1 00:00:00,280 --> 00:00:03,480 Speaker 1: Hello, friends, and welcome back to Behind the Bastards, the 2 00:00:03,480 --> 00:00:05,920 Speaker 1: show where we tell you everything you don't know about 3 00:00:05,920 --> 00:00:08,400 Speaker 1: the very worst people in history. On this show, we 4 00:00:08,480 --> 00:00:14,320 Speaker 1: cover monsters like Adolf Hitler, Saddam Hussein, Eric, Prince Will Wheaton, 5 00:00:14,480 --> 00:00:18,200 Speaker 1: and today's topic, King Leopold. But before we get to 6 00:00:18,280 --> 00:00:20,959 Speaker 1: King Leopold, I'd like to introduce my guest for the week, 7 00:00:21,079 --> 00:00:24,239 Speaker 1: Andrew T host of YO is this racist in general 8 00:00:24,239 --> 00:00:28,480 Speaker 1: man about town? Hello Andrew, what's up? Well? Today we're 9 00:00:28,520 --> 00:00:32,519 Speaker 1: talking about a little Belgian dude named Leopold. You've ever 10 00:00:32,520 --> 00:00:37,800 Speaker 1: heard of King Leopold of Belgium. Uh? Not particularly King 11 00:00:37,880 --> 00:00:40,440 Speaker 1: Leopold the Second, If that makes it. Yeah, I feel 12 00:00:40,440 --> 00:00:43,680 Speaker 1: like the closest I'm gonna come is. I feel like 13 00:00:44,040 --> 00:00:46,600 Speaker 1: at some point I got a box of fancy chocolates 14 00:00:46,600 --> 00:00:49,879 Speaker 1: that might have had a Leopold. Maybe not the bad Leopold. 15 00:00:49,960 --> 00:00:53,880 Speaker 1: I assume a good Leopold. This is not a good Leopold. Yeah, 16 00:00:54,760 --> 00:00:58,880 Speaker 1: probably not this particularly Leopold. Yeah. Uh. Leopold the Second 17 00:00:58,920 --> 00:01:01,040 Speaker 1: was King of Belgium once upon of time, and he was, 18 00:01:01,160 --> 00:01:03,400 Speaker 1: in my opinion, the first world leader to be truly 19 00:01:03,440 --> 00:01:06,760 Speaker 1: shitty in the modern sense of the word. Like like 20 00:01:06,760 --> 00:01:09,080 Speaker 1: like the kind of shitty that like Putin and Trump 21 00:01:09,400 --> 00:01:12,560 Speaker 1: right right right, so not right, we're discounting our Genghis 22 00:01:12,640 --> 00:01:16,000 Speaker 1: Khans and yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, because Genghis Khan like 23 00:01:16,080 --> 00:01:18,080 Speaker 1: did what he did, but he didn't have like a 24 00:01:18,080 --> 00:01:20,760 Speaker 1: bunch of newspapers, did he. He was just like I'm 25 00:01:20,760 --> 00:01:22,720 Speaker 1: gonna conquer some ship, right right right. This is the 26 00:01:22,720 --> 00:01:28,319 Speaker 1: transition from barbarian bastards into media bastards exactly. And I 27 00:01:28,319 --> 00:01:31,280 Speaker 1: think Leopold of Belgium is really where it happens in 28 00:01:31,319 --> 00:01:34,320 Speaker 1: a modern like obviously other people had toyed with aspects 29 00:01:34,360 --> 00:01:37,360 Speaker 1: of this. He really nailed it. Uh So King Leopold 30 00:01:37,360 --> 00:01:41,080 Speaker 1: the Seconds dad was obviously King Leopold the First, uh 31 00:01:41,080 --> 00:01:43,279 Speaker 1: and he was the first king of Belgium. Not obvious? 32 00:01:43,440 --> 00:01:46,000 Speaker 1: Is that? Is it always like a like one piguets 33 00:01:46,080 --> 00:01:49,480 Speaker 1: two or is it like a your grandfather was Leopold 34 00:01:49,480 --> 00:01:52,760 Speaker 1: the first, I'm Gerald of Belgium, but you're gonna be 35 00:01:52,840 --> 00:01:55,559 Speaker 1: Leopold too. I think that's more how it happens most 36 00:01:55,600 --> 00:01:59,200 Speaker 1: of the time, not this time. This time, Leopold the 37 00:01:59,240 --> 00:02:02,160 Speaker 1: First was like this went so well, yeah, we're gonna 38 00:02:02,200 --> 00:02:06,200 Speaker 1: have at the second. Um so Leopold the First was 39 00:02:06,280 --> 00:02:09,040 Speaker 1: like the again, the very first king of Belgium at all, 40 00:02:09,080 --> 00:02:10,880 Speaker 1: because Belgium had just been made a thing in the 41 00:02:10,919 --> 00:02:14,160 Speaker 1: wake from the Napoleonic Wars. So during the whole fighting 42 00:02:14,240 --> 00:02:16,840 Speaker 1: between Napoleon and everyone else in Europe, Belgium was generally 43 00:02:16,880 --> 00:02:20,000 Speaker 1: the battleground, where like the everyone would sort of duke 44 00:02:20,040 --> 00:02:22,040 Speaker 1: it out between the Germans and the French and the 45 00:02:22,080 --> 00:02:25,760 Speaker 1: French and everybody else. Yet Waterloo was in Belgium. So 46 00:02:25,840 --> 00:02:28,919 Speaker 1: after Napoleon's but gets kicked, the European powers who win 47 00:02:28,960 --> 00:02:32,359 Speaker 1: are like, okay, we can't have France and Germany fighting 48 00:02:32,440 --> 00:02:36,000 Speaker 1: over Belgium forever. We're gonna make it its own thing. 49 00:02:37,240 --> 00:02:39,040 Speaker 1: And since it was going to be a new country, 50 00:02:39,200 --> 00:02:43,840 Speaker 1: obviously it needed a king um so they Leopold the 51 00:02:43,840 --> 00:02:45,840 Speaker 1: First got the job because he was a German prince 52 00:02:45,960 --> 00:02:49,040 Speaker 1: who didn't have a kingdom of his own, okay, so 53 00:02:49,240 --> 00:02:51,720 Speaker 1: it was just like split off, right, this is like 54 00:02:52,040 --> 00:02:54,480 Speaker 1: we're going to give Megan Marcole Whales or whatever or 55 00:02:54,720 --> 00:02:57,079 Speaker 1: part of Wales. Yeah, part of Whales, yeah, yeah, it's 56 00:02:57,080 --> 00:02:58,919 Speaker 1: that exactly that sort of thing. They actually tried him 57 00:02:58,919 --> 00:03:01,080 Speaker 1: out to be king of Greece first, but he didn't like, 58 00:03:01,240 --> 00:03:05,919 Speaker 1: didn't fit for whatever. Yeah, that's an option. We're gonna 59 00:03:05,960 --> 00:03:08,760 Speaker 1: find you with something, buddy, don't worry leap. Oh my god, 60 00:03:08,800 --> 00:03:11,640 Speaker 1: I'm gonna put you in a kingdom. Greece isn't the 61 00:03:11,720 --> 00:03:14,880 Speaker 1: right one. Yeah, of course you try a starter kingdom. 62 00:03:14,919 --> 00:03:18,799 Speaker 1: Everyone has a kingdom to start. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, Greece 63 00:03:18,880 --> 00:03:23,680 Speaker 1: was his unsold pilot. Yeah. Um. And he was, by 64 00:03:23,800 --> 00:03:26,160 Speaker 1: all accounts, a pretty good king of Belgium if you're 65 00:03:26,200 --> 00:03:30,079 Speaker 1: into that sort of thing. Yeah. Um, waffles, waffles and 66 00:03:30,160 --> 00:03:36,440 Speaker 1: chocolate and pocolate, getting by beer, yeah, great beer, getting 67 00:03:36,880 --> 00:03:39,760 Speaker 1: jammed by the Germs, great beer. Great at getting jammed 68 00:03:39,800 --> 00:03:43,160 Speaker 1: by the Germans. That's Belgium in a nutshell. Um. But yeah, 69 00:03:43,200 --> 00:03:45,360 Speaker 1: he was a good king. While he was king. Midway 70 00:03:45,400 --> 00:03:47,440 Speaker 1: through his reign in eighteen forty eight, there was like 71 00:03:47,480 --> 00:03:49,840 Speaker 1: this big year of revolutions all across Europe, and all 72 00:03:49,840 --> 00:03:53,160 Speaker 1: these European countries had their monarchs overthrown except for Belgium. 73 00:03:53,200 --> 00:03:56,760 Speaker 1: So he's the Christian spring we call that, Yes, the 74 00:03:56,800 --> 00:04:01,640 Speaker 1: white white Man's springs, that's the lad three hundred years. 75 00:04:02,720 --> 00:04:04,920 Speaker 1: What a time, what a time for the whites, given 76 00:04:05,000 --> 00:04:09,440 Speaker 1: up for the whites. Yeah um so Leopold the first 77 00:04:09,560 --> 00:04:12,960 Speaker 1: solid King. I've got two main sources for today's podcast, 78 00:04:13,000 --> 00:04:15,120 Speaker 1: which I shouldn't note now. The first is a biography 79 00:04:15,160 --> 00:04:18,000 Speaker 1: called Leopold, the Second King of Belgium. Uh. It's a 80 00:04:18,040 --> 00:04:22,040 Speaker 1: pro monarchist book that was written in nineteen ten um. 81 00:04:22,080 --> 00:04:24,800 Speaker 1: The article is critical about Leopold sometimes, but he thinks 82 00:04:24,800 --> 00:04:26,480 Speaker 1: he was like a great king and he thinks kings 83 00:04:26,480 --> 00:04:28,720 Speaker 1: are a good idea. So it's an interesting book because 84 00:04:28,720 --> 00:04:31,520 Speaker 1: it gives you an idea of how Leopold himself would 85 00:04:31,520 --> 00:04:34,120 Speaker 1: sort of present himself and defend himself and let you 86 00:04:34,160 --> 00:04:36,200 Speaker 1: know what the propaganda at the time was well, and 87 00:04:36,279 --> 00:04:40,320 Speaker 1: also write just critical enough to be legitimate. Well, no, no, 88 00:04:40,720 --> 00:04:43,839 Speaker 1: it's totally I guess for the time it wasn't bad. 89 00:04:44,160 --> 00:04:46,560 Speaker 1: What I mean is the you put it in just 90 00:04:46,600 --> 00:04:51,480 Speaker 1: the faintest of criticism to give the exactly you know, yeah, 91 00:04:51,880 --> 00:04:54,560 Speaker 1: this is a real investigation. Yeah, it's like the monarch's 92 00:04:54,600 --> 00:04:58,480 Speaker 1: equivalent of one of those like celebrity biographies out of 93 00:04:58,720 --> 00:05:03,120 Speaker 1: Ben Affleck or whatever. Yeah. Yeah, the Heraldo Interview of 94 00:05:03,720 --> 00:05:06,680 Speaker 1: books exactly right, exactly. And then the other book is 95 00:05:06,720 --> 00:05:09,279 Speaker 1: a book called King Leopold's Ghost by Adam hosh Child, 96 00:05:09,360 --> 00:05:12,560 Speaker 1: which takes the stance that Leopold was one of history's 97 00:05:12,600 --> 00:05:15,440 Speaker 1: great monsters. Anyway, So these are these are most of 98 00:05:15,480 --> 00:05:17,679 Speaker 1: what I come from, a sort of the contrasting views 99 00:05:17,720 --> 00:05:20,200 Speaker 1: that these two books. Person, you read two books for 100 00:05:20,240 --> 00:05:24,960 Speaker 1: a podcast, Get out of your mind. Come on, there's 101 00:05:24,960 --> 00:05:28,360 Speaker 1: a lot to dig into here, and there's not a lot. 102 00:05:28,440 --> 00:05:30,600 Speaker 1: You're making me feel real bad. I'm like, usually good 103 00:05:30,640 --> 00:05:34,279 Speaker 1: for half a Wikipedia article. Holy sh it, well this 104 00:05:34,360 --> 00:05:38,599 Speaker 1: is at least the equivalent of like four Wikipedia articles. Jeez, 105 00:05:38,680 --> 00:05:43,039 Speaker 1: go ahead, alright. So Leopold the seconds Mom Louise was 106 00:05:43,160 --> 00:05:45,960 Speaker 1: almost a love match is the term the book uses 107 00:05:46,120 --> 00:05:48,960 Speaker 1: for his dad, the King Um And it says this 108 00:05:49,160 --> 00:05:52,080 Speaker 1: because the king was already in love with her before 109 00:05:52,080 --> 00:05:56,800 Speaker 1: they get married. That makes it a love match. He 110 00:05:56,920 --> 00:06:00,280 Speaker 1: liked her when she was fourteen, so it's love. Yeah, 111 00:06:01,480 --> 00:06:04,160 Speaker 1: there were hell of it, and she had the right land. 112 00:06:06,200 --> 00:06:08,240 Speaker 1: She had some nice land. I'm related to the right 113 00:06:08,360 --> 00:06:11,000 Speaker 1: enemies she was with I think from the Orleone family, 114 00:06:11,080 --> 00:06:14,800 Speaker 1: so she was like she had some solid ass royal pedigree. 115 00:06:15,640 --> 00:06:18,440 Speaker 1: You know, you get some German from King Leopold the first, 116 00:06:18,520 --> 00:06:20,520 Speaker 1: you get a little bit of French from his wife 117 00:06:20,560 --> 00:06:22,360 Speaker 1: and then their baby is sort of a mix. So 118 00:06:22,440 --> 00:06:25,800 Speaker 1: maybe Germany and France won't fight over belgimin what a 119 00:06:25,880 --> 00:06:30,200 Speaker 1: brave Yeah, didn't war? Yeah. So Leopold the second was 120 00:06:30,279 --> 00:06:34,359 Speaker 1: born Leopold Louis Philippe Mary Victor. Uh, and he was 121 00:06:34,400 --> 00:06:37,360 Speaker 1: his parents second child. His older brother died eleven months 122 00:06:37,360 --> 00:06:40,440 Speaker 1: before he was born. Um, so if you think about 123 00:06:40,440 --> 00:06:43,919 Speaker 1: that timeline a lot, it's not very fun. Because Leopold's 124 00:06:43,920 --> 00:06:48,360 Speaker 1: older brothers born, he dies eleven months later, they pop 125 00:06:48,400 --> 00:06:51,760 Speaker 1: out another son, Yeah, immediately, immediately, not a lot of 126 00:06:51,839 --> 00:06:55,520 Speaker 1: morning time, or maybe they just kind of, you know, 127 00:06:55,560 --> 00:07:01,000 Speaker 1: fun the pain away. But yeah, yeah, that's probably would happened. 