope 192 00:14:32,480 --> 00:14:36,880 Speaker 1: Stanley wouldn't actually die for another twenty years, and there 193 00:14:36,920 --> 00:14:41,840 Speaker 1: are no records of any adoption. In fact, Henry Morton 194 00:14:41,960 --> 00:14:46,520 Speaker 1: Stanley gets so many strange details wrong that some historians 195 00:14:46,600 --> 00:14:50,080 Speaker 1: argue that he didn't even meet the wealthy trader, let 196 00:14:50,120 --> 00:14:54,160 Speaker 1: alone become his protegee. But the truth didn't matter as 197 00:14:54,240 --> 00:14:57,400 Speaker 1: much as a good story. That was the real lesson 198 00:14:57,480 --> 00:15:01,200 Speaker 1: learned Henry Morton Stanley would be come a master of 199 00:15:01,280 --> 00:15:06,480 Speaker 1: reworking and mythologizing his own narrative until the truth was unknowable. 200 00:15:07,360 --> 00:15:10,040 Speaker 1: Stanley would go on to fight on both sides of 201 00:15:10,080 --> 00:15:13,040 Speaker 1: the American Civil War, first for the South and then 202 00:15:13,120 --> 00:15:15,920 Speaker 1: for the North, and then after the war was over, 203 00:15:16,240 --> 00:15:19,720 Speaker 1: he began to work as a journalist. It was an 204 00:15:19,760 --> 00:15:25,120 Speaker 1: assignment for the New York Herald in that catapulted Henry 205 00:15:25,200 --> 00:15:30,720 Speaker 1: Morton Stanley to international fame. You see, four years earlier, 206 00:15:31,160 --> 00:15:35,120 Speaker 1: Europe had lost touch with a Scottish geologist by the 207 00:15:35,200 --> 00:15:39,680 Speaker 1: name of doctor David Livingston. Stanley made it his mission 208 00:15:40,000 --> 00:15:44,160 Speaker 1: to go find Livingston, alive or dead, all while sending 209 00:15:44,160 --> 00:15:47,040 Speaker 1: back columns to be published in the New York Herald. 210 00:15:48,040 --> 00:15:51,760 Speaker 1: It took two years and a seven hundred mile trek 211 00:15:51,960 --> 00:15:56,600 Speaker 1: outfitted with one hundred and eleven porters, but in present 212 00:15:56,680 --> 00:16:02,360 Speaker 1: day Tanzania, Stanley found the scientists and, according to Stanley, 213 00:16:02,560 --> 00:16:07,640 Speaker 1: greeted him with a line that is now iconic. Dr Livingston. 214 00:16:07,880 --> 00:16:12,160 Speaker 1: I presume it's a great line, but in all actuality, 215 00:16:12,280 --> 00:16:15,040 Speaker 1: not one that he actually said at the time. It 216 00:16:15,080 --> 00:16:19,400 Speaker 1: doesn't appear anywhere in his contemporary journals, but that doesn't matter. 217 00:16:20,080 --> 00:16:23,000 Speaker 1: Stanley was a writer, and he knew that the most 218 00:16:23,040 --> 00:16:25,920 Speaker 1: important part of a story was the way you tell it. 219 00:16:26,760 --> 00:16:29,440 Speaker 1: In a way, He's right, we all remember that line 220 00:16:29,480 --> 00:16:33,240 Speaker 1: a hundred and fifty years later. In some ways, Stanley 221 00:16:33,360 --> 00:16:37,560 Speaker 1: was the prototype for the type of self conscious travel 222 00:16:38,040 --> 00:16:42,800 Speaker 1: on luxury blogs and outdoorsy Instagram accounts, in which the 223 00:16:42,880 --> 00:16:48,640 Speaker 1: experience itself only exists through its presentation to the outside world. 224 00:16:49,800 --> 00:16:52,840 Speaker 1: Stanley's accounts of his adventure and the book he wrote 225 00:16:52,880 --> 00:16:57,920 Speaker 1: about the experience, turned him into an overnight international celebrity. 226 00:16:58,320 --> 00:17:01,320 Speaker 1: He also got a lucky break, its Livingstone, dying of 227 00:17:01,400 --> 00:17:04,879 Speaker 1: malaria and dysentery before they both returned to Europe, so 228 00:17:05,000 --> 00:17:07,920 Speaker 1: there wouldn't be another white man who could contradict any 229 00:17:07,960 --> 00:17:12,600 Speaker 1: of his accounts. It was Stanley's word against no one's, 230 00:17:12,720 --> 00:17:16,960 Speaker 1: and the world loved it. They devoured his tales of 231 00:17:17,080 --> 00:17:23,600 Speaker 1: rebellious porters and vicious barbarian African tribes, wild animals, and 232 00:17:24,119 --> 00:17:29,119 Speaker 1: most terrible of all, the brutal quote Arab slave trade, 233 00:17:29,680 --> 00:17:33,199 Speaker 1: which Europe was free to Scoff and gas Bat having 234 00:17:33,400 --> 00:17:38,640 Speaker 1: mostly banned their own massive industrial transatlantic slave trade operations. 