128 00:07:01,080 --> 00:07:04,160 Speaker 1: That's the optimistic look. Um. Alright, So at age five, 129 00:07:04,240 --> 00:07:07,159 Speaker 1: Leopold's father declared him Duke of Brabant, which is how 130 00:07:07,200 --> 00:07:09,800 Speaker 1: he was addressed right up until his coronation. Uh he 131 00:07:10,280 --> 00:07:13,400 Speaker 1: said five, age five, Yeah, age five, Yeah you can 132 00:07:13,480 --> 00:07:15,200 Speaker 1: you'll have to be a duke at age five. And 133 00:07:15,240 --> 00:07:18,400 Speaker 1: he looks he looks like he looks like people in 134 00:07:18,440 --> 00:07:21,040 Speaker 1: this pretty little duke. We'll have the pictures up on 135 00:07:21,040 --> 00:07:24,200 Speaker 1: our website. He has no chin um and a kind 136 00:07:24,200 --> 00:07:26,400 Speaker 1: of a lopsided face. But maybe that's just the painting 137 00:07:26,480 --> 00:07:29,080 Speaker 1: looks a little bit like a ghost, like a human ghost. 138 00:07:29,240 --> 00:07:32,800 Speaker 1: It looks like the painting of a ghost that you 139 00:07:32,840 --> 00:07:35,360 Speaker 1: find in the basement of an old house. And then 140 00:07:35,640 --> 00:07:38,160 Speaker 1: like there's a rush of wind and the camera falls over, 141 00:07:38,280 --> 00:07:41,200 Speaker 1: and like your friend gets mauled by a spirit. Yeah, 142 00:07:41,360 --> 00:07:45,760 Speaker 1: and that's this guy's selfie essentially. Yeah, that's this guy's like, 143 00:07:45,840 --> 00:07:47,520 Speaker 1: this is the image we want to put out into 144 00:07:47,520 --> 00:07:50,880 Speaker 1: the world. Yeah, this was like hanging in palaces. So 145 00:07:50,960 --> 00:07:53,360 Speaker 1: he looks like a creeper from day a little spooky boy, 146 00:07:53,440 --> 00:07:57,240 Speaker 1: but he's still a baby. Um. So, the biography notes 147 00:07:57,280 --> 00:07:59,720 Speaker 1: that Leopold and his siblings were brought up in quote 148 00:07:59,760 --> 00:08:02,560 Speaker 1: the simplest manner and taught to behave as if they 149 00:08:02,560 --> 00:08:05,960 Speaker 1: were normal citizens rather than noryalty. That sounds great until 150 00:08:05,960 --> 00:08:09,000 Speaker 1: you get to the next part quote. The king further 151 00:08:09,080 --> 00:08:11,520 Speaker 1: expressed the wish to develop in the children the sentiment 152 00:08:11,560 --> 00:08:13,360 Speaker 1: of duty and not to allow them to have an 153 00:08:13,360 --> 00:08:15,680 Speaker 1: opinion of their own with regard to their duties and 154 00:08:15,680 --> 00:08:19,960 Speaker 1: their studies. Um. Basically, the king was trying to crush 155 00:08:19,960 --> 00:08:21,960 Speaker 1: the individuality of his kids so that they would just 156 00:08:22,000 --> 00:08:25,600 Speaker 1: fit the role of king. That's kind of yeah, good 157 00:08:25,720 --> 00:08:28,400 Speaker 1: actually is it in that? Well what else are you 158 00:08:28,400 --> 00:08:31,680 Speaker 1: gonna do? Because I got to do this dumb job? Well, 159 00:08:31,720 --> 00:08:33,880 Speaker 1: I mean you could try to make them be healthy, 160 00:08:33,880 --> 00:08:36,719 Speaker 1: fully formed people. Yeah, but why then they got to 161 00:08:36,760 --> 00:08:40,360 Speaker 1: be king? Yeah? Well okay, that's fair. I mean you 162 00:08:40,440 --> 00:08:43,440 Speaker 1: were taking Leopold the first side. Yeah, well he's the 163 00:08:43,440 --> 00:08:46,320 Speaker 1: good one again, I'm probably this chocolate. Um No, but right, 164 00:08:46,400 --> 00:08:49,960 Speaker 1: isn't that the he's He's he's just as trapped as 165 00:08:50,000 --> 00:08:53,280 Speaker 1: everyone else, you know, Yes, so if he's got to 166 00:08:53,280 --> 00:08:54,720 Speaker 1: do this thing, you might as well make it so 167 00:08:54,880 --> 00:08:57,600 Speaker 1: he can do this thing. Okay, So you're expressing some 168 00:08:57,640 --> 00:09:00,520 Speaker 1: motivation maybe two, why you would do this, why you 169 00:09:00,520 --> 00:09:02,559 Speaker 1: would do what he winds up doing, and you don't 170 00:09:02,600 --> 00:09:05,920 Speaker 1: even know what he winds up doing do? Yeah? What 171 00:09:05,960 --> 00:09:08,319 Speaker 1: did I just defend? We are still? Let me just 172 00:09:08,360 --> 00:09:10,960 Speaker 1: say right now, whatever he does, I stand behind it. Well, 173 00:09:11,360 --> 00:09:14,559 Speaker 1: he kills about ten to fifteen million people. Yeah, it's fine. Okay, 174 00:09:14,679 --> 00:09:20,040 Speaker 1: Well what's it? Um? So when Leopold is fifteen, his 175 00:09:20,080 --> 00:09:22,079 Speaker 1: mom dies of some illness or another. It's one of 176 00:09:22,120 --> 00:09:24,280 Speaker 1: those things where the writers at the time aren't specific. 177 00:09:24,320 --> 00:09:27,280 Speaker 1: They're just like she took ill and was secret and 178 00:09:27,280 --> 00:09:29,640 Speaker 1: then she and then she dies, Like, yeah, it's probably 179 00:09:29,679 --> 00:09:33,440 Speaker 1: dip theoria or some weird named the flue disease. Yeah, 180 00:09:34,280 --> 00:09:36,120 Speaker 1: would be a big deal, I guess. I mean it's 181 00:09:36,160 --> 00:09:41,320 Speaker 1: probably as a flu like that killed everybody back then. Um. Yeah. 182 00:09:41,360 --> 00:09:45,680 Speaker 1: And King Leopold's ghost, Adam hosh Child, describes Leopold's childhood 183 00:09:45,720 --> 00:09:49,199 Speaker 1: as being kind of stark and cold. Quote, if Leopold 184 00:09:49,240 --> 00:09:50,920 Speaker 1: wanted to see his father, he had to apply for 185 00:09:50,960 --> 00:09:53,120 Speaker 1: an audience. When the father had something to tell the same, 186 00:09:53,240 --> 00:09:56,000 Speaker 1: he communicated it through one of his secretaries. I mean, look, 187 00:09:56,040 --> 00:10:02,920 Speaker 1: this is not just uh eighteenth century arrested element. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, 188 00:10:02,920 --> 00:10:05,320 Speaker 1: that's kind of kind of what's going on. Like, he 189 00:10:05,360 --> 00:10:09,240 Speaker 1: definitely has a buster Bluth vibe to him. Um again, 190 00:10:09,400 --> 00:10:13,160 Speaker 1: especially once you see this fucking painting, you'll get it audience. 191 00:10:13,360 --> 00:10:15,640 Speaker 1: The biography that was written at the time says that 192 00:10:15,720 --> 00:10:17,439 Speaker 1: it is worthy of note that the late king never 193 00:10:17,520 --> 00:10:20,400 Speaker 1: had any comrades or playmates. His childhood was passed among 194 00:10:20,440 --> 00:10:23,640 Speaker 1: his teachers and tutors, and the disciplinarian father made even 195 00:10:23,640 --> 00:10:26,040 Speaker 1: more the relationship with his brother and sister a very 196 00:10:26,080 --> 00:10:30,120 Speaker 1: formal one, frank childish gaiety and brotherly expansion and confidence 197 00:10:30,120 --> 00:10:34,280 Speaker 1: were banished. The princess thoughts thus became concentrated upon himself 198 00:10:34,440 --> 00:10:37,880 Speaker 1: and his natural activity and vitality, his exuberant strength were 199 00:10:37,880 --> 00:10:41,760 Speaker 1: expended on work and study. Tight yeah about it, No, friends, 200 00:10:41,800 --> 00:10:47,600 Speaker 1: does nothing but work. Yeah, he's a duke. Yeah, I 201 00:10:47,600 --> 00:10:49,640 Speaker 1: mean he's already achieved a lot. I mean he has 202 00:10:49,720 --> 00:10:52,640 Speaker 1: kind of a boss baby. Yeah, just throwing that out there. 203 00:10:53,400 --> 00:10:56,120 Speaker 1: So he grows up, He serves in the Belgian military, 204 00:10:56,160 --> 00:10:59,679 Speaker 1: he apparently does okay. By his early twenties, Leopold becomes 205 00:10:59,720 --> 00:11:02,080 Speaker 1: an fluential figure in Belgian politics. You know, he's the 206 00:11:02,120 --> 00:11:04,120 Speaker 1: crown prince. Everyone who's going to wind him being king? 207 00:11:05,200 --> 00:11:07,199 Speaker 1: And he kind of looks a little like Adam Driver. 208 00:11:08,720 --> 00:11:12,560 Speaker 1: He yeah, he looks here, he looks like a anime 209 00:11:12,720 --> 00:11:15,920 Speaker 1: Adam Driver. Yeah. Yeah, that's who you would cast his 210 00:11:16,000 --> 00:11:19,960 Speaker 1: anime Adam Drive. Yeah yeah in the movie. So Um. 211 00:11:20,120 --> 00:11:22,560 Speaker 1: Like many rich young people, he traveled far and wide 212 00:11:22,559 --> 00:11:24,559 Speaker 1: in his early twenties. He went all throughout the Middle East, 213 00:11:24,640 --> 00:11:28,040 Speaker 1: North Africa, parts of Asia. But he was not traveling 214 00:11:28,080 --> 00:11:31,920 Speaker 1: for his enjoyment. Uh, he was basically traveling. The biography, 215 00:11:31,920 --> 00:11:34,600 Speaker 1: he says, it's like a commercial employee. So he was 216 00:11:34,679 --> 00:11:38,080 Speaker 1: essentially looking for financial opportunities for Belgium because this is 217 00:11:38,120 --> 00:11:41,880 Speaker 1: the period when all of Europe is colonizing the entire world. 218 00:11:42,960 --> 00:11:45,720 Speaker 1: Belgian doesn't have a colony. So he's traveling all around 219 00:11:45,720 --> 00:11:48,240 Speaker 1: the Middle East and Asia basically being like what can 220 00:11:48,720 --> 00:11:51,760 Speaker 1: who's yeah, who's like can we take? Yeah? Yeah, what 221 00:11:51,840 --> 00:11:55,040 Speaker 1: can we get? Does this hop ahead to the Congo? Oh? Yes, 222 00:11:55,080 --> 00:11:57,520 Speaker 1: oh nice, Yeah, that's where we're headed. Tight, Okay, how 223 00:11:57,520 --> 00:11:59,560 Speaker 1: do I know that tiny bit of history. It's one 224 00:11:59,600 --> 00:12:01,719 Speaker 1: of those things that drops in every now and then 225 00:12:01,760 --> 00:12:04,440 Speaker 1: you'll hear like, oh, yeah, the Belgium's did something bad 226 00:12:04,480 --> 00:12:06,719 Speaker 1: in the Congo, but you don't ever get I don't 227 00:12:06,760 --> 00:12:09,400 Speaker 1: know any details story. In fact, I probably no more 228 00:12:09,440 --> 00:12:14,080 Speaker 1: plot points from Michael Crichton's The Congo than than realities 229 00:12:14,160 --> 00:12:17,800 Speaker 1: the Congo. Yes, I mean there's unconfirmed reports that he 230 00:12:17,800 --> 00:12:19,760 Speaker 1: he tried to find the lost city of Zinch but 231 00:12:19,840 --> 00:12:25,760 Speaker 1: no great movie. Is that what what they were doing there? Yeah? Yeah, 232 00:12:25,760 --> 00:12:27,959 Speaker 1: they're trying to find diamonds. That a monkey there's a 233 00:12:28,000 --> 00:12:32,360 Speaker 1: monkey city. Yeah, find diamonds and monkeys were evil. Yeah, 234 00:12:32,480 --> 00:12:36,560 Speaker 1: that's more what I remember. Solid to bed. There's a laser. 235 00:12:37,120 --> 00:12:40,280 Speaker 1: There is a laser. There's definitely a laser in that movie. Man, 236 00:12:40,440 --> 00:12:44,040 Speaker 1: what a weird it's a ride, Michael, We're still watching 237 00:12:44,040 --> 00:12:48,840 Speaker 1: his bullshit. I can't believe West World. Yeah, um okay, 238 00:12:49,160 --> 00:12:52,679 Speaker 1: So Prince Leopold, one of his favorite books as he's 239 00:12:52,679 --> 00:12:54,880 Speaker 1: a young man studying trying to find a new colony 240 00:12:54,920 --> 00:12:57,960 Speaker 1: for Belgium is a book about the Dutch East Indies 241 00:12:58,080 --> 00:13:03,600 Speaker 1: called Java, How to Manage Your Colony. Uh yeah, why 242 00:13:03,640 --> 00:13:05,959 Speaker 1: would you? Oh my god, I mean, I guess that's 243 00:13:05,960 --> 00:13:08,000 Speaker 1: why you have to tell people your favorite book is. 244 00:13:08,720 --> 00:13:12,520 Speaker 1: But yeah, that's well, no, I mean, because so the 245 00:13:12,559 --> 00:13:15,439 Speaker 1: book is all about how the Dutch colonized the island 246 00:13:15,440 --> 00:13:17,560 Speaker 1: of Java and how they got a shipload of coffee 247 00:13:17,559 --> 00:13:20,520 Speaker 1: and sugar and like dies and tobacco and it it 248 00:13:20,679 --> 00:13:23,120 Speaker 1: made basically made so much money that they were able 249 00:13:23,120 --> 00:13:26,880 Speaker 1: to buy a bunch of railroads and canals back in Holland. Um, so, 250 00:13:27,320 --> 00:13:29,400 Speaker 1: like the book is all about that. So so it 251 00:13:29,679 --> 00:13:32,880 Speaker 1: outlines sort of how they were able to monetize Java 252 00:13:32,960 --> 00:13:34,920 Speaker 1: so well, and like it talks about how the king 253 00:13:35,520 --> 00:13:38,280 Speaker 1: basically brought in a bunch of private companies and became 254 00:13:38,360 --> 00:13:40,560 Speaker 1: a major shareholder in those companies and it was the 255 00:13:40,600 --> 00:13:44,319 Speaker 1: company's job to farm the land and to produce the resources, 256 00:13:44,320 --> 00:13:46,360 Speaker 1: and they export them to Belgium. So the king didn't 257 00:13:46,400 --> 00:13:49,959 Speaker 1: have to send Dutch government workers over and do anything. 258 00:13:50,000 --> 00:13:53,240 Speaker 1: The king just said, I own Java corporations. Come in, 259 00:13:53,360 --> 00:13:56,000 Speaker 1: give me a steak in your profits, and do whatever 260 00:13:56,040 --> 00:13:58,680 Speaker 1: you want. I think it's just cool to have political 261 00:13:58,760 --> 00:14:02,040 Speaker 1: leaders also owned corporates. That has never been a problem 262 00:14:02,080 --> 00:14:04,079 Speaker 1: and never will be a problem. No, it seems to 263 00:14:04,120 --> 00:14:06,600 Speaker 1: always work out great. Um. It seems to work out 264 00:14:06,600 --> 00:14:10,120 Speaker 1: great percent of the time. Um. The book also did 265 00:14:10,200 --> 00:14:12,480 Speaker 1: note that the Dutch prophets in Java would have been 266 00:14:12,480 --> 00:14:15,320 Speaker 1: impossible without a huge amount of forced labor. Uh. And 267 00:14:15,679 --> 00:14:18,439 Speaker 1: young Prince Leopold agreed with this and said that forced 268 00:14:18,480 --> 00:14:21,320 Speaker 1: labor was quote the only way to civilize and uplift 269 00:14:21,360 --> 00:14:24,680 Speaker 1: these indolent and corrupt peoples of the far East. Yeah, yeah, 270 00:14:25,040 --> 00:14:28,000 Speaker 1: he ain't wrong. Go ahead, what else? What else? God thought? 271 00:14:28,040 --> 00:14:31,720 Speaker 1: You said this guy was bad? Alright? Uh? So late 272 00:14:31,720 --> 00:14:33,480 Speaker 1: in his dukedom, you know, a few years before he 273 00:14:33,520 --> 00:14:36,000 Speaker 1: becomes king, Leopold gets in front of Belgium Senate and 274 00:14:36,040 --> 00:14:38,800 Speaker 1: he urges them to take up foreign colonies. So they 275 00:14:38,880 --> 00:14:43,280 Speaker 1: got a king and a senate. Yeah, that work so basically, 276 00:14:43,320 --> 00:14:46,040 Speaker 1: the King of Belgium is kind of a ceremonial figure. 277 00:14:46,080 --> 00:14:48,080 Speaker 1: He's got he's got more power than like the Queen 278 00:14:48,120 --> 00:14:50,720 Speaker 1: in England has today. It's heading towards, but it's heading 279 00:14:50,760 --> 00:14:53,800 Speaker 1: towards that. There's no formal power, lots of soft power, 280 00:14:54,040 --> 00:14:56,360 Speaker 1: lots of soft power in a little bit of formal power. 281 00:14:56,800 --> 00:14:59,600 Speaker 1: But um, you can't do things as the king like 282 00:15:00,040 --> 00:15:03,480 Speaker 1: us make colonies. M you can't do things as the 283 00:15:03,560 --> 00:15:07,560 Speaker 1: king likes in the army places. Um. And so Leopold's 284 00:15:07,640 --> 00:15:10,160 Speaker 1: dad seems to be okay with that. But Leopold the 285 00:15:10,200 --> 00:15:13,120 Speaker 1: second is growing up chopping at the bent to do 286 00:15:13,240 --> 00:15:15,800 Speaker 1: ship and doesn't want to become a monarch who just 287 00:15:15,840 --> 00:15:18,760 Speaker 1: waves at the crowd. Um, why not. So he gets 288 00:15:18,840 --> 00:15:20,800 Speaker 1: up in front of the Senate and he says, quote, 289 00:15:21,000 --> 00:15:24,320 Speaker 1: I am profoundly convinced of our vast resources, and I 290 00:15:24,360 --> 00:15:27,520 Speaker 1: passionately wish that my beautiful country would show the necessary 291 00:15:27,560 --> 00:15:30,320 Speaker 1: pluck to derive all the benefit which, in my opinion, 292 00:15:30,360 --> 00:15:32,680 Speaker 1: it can derive. I think that the moment for our 293 00:15:32,720 --> 00:15:36,280 Speaker 1: expansion abroad has arrived. We must not lose time. Otherwise, 294 00:15:36,320 --> 00:15:38,760 Speaker 1: the best positions in markets which are becoming more rare. 295 00:15:38,800 --> 00:15:42,520 Speaker 1: Every day will be occupied by nations more enterprising than ourselves. 296 00:15:43,200 --> 00:15:45,520 Speaker 1: And when he talks about positions in markets, he's talking 297 00:15:45,520 --> 00:15:49,080 Speaker 1: about whole countries and stuff. I mean, millions of people. 298 00:15:49,320 --> 00:15:54,880 Speaker 1: It's more chilling in the original Flemmish. Yeah yeah, yeah, nailed. 299 00:15:54,880 --> 00:15:57,440 Speaker 1: But although he probably would have been speaking just French 300 00:15:57,640 --> 00:16:04,920 Speaker 1: for alright, so well you can say, you can say 301 00:16:05,000 --> 00:16:07,720 Speaker 1: Walloon if you want. I'm getting what is that. That's 302 00:16:07,760 --> 00:16:11,160 Speaker 1: the other group of people. There's Belgium is made up 303 00:16:11,160 --> 00:16:14,760 Speaker 1: of Flemish people and Walloons. Yeah, the wall Unatics, of course, 304 00:16:15,000 --> 00:16:17,080 Speaker 1: band aid on their face. We got it. It's a 305 00:16:17,160 --> 00:16:19,920 Speaker 1: rough name to grow into the world stage taking on. 306 00:16:20,800 --> 00:16:24,840 Speaker 1: Uh well, you know, you gotta get you get enough rifles, 307 00:16:24,840 --> 00:16:28,440 Speaker 1: get enough cutlasses, everything starts to make sense. I don't 308 00:16:28,440 --> 00:16:30,480 Speaker 1: feel like it does. I feel like Germany was so 309 00:16:30,600 --> 00:16:34,360 Speaker 1: fierce in part because German is like, that's like an name, 310 00:16:34,440 --> 00:16:37,880 Speaker 1: like the Germans are coming. Imagine if if the name 311 00:16:37,920 --> 00:16:40,440 Speaker 1: got switched and the Belgians were called the Germans, and 312 00:16:40,480 --> 00:16:42,960 Speaker 1: like the Nazis had tried to invade and everyone was like, oh, 313 00:16:43,000 --> 00:16:46,480 Speaker 1: the Walloons are invading. Yeah, that's not gonna go. Yeah, yeah, 314 00:16:46,800 --> 00:16:51,520 Speaker 1: Well listen let's boot up a risk game. We'll figure 315 00:16:51,520 --> 00:16:57,880 Speaker 1: it out, all right. Um so, yeah, Leopold, the first Leopold, 316 00:16:57,880 --> 00:17:00,600 Speaker 1: the seconds Dad died in December of eighteen sixty five, 317 00:17:00,680 --> 00:17:03,360 Speaker 1: the same year the American Civil War ended. Leopold is 318 00:17:03,400 --> 00:17:06,600 Speaker 1: now with the king and thirty years old. Uh. This 319 00:17:06,680 --> 00:17:08,720 Speaker 1: appears to be the point when he decided to grow 320 00:17:08,720 --> 00:17:12,400 Speaker 1: a gigantic mountain man beard tight, which he would maintain 321 00:17:12,480 --> 00:17:16,080 Speaker 1: for the rest of his Yeah. Well, there's a lot 322 00:17:16,080 --> 00:17:18,280 Speaker 1: of pictures of Leopold with a beard. Will post him 323 00:17:18,280 --> 00:17:21,440 Speaker 1: on the site. Some of them look uncomfortably like me. 324 00:17:21,880 --> 00:17:24,840 Speaker 1: Some of them are clear missteps in the beard growing process, 325 00:17:24,840 --> 00:17:27,439 Speaker 1: where he's got like gigantic mutton chops and it's he 326 00:17:27,520 --> 00:17:31,000 Speaker 1: looks like a fucking hair octopus style of the time. Yeah, 327 00:17:31,320 --> 00:17:35,560 Speaker 1: he he went through some rough patches in his sartorial history, 328 00:17:35,600 --> 00:17:38,680 Speaker 1: for sure. That's pretty that's get any easy kind of 329 00:17:39,240 --> 00:17:43,359 Speaker 1: we're looking at Yeah, that's a rough picture and almost 330 00:17:43,359 --> 00:17:46,040 Speaker 1: he's almost wearing bell bottoms in that picture. Hey, it's 331 00:17:46,080 --> 00:17:52,920 Speaker 1: the sixties. It is the eighteen sixties. Boom alright. Uh so, yeah, 332 00:17:53,000 --> 00:17:55,440 Speaker 1: Leopold the King of Belgium. He's super frustrated because the 333 00:17:55,480 --> 00:17:58,119 Speaker 1: King doesn't have that much in the way of power. Uh. 334 00:17:58,240 --> 00:18:02,600 Speaker 1: Leopold takes two sort of bocking the restrained role that 335 00:18:02,640 --> 00:18:05,080 Speaker 1: he has in Belgian politics. There's a story of like 336 00:18:05,160 --> 00:18:07,879 Speaker 1: this guy who came to visit him, uh, because like, 337 00:18:07,960 --> 00:18:09,840 Speaker 1: you know, the King's got a visit with like his 338 00:18:09,920 --> 00:18:12,920 Speaker 1: donors and benefactors and whatnot. And this guy complains about 339 00:18:12,960 --> 00:18:15,240 Speaker 1: the poor state of the roads around his property, and 340 00:18:15,320 --> 00:18:17,520 Speaker 1: Leopold interrupts him and says, I have no authority to 341 00:18:17,640 --> 00:18:19,840 Speaker 1: change the roads. You ought to address yourself to the press, 342 00:18:19,960 --> 00:18:22,560 Speaker 1: especially to the small papers. The municipality and the government 343 00:18:22,560 --> 00:18:25,359 Speaker 1: will do anything they ask. So he was like, he 344 00:18:25,840 --> 00:18:28,720 Speaker 1: was like making that point. I'm frustrated that, like I 345 00:18:28,760 --> 00:18:31,040 Speaker 1: can't do anything, so I'm just kinda like to take 346 00:18:31,080 --> 00:18:35,800 Speaker 1: it to the press. King is not allowed to do anything. Um. 347 00:18:35,920 --> 00:18:38,600 Speaker 1: He sort of set to work making himself into kind 348 00:18:38,640 --> 00:18:40,480 Speaker 1: of an image for the Belgian people. He was the 349 00:18:40,520 --> 00:18:43,520 Speaker 1: aristocratic equivalent of an alpha male. Uh. He spent a 350 00:18:43,520 --> 00:18:46,879 Speaker 1: lot of time doing science work and and and you know, 351 00:18:47,119 --> 00:18:50,880 Speaker 1: supporting the arts and sciences. Nineteenth century science is just 352 00:18:50,960 --> 00:18:53,960 Speaker 1: like beakers of lead and ship He's he's pouring colored 353 00:18:53,960 --> 00:18:57,199 Speaker 1: water into bakers. He's got goggles on, you know, you 354 00:18:57,240 --> 00:18:59,960 Speaker 1: know how that goes. Yeah, there's a quote from his 355 00:19:00,000 --> 00:19:02,760 Speaker 1: biography that says he used to sleep in a camp 356 00:19:02,760 --> 00:19:05,399 Speaker 1: bed so like a military cot, and had a general 357 00:19:05,440 --> 00:19:08,200 Speaker 1: horror of everything that could innervate or render him a feminate. 358 00:19:08,720 --> 00:19:12,640 Speaker 1: So he's kind of like he's a proud boy. Yeah, 359 00:19:12,840 --> 00:19:17,040 Speaker 1: that's what they call people who aren't racist soy boys. 360 00:19:17,119 --> 00:19:22,480 Speaker 1: Is that right? Yeah, because eating soy feminizes you again, Yeah, 361 00:19:22,520 --> 00:19:26,320 Speaker 1: that's what the that's all right thing? Yeah, um, hey, 362 00:19:26,400 --> 00:19:28,840 Speaker 1: well at least we know that they have a nice 363 00:19:28,920 --> 00:19:32,080 Speaker 1: historical antisy. Leopold would have been all about that stuff. 364 00:19:32,160 --> 00:19:35,000 Speaker 1: So he's he's growing a giant, weird beard, he's sleeping 365 00:19:35,000 --> 00:19:38,920 Speaker 1: in a palace in a military cot. He's scared of girls. Uh, 366 00:19:38,920 --> 00:19:43,240 Speaker 1: he hates spending money. His biography says, quote his pocket 367 00:19:43,240 --> 00:19:46,800 Speaker 1: handkerchief was only renewed on Sunday mornings when going to Mass, 368 00:19:46,800 --> 00:19:49,040 Speaker 1: and on no account would he take another in the interval. 369 00:19:49,200 --> 00:19:51,840 Speaker 1: If his valet's changed his towels more than once a week, 370 00:19:51,880 --> 00:19:54,639 Speaker 1: they were sure to receive a good scolding from his majesty. 371 00:19:54,920 --> 00:19:58,840 Speaker 1: What So he's like a gross miser, Yeah, don't clean 372 00:19:58,880 --> 00:20:01,399 Speaker 1: those tells which one of those wasn't one of the 373 00:20:01,440 --> 00:20:03,840 Speaker 1: all right guys living in their mom's basement. I think 374 00:20:03,920 --> 00:20:09,040 Speaker 1: most of them are definitely Yeah, yeah that guy. Yeah, 375 00:20:09,119 --> 00:20:12,560 Speaker 1: rouche Vie, the pickup artist guy that was found living 376 00:20:12,560 --> 00:20:16,240 Speaker 1: in his mom's basement. Literally, that's what this guy was. 377 00:20:16,720 --> 00:20:20,080 Speaker 1: Leopold was missing. Yeah, yeah, I guess the Beard. The 378 00:20:20,119 --> 00:20:23,520 Speaker 1: Beard experiment clearly on that factor. His mom died young, 379 00:20:23,600 --> 00:20:27,720 Speaker 1: so he became a king. Yeah yeah, instead, okay, called 380 00:20:27,760 --> 00:20:33,359 Speaker 1: peacocking everyone. How you interact women the kingdom? Yeah, I 381 00:20:33,359 --> 00:20:39,240 Speaker 1: mean having a castle is pretty solid peacocking Yeah, undeniable. Yeah. 382 00:20:39,320 --> 00:20:42,159 Speaker 1: Leopold the Second was noted in his biography, is the 383 00:20:42,160 --> 00:20:45,000 Speaker 1: first king to treat his kingship as a corporate endeavor. 