235 00:17:39,119 --> 00:17:46,760 Speaker 1: Oh about thirty years earlier after his incredible Livingston mission, 236 00:17:46,960 --> 00:17:50,160 Speaker 1: Stanley set out again, this time to trace the Great 237 00:17:50,280 --> 00:17:54,800 Speaker 1: Lakes of Africa, the unmapped heart of what he Stanley 238 00:17:55,080 --> 00:17:59,040 Speaker 1: called the Dark Continent, and to trace the Lualaba River 239 00:17:59,280 --> 00:18:01,840 Speaker 1: to see if it fed into the Nile or if 240 00:18:01,880 --> 00:18:06,719 Speaker 1: it horses shoot around and became the Congo River. This time, 241 00:18:06,880 --> 00:18:09,760 Speaker 1: Stanley was sponsored by both the New York Herald and 242 00:18:09,880 --> 00:18:13,560 Speaker 1: the Daily Telegraph in London, and his caravan was more 243 00:18:13,600 --> 00:18:16,280 Speaker 1: than twice the size of the one that had accompanied 244 00:18:16,359 --> 00:18:20,639 Speaker 1: him to find Livingstone. There were over three hundred people 245 00:18:20,680 --> 00:18:24,679 Speaker 1: traveling with him, although only three other white men and 246 00:18:24,880 --> 00:18:29,280 Speaker 1: Henry Morton Stanley being Henry Morton, Stanley didn't want anyone 247 00:18:29,320 --> 00:18:32,720 Speaker 1: with him who might upstage him, so the men he 248 00:18:32,800 --> 00:18:36,920 Speaker 1: chose to accompany him had no experience exploring, and all 249 00:18:36,960 --> 00:18:40,479 Speaker 1: three of them died before the journey was complete. For 250 00:18:40,720 --> 00:18:45,399 Speaker 1: his hundreds of Zanzibari porters, the trip was months of 251 00:18:45,520 --> 00:18:49,880 Speaker 1: carrying incredibly heavy loads on their heads and backs, while 252 00:18:49,960 --> 00:18:55,119 Speaker 1: Stanley riddled them with abuse. If they mutinied or attempted 253 00:18:55,160 --> 00:18:59,480 Speaker 1: to flee, he punished them either with lashes or by 254 00:18:59,560 --> 00:19:04,280 Speaker 1: keeping in chains to humiliate them. But the natives that 255 00:19:04,320 --> 00:19:10,160 Speaker 1: Stanley ran into fared if possible. Even worse villages armed 256 00:19:10,200 --> 00:19:14,240 Speaker 1: only with spears, arrows, or a few ancient traded for 257 00:19:14,440 --> 00:19:18,879 Speaker 1: muskets were no match for Stanley, outfitted with rifles and 258 00:19:18,960 --> 00:19:23,439 Speaker 1: an elephant gun. Unfortunately, the only source we have to 259 00:19:23,480 --> 00:19:28,240 Speaker 1: go on about these encounters is Stanley himself, Yet reading 260 00:19:28,280 --> 00:19:32,720 Speaker 1: his words, he doesn't mask his own pettiness or brutality. 261 00:19:33,040 --> 00:19:36,840 Speaker 1: Attacked and destroyed twenty eight large towns and three or 262 00:19:36,880 --> 00:19:40,960 Speaker 1: four score villages, he wrote. He went on to describe 263 00:19:40,960 --> 00:19:44,680 Speaker 1: a river coast where mockers shook their spears at him. 264 00:19:45,440 --> 00:19:51,119 Speaker 1: Stanley opened fire with a Winchester repeating rifle. Quote six 265 00:19:51,160 --> 00:19:55,440 Speaker 1: shots and four deaths were sufficient to quiet the mocking. 266 00:19:56,760 --> 00:20:00,439 Speaker 1: Stanley's columns did lead to shock and criticism from anti 267 00:20:00,480 --> 00:20:05,680 Speaker 1: slavery society and humanitarians around the world, but James Gordon Bennett, 268 00:20:05,720 --> 00:20:10,480 Speaker 1: his newspaper editor, dismissed their criticisms as the pearl clutching 269 00:20:10,480 --> 00:20:15,320 Speaker 1: of elites who had never been in the metaphorical trenches. Critics, 270 00:20:15,640 --> 00:20:22,040 Speaker 1: Bennett wrote, are safe in London philanthropists whose impractical view 271 00:20:22,520 --> 00:20:25,280 Speaker 1: is that a leader should permit his men to be 272 00:20:25,359 --> 00:20:29,320 Speaker 1: slaughtered by the natives and should be slaughtered himself and 273 00:20:29,400 --> 00:20:32,960 Speaker 1: let discovery go to the dogs, but should never pull 274 00:20:33,000 --> 00:20:38,760 Speaker 1: a trigger against the species of human vermin. One European 275 00:20:39,200 --> 00:20:45,240 Speaker 1: read every single update from Stanley with rapturous fascination. King 276 00:20:45,320 --> 00:20:49,080 Speaker 1: Leopold the Second who asked his servants to bring any 277 00:20:49,160 --> 00:20:52,919 Speaker 1: newspaper with any dispatch from Henry Morton Stanley up to 278 00:20:53,040 --> 00:20:58,359 Speaker 1: his chambers right away. When Stanley finally completed his mission, 279 00:20:58,920 --> 00:21:02,040 Speaker 1: emerging at the Portuguese settlement at the mouth of the 280 00:21:02,080 --> 00:21:06,159 Speaker 1: Congo River, he became the second white man ever to 281 00:21:06,320 --> 00:21:10,080 Speaker 1: traverse Africa from east to west, and the first white 282 00:21:10,080 --> 00:21:14,640 Speaker 1: explorer to trace the source of the Congo. The Congo 283 00:21:15,280 --> 00:21:19,919 Speaker 1: was perfect for Leopold's purposes. It was a massive area 284 00:21:20,400 --> 00:21:24,399 Speaker 1: laced with waterways for easy transportation once roads were built 285 00:21:24,440 --> 00:21:28,879 Speaker 1: to traverse the most dangerous sections of rapids. Best of all, 286 00:21:28,920 --> 00:21:33,080 Speaker 1: as Stanley's writings had made clear, the local