384 00:20:45,080 --> 00:20:47,879 Speaker 1: His primary concern was making money, not for Belgium, but 385 00:20:47,920 --> 00:20:52,000 Speaker 1: for himself. It was all about the bottom line. Um. 386 00:20:52,040 --> 00:20:56,359 Speaker 1: So there's um Like when you talk about dictators and 387 00:20:56,400 --> 00:20:59,760 Speaker 1: warlords and terrorists, there's like a tendency to call them 388 00:20:59,760 --> 00:21:04,000 Speaker 1: side paths and sociopaths. Sociopath is like an actual medical diagnosis. 389 00:21:04,000 --> 00:21:07,080 Speaker 1: And I don't think guys like Hitler or Stalin really 390 00:21:07,119 --> 00:21:09,760 Speaker 1: fit it, um because they all had histories of like 391 00:21:09,840 --> 00:21:12,720 Speaker 1: warm family life and like people who cared about them 392 00:21:12,720 --> 00:21:16,640 Speaker 1: and people that they like sacrificed for. At times, Leopold 393 00:21:16,760 --> 00:21:20,720 Speaker 1: might have been a straight up like yeah, because that's 394 00:21:20,760 --> 00:21:23,240 Speaker 1: that's that's what they say, right, is like so many 395 00:21:23,920 --> 00:21:30,280 Speaker 1: CEOs and fortune fid uh whatever. Then there corporately like 396 00:21:30,720 --> 00:21:34,720 Speaker 1: psychopathic traits. Yeah. Even his positive biography says that while 397 00:21:34,760 --> 00:21:37,520 Speaker 1: he was charming, he was quote devoid of enthusiasm and 398 00:21:37,640 --> 00:21:41,040 Speaker 1: set himself and was quite incapable of arousing any and others. 399 00:21:41,040 --> 00:21:46,040 Speaker 1: So he just can't unctually touch people's heart. He can't 400 00:21:46,160 --> 00:21:51,600 Speaker 1: motivate people. Um, so, yeah, we're gonna get more into 401 00:21:52,320 --> 00:21:55,720 Speaker 1: the soulless Leopold the second, his scheme to find a 402 00:21:55,760 --> 00:21:59,760 Speaker 1: colony and the colony that he eventually found. But for 403 00:22:00,240 --> 00:22:04,399 Speaker 1: we've got some ads. Of course, we all realized it's 404 00:22:04,400 --> 00:22:09,920 Speaker 1: a pro corporate podcast, so let's keep it real. Here's 405 00:22:09,920 --> 00:22:19,280 Speaker 1: some buying advice, and we're back. Uh, we're back. We're 406 00:22:19,280 --> 00:22:24,280 Speaker 1: talking about King Leopold, who is searching for a little 407 00:22:24,280 --> 00:22:28,160 Speaker 1: colony somewhere in the world to fill that whole of course. Yeah, 408 00:22:28,200 --> 00:22:32,440 Speaker 1: Leopold the Deuce, Leopold to Electric Boogaloo whenever you want 409 00:22:32,440 --> 00:22:34,520 Speaker 1: to call him. We were just talking about what a soulless, 410 00:22:34,560 --> 00:22:38,800 Speaker 1: sociopathic creepy is. Yeah, allegedly. Well here's another quote again, 411 00:22:38,800 --> 00:22:41,359 Speaker 1: this is from like a positive pro Leopold biography that 412 00:22:41,359 --> 00:22:45,399 Speaker 1: he probably paid for. He disliked music, hunting, tobacco, and 413 00:22:45,400 --> 00:22:48,280 Speaker 1: had no taste for physical exercises except walking. Although a 414 00:22:48,320 --> 00:22:51,040 Speaker 1: frequent visitor at Austin, which is like one of his palaces, 415 00:22:51,320 --> 00:22:53,760 Speaker 1: he never learned to swim. He was seen yawning and 416 00:22:53,840 --> 00:22:57,040 Speaker 1: a gala performance of Faust. So he doesn't like plays. 417 00:22:57,119 --> 00:22:59,840 Speaker 1: He doesn't like art, he doesn't. He hates music like 418 00:23:00,000 --> 00:23:01,920 Speaker 1: it's a thing. Any book you read about him, anyone 419 00:23:01,920 --> 00:23:05,520 Speaker 1: who knew him. He hated music like not like he 420 00:23:05,600 --> 00:23:10,680 Speaker 1: hated popular music. Music itself was offensive to him. So 421 00:23:11,359 --> 00:23:17,280 Speaker 1: that's fascinating. Well that's cutting into the American psycho narrative. Yeah, unfortunately, 422 00:23:17,400 --> 00:23:19,560 Speaker 1: yeah a little bit. Yeah, he's he's a weird guy. 423 00:23:19,640 --> 00:23:23,280 Speaker 1: He's very vain um. But his main vanity was quite odd. 424 00:23:23,320 --> 00:23:25,440 Speaker 1: He thought he had the most beautiful hands in all 425 00:23:25,480 --> 00:23:32,000 Speaker 1: of Europe, type his biography. What his biography notes. Another 426 00:23:32,080 --> 00:23:35,399 Speaker 1: of Leopold's hobbies was his dislike for gloves, and although 427 00:23:35,400 --> 00:23:38,280 Speaker 1: he often wore uniform he has never reported to have 428 00:23:38,320 --> 00:23:41,000 Speaker 1: put on gloves. It may have been a hatred of restraint, 429 00:23:41,040 --> 00:23:43,720 Speaker 1: but more probably it was a pardonable vanity on the 430 00:23:43,760 --> 00:23:46,400 Speaker 1: part of the late king, for he possessed the shapely 431 00:23:46,440 --> 00:23:52,159 Speaker 1: and beautiful hand of the Orleans family that rules so hard. 432 00:23:52,680 --> 00:23:57,320 Speaker 1: Here's the only picture I could find hands. He's holding 433 00:23:57,359 --> 00:23:59,159 Speaker 1: the gloves in his hand, so his hand is not 434 00:23:59,400 --> 00:24:02,520 Speaker 1: even stra younger actually like reminding people you could be 435 00:24:02,560 --> 00:24:05,320 Speaker 1: wearing gloves. I'm the master of the his I mean, 436 00:24:05,440 --> 00:24:08,320 Speaker 1: in fairness to him, his hands are beautiful in this picture. 437 00:24:08,400 --> 00:24:10,760 Speaker 1: I mean they just just look at the bone definition. 438 00:24:11,080 --> 00:24:13,880 Speaker 1: They are shapely. They're good ass hands. Yeah, they're good 439 00:24:13,920 --> 00:24:16,440 Speaker 1: ass hands. Oh man, So that means that he made 440 00:24:16,960 --> 00:24:21,320 Speaker 1: some painter or do multiple drafts on those hands. That's like, 441 00:24:21,560 --> 00:24:23,960 Speaker 1: this is like, isn't it wait, rest of development where 442 00:24:23,960 --> 00:24:27,879 Speaker 1: the guy has a fake hands, always, always always sunny, 443 00:24:27,880 --> 00:24:31,399 Speaker 1: always fake hands. Yeah, then there's some things to be 444 00:24:31,440 --> 00:24:35,600 Speaker 1: said about our president in hands. It's weird. It's it's 445 00:24:35,640 --> 00:24:37,840 Speaker 1: weird that you would even like I never think about 446 00:24:37,920 --> 00:24:40,680 Speaker 1: my hands like how they look. Like when I'm thinking 447 00:24:40,680 --> 00:24:43,399 Speaker 1: about someone taking a picture of me, like zero percent 448 00:24:43,400 --> 00:24:45,000 Speaker 1: of the time, I'm like, oh, my god, my hands 449 00:24:45,040 --> 00:24:47,239 Speaker 1: do they look shapely? Do you know what's crazy is 450 00:24:47,440 --> 00:24:53,200 Speaker 1: I had to send a picture of a piece of 451 00:24:53,560 --> 00:24:57,280 Speaker 1: equipment for this job I'm on to a technical person 452 00:24:58,000 --> 00:24:59,800 Speaker 1: and I just took a picture of my phone and 453 00:25:00,000 --> 00:25:01,640 Speaker 1: into to them. And I realized as I was sending 454 00:25:01,640 --> 00:25:04,400 Speaker 1: the email, was like, my hands like funked up in this. 455 00:25:06,119 --> 00:25:09,879 Speaker 1: I'm having a real low hand self esteem day. Oh, 456 00:25:09,960 --> 00:25:12,639 Speaker 1: I think you have the shapely hands of the Orleanslan family. 457 00:25:12,760 --> 00:25:15,520 Speaker 1: I know you're being really nice right now, but it's 458 00:25:15,520 --> 00:25:19,240 Speaker 1: actually a little hilarious that the one day possibly in 459 00:25:19,280 --> 00:25:23,439 Speaker 1: my life, that I've noticed my hands, I was like, 460 00:25:23,480 --> 00:25:25,680 Speaker 1: what the fund is up with my hands? Only these 461 00:25:25,680 --> 00:25:28,879 Speaker 1: were feet. Yeah. I've been an arm model before. My 462 00:25:28,920 --> 00:25:31,880 Speaker 1: friend was doing some not like you know, elbows down 463 00:25:32,040 --> 00:25:34,080 Speaker 1: I was doing. I was doing some stock photography and 464 00:25:34,240 --> 00:25:36,040 Speaker 1: was like, I want to take pictures of your arms, 465 00:25:36,040 --> 00:25:38,879 Speaker 1: and I was like, you're wilding out. So you know what, 466 00:25:39,040 --> 00:25:41,880 Speaker 1: I'm good. I'm good risk to elbow to elbow, Yeah, 467 00:25:41,920 --> 00:25:44,280 Speaker 1: I got I got far arm. My fearms are I'm 468 00:25:44,280 --> 00:25:49,280 Speaker 1: about it? Well, Leopold was a handman. Yeah, so we've 469 00:25:49,320 --> 00:25:52,520 Speaker 1: got this frustrated, greedy, gorgeous handed king on the throne 470 00:25:52,520 --> 00:25:54,720 Speaker 1: of Belgium. He keeps trying to get his country and 471 00:25:54,800 --> 00:25:56,760 Speaker 1: to jump on board the having a colony train that 472 00:25:56,800 --> 00:26:00,400 Speaker 1: the people of Belgium expresses zero interest in this. Oh okay, wait, 473 00:26:00,480 --> 00:26:04,800 Speaker 1: why what do you mean? All right? Because obviously all 474 00:26:04,960 --> 00:26:08,600 Speaker 1: European colonialism is pretty much the root of almost everything 475 00:26:08,600 --> 00:26:11,479 Speaker 1: that's wrong in the world right now. But there is. 476 00:26:11,800 --> 00:26:15,119 Speaker 1: But I don't understand why they. I mean, they certainly didn't. 477 00:26:15,359 --> 00:26:17,280 Speaker 1: I'm gonna, I guess not want to do it. For 478 00:26:17,320 --> 00:26:19,239 Speaker 1: the reasons why I don't think they should have done it. 479 00:26:19,560 --> 00:26:22,600 Speaker 1: I think the Belgians, for one thing, So the Belgiums 480 00:26:22,600 --> 00:26:25,720 Speaker 1: of this era, anyone who's like a mature adult, lived 481 00:26:25,760 --> 00:26:28,400 Speaker 1: through what was at that point he equipment in World 482 00:26:28,480 --> 00:26:30,960 Speaker 1: War two, the Napoleonic Wars, like we just don't want 483 00:26:30,960 --> 00:26:33,160 Speaker 1: any trouble, Like we just want to stay in Belgium 484 00:26:33,160 --> 00:26:35,720 Speaker 1: and eat chocolate and drink beer. We don't really want 485 00:26:35,720 --> 00:26:39,280 Speaker 1: to go to Africa or Asia. And let's see the 486 00:26:39,280 --> 00:26:41,760 Speaker 1: first of die not the first can I say, can 487 00:26:41,960 --> 00:26:44,760 Speaker 1: continue an incredibly less long list of ignorant as sh 488 00:26:44,960 --> 00:26:49,680 Speaker 1: I'm about to say, you do you is Belgium landlocked? No? No, no, no, 489 00:26:50,040 --> 00:26:54,240 Speaker 1: it has an Antwerp Antwerp, that's right, okay, number of Yeah, yeah, 490 00:26:54,560 --> 00:26:56,679 Speaker 1: it's it's a wee little country. You can drive across 491 00:26:56,720 --> 00:26:59,800 Speaker 1: it in a couple of hours. Yeah, okay. I was 492 00:26:59,840 --> 00:27:02,919 Speaker 1: just like, okay, yeah, I was just like, it's funny 493 00:27:02,960 --> 00:27:06,600 Speaker 1: to imagine a landlock country own and stuff. But of 494 00:27:06,600 --> 00:27:08,560 Speaker 1: course they can who gives a ship. But they're not landlocked, 495 00:27:08,560 --> 00:27:11,000 Speaker 1: so fuck me. Yeah, no, they're not. Um they didn't 496 00:27:11,040 --> 00:27:13,000 Speaker 1: have a colony at this point, and they seem to 497 00:27:13,040 --> 00:27:17,320 Speaker 1: have zero interest in having one now. At this same time, 498 00:27:17,520 --> 00:27:20,560 Speaker 1: from eighteen seventy eighteen seventy seven, when Leopolds like a 499 00:27:20,600 --> 00:27:23,560 Speaker 1: decade or so into his kinghood, there's this explorer named 500 00:27:23,560 --> 00:27:26,920 Speaker 1: Henry Morton Stanley. Uh and yeah, from seventy four to 501 00:27:26,960 --> 00:27:31,440 Speaker 1: seventy seven, he completes seven thousand mile expedition across Central Africa. 502 00:27:31,840 --> 00:27:34,560 Speaker 1: Much of his travel centered upon the still undiscovered by 503 00:27:34,600 --> 00:27:37,760 Speaker 1: like white people, Congo. No one had like mapped the 504 00:27:37,800 --> 00:27:40,080 Speaker 1: extent of the Congo River. We didn't know where it 505 00:27:40,359 --> 00:27:44,159 Speaker 1: originated from at this point. Um so, and at this 506 00:27:44,200 --> 00:27:47,520 Speaker 1: time in European history, like different explorers mapping Africa are 507 00:27:47,600 --> 00:27:49,680 Speaker 1: kind of like the Marvel movie franchise of the day, 508 00:27:50,119 --> 00:27:52,399 Speaker 1: Like each of these guys is world famous and like 509 00:27:52,520 --> 00:27:56,520 Speaker 1: newspapers breathlessly cover every expedition, and whenever they finished an expedition, 510 00:27:56,560 --> 00:27:58,800 Speaker 1: they write a book and millions of people by it 511 00:27:58,880 --> 00:28:02,320 Speaker 1: so automatically. For the ball exactly, this is like the 512 00:28:02,320 --> 00:28:04,680 Speaker 1: thing people care about at this point in time. It's 513 00:28:04,680 --> 00:28:07,720 Speaker 1: like what these explorers are doing in Africa and all 514 00:28:07,720 --> 00:28:09,760 Speaker 1: over the world. Like that just means if I were 515 00:28:09,800 --> 00:28:14,639 Speaker 1: alive then and a white person, two big guests, I 516 00:28:14,640 --> 00:28:17,639 Speaker 1: would be like struggling to get on one of the 517 00:28:17,640 --> 00:28:21,359 Speaker 1: good expeditions. Yeah you really, you really like fingers crossed. 