inhabitants were 287 00:21:33,119 --> 00:21:38,080 Speaker 1: no military threat. Thanks to centuries of slave raids from 288 00:21:38,119 --> 00:21:42,200 Speaker 1: both coasts, the few large kingdoms around the Congo were 289 00:21:42,320 --> 00:21:48,080 Speaker 1: significantly weakened. The diverse population consisted of two hundred different 290 00:21:48,119 --> 00:21:51,960 Speaker 1: ethnic groups who spoke over four hundred languages and dialects, 291 00:21:52,520 --> 00:21:55,880 Speaker 1: which meant that the risk of them uniting against colonialists 292 00:21:56,119 --> 00:22:01,080 Speaker 1: was small. Leopold had found the answer to the question 293 00:22:01,200 --> 00:22:05,680 Speaker 1: he had been asking his entire adult life, but actually 294 00:22:05,840 --> 00:22:10,680 Speaker 1: claiming the undeveloped region encircled by the Congo River would 295 00:22:10,720 --> 00:22:14,760 Speaker 1: be more challenging than just willing it. The Belgian people 296 00:22:14,920 --> 00:22:19,640 Speaker 1: were completely uninterested, and any European country that put down 297 00:22:19,640 --> 00:22:23,760 Speaker 1: a flag could ignite the scrambling of other jealous countries 298 00:22:24,040 --> 00:22:28,159 Speaker 1: who could simply refuse to recognize their neighbor's colony or 299 00:22:28,280 --> 00:22:33,719 Speaker 1: claim it for themselves. And so even before Stanley's mission 300 00:22:33,800 --> 00:22:38,600 Speaker 1: was over, Leopold had begun to orchestrate a meticulous global 301 00:22:38,720 --> 00:22:45,280 Speaker 1: propaganda campaign that, through a combination of subterfuge, flattery, and 302 00:22:45,440 --> 00:22:49,320 Speaker 1: sheer force, would make him the sole owner of a 303 00:22:49,359 --> 00:22:53,320 Speaker 1: piece of land over seventy six times larger than the 304 00:22:53,359 --> 00:22:57,480 Speaker 1: tiny nation in which he was The King. Leopold would 305 00:22:57,560 --> 00:23:03,440 Speaker 1: rule a new population with an iron, merciless fist, claiming 306 00:23:03,480 --> 00:23:06,879 Speaker 1: the blood soaked profits from his comfortable throne on the 307 00:23:06,920 --> 00:23:14,400 Speaker 1: other side of the world, all while white men praised him. 308 00:23:14,440 --> 00:23:18,919 Speaker 1: In eighteen seventy six, King Leopold the Second organized a 309 00:23:19,000 --> 00:23:23,760 Speaker 1: geographical conference to be held in Brussels. Being a monarch 310 00:23:23,800 --> 00:23:26,480 Speaker 1: at the end of the nineteenth century meant that Leopold 311 00:23:26,600 --> 00:23:31,399 Speaker 1: had a very specific type of capital, the magnetic allure 312 00:23:31,600 --> 00:23:34,879 Speaker 1: of the monarchy itself and all of the legitimacy it 313 00:23:34,960 --> 00:23:39,640 Speaker 1: provides in a vacuum. The formalities of the monarchy are 314 00:23:39,920 --> 00:23:45,840 Speaker 1: arbitrary and useless, but in Leopold's hands they became very 315 00:23:45,920 --> 00:23:50,760 Speaker 1: weapons he would use to conquer the congo. So decorum 316 00:23:50,920 --> 00:23:56,080 Speaker 1: and formality were the chief objectives of his Geographical Conference. 317 00:23:56,960 --> 00:24:00,760 Speaker 1: The goal was to dazzle his visitors, the redozen of 318 00:24:00,800 --> 00:24:05,040 Speaker 1: the world's most famous explorers and military men, including a 319 00:24:05,119 --> 00:24:09,440 Speaker 1: rear admiral and the president of the Paris Geographical Society. 320 00:24:09,720 --> 00:24:13,600 Speaker 1: Leopold sent Belgian ships to pick up British guests in Dover, 321 00:24:14,080 --> 00:24:17,240 Speaker 1: who were then escorted onto an express train to zip 322 00:24:17,280 --> 00:24:19,880 Speaker 1: them the rest of the way to Brussels, with special 323 00:24:19,920 --> 00:24:24,040 Speaker 1: instructions for them to pass through the Belgian border without customs. 324 00:24:25,080 --> 00:24:27,960 Speaker 1: Leopold knew how impressive it would be for his guests 325 00:24:28,000 --> 00:24:31,679 Speaker 1: to stay at the Royal Palace. The only problem was 326 00:24:31,760 --> 00:24:36,000 Speaker 1: the Royal Palace in Brussels wasn't actually really a residence. 327 00:24:36,119 --> 00:24:39,960 Speaker 1: It was more of an administrative office. Leopold and his 328 00:24:40,040 --> 00:24:43,080 Speaker 1: family actually lived in a chateau on the outskirts of 329 00:24:43,080 --> 00:24:46,800 Speaker 1: the city, but that wouldn't do, and so for the 330 00:24:46,880 --> 00:24:53,240 Speaker 1: weekend the royal Palace was transformed into a residence. Servants 331 00:24:53,400 --> 00:24:58,760 Speaker 1: frantically converted offices into guest bedrooms. In the end, everything 332 00:24:59,160 --> 00:25:03,600 Speaker 1: to draper, the betting, the ink, even the toilet paper 333 00:25:04,160 --> 00:25:10,200 Speaker 1: was read. As each guest entered, Leopold greeted them in French, 334 00:25:10,480 --> 00:25:14,720 Speaker 1: German or English, and one by one they filed up 335 00:25:14,760 --> 00:25:19,320 Speaker 1: a white marble staircase to the throne room, which glistened 336 00:25:19,440 --> 00:25:25,360 Speaker 1: in the flickering light of seven thousand candles. Leopold opened 337 00:25:25,359 --> 00:25:29,439 Speaker 1: the conference with an effusive speech about the importance of 338 00:25:29,480 --> 00:25:34,639 Speaker 1: their purpose to open to civilization the only parts of 339 00:25:34,640 --> 00:25:38,600 Speaker 1: our globe which it has not yet penetrated, to pierce 340 00:25:38,680 --> 00:25:43,480 Speaker 1: the darkness which hangs over entire people's is dare I say, 341 00:25:44,000 --> 00:25:50,040 Speaker 1: a crusade worthy of this century of progress. The practical 342 00:25:50,160 --> 00:25:53,359 Speaker 1: purpose for the conference was for the experts to work 343 00:25:53,400 --> 00:25:58,680 Speaker 1: together to select locations for bases along the Congo, which 344 00:25:58,680 --> 00:26:04,520 Speaker 1: could serve as hubs or scientists, linguists, and artisans. These bases, 345 00:26:04,680 --> 00:26:09,200 Speaker 1: Leopold said, would be non political, working only to abolish 346 00:26:09,240 --> 00:26:13,960 Speaker 1: the slave trade and established peace among chiefs, and each 347 00:26:14,000 --> 00:26:17,679 Speaker 1: one would be well equipped with medicine and extra supplies 348 00:26:17,680 --> 00:26:21,600 Speaker 1: for explorers passing through. At the end of the weekend, 349 00:26:21,880 --> 00:26:29,240 Speaker 1: the men in attendance voted to establish the International African Association. Leopold, 350 00:26:29,480 --> 00:26:33,359 Speaker 1: of course, would be the association's first chairman, but he 351 00:26:33,480 --> 00:26:38,200 Speaker 1: modestly promised to step down after a year. The association 352 00:26:38,440 --> 00:26:42,600 Speaker 1: gave itself a flag, a yellow star on a blue backdrop, 353 00:26:42,960 --> 00:26:47,199 Speaker 1: meant to represent the bright hope of civilization in the 354 00:26:47,320 --> 00:26:52,320 Speaker 1: darkness of Africa. Each new member of the Association was 355 00:26:52,359 --> 00:26:59,119 Speaker 1: awarded the Cross of Leopold. Throughout Europe, prominent men began 356 00:26:59,160 --> 00:27:04,160 Speaker 1: to send me a called donations, including the Viscount Ferdinando Lessons. 357 00:27:05,119 --> 00:27:10,480 Speaker 1: Leopold was undertaken to less Us declared the greatest humanitarian 358 00:27:10,600 --> 00:27:14,360 Speaker 1: work of this time. A side note, if the name 359 00:27:14,440 --> 00:27:17,679 Speaker 1: Count de Lessup sounds familiar, it's because he is an 360 00:27:17,720 --> 00:27:20,080 Speaker 1: ancestor of the man who would go on to marry 361 00:27:20,480 --> 00:27:26,919 Speaker 1: Real Housewives star Countess lou An. The idea with the 362 00:27:26,960 --> 00:27:31,000 Speaker 1: International African Association was that the men would return back 363 00:27:31,040 --> 00:27:34,760 Speaker 1: to their home countries and start their own national chapters 364 00:27:34,880 --> 00:27:37,199 Speaker 1: and that there would be a big meeting in Brussels 365 00:27:37,240 --> 00:27:44,040 Speaker 1: every year. In actuality, the organization fizzled after its bombastic inauguration. 366 00:27:45,040 --> 00:27:47,960 Speaker 1: It only ever had one more meeting, where they elected 367 00:27:48,040 --> 00:27:51,800 Speaker 1: Leopold as chairman for the second time despite his earlier pledge, 368 00:27:52,440 --> 00:27:56,800 Speaker 1: and then the group all but disappeared forever its purpose 369 00:27:56,840 --> 00:28:02,000 Speaker 1: had been served. Leopold had established the foundations for legitimacy 370 00:28:02,240 --> 00:28:05,400 Speaker 1: where his future endeavors in the Congo. The great men 371 00:28:05,440 --> 00:28:10,159 Speaker 1: of Europe were behind him. After Henry Morton Stanley had 372 00:28:10,200 --> 00:28:13,480 Speaker 1: completed his truck along the Congo and floated back to 373 00:28:13,560 --> 00:28:16,879 Speaker 1: Europe on a raft of acclaim and medals and book money, 374 00:28:17,520 --> 00:28:21,080 Speaker 1: Leopold dispatched one of his officers to get Stanley to 375 00:28:21,119 --> 00:28:24,480 Speaker 1: come to a meeting in Brussels. King Leopold had a 376 00:28:24,520 --> 00:28:28,920 Speaker 1: proposition for the explorer, a five year contract in which 377 00:28:29,000 --> 00:28:31,840 Speaker 1: Leopold would pay the equivalent of two hundred and fifty 378 00:28:31,920 --> 00:28:35,520 Speaker 1: thousand dollars a year, plus the cost of an expedition 379 00:28:36,160 --> 00:28:39,320 Speaker 1: for Stanley to go back to Africa and begin to 380 00:28:39,480 --> 00:28:44,520 Speaker 1: establish