518 00:28:21,359 --> 00:28:23,360 Speaker 1: It's not one of the ones where people eat each other. 519 00:28:23,440 --> 00:28:26,840 Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, yeah, statistically a lot of them are. Yeah. 520 00:28:27,040 --> 00:28:30,320 Speaker 1: Um So Stanley maps like a huge chunk of the Congo, 521 00:28:30,520 --> 00:28:32,480 Speaker 1: more than anyone had ever done before, and it's like 522 00:28:32,560 --> 00:28:35,439 Speaker 1: big news. He gets back to Europe from Africa and 523 00:28:35,480 --> 00:28:37,760 Speaker 1: he goes on tour. He's doing like speaking engagements. He's 524 00:28:37,800 --> 00:28:39,959 Speaker 1: a big celebrity. I feel like there's a lot of 525 00:28:39,960 --> 00:28:43,560 Speaker 1: like skulls and calipers in a talk like this, Yeah, 526 00:28:43,600 --> 00:28:49,160 Speaker 1: and probably buckets of racism, like like totally unexamined racism. 527 00:28:49,720 --> 00:28:52,360 Speaker 1: I look. If you don't look, it's not there. Yeah, 528 00:28:52,640 --> 00:28:57,560 Speaker 1: that's the racist motto. Um. So he's touring around and 529 00:28:57,640 --> 00:29:01,320 Speaker 1: King Leopold winds up meeting with him. Um. Stanley had 530 00:29:01,320 --> 00:29:03,160 Speaker 1: been bullish on the idea that the Congo would be 531 00:29:03,200 --> 00:29:06,120 Speaker 1: a great place for a colony, and he wanted the 532 00:29:06,160 --> 00:29:09,680 Speaker 1: British to set up a colony there. You want to 533 00:29:09,680 --> 00:29:13,720 Speaker 1: go to the best colonizing studio first, Yeah, exactly, that's 534 00:29:13,760 --> 00:29:17,400 Speaker 1: like the paramount good. Probably not. I don't know anything 535 00:29:17,400 --> 00:29:20,800 Speaker 1: about Warner Brothers. We all live in the Disney, isn't 536 00:29:20,920 --> 00:29:25,160 Speaker 1: that's the Disney. Yeah, Britain's the Disney of colonizing. Yeah. 537 00:29:25,520 --> 00:29:28,120 Speaker 1: And and instead he goes to I don't who's who's 538 00:29:28,160 --> 00:29:32,440 Speaker 1: making DC's garbage movies. Warner Brothers, Warner Brothers. Okay, so 539 00:29:32,520 --> 00:29:35,480 Speaker 1: Leopold's Warner Brothers. No, they're not even in it. Leopold 540 00:29:35,560 --> 00:29:39,720 Speaker 1: is like he's gotten very confusing. Leopold is like, uh, 541 00:29:39,760 --> 00:29:43,440 Speaker 1: snapchat making stuff, Like technically they got the our YouTube 542 00:29:43,480 --> 00:29:45,600 Speaker 1: like it's a YouTube show. Yeah, you know, it's like 543 00:29:45,640 --> 00:29:48,440 Speaker 1: they got some money. Let's actually call it no history 544 00:29:48,520 --> 00:29:51,160 Speaker 1: for it, but who knows. I feel like we actually 545 00:29:51,200 --> 00:29:53,640 Speaker 1: hit upon the right thing to compare him to, which 546 00:29:53,720 --> 00:29:57,600 Speaker 1: is Amazon. Yes. Yeah. So Stanley tries to sell his 547 00:29:57,640 --> 00:30:01,600 Speaker 1: Congo idea to Disney Slash Britain and it fails, and 548 00:30:01,920 --> 00:30:05,400 Speaker 1: King Leopold a k A. Amazon's like, well, we might 549 00:30:05,480 --> 00:30:08,720 Speaker 1: be interested in this plan. Yeah, we'll fund this. Why 550 00:30:08,760 --> 00:30:11,040 Speaker 1: don't you, Why don't you give me your elevator pitch 551 00:30:11,200 --> 00:30:13,760 Speaker 1: colony and the Congo Huh? I like it. I like 552 00:30:13,920 --> 00:30:18,640 Speaker 1: this idea. Yeah. So Leopold uh contracts Stanley to work 553 00:30:18,640 --> 00:30:20,800 Speaker 1: for him, and he sends him back to Africa with 554 00:30:20,840 --> 00:30:24,000 Speaker 1: a new mission. So Leopold's master plan here, I'm gonna 555 00:30:24,000 --> 00:30:25,880 Speaker 1: appeal back for a minute, and we're going to zoom 556 00:30:25,880 --> 00:30:28,200 Speaker 1: into the different pieces because it's a complicated as plant. 557 00:30:28,720 --> 00:30:31,800 Speaker 1: His master plan is to create the Congo Free State, 558 00:30:32,000 --> 00:30:35,440 Speaker 1: which is a supposedly independent African nation that just happened 559 00:30:35,440 --> 00:30:38,960 Speaker 1: to also be ruled by King Leopold the Second UM. 560 00:30:39,080 --> 00:30:42,840 Speaker 1: So he went about doing this in a few ways. Uh. 561 00:30:42,880 --> 00:30:46,240 Speaker 1: In eighteen seventy six, he hosted the Brussels Geographic Conference, 562 00:30:46,240 --> 00:30:48,520 Speaker 1: where he invited a bunch of European experts to form 563 00:30:48,560 --> 00:30:52,160 Speaker 1: the so called International African Association, which of course had 564 00:30:52,160 --> 00:30:56,160 Speaker 1: no Africans as members. UM the association was a supposedly 565 00:30:56,200 --> 00:30:58,959 Speaker 1: philanthropic organization. I'm going to read you a selection from 566 00:30:59,040 --> 00:31:01,280 Speaker 1: Leopold's speech at the conference where he sort of lays 567 00:31:01,280 --> 00:31:03,480 Speaker 1: out what he wants to do. The subject that calls 568 00:31:03,520 --> 00:31:05,840 Speaker 1: us together today is one that demands the first place 569 00:31:05,880 --> 00:31:08,000 Speaker 1: in the attention of friends of humanity to open up 570 00:31:08,080 --> 00:31:10,240 Speaker 1: to civilization. The only part of our globe where she 571 00:31:10,280 --> 00:31:13,400 Speaker 1: has not yet penetrated, to pierce the darkness that envelops 572 00:31:13,520 --> 00:31:16,880 Speaker 1: entire populations is I may venture to say a crusade 573 00:31:16,920 --> 00:31:19,360 Speaker 1: worthy of this century of progress, and I am glad 574 00:31:19,400 --> 00:31:22,960 Speaker 1: to observe how very favorable public feeling is to its accomplishment. 575 00:31:23,200 --> 00:31:26,400 Speaker 1: The current is with us. So he gets this association 576 00:31:26,400 --> 00:31:29,280 Speaker 1: together and he says, this is an international group and 577 00:31:29,320 --> 00:31:33,120 Speaker 1: we're trying to civilize Africa and improve lives of people 578 00:31:33,160 --> 00:31:35,840 Speaker 1: who were there. I didn't realize that back then. The 579 00:31:35,960 --> 00:31:40,479 Speaker 1: rhetoric was already like the kind of like always is 580 00:31:40,600 --> 00:31:42,720 Speaker 1: this is to help them double speak. I actually just 581 00:31:42,800 --> 00:31:44,960 Speaker 1: assumed they were like, yeah, I'm gonna take this ship 582 00:31:45,000 --> 00:31:49,280 Speaker 1: from black people. No, they they are. And these guys 583 00:31:49,440 --> 00:31:53,080 Speaker 1: the people he invites to the Geographic Conference and forms 584 00:31:53,080 --> 00:31:56,239 Speaker 1: the International African association with these guys are a lot 585 00:31:56,240 --> 00:31:58,960 Speaker 1: of people who legitimately want to make things better for Africans, 586 00:31:59,000 --> 00:32:02,040 Speaker 1: who aren't even thinking about making these are the well 587 00:32:02,160 --> 00:32:05,800 Speaker 1: meaning liberal white people, yeah, exactly, and like missionaries who 588 00:32:05,800 --> 00:32:08,080 Speaker 1: are like and like well meaning liberal white people. Because 589 00:32:08,080 --> 00:32:11,080 Speaker 1: there's an Arab slave trade in Africa, like traders moving 590 00:32:11,080 --> 00:32:14,040 Speaker 1: through the Congo, and the abolition movement is very big 591 00:32:14,080 --> 00:32:16,160 Speaker 1: at this point in time, and so these people are 592 00:32:16,200 --> 00:32:18,280 Speaker 1: being like, we've got to stop the slave trade in Africa, 593 00:32:18,360 --> 00:32:21,600 Speaker 1: sold we can do that. And there's a bunch of 594 00:32:21,600 --> 00:32:23,640 Speaker 1: people who are like, we've got to christianize the Africans 595 00:32:23,640 --> 00:32:25,720 Speaker 1: and Leopolds, like we can do that and like that. 596 00:32:25,880 --> 00:32:29,200 Speaker 1: So that's that's what he's claiming this association. Okay, so 597 00:32:29,240 --> 00:32:32,760 Speaker 1: this is right, This is like definitely like colonialism two 598 00:32:32,760 --> 00:32:36,480 Speaker 1: point o or three point oh. He steps ahead of everyone. 599 00:32:36,640 --> 00:32:39,280 Speaker 1: He's not even framing this as colonialism. He's framing this 600 00:32:39,320 --> 00:32:43,080 Speaker 1: as a charitable endeavor to exactly. Yeah. Yeah. So he 601 00:32:43,200 --> 00:32:45,440 Speaker 1: suggests that Belgium would be a great place for this 602 00:32:45,480 --> 00:32:47,920 Speaker 1: new international body to meet because it's a neutral country 603 00:32:47,960 --> 00:32:51,120 Speaker 1: and it's centrally located in Europe. And then he suggests 604 00:32:51,120 --> 00:32:52,480 Speaker 1: that he might be a good person to run the 605 00:32:52,520 --> 00:32:55,480 Speaker 1: association just for its first year. Hit yourself, you know 606 00:32:55,480 --> 00:32:58,880 Speaker 1: you've got to conference first year. Uh. And he assures 607 00:32:58,920 --> 00:33:00,560 Speaker 1: them all that he's doing this from the goodness of 608 00:33:00,600 --> 00:33:03,640 Speaker 1: his heart. Uh. He says, Belgium is small, she is 609 00:33:03,800 --> 00:33:06,240 Speaker 1: happy and satisfied with her lot. I have no other 610 00:33:06,280 --> 00:33:08,520 Speaker 1: ambition than to serve her well. And it was true 611 00:33:08,560 --> 00:33:11,440 Speaker 1: that Belgians were pretty happy with their lot. But Leopold 612 00:33:12,040 --> 00:33:15,240 Speaker 1: did have some ambitions. So he gets elected head of 613 00:33:15,280 --> 00:33:19,320 Speaker 1: the International African Association the first year, and then he 614 00:33:19,360 --> 00:33:21,280 Speaker 1: gets elected the head of it the second year too, 615 00:33:21,400 --> 00:33:23,920 Speaker 1: even though that was supposed to be illegal, back to back. 616 00:33:24,120 --> 00:33:27,440 Speaker 1: And then the association kind of stops existing, and Leopold 617 00:33:27,480 --> 00:33:30,520 Speaker 1: replaces it with the Committee for Studies of the Upper Congo, 618 00:33:30,920 --> 00:33:33,800 Speaker 1: and then he replaces that with the International Association for 619 00:33:33,840 --> 00:33:38,160 Speaker 1: the Congo. On paper, these are all different international philanthropic groups. 620 00:33:38,440 --> 00:33:41,080 Speaker 1: Their names were deliberately forgettable and similar, so the public 621 00:33:41,120 --> 00:33:43,760 Speaker 1: would assume they were all the same thing. Uh. In 622 00:33:43,840 --> 00:33:47,040 Speaker 1: King Leopold's Ghost, Adam hos Child writes that Leopold directly 623 00:33:47,040 --> 00:33:49,720 Speaker 1: told his aids quote, care must be taken, not to 624 00:33:49,800 --> 00:33:52,200 Speaker 1: let it be obvious that the Association of the Congo 625 00:33:52,280 --> 00:33:55,440 Speaker 1: and the African Association are two different things. The public 626 00:33:55,480 --> 00:34:00,600 Speaker 1: doesn't grasp that. So in reality, all of these lanthropic 627 00:34:00,640 --> 00:34:03,960 Speaker 1: groups are shadow fronts for Leopold's plan to conquer the Congo. 