Leopold's foothold in the Congo. The plan that was 381 00:28:44,600 --> 00:28:47,320 Speaker 1: for Stanley to first set up a base and then 382 00:28:47,360 --> 00:28:50,800 Speaker 1: build roads around the most dangerous parts of the Congo River, 383 00:28:51,280 --> 00:28:53,600 Speaker 1: where they would be able to take a steamboat apart, 384 00:28:54,040 --> 00:28:56,480 Speaker 1: carry it on land, and then bring it back to 385 00:28:56,520 --> 00:29:01,560 Speaker 1: the river. Leopold's goal was to stay out several stations 386 00:29:01,640 --> 00:29:04,640 Speaker 1: along the thousand mile main stretch of the Congo River 387 00:29:05,280 --> 00:29:09,960 Speaker 1: so he could claim the land profit. Ben would be easy. 388 00:29:10,160 --> 00:29:14,840 Speaker 1: The Congo was incredibly resourced tents, especially with regards to 389 00:29:15,240 --> 00:29:18,800 Speaker 1: valuable ivory, which could be shaped into anything from chess 390 00:29:18,840 --> 00:29:23,440 Speaker 1: pieces to piano keys to fake teeth. African elephants had 391 00:29:23,480 --> 00:29:28,560 Speaker 1: tusks far larger than their Asian counterparts. Stanley had reported 392 00:29:28,640 --> 00:29:31,920 Speaker 1: that ivory was so accessible in Africa that it was 393 00:29:32,080 --> 00:29:37,560 Speaker 1: used for door posts. Who exactly was Stanley claiming the 394 00:29:37,680 --> 00:29:42,440 Speaker 1: land for even Stanley wasn't sure. He thought at first 395 00:29:42,520 --> 00:29:46,880 Speaker 1: it was the International African Association, or was it the 396 00:29:47,000 --> 00:29:51,000 Speaker 1: vaguely named Committee for the Study of the Upper Congo, 397 00:29:51,600 --> 00:29:55,840 Speaker 1: which was a private business whose shareholders included a Belgian 398 00:29:55,880 --> 00:30:00,959 Speaker 1: banker secretly acting as Leopold's proxy. Leah Pold would go 399 00:30:01,000 --> 00:30:04,680 Speaker 1: on to buy out the other shareholders and the company 400 00:30:04,800 --> 00:30:08,680 Speaker 1: would legally cease to exist, but both he and others 401 00:30:08,680 --> 00:30:11,000 Speaker 1: would continue to refer to it as if it did 402 00:30:11,040 --> 00:30:15,320 Speaker 1: still exist. Even Stanley didn't realize that the company had folded. 403 00:30:16,440 --> 00:30:21,600 Speaker 1: The subterfuge was deliberate. All of Stanley's European staff on 404 00:30:21,640 --> 00:30:25,040 Speaker 1: the ground in Africa were required to sign a contract 405 00:30:25,040 --> 00:30:28,600 Speaker 1: of secrecy. And it was around this time that King 406 00:30:28,680 --> 00:30:34,320 Speaker 1: Leopold organized something called the International Association of the Congo. 407 00:30:35,320 --> 00:30:39,480 Speaker 1: If that sounds similar to that pointless but idealistic International 408 00:30:39,520 --> 00:30:44,720 Speaker 1: African Association, that was on purpose. The former even adopted 409 00:30:44,880 --> 00:30:48,800 Speaker 1: the exact same flag as the latter, a gold star 410 00:30:49,000 --> 00:30:53,760 Speaker 1: against a blue backdrop. Care must be taken, Leopold said, 411 00:30:54,320 --> 00:30:57,320 Speaker 1: not to let it be obvious that the Association of 412 00:30:57,360 --> 00:31:01,800 Speaker 1: the Congo and the African Association two different things. The 413 00:31:01,920 --> 00:31:11,320 Speaker 1: public doesn't grasp that. Leopold framed the Association of the 414 00:31:11,360 --> 00:31:15,320 Speaker 1: Congo a sort of a new Red Cross, and wealthy 415 00:31:15,360 --> 00:31:19,240 Speaker 1: men all over the world sent donations. Leopold was an 416 00:31:19,280 --> 00:31:24,760 Speaker 1: expert at manipulating the message depending on his audience. Two Germans, 417 00:31:24,840 --> 00:31:28,160 Speaker 1: he framed the enterprise as akin to the divine mission 418 00:31:28,560 --> 00:31:32,960 Speaker 1: of the Night of the Crusade. Two Americans, he stressed 419 00:31:33,000 --> 00:31:36,880 Speaker 1: that he would establish in Africa a union of free cities, 420 00:31:37,240 --> 00:31:41,080 Speaker 1: each led by local African tribe leaders, not dissimilar to 421 00:31:41,160 --> 00:31:45,920 Speaker 1: the Union of American States. But in his letters to Stanley, 422 00:31:46,080 --> 00:31:50,880 Speaker 1: Leopold dropped the facade. There is no question, he wrote 423 00:31:51,280 --> 00:31:56,320 Speaker 1: of granting the slightest political power to Negroes. That would 424 00:31:56,360 --> 00:32:00,680 Speaker 1: be absurd. The white men heads of the stations retain 425 00:32:00,840 --> 00:32:05,120 Speaker 1: all of the powers. While continuing to promote his smoke 426 00:32:05,240 --> 00:32:10,160 Speaker 1: screen charity organizations, Leopold reached out to an Oxford scholar 427 00:32:10,280 --> 00:32:14,120 Speaker 1: and a lawyer to handle the legal details of acting 428 00:32:14,160 --> 00:32:19,960 Speaker 1: as a corporation and claiming sovereignty of territories for individuals 429 00:32:21,080 --> 00:32:24,960 Speaker 1: in Africa. Henry Morton Stanley worked not only as a 430 00:32:25,080 --> 00:32:30,320 Speaker 1: brutal taskmaster, berating his crews of workmen as they filled ravines, 431 00:32:30,480 --> 00:32:36,040 Speaker 1: built trails, and put together steamships, but also on Leopold's behalf, 432 00:32:36,520 --> 00:32:41,440 Speaker 1: tricking African leaders into signing treaties that gave Leopold their 433 00:32:41,560 --> 00:32:46,600 Speaker 1: land and gave him an exclusive trading monopoly. Using trick 434 00:32:46,680 --> 00:32:51,480 Speaker 1: bullets and small electric buzzers, Stanley convinced leaders who hadn't 435 00:32:51,520 --> 00:32:56,800 Speaker 1: interacted with Western technology that white men possessed superhuman strength 436 00:32:56,880 --> 00:33:00,280 Speaker 1: and invulnerability, and then it was only a matter of 437 00:33:00,400 --> 00:33:03,760 Speaker 1: some clothes, a few left over uniforms, and a couple 438 00:33:03,760 --> 00:33:06,840 Speaker 1: of bottles of gin to trade, and the leaders signed 439 00:33:06,880 --> 00:33:12,920 Speaker 1: the treaties that Stanley put in front of them. As 440 00:33:12,960 --> 00:33:17,680 Speaker 1: historian Adam Hopeshelled writes in his excellent biography King Leopold's Ghost, 441 00:33:18,360 --> 00:33:21,880 Speaker 1: the concept of signing your land away would have been 442 00:33:22,320 --> 00:33:26,160 Speaker 1: completely for it. The tribe leaders would have been familiar 443 00:33:26,200 --> 00:33:29,120 Speaker 1: with the idea of a contract of friendship, but someone 444 00:33:29,160 --> 00:33:33,400 Speaker 1: across an ocean owning their land was absurd and outside 445 00:33:33,400 --> 00:33:37,000 Speaker 1: the realm of contemplation. They just put an x where 446 00:33:37,000 --> 00:33:39,640 Speaker 1: they were told at the bottom of a contract in 447 00:33:39,680 --> 00:33:45,040 Speaker 1: a foreign language they didn't understand. And these contracts also 448 00:33:45,120 --> 00:33:48,720 Speaker 1: included a clause even more sinister than you can imagine. 449 00:33:49,480 --> 00:33:53,920 Speaker 1: They granted not just the land, but an agreement that 450 00:33:54,000 --> 00:33:59,680 Speaker 1: the tribe would quote assist by labor or otherwise any works, 451 00:34:00,040 --> 00:34:06,240 Speaker 1: improvement or expeditions which the said associations shall cause at 452 00:34:06,320 --> 00:34:09,880 Speaker 1: any time to be carried out in any part of 453 00:34:09,920 --> 00:34:16,960 Speaker 1: these territories. In short manpower. The Congo would become, in 454 00:34:17,080 --> 00:34:22,800 Speaker 1: effect a slave state. The United States became the first 455 00:34:23,000 --> 00:34:26,799 Speaker 1: to recognize Leopold's claim to the land of the Congo 456 00:34:27,200 --> 00:34:31,319 Speaker 1: and in his speech the Secretary of State conveniently confused 457 00:34:31,440 --> 00:34:36,160 Speaker 1: the International African Association and International Association of the Congo. 458 00:34:37,000 --> 00:34:42,120 Speaker 1: The dominoes were falling into place. The next year, Leopold 459 00:34:42,160 --> 00:34:46,880 Speaker 1: formally declared his landholdings to be the Congo Free State, 460 00:34:47,520 --> 00:34:53,360 Speaker 1: operating under his exclusive private control. King Leopold of the 461 00:34:53,400 --> 00:34:57,520 Speaker 1: Belgians was now the owner of the world's largest private 462 00:34:57,600 --> 00:35:02,040 Speaker 1: landholding in history, seventies six times larger than the country 463 00:35:02,040 --> 00:35:07,680 Speaker 1: you ruled over. From this point on, the details become horrific. 464 00:35:08,719 --> 00:35:10,799 Speaker 1: It turns out the real profit to be made in 465 00:35:10,800 --> 00:35:14,240 Speaker 1: the Congo wasn't in ivory, it was in a rubber. 466 00:35:15,280 --> 00:35:19,760 Speaker 1: Leopold established a private army, the Force Publique, to enforce 467 00:35:19,880 --> 00:35:24,680 Speaker 1: rubber gathering quotas in the native populations through brutal torture. 468 00:35:25,440 --> 00:35:28,319 Speaker 1: The police force would arrive in a village, hold the 469 00:35:28,360 --> 00:35:31,960 Speaker 1: women and children hostage, and whip workers with a bull 470 00:35:32,000 --> 00:35:36,319 Speaker 1: whip called the chicot made from dried elephants hide. The 471 00:35:36,400 --> 00:35:41,280 Speaker 1: penalty for not gathering enough rubber was death. In order 472 00:35:41,320 --> 00:35:43,839 Speaker 1: to make sure that the police officers were using their 473 00:35:43,880 --> 00:35:47,520 Speaker 1: bullets on people and not on animals to hunt for food, 474 00:35:48,120 --> 00:35:53,120 Speaker 1: the hands of victims were required as trophies. Hands and 475 00:35:53,239 --> 00:35:57,160 Speaker 1: feet of children would be severed if parents weren't productive enough. 476 00:35:58,200 --> 00:36:01,959 Speaker 1: Even the act of gathering the rubber was violent. Once 477 00:36:02,000 --> 00:36:05,319 Speaker 1: the viands were split open, the worker would slather his 478 00:36:05,440 --> 00:36:09,759 Speaker 1: body in the soft latex, which would then harden. Once hard, 479 00:36:09,960 --> 00:36:13,480 Speaker 1: the latex would be stripped painfully from the body, taking 480 00:36:13,560 --> 00:36:18,920 Speaker 1: hair along with it. Men were worked to death, hostages starved. 481 00:36:20,040 --> 00:36:24,560 Speaker 1: Some estimate that as many as ten million people were 482 00:36:24,640 --> 00:36:28,880 Speaker 1: killed during King Leopold's bloody twenty three year long reign 483 00:36:28,960 --> 00:36:34,000 Speaker 1: in the Congo. Ten million people slaughtered in his name 484 00:36:34,600 --> 00:36:39,040 Speaker 1: as the rubber and ivory came on chips back to Belgium, 485 00:36:39,080 --> 00:36:44,880 Speaker 1: and he gleefully sent only soldiers and bullets back. In Europe, 486 00:36:44,920 --> 00:36:48,520 Speaker 1: they called him the Builder King for the urban projects 487 00:36:48,520 --> 00:36:54,200 Speaker 1: and buildings and parks he erected using his profits. Leopold 488 00:36:54,320 --> 00:36:57,040 Speaker 1: never actually went to the Congo himself, but he did 489 00:36:57,120 --> 00:37:01,360 Speaker 1: bring the Congo to him in and when he opened 490 00:37:01,400 --> 00:37:05,000 Speaker 1: a temporary exhibition at his country estate that would become 491 00:37:05,040 --> 00:37:08,840 Speaker 1: the Royal Museum for Central Africa. The heart of the 492 00:37:08,880 --> 00:37:12,680 Speaker 1: exhibit was a human zoo where two hundred and sixty 493 00:37:12,719 --> 00:37:16,720 Speaker 1: seven Congolese men, women, and children were kidnapped and brought 494 00:37:16,760 --> 00:37:20,080 Speaker 1: to a mock African village set up on the Royal 495 00:37:20,239 --> 00:37:24,600 Speaker 1: Estates grounds. When the prisoners got sick because of visitors 496 00:37:24,640 --> 00:37:28,160 Speaker 1: throwing candy over the fences, they put up a sign 497 00:37:28,360 --> 00:37:32,279 Speaker 1: that said the blacks are fed by the organizing Committee. 498 00:37:32,920 --> 00:37:42,080 Speaker 1: In other words, don't feed the animals. For twenty three years, 499 00:37:42,560 --> 00:37:45,879 Speaker 1: Leopold was the sole owner of the Congo Free State, 500 00:37:46,560 --> 00:37:50,040 Speaker 1: and his atrocities were largely ignored by the rest of 501 00:37:50,080 --> 00:37:56,080 Speaker 1: the world out of convenient apathy. How much easier was 502 00:37:56,120 --> 00:37:59,800 Speaker 1: it to believe that charming Leopold actually was fronting a 503 00:38:00,000 --> 00:38:04,040 Speaker 1: pilanthropic endeavor. It would only be through the tireless work 504 00:38:04,040 --> 00:38:07,920 Speaker 1: of missionaries that things would eventually change, people like George 505 00:38:07,920 --> 00:38:11,520 Speaker 1: Washington Williams, who wrote his open letter, and like Alice 506 00:38:11,480 --> 00:38:15,520 Speaker 1: see Lee Harris, a documentary photographer who captured the gruesome 507 00:38:15,560 --> 00:38:20,719 Speaker 1: dismemberments on film. It would actually be a shipping officer 508 00:38:20,800 --> 00:38:24,239 Speaker 1: named Edmund Dinney Morrell who would provide one of the 509 00:38:24,400 --> 00:38:30,040 Speaker 1: largest public pushes for the world to recognize Leopold's horrific exploitation. 510 00:38:31,160 --> 00:38:34,480 Speaker 1: Morrell noticed that it was ivory and rubber arriving on 511 00:38:34,560 --> 00:38:39,160 Speaker 1: ships from the Congo, but only bullets going back. He 512 00:38:39,320 --> 00:38:43,320 Speaker 1: realized there was no trade happening, and so he enlisted 513 00:38:43,360 --> 00:38:46,439 Speaker 1: thinkers and celebrities of the day like Arthur Conan Doyle 514 00:38:46,520 --> 00:38:53,200 Speaker 1: and Mark Twain, and eventually, in night, Leopold the Second 515 00:38:53,440 --> 00:38:57,040 Speaker 1: was forced to sell the Congo Free State to Belgium 516 00:38:57,160 --> 00:39:02,160 Speaker 1: to make it actually an official bell Rgian colony. Let 517 00:39:02,200 --> 00:39:06,600 Speaker 1: that sink in the Congo wasn't actually made free, it 518 00:39:06,719 --> 00:39:11,040 Speaker 1: was just not personally owned by Leopold anymore. That was 519 00:39:11,440 --> 00:39:17,360 Speaker 1: the humanitarian victory. Leopold died the next year at age 520 00:39:17,360 --> 00:39:21,640 Speaker 1: seventy four. His funeral procession was met by booze from 521 00:39:21,719 --> 00:39:25,960 Speaker 1: Belgian people. But as soon as Leopold was gone, his 522 00:39:26,080 --> 00:39:29,959 Speaker 1: legacy in the Congo began to be whitewashed. He was dead, 523 00:39:30,160 --> 00:39:34,799 Speaker 1: so the international fervor died out. Statues of Leopold were 524 00:39:34,800 --> 00:39:38,040 Speaker 1: erected in the parks he helped build. They taught in 525 00:39:38,120 --> 00:39:42,080 Speaker 1: school that colonialism might have gotten too violent under the 526 00:39:42,080 --> 00:39:46,319 Speaker 1: Builder King, but colonialism was always bad. People in other 527 00:39:46,360 --> 00:39:49,279 Speaker 1: European countries try to make Leopold look worse to make 528 00:39:49,320 --> 00:39:53,760 Speaker 1: themselves feel better, you see. Besides, sure, there was some blood, 529 00:39:53,880 --> 00:39:59,040 Speaker 1: but he was bringing civilization to Africa. It's so easy 530 00:39:59,280 --> 00:40:03,640 Speaker 1: sometimes to believe the lies and to enjoy the pretty statues, 531 00:40:04,239 --> 00:40:10,799 Speaker 1: the comforting facade of authority and dignity and civilization. And 532 00:40:10,920 --> 00:40:17,400 Speaker 1: the statues of Leopold remained in Belgium until June twenty twenty. 533 00:40:18,880 --> 00:40:23,239 Speaker 1: During the international Black Lives Matter March following George Floyd's 534 00:40:23,239 --> 00:40:28,040 Speaker 1: death in the United States, protesters in Belgium coated statues 535 00:40:28,080 --> 00:40:32,440 Speaker 1: of Leopold the Second in red paint in Antwerp and 536 00:40:32,560 --> 00:40:37,000 Speaker 1: in Ghent and in Brussels. Some of the statues have 537 00:40:37,080 --> 00:40:40,560 Speaker 1: already been taken down, but I think it's worth asking 538 00:40:40,560 --> 00:40:44,520 Speaker 1: ourselves what had been keeping them up for so long? 539 00:40:44,680 --> 00:40:53,040 Speaker 1: All this time. That's the story of King Leopold the 540 00:40:53,080 --> 00:40:55,759 Speaker 1: Second and how he used the symbolic power of his 541 00:40:55,840 --> 00:41:00,880 Speaker 1: monarchy to enact horrific realities. Keepless ning after a brief 542 00:41:00,920 --> 00:41:03,480 Speaker 1: sponsor break, to hear a little bit more about the 543 00:41:03,560 --> 00:41:17,240 Speaker 1: legacy he left in literature. After Henry Morton Stanley built 544 00:41:17,280 --> 00:41:21,080 Speaker 1: the roads and base camps along the Congo, steamboats began 545 00:41:21,120 --> 00:41:24,680 Speaker 1: to appear on the river, delivering supplies and taking rubber 546 00:41:24,719 --> 00:41:28,840 Speaker 1: and ivory off to the coasts. One of those steamboats 547 00:41:28,840 --> 00:41:32,560 Speaker 1: a boat called the King of the Belgians was piloted 548 00:41:32,560 --> 00:41:37,319 Speaker 1: by a man named Joseph Conrad. Conrad's experience in the 549 00:41:37,360 --> 00:41:40,120 Speaker 1: Congo and all of the horrors he saw first hand, 550 00:41:40,640 --> 00:41:43,839 Speaker 1: would lead him to write his most famous novel, Heart 551 00:41:43,840 --> 00:41:47,440 Speaker 1: of Darkness. If you haven't read it yet, you might 552 00:41:47,480 --> 00:41:51,040 Speaker 1: have at least seen the movie adaptation. Although the movie 553 00:41:51,080 --> 00:41:55,680 Speaker 1: doesn't take place in nineteenth century Africa, Francis Ford Coppola 554 00:41:55,800 --> 00:41:59,400 Speaker 1: decided to set it in Vietnam. The movie, of course, 555 00:41:59,560 --> 00:42:04,680 Speaker 1: is a acalypse. Now there's another important literary legacy from 556 00:42:04,680 --> 00:42:08,960 Speaker 1: the Congo worth pointing out. Remember George Washington Williams, the 557 00:42:09,040 --> 00:42:12,080 Speaker 1: Civil War soldier turned journalists who wrote the open letter 558 00:42:12,120 --> 00:42:15,400 Speaker 1: to King Leopold. He also wrote a pamphlet for the 559 00:42:15,440 --> 00:42:20,440 Speaker 1: international community advocating action, and he coined a phrase to 560 00:42:20,520 --> 00:42:24,200 Speaker 1: describe what Leopold had done, a phrase that we still 561 00:42:24,360 --> 00:42:34,040 Speaker 1: use to this day, Crimes against Humanity. Noble Blood is 562 00:42:34,080 --> 00:42:36,600 Speaker 1: a production of I Heart Radio and Grimm and Mild 563 00:42:36,680 --> 00:42:39,560 Speaker 1: from Aaron Minkey. The show was written and hosted by 564 00:42:39,640 --> 00:42:44,359 Speaker 1: Dani Schwartz and produced by Aaron Manky, Matt Frederick, Alex Williams, 565 00:42:44,400 --> 00:42:47,839 Speaker 1: and Trevor Young. Noble Blood is on social media at 566 00:42:47,880 --> 00:42:50,319 Speaker 1: Noble Blood Tales, and you can learn more about the 567 00:42:50,320 --> 00:42:53,279 Speaker 1: show over at Noble blood Tales dot com. For more 568 00:42:53,320 --> 00:42:56,520 Speaker 1: podcasts from I Heart Radio, visit the i Heart Radio app, 569 00:42:56,680 --> 00:42:59,920 Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.