628 00:34:04,400 --> 00:34:07,720 Speaker 1: So they're all charity organizations that he gets international aid 629 00:34:07,720 --> 00:34:10,360 Speaker 1: money getting sent into, and he's able to pour Belgian 630 00:34:10,360 --> 00:34:14,520 Speaker 1: government funds into ass and donations, just like Hillary Clinton, 631 00:34:14,719 --> 00:34:19,040 Speaker 1: not exactly like Hillary Clinton. Yes, you've watched the documentary 632 00:34:19,080 --> 00:34:24,719 Speaker 1: Clinton Cash by Niche Deza. Yes. Um. The thing that's 633 00:34:24,719 --> 00:34:29,920 Speaker 1: amazing about this is it's so complicated a plan that 634 00:34:30,719 --> 00:34:33,719 Speaker 1: doesn't feel like I mean, I you know, I'm a 635 00:34:33,719 --> 00:34:36,600 Speaker 1: super smart person. Of course I'm not finding a place 636 00:34:36,600 --> 00:34:40,120 Speaker 1: where you could improvise your way into this. You just 637 00:34:40,160 --> 00:34:42,279 Speaker 1: gotta wait, because we're not even halfway through the plan 638 00:34:42,480 --> 00:34:46,320 Speaker 1: like this, like he's he is a legitimate Like okay, 639 00:34:46,400 --> 00:34:49,040 Speaker 1: so the villain that Marvel keeps trying to write and 640 00:34:49,040 --> 00:34:50,960 Speaker 1: like failing to write in my opinion, where it's like 641 00:34:51,000 --> 00:34:53,200 Speaker 1: the low key character whether here he's got all these 642 00:34:53,200 --> 00:34:57,200 Speaker 1: plans within plans step ahead. Leopold actually was that guy 643 00:34:57,320 --> 00:34:59,399 Speaker 1: to the whole world, but in sort of the same 644 00:34:59,520 --> 00:35:02,600 Speaker 1: villain as way, You're like, this is insane. There's so 645 00:35:02,640 --> 00:35:04,640 Speaker 1: many things that could go wrong in this. So he's 646 00:35:04,640 --> 00:35:08,759 Speaker 1: now created three different philanthropic associations just because like the 647 00:35:08,800 --> 00:35:11,960 Speaker 1: backers will start realizing that the association's fake and they'll 648 00:35:12,000 --> 00:35:15,000 Speaker 1: pull their money, but he'll keep the organization alive or 649 00:35:15,000 --> 00:35:18,160 Speaker 1: whole roll its assets into a new organization. And nobody 650 00:35:18,200 --> 00:35:21,080 Speaker 1: who got caught, who realized that this was some weird 651 00:35:21,120 --> 00:35:23,120 Speaker 1: show company wants to admit that they got caught, so 652 00:35:23,120 --> 00:35:26,239 Speaker 1: they just don't say anything. And the public just here's like, oh, 653 00:35:26,360 --> 00:35:30,480 Speaker 1: it's the new thing. Is how the International African Association, 654 00:35:30,560 --> 00:35:32,480 Speaker 1: it's that group of people trying to make life better 655 00:35:32,480 --> 00:35:36,560 Speaker 1: in Africa, right, Um, So he all these groups are 656 00:35:36,600 --> 00:35:40,440 Speaker 1: basically funneling money into the work of Henry Morton Stanley, 657 00:35:40,480 --> 00:35:44,520 Speaker 1: that explorer who Leopold sent back to Africa. So Leopold 658 00:35:44,520 --> 00:35:46,600 Speaker 1: sent him back in eighteen seventy nine, and his job 659 00:35:46,680 --> 00:35:50,000 Speaker 1: was to start building, using the association money, a series 660 00:35:50,040 --> 00:35:52,680 Speaker 1: of stations along the Congo River to act as like 661 00:35:52,760 --> 00:35:56,600 Speaker 1: way points for steamboat traffic. Uh. He also met with 662 00:35:56,680 --> 00:35:59,200 Speaker 1: hundreds of local treats all throughout the Congo, all the 663 00:35:59,239 --> 00:36:01,640 Speaker 1: different people who had chunks of land throughout the Congo, 664 00:36:01,680 --> 00:36:04,000 Speaker 1: the different villages and chiefs, hundreds and hundreds of them. 665 00:36:04,080 --> 00:36:05,759 Speaker 1: He meets with these guys and he gets them to 666 00:36:05,840 --> 00:36:09,319 Speaker 1: sign treaties giving up their rights to the land. Uh. 667 00:36:09,360 --> 00:36:11,600 Speaker 1: Here's a quote from host Child's book. The very word 668 00:36:11,640 --> 00:36:13,919 Speaker 1: treaty is a euphemism. For many chiefs had no idea 669 00:36:13,960 --> 00:36:15,360 Speaker 1: what they were signing. I few had ever seen the 670 00:36:15,400 --> 00:36:17,279 Speaker 1: written word before, and they were being asked to mark 671 00:36:17,320 --> 00:36:19,719 Speaker 1: their excess to documents in a foreign language and in 672 00:36:19,800 --> 00:36:23,480 Speaker 1: legal ease. These guys weren't ignorant of the concept of diplomacy. 673 00:36:23,520 --> 00:36:26,000 Speaker 1: They knew wouldmitt to write treaties of friendship with neighboring 674 00:36:26,000 --> 00:36:28,160 Speaker 1: tribes or villages. They understood the idea of a non 675 00:36:28,239 --> 00:36:30,920 Speaker 1: aggression pact, and that's what they thought these were. The 676 00:36:31,000 --> 00:36:34,759 Speaker 1: reality was somewhat different. Quote. In return for one piece 677 00:36:34,800 --> 00:36:37,520 Speaker 1: of cloth per month to each of the undersigned chiefs, 678 00:36:37,560 --> 00:36:40,800 Speaker 1: besides present of cloth in hand, they promised, too freely 679 00:36:40,840 --> 00:36:43,919 Speaker 1: of their own accord for themselves and their heirs and successors, 680 00:36:44,440 --> 00:36:47,960 Speaker 1: forever give up to set association the sovereignty and all 681 00:36:48,080 --> 00:36:52,840 Speaker 1: sovereign and governing rights to all their territories. So Basically 682 00:36:52,880 --> 00:36:55,400 Speaker 1: he gives them cloth. They think that they're getting some 683 00:36:55,520 --> 00:36:59,839 Speaker 1: sick ass clothes, just assion pacts. This is a thing. 684 00:37:00,040 --> 00:37:03,279 Speaker 1: Here's our everyone. You give us shirts. We promise we 685 00:37:03,320 --> 00:37:04,960 Speaker 1: won't shoot you. We don't want to shoot you anyway. 686 00:37:05,000 --> 00:37:08,880 Speaker 1: That sounds great. In reality, these are all statements saying 687 00:37:09,040 --> 00:37:12,439 Speaker 1: that they give up other rights to the International African Association, 688 00:37:12,880 --> 00:37:15,600 Speaker 1: and the Association will have the right to collect taxes 689 00:37:16,040 --> 00:37:18,480 Speaker 1: on the people who gave up their rights to their land, 690 00:37:18,960 --> 00:37:21,759 Speaker 1: and those taxes, because there's no currency in most of 691 00:37:21,760 --> 00:37:26,040 Speaker 1: the Congo, those taxes can be paid in labor. So 692 00:37:26,560 --> 00:37:33,840 Speaker 1: Leopold gets hundreds of chiefs from Stanley to sign these agreements. Um, yeah, 693 00:37:34,080 --> 00:37:38,480 Speaker 1: Jesus so Europe. Thanks. Stanley's over there doing valuable philanthropic 694 00:37:38,520 --> 00:37:40,880 Speaker 1: work fighting with the slave traders and trying to open 695 00:37:41,040 --> 00:37:43,600 Speaker 1: the Congo up to free trade. That's the big buzzword 696 00:37:43,600 --> 00:37:45,480 Speaker 1: everyone's using. It's like, we're gonna open the Congo to 697 00:37:45,560 --> 00:37:47,239 Speaker 1: free trade and it will benefit the Africans, it will 698 00:37:47,280 --> 00:37:50,120 Speaker 1: benefit Europe. Everyone will benefit if there's free trade in 699 00:37:50,160 --> 00:37:54,320 Speaker 1: the Congo. Uh. Meanwhile, what he's actually doing is getting 700 00:37:54,360 --> 00:37:57,440 Speaker 1: pieces of paper that give Leopold the rights to the 701 00:37:57,440 --> 00:37:59,480 Speaker 1: Congo that make it look like all these chiefs have 702 00:37:59,520 --> 00:38:01,520 Speaker 1: come together and said, we want this guy to be 703 00:38:01,560 --> 00:38:04,399 Speaker 1: our king, and we want to be a country. So 704 00:38:05,239 --> 00:38:07,040 Speaker 1: I feel like I should break for just a second 705 00:38:07,120 --> 00:38:09,280 Speaker 1: and talk a little bit more about Henry Morton Stanley. 706 00:38:09,280 --> 00:38:11,200 Speaker 1: Who's the guy who's actually doing all this leg work. 707 00:38:11,480 --> 00:38:13,480 Speaker 1: He was one of the greatest explorers in history. And 708 00:38:13,480 --> 00:38:15,520 Speaker 1: he was also a human garbage fire, sort of a 709 00:38:15,600 --> 00:38:19,360 Speaker 1: Darth Vader. Definitely a Darth Vader too. He was terrified 710 00:38:19,360 --> 00:38:21,040 Speaker 1: by the thought of being touched by a woman, just 711 00:38:21,120 --> 00:38:24,560 Speaker 1: like Darth Vader. He once cut off his own dog's tail, 712 00:38:24,600 --> 00:38:26,360 Speaker 1: cooked it, and fed it to the dog for no 713 00:38:26,520 --> 00:38:30,840 Speaker 1: real reason. Um. And he basically, when I say he 714 00:38:30,920 --> 00:38:34,800 Speaker 1: was an explorer, he shot his way through Africa. Here's 715 00:38:34,800 --> 00:38:38,319 Speaker 1: a quote from a description of one of Stanley's expeditions 716 00:38:38,320 --> 00:38:41,799 Speaker 1: in King's Leopold's Ghost. To those unfortunate enough to live 717 00:38:41,840 --> 00:38:44,160 Speaker 1: in its path, the expedition felt like an invading army, 718 00:38:44,200 --> 00:38:46,760 Speaker 1: for it sometimes held women in children hostage until local 719 00:38:46,800 --> 00:38:50,720 Speaker 1: chief supplied food. UM. So yeah, he's shooting his way 720 00:38:50,719 --> 00:38:54,600 Speaker 1: through these tribes, taking their food, taking their ship, um, 721 00:38:54,640 --> 00:38:58,160 Speaker 1: burning down villages if there's any resistance um. One of 722 00:38:58,239 --> 00:39:01,520 Speaker 1: his men described just hunting people like the predator, like 723 00:39:01,640 --> 00:39:05,839 Speaker 1: laying in wait and just shooting random strangers. UM like 724 00:39:06,080 --> 00:39:09,160 Speaker 1: less ethical than the predator, who should played out has 725 00:39:09,200 --> 00:39:12,200 Speaker 1: a certain code. Yeah yeah, way less ethical than the predators. 726 00:39:12,200 --> 00:39:15,520 Speaker 1: So these guys are predatoring their way through through Africa, 727 00:39:16,160 --> 00:39:20,080 Speaker 1: but they're not particularly worse than any other explorer at 728 00:39:20,080 --> 00:39:22,879 Speaker 1: the time. I would he's one of the worst. They vary. 729 00:39:22,960 --> 00:39:26,000 Speaker 1: So Henry Morton Stanley, you know, the Dr Livingston, I 730 00:39:26,080 --> 00:39:30,080 Speaker 1: presume that he's that guy. And Dr Livingstone was apparently 731 00:39:30,239 --> 00:39:32,279 Speaker 1: a pretty nice guy. He was also an explorer and 732 00:39:32,320 --> 00:39:35,000 Speaker 1: actually would like get to know people and like and 733 00:39:35,239 --> 00:39:37,480 Speaker 1: plcate himself in the local culture. So some of these 734 00:39:37,480 --> 00:39:41,040 Speaker 1: guys are legitimately just in it for the sake of exploration, 735 00:39:41,200 --> 00:39:44,600 Speaker 1: and they're scientists and they're good to the people they encounter. 736 00:39:45,040 --> 00:39:47,200 Speaker 1: And some of them, like Stanley, just want to make 737 00:39:47,200 --> 00:39:51,120 Speaker 1: a shipload of money and they're creepy. Stanley is one 738 00:39:51,120 --> 00:39:54,120 Speaker 1: of the kills thousands of people while he's exploring. God, 739 00:39:54,160 --> 00:39:55,960 Speaker 1: I got it. I just want to I guess when 740 00:39:56,000 --> 00:39:58,320 Speaker 1: I met not as a mitigating thing of like everyone 741 00:39:58,400 --> 00:40:02,080 Speaker 1: was doing it, but like, if not the only standard practice. 742 00:40:02,280 --> 00:40:05,439 Speaker 1: It was not what you're describing is not not he's 743 00:40:05,440 --> 00:40:08,680 Speaker 1: a standard he's it's definitely common practice on a lot 744 00:40:08,719 --> 00:40:10,960 Speaker 1: of these guys. But he's not near to the only one. 745 00:40:11,239 --> 00:40:16,360 Speaker 1: But he's one of the worst for sure. Um So yeah. 746 00:40:16,400 --> 00:40:19,360 Speaker 1: While Stanley's expedition is going on, Leopold also hires a 747 00:40:19,360 --> 00:40:22,120 Speaker 1: bunch of other expeditions to explore their parts of Africa. 748 00:40:22,440 --> 00:40:26,160 Speaker 1: These were deliberately showy expeditions meant to distract public attention. 749 00:40:26,200 --> 00:40:28,840 Speaker 1: One of them involved the team of four Indian elephants 750 00:40:28,840 --> 00:40:31,080 Speaker 1: being sent to Africa to see if they could bread 751 00:40:31,120 --> 00:40:34,080 Speaker 1: with African elephants. All of the elephants died horribly, but 752 00:40:34,160 --> 00:40:37,239 Speaker 1: the news covered the story the whole time. So nobody's 753 00:40:37,440 --> 00:40:39,879 Speaker 1: reading about what Stanley is doing because they think it's 754 00:40:39,880 --> 00:40:43,200 Speaker 1: a boring philanthropical mission and there's this crazy story about elephants. 755 00:40:43,239 --> 00:40:48,640 Speaker 1: Let's read about that, so fucking dark. So he's clearly 756 00:40:48,719 --> 00:40:51,439 Speaker 1: understands the media well enough that he's not just thinking 757 00:40:51,440 --> 00:40:53,800 Speaker 1: about how to accomplish his plan, but how to distract 758 00:40:54,200 --> 00:40:57,960 Speaker 1: public attention. And while he does it, when Morton Stanley 759 00:40:58,000 --> 00:41:00,719 Speaker 1: gets back from his expedition and he writes a book 760 00:41:00,719 --> 00:41:04,080 Speaker 1: it's an instant bestseller. King Leopold edits it himself. That's 761 00:41:04,080 --> 00:41:05,680 Speaker 1: one of the things he had insisted on is that 762 00:41:05,800 --> 00:41:08,840 Speaker 1: Stanley could write a book about this, but King Leopold 763 00:41:08,880 --> 00:41:10,840 Speaker 1: would get to edit it. And most of what he 764 00:41:10,880 --> 00:41:13,200 Speaker 1: did was correct the times when Stanley mixed up the 765 00:41:13,200 --> 00:41:16,279 Speaker 1: different associations and committees that he was supposedly working for, 766 00:41:16,560 --> 00:41:20,279 Speaker 1: because nobody could keep it straight, but Leopold. That's such 767 00:41:20,280 --> 00:41:23,480 Speaker 1: an attention to detail, that's unbelievable. Like I said, he's 768 00:41:23,480 --> 00:41:29,480 Speaker 1: the first modern, truly modern past um. So this book 769 00:41:29,640 --> 00:41:31,960 Speaker 1: is sort of framed as like Henry Morton, Stanley is 770 00:41:32,000 --> 00:41:35,040 Speaker 1: helping the Congo Free State be born and helping these 771 00:41:35,160 --> 00:41:38,160 Speaker 1: these Africans like take their stab at nation hood and 772 00:41:38,239 --> 00:41:41,000 Speaker 1: joining the international community and whatnot. So that's how that 773 00:41:41,040 --> 00:41:43,000 Speaker 1: all this is being played on the outside world. The 774 00:41:43,040 --> 00:41:46,279 Speaker 1: reality and the Congo is very different. Uh. And what 775 00:41:46,360 --> 00:41:50,840 Speaker 1: happens next is uh not what anyone but Leopold had expected. 776 00:41:51,000 --> 00:41:52,400 Speaker 1: And we're going to get into that in a minute. 777 00:41:53,160 --> 00:41:57,759 Speaker 1: But right now, Uh, Andrew, do you have too much money? Oh? 778 00:41:57,920 --> 00:42:00,839 Speaker 1: Hell yeah. Well one of the great things to do 779 00:42:00,920 --> 00:42:04,080 Speaker 1: with too much money is spend it on products. Products 780 00:42:04,120 --> 00:42:06,279 Speaker 1: like the ones that I'm going to talk about. Now 781 00:42:06,600 --> 00:42:15,680 Speaker 1: here's ads. So we're back. Uh and King Leopold has 782 00:42:15,880 --> 00:42:18,360 Speaker 1: sent an explorer off to the Congo to trick a 783 00:42:18,360 --> 00:42:20,520 Speaker 1: bunch of tribes people into signing away their rights to 784 00:42:20,560 --> 00:42:22,600 Speaker 1: the land, while he has distracted the rest of Europe 785 00:42:22,600 --> 00:42:26,480 Speaker 1: with a bunch of showy expeditions. Uh So it's just 786 00:42:26,520 --> 00:42:30,080 Speaker 1: like it used to be, just like cannons and soldiers swords, 787 00:42:30,120 --> 00:42:35,759 Speaker 1: I guess, and now it's pr and fake treaties and stuff. Yeah, 788 00:42:35,840 --> 00:42:39,680 Speaker 1: it's really modern in a lot of ways. Um. So 789 00:42:40,000 --> 00:42:43,560 Speaker 1: Leopold has this new bestselling book that's talking about the 790 00:42:43,560 --> 00:42:45,319 Speaker 1: great stuff he's trying to do in the Congo that 791 00:42:45,320 --> 00:42:47,279 Speaker 1: gets the public jazz, and he's able to sort of 792 00:42:47,320 --> 00:42:49,920 Speaker 1: further push the legitimacy of his project by getting the 793 00:42:50,000 --> 00:42:54,360 Speaker 1: US President Chester A. Arthur to recognize the Congo Free State. 794 00:42:54,719 --> 00:42:57,160 Speaker 1: Leopold had charmed the former U S Minister to Belgium, 795 00:42:57,160 --> 00:42:59,520 Speaker 1: a guy who called himself General Sanford, even though he 796 00:42:59,560 --> 00:43:03,360 Speaker 1: was an ACTU le a general. Um. But he was 797 00:43:03,520 --> 00:43:05,520 Speaker 1: a rich guy who had a lot of money and 798 00:43:05,600 --> 00:43:08,200 Speaker 1: like an orange plantation. And because he was a rich guy, 799 00:43:08,280 --> 00:43:10,799 Speaker 1: he was able to get the President's ear Uh. General 800 00:43:10,880 --> 00:43:14,839 Speaker 1: Sandford appealed to President Arthur's justlike of Arabs, because again 801 00:43:14,880 --> 00:43:19,920 Speaker 1: there were all these Arab slave traders. Um, yes, nothing's changed, 802 00:43:21,000 --> 00:43:25,279 Speaker 1: nothing's new. Yeah, so chess Sterry Arthur was. He also 803 00:43:25,360 --> 00:43:27,319 Speaker 1: pointed out that that the Congo had been discovered by 804 00:43:27,320 --> 00:43:30,120 Speaker 1: an American because Henry Morton Stanley called himself an American. 805 00:43:30,200 --> 00:43:32,160 Speaker 1: He wasn't he was actually British, but the light his 806 00:43:32,160 --> 00:43:34,839 Speaker 1: whole life and said he was American. Everyone lies about 807 00:43:34,840 --> 00:43:39,319 Speaker 1: everything in the no Internet, because yeah, nothing like you. 808 00:43:39,320 --> 00:43:42,520 Speaker 1: You run into thousand colonels when you're reading anything in 809 00:43:42,520 --> 00:43:44,719 Speaker 1: this period, and none of them are colonels. Sure, none 810 00:43:44,719 --> 00:43:46,880 Speaker 1: of them were ever in the military, just like they 811 00:43:46,960 --> 00:43:49,280 Speaker 1: just I'm going to be a colonels, fried chicken colonels. 812 00:43:49,280 --> 00:43:51,879 Speaker 1: It's fine. And in this case of General anyway, Chess 813 00:43:51,920 --> 00:43:55,239 Speaker 1: Terry Arthur was like, sounds great, Uh, Congo free street, 814 00:43:55,280 --> 00:43:59,560 Speaker 1: sounds like a great idea. You're gonna fight some Arabs party, hooray. 815 00:44:00,120 --> 00:44:02,680 Speaker 1: So he included this next bit in his State of 816 00:44:02,719 --> 00:44:06,480 Speaker 1: the Union speech, recognizing the Congo free speech quote from 817 00:44:06,600 --> 00:44:09,560 Speaker 1: Chester A. Arthur. The rich and populous valley of the 818 00:44:09,600 --> 00:44:12,320 Speaker 1: Congo spelled with a k in. This is being opened 819 00:44:12,320 --> 00:44:15,479 Speaker 1: by a society called the International African Association, of which 820 00:44:15,480 --> 00:44:18,120 Speaker 1: the King of the Belgians is the president. Large tracts 821 00:44:18,160 --> 00:44:21,320 Speaker 1: of territory have been ceded to the Association by native chiefs. 822 00:44:21,640 --> 00:44:24,200 Speaker 1: Roads have been opened, steamboats have been placed on the river, 823 00:44:24,280 --> 00:44:27,520 Speaker 1: and the Nuclei of states established under one flag, which 824 00:44:27,520 --> 00:44:31,399 Speaker 1: offers freedom to commerce and prohibits the slave trade. Oh 825 00:44:31,440 --> 00:44:34,880 Speaker 1: my god, So that's how Chester A. Arthur pictures it. 826 00:44:35,000 --> 00:44:38,719 Speaker 1: So he got paid placement for his propaganda in the 827 00:44:38,760 --> 00:44:41,960 Speaker 1: State of the Union. Yeah, in the State of the Union. Uh. 828 00:44:42,000 --> 00:44:44,560 Speaker 1: So far the people of Belgium and the other European 829 00:44:44,640 --> 00:44:48,120 Speaker 1: states are fooled pretty well. But France and some other 830 00:44:48,200 --> 00:44:51,279 Speaker 1: folks and like the British government whatnot are starting to 831 00:44:51,320 --> 00:44:53,640 Speaker 1: catch on the Leopold's plan and realize that he's making 832 00:44:53,640 --> 00:44:56,640 Speaker 1: a power grab. This helped to spark a general what's 833 00:44:56,680 --> 00:44:59,240 Speaker 1: known as the Scramble for Africa, where all these European 834 00:44:59,239 --> 00:45:00,800 Speaker 1: powers are like, oh my god, we're running out of 835 00:45:00,840 --> 00:45:03,600 Speaker 1: Africa to take over. Uh. So they start shooting out 836 00:45:03,600 --> 00:45:05,839 Speaker 1: expeditions to claim the last pieces of the continent before 837 00:45:05,880 --> 00:45:08,840 Speaker 1: it fills up. Uh. This all culminates in the Berlin 838 00:45:09,000 --> 00:45:11,800 Speaker 1: Conference of eighteen eighty four to eighty five, and a 839 00:45:11,840 --> 00:45:14,960 Speaker 1: bunch of stuff is decided there. But Leopold's main goal 840 00:45:15,239 --> 00:45:17,400 Speaker 1: is to get recognition for what he starts calling the 841 00:45:17,400 --> 00:45:20,640 Speaker 1: Congo Free State. He's basically like, I've got all these treaties. 842 00:45:20,640 --> 00:45:22,320 Speaker 1: Like he gets up in front of Europe and he's like, 843 00:45:22,360 --> 00:45:24,319 Speaker 1: I got all these treaties. Look, the people of the 844 00:45:24,360 --> 00:45:26,160 Speaker 1: Congo want to be their own state. They want me 845 00:45:26,200 --> 00:45:28,320 Speaker 1: to be their king. They've given this this state the 846 00:45:28,480 --> 00:45:31,719 Speaker 1: rights to their land. Uh. And if you all back 847 00:45:31,840 --> 00:45:33,680 Speaker 1: me and establishing the state, it will be a free 848 00:45:33,719 --> 00:45:35,960 Speaker 1: trade zone, so all everyone will be able to trade 849 00:45:36,000 --> 00:45:38,480 Speaker 1: freely and buy and sell freely in there. It will 850 00:45:38,520 --> 00:45:42,000 Speaker 1: make a bunch of money for everybody. So that's Leopold's pitch, 851 00:45:42,840 --> 00:45:46,880 Speaker 1: and Europe buys it. In eighteen eighty five, the Congo 852 00:45:46,960 --> 00:45:49,799 Speaker 1: Free State is established. Leopold had to go in front 853 00:45:49,800 --> 00:45:51,719 Speaker 1: of Belgium Senate to ask if he could be two 854 00:45:51,800 --> 00:45:54,560 Speaker 1: kings at once. Uh. He promised that the Congo would 855 00:45:54,560 --> 00:45:56,319 Speaker 1: be its own independent nation and that it would pay 856 00:45:56,360 --> 00:45:58,440 Speaker 1: its own way in the world. He told Belgium he 857 00:45:58,480 --> 00:46:00,640 Speaker 1: thought it was his duty to quote help the nations 858 00:46:00,680 --> 00:46:03,600 Speaker 1: of second rank become useful members of the great family 859 00:46:03,640 --> 00:46:07,200 Speaker 1: of nations. Then he asked for money, a little alone 860 00:46:07,239 --> 00:46:09,319 Speaker 1: to help the fledgling new nation. And he asked his 861 00:46:09,360 --> 00:46:12,160 Speaker 1: fellow Belgians to volunteer to help in this bold project 862 00:46:12,360 --> 00:46:15,680 Speaker 1: quote more than any other. A manufacturing and commercial people 863 00:46:15,719 --> 00:46:18,440 Speaker 1: like ourselves ought to strive to obtain a market for 864 00:46:18,480 --> 00:46:22,440 Speaker 1: all its workers, for thinkers, capitalists and workmen. So the 865 00:46:22,520 --> 00:46:26,280 Speaker 1: Congo Free State is on paper a country with Leopold 866 00:46:26,280 --> 00:46:28,920 Speaker 1: the Second as its absolute ruler. So he's gone from 867 00:46:28,920 --> 00:46:30,879 Speaker 1: the King of Belgium, but he doesn't really have any 868 00:46:30,920 --> 00:46:36,000 Speaker 1: power to yeah of of a country like twenties times 869 00:46:36,040 --> 00:46:39,760 Speaker 1: the size of Belgium. Jesus Christ. Uh. So the Congo 870 00:46:39,840 --> 00:46:42,759 Speaker 1: Free State is to all intends and purposes of state. 871 00:46:42,800 --> 00:46:45,080 Speaker 1: It has its own army, the Force Publique, which is 872 00:46:45,120 --> 00:46:48,120 Speaker 1: made up of African soldiers led by Belgian officers. It's 873 00:46:48,120 --> 00:46:51,000 Speaker 1: illegal for black men to be officers in the Army 874 00:46:51,040 --> 00:46:58,640 Speaker 1: of the Congo. That sounds about yeah, um. So man 875 00:46:59,200 --> 00:47:03,840 Speaker 1: Leopold is a wired himself an African empire. Unfortunately, he 876 00:47:03,880 --> 00:47:07,200 Speaker 1: didn't want an empire. He had no desire to actually 877 00:47:07,280 --> 00:47:11,520 Speaker 1: rule another just wanted money. He just wanted money. So 878 00:47:11,840 --> 00:47:15,960 Speaker 1: the Congo Free State is entirely a money making scheme 879 00:47:16,640 --> 00:47:19,520 Speaker 1: and it's all based around rubber. So the late eighteen 880 00:47:19,640 --> 00:47:22,920 Speaker 1: hundreds is when rubber really started to take off. That's 881 00:47:23,239 --> 00:47:25,080 Speaker 1: like in the mid eighteen hundreds or so is when 882 00:47:25,080 --> 00:47:27,000 Speaker 1: they figure out how to vulcanized rubber, which is what 883 00:47:27,120 --> 00:47:29,600 Speaker 1: makes it like nice and shiny and stable and it 884 00:47:29,640 --> 00:47:33,279 Speaker 1: doesn't smell weird and fall apart. Um. It's so the 885 00:47:33,360 --> 00:47:36,400 Speaker 1: Macintosh coat becomes popular around this time. People like in 886 00:47:36,480 --> 00:47:38,719 Speaker 1: Europe are just like covered headed tone rubber, like it's 887 00:47:38,760 --> 00:47:41,360 Speaker 1: it's it's everywhere. It's like the fashion of the times. 888 00:47:41,560 --> 00:47:45,640 Speaker 1: People are just flipping out over rubber. Um fetishes are 889 00:47:45,640 --> 00:47:52,200 Speaker 1: born tons exactly, hot air balloons. It's like this one. 890 00:47:52,200 --> 00:47:54,279 Speaker 1: It's a wonder material. It's like the first time people 891 00:47:54,760 --> 00:47:57,960 Speaker 1: they don't have to use glass for everything. Um. So 892 00:47:58,040 --> 00:48:00,359 Speaker 1: everyone's in love with rubber. But there's only two ways 893 00:48:00,440 --> 00:48:04,040 Speaker 1: to make rubber at that time, vines and trees. Now 894 00:48:04,120 --> 00:48:08,480 Speaker 1: rubber vines grew wild all around the Congo. The two 895 00:48:08,480 --> 00:48:11,879 Speaker 1: ways are vines and trees. There's rubber vines and there rubbers. Yeah, 896 00:48:11,920 --> 00:48:15,320 Speaker 1: I thought it was going to be vegetation and chemistry. No, 897 00:48:15,480 --> 00:48:17,600 Speaker 1: they hadn't. They didn't. They do now we can make 898 00:48:18,480 --> 00:48:22,000 Speaker 1: but they hadn't figured that ship out. Um So, actually 899 00:48:22,040 --> 00:48:24,400 Speaker 1: harvesting all of the rubber from vines like the ones 900 00:48:24,400 --> 00:48:26,600 Speaker 1: who grew in the Congo required thousands and thousands of 901 00:48:26,600 --> 00:48:28,759 Speaker 1: people climbing trees in the jungle. There's the risk of 902 00:48:28,800 --> 00:48:31,120 Speaker 1: snake bite and monster attacks, and it's just it's just 903 00:48:31,160 --> 00:48:35,600 Speaker 1: a nightmare harvesting, Yeah, at large scale in the Congo. 904 00:48:36,040 --> 00:48:38,880 Speaker 1: Harvesting rubber from trees, on the other hand, is really easy, 905 00:48:39,000 --> 00:48:41,840 Speaker 1: and some enterprising people had already started planting groves of 906 00:48:41,920 --> 00:48:45,080 Speaker 1: rubber trees in South America, but those trees took about 907 00:48:45,080 --> 00:48:48,279 Speaker 1: twenty years or so to really get going. So Leopold 908 00:48:48,719 --> 00:48:51,040 Speaker 1: standing here in charge of the Congo knows that he 909 00:48:51,080 --> 00:48:54,320 Speaker 1: has about twenty years to be the world's leading producer 910 00:48:54,440 --> 00:48:58,239 Speaker 1: of rubber. The Congo Free State wasn't basically just a 911 00:48:58,280 --> 00:49:01,359 Speaker 1: giant rubber factory. That was his whole vision for this 912 00:49:01,480 --> 00:49:05,359 Speaker 1: land filled with millions of people. This is like the 913 00:49:05,400 --> 00:49:10,080 Speaker 1: actual story of Willie Wonka. Yeah, he's the real Willie Wonka. 914 00:49:10,640 --> 00:49:16,080 Speaker 1: Jesus Christ. So, I remember when I said that Leopold 915 00:49:16,120 --> 00:49:19,440 Speaker 1: had the right to collect taxes in the form of labor. Well, 916 00:49:20,160 --> 00:49:22,680 Speaker 1: he used these taxes to make Congolese people go harvest 917 00:49:22,760 --> 00:49:24,960 Speaker 1: rubber for him. In theory, I think he was allowed 918 00:49:25,000 --> 00:49:27,040 Speaker 1: to only demand like forty hours a month from them 919 00:49:27,120 --> 00:49:28,960 Speaker 1: or something. But what happened is that he would have 920 00:49:29,000 --> 00:49:31,520 Speaker 1: his soldiers go from village to village and take hostages. 921 00:49:31,960 --> 00:49:34,600 Speaker 1: These hostages would be put in concentration camps where they'd 922 00:49:34,600 --> 00:49:37,240 Speaker 1: be starved and beaten until the village met its rubber quota. 923 00:49:37,480 --> 00:49:39,719 Speaker 1: So if you didn't get all the rubber that you 924 00:49:39,719 --> 00:49:42,239 Speaker 1: were supposed to get soon enough, your family would just 925 00:49:42,280 --> 00:49:46,840 Speaker 1: starve to get Uh. Leopold's government did have a problem 926 00:49:46,880 --> 00:49:50,880 Speaker 1: because obviously it needs soldiers to enforce these nightmarish rules. 927 00:49:50,880 --> 00:49:54,040 Speaker 1: But white people die like crazy in the Congo um, 928 00:49:54,080 --> 00:49:56,080 Speaker 1: Like a more than a third of the Belgians who 929 00:49:56,080 --> 00:49:58,680 Speaker 1: went there died there. And since again it's illegal for 930 00:49:58,719 --> 00:50:02,279 Speaker 1: Africans to be officers and force publique, uh, there would 931 00:50:02,280 --> 00:50:04,640 Speaker 1: wind up being like four or five Belgian guys commanding 932 00:50:04,680 --> 00:50:07,960 Speaker 1: hundreds and hundreds of African soldiers. So that's like, obviously 933 00:50:08,239 --> 00:50:10,719 Speaker 1: you're treating these guys terribly. You're making the massacre of 934 00:50:10,719 --> 00:50:12,680 Speaker 1: their own people, and there's five of you for every 935 00:50:12,680 --> 00:50:16,680 Speaker 1: five hundred of them. That's like a recipe for a revolution, 936 00:50:17,160 --> 00:50:20,240 Speaker 1: or it would be if the soldiers had free access 937 00:50:20,280 --> 00:50:23,440 Speaker 1: to bullets. One of the ways the Belgians controlled their 938 00:50:23,560 --> 00:50:26,680 Speaker 1: army was by heavily restricting when anybody would get bullets, 939 00:50:26,680 --> 00:50:29,640 Speaker 1: and by policing their AMMO so they couldn't hide any away. 940 00:50:29,719 --> 00:50:32,120 Speaker 1: So each soldier would only be issued a certain amount 941 00:50:32,160 --> 00:50:34,480 Speaker 1: of AMMO when they go out to get rubber, and 942 00:50:34,520 --> 00:50:37,439 Speaker 1: if they fired any rounds, they had to account for them. 943 00:50:37,520 --> 00:50:40,080 Speaker 1: The general policy and the congo became that if you 944 00:50:40,160 --> 00:50:42,759 Speaker 1: fired around, you had to provide a right hand from 945 00:50:42,760 --> 00:50:45,440 Speaker 1: a corpse for every round that you shot. This was 946 00:50:45,480 --> 00:50:47,600 Speaker 1: meant to stop people from stockpiling AMMO, and it was 947 00:50:47,640 --> 00:50:50,440 Speaker 1: meant to stop them from like hunting for animals when 948 00:50:50,440 --> 00:50:53,440 Speaker 1: they should have been, you know, shooting people. Um what 949 00:50:53,600 --> 00:50:56,920 Speaker 1: this actually meant? Yeah, exactly so, but that creates a 950 00:50:56,960 --> 00:51:02,080 Speaker 1: market for right hands. Exactly possibly go wrong. Yeah, For 951 00:51:02,120 --> 00:51:04,760 Speaker 1: one thing, these soldiers aren't fed enough, so they're starving 952 00:51:04,760 --> 00:51:06,719 Speaker 1: and they start hunting, and then once they fired a 953 00:51:06,719 --> 00:51:08,560 Speaker 1: couple of rounds to hunt an animal, they need to 954 00:51:08,560 --> 00:51:11,000 Speaker 1: pick up. Okay, we we we fired three rounds getting 955 00:51:11,000 --> 00:51:14,160 Speaker 1: that that whatever it is. Now we need three hands. 956 00:51:14,520 --> 00:51:16,440 Speaker 1: So we need to go into a village. We need 957 00:51:16,480 --> 00:51:19,319 Speaker 1: to take some people's hands. And in addition to that, 958 00:51:19,440 --> 00:51:22,600 Speaker 1: like it becomes common if if a village refuses to 959 00:51:23,000 --> 00:51:24,920 Speaker 1: provide rubber, like people like we're not going to work 960 00:51:24,920 --> 00:51:26,320 Speaker 1: to you, We're not going to give up our relatives 961 00:51:26,320 --> 00:51:28,840 Speaker 1: as hostages. The Force Publique would just burned down the 962 00:51:28,840 --> 00:51:33,520 Speaker 1: whole village. Sometimes they just kill everybody in the entire village. Um. 963 00:51:33,560 --> 00:51:37,360 Speaker 1: And this this is happening on basically an industrial scale. 964 00:51:37,400 --> 00:51:40,200 Speaker 1: In nineteen o three, a single rubber collecting post was 965 00:51:40,239 --> 00:51:43,520 Speaker 1: sent more than forty replacement rounds of ammunition to every 966 00:51:43,640 --> 00:51:47,960 Speaker 1: round that they're being sent. They've got a hand. Um. Yeah. 967 00:51:48,080 --> 00:51:50,560 Speaker 1: So like the military units in the Force Publique even 968 00:51:50,600 --> 00:51:52,759 Speaker 1: would have a keeper of the hands whose job was 969 00:51:52,800 --> 00:51:55,720 Speaker 1: to smoke all of the severed hands so that they preserve, 970 00:51:55,800 --> 00:51:58,680 Speaker 1: so that you could go back to the authority. We 971 00:51:58,719 --> 00:52:03,920 Speaker 1: need twenty more bullets. Here's twenty thou human hands, Jesus Christ. Yeah. 972 00:52:04,160 --> 00:52:07,200 Speaker 1: So in five, when this whole operation is just getting 973 00:52:07,200 --> 00:52:09,680 Speaker 1: off the ground, King Leopold is named in British Court 974 00:52:09,719 --> 00:52:12,640 Speaker 1: as a client of what the British called a disorderly house. 975 00:52:13,320 --> 00:52:17,440 Speaker 1: Can you guess what a disorderly house was? Uh? Probably 976 00:52:17,520 --> 00:52:21,480 Speaker 1: not enough. It's the Hottish a go for it. Yeah, 977 00:52:21,719 --> 00:52:26,040 Speaker 1: it's it's a brothel. So while this is all starting off, 978 00:52:26,160 --> 00:52:29,200 Speaker 1: King sorry to a horhouse in England, I thought, I 979 00:52:29,239 --> 00:52:32,560 Speaker 1: thought you disorderly house meant like his dukedom didn't have 980 00:52:32,760 --> 00:52:35,960 Speaker 1: like x or y like paperwork filed. No, no no. 981 00:52:36,040 --> 00:52:39,680 Speaker 1: While he's freshly the king of the Belgian Congo, he's 982 00:52:39,719 --> 00:52:43,319 Speaker 1: named in British court as a client of a whorehouse. Uh. 983 00:52:43,320 --> 00:52:45,400 Speaker 1: And they say that he had been paying eight hundred 984 00:52:45,440 --> 00:52:48,280 Speaker 1: pounds a month for a steady supply of young women, 985 00:52:48,360 --> 00:52:50,839 Speaker 1: some of whom were ten to fifteen years old. That's so, 986 00:52:51,080 --> 00:52:55,760 Speaker 1: I mean, that's what Leopold's doing in between administering the Congo. Yeah. Um. 987 00:52:55,840 --> 00:52:57,760 Speaker 1: And while he's doing that, his men in the Congo 988 00:52:57,840 --> 00:53:00,719 Speaker 1: are building a system of Rhodes railways, post and steamboats 989 00:53:00,760 --> 00:53:03,160 Speaker 1: that are meant to allow the rubber making operation to prosper. 990 00:53:03,600 --> 00:53:05,680 Speaker 1: Leopold doesn't want to pay for all this himself, so 991 00:53:05,719 --> 00:53:08,279 Speaker 1: he claimed the infrastructure is necessary so that the Free 992 00:53:08,280 --> 00:53:13,000 Speaker 1: States Army can fight those dastardly Arab slavers. Um got 993 00:53:13,000 --> 00:53:15,360 Speaker 1: the US to pay for it, or just generally he 994 00:53:15,480 --> 00:53:18,040 Speaker 1: got everyone wants to pay for it. So he gotten 995 00:53:18,080 --> 00:53:20,080 Speaker 1: Europe on board with this by saying the Congo was 996 00:53:20,120 --> 00:53:22,400 Speaker 1: going to be a free trade zone. But then he's like, 997 00:53:22,480 --> 00:53:24,719 Speaker 1: we need to build all this infrastructure in order to 998 00:53:24,800 --> 00:53:28,080 Speaker 1: fight the slavers, so we're gonna have to collect import taxes. 999 00:53:28,080 --> 00:53:33,279 Speaker 1: Now he's just he like the one that you can 1000 00:53:33,320 --> 00:53:35,680 Speaker 1: trust Leopold to do is he will funck over every 1001 00:53:35,719 --> 00:53:39,520 Speaker 1: single person. Ye. So now even these countries who had 1002 00:53:39,560 --> 00:53:41,120 Speaker 1: like gotten on board because they thought this was a 1003 00:53:41,160 --> 00:53:43,840 Speaker 1: free trade zone, they're getting screwed. And of course the 1004 00:53:43,880 --> 00:53:46,560 Speaker 1: millions of people whose hands he's having severed and unscrewed. 1005 00:53:46,760 --> 00:53:49,319 Speaker 1: I guess the key is just never stopped lying. Yeah, 1006 00:53:50,440 --> 00:53:52,719 Speaker 1: whenever you read about any of these guys. That is 1007 00:53:52,760 --> 00:53:56,200 Speaker 1: the most important thing. He's never ever stopped lying. If 1008 00:53:56,239 --> 00:53:59,279 Speaker 1: you're going to be a monster, you have to lie, 1009 00:53:59,400 --> 00:54:03,840 Speaker 1: consist only for decades about everything. All right, Yeah, I'm in. 1010 00:54:04,120 --> 00:54:08,879 Speaker 1: It works, Yeah, No, I mean I'm in. Well, you'll 1011 00:54:08,920 --> 00:54:13,880 Speaker 1: be a great king of the Congo. Um so uh. 1012 00:54:13,960 --> 00:54:16,960 Speaker 1: To Leopold's credit, his men did fight Arab slave traders, 1013 00:54:17,000 --> 00:54:19,880 Speaker 1: but most of the fighting was done by conscripted African 1014 00:54:19,880 --> 00:54:24,040 Speaker 1: soldiers who were themselves basically slaves. Yeah. Yeah. King Leopold 1015 00:54:24,080 --> 00:54:27,080 Speaker 1: personally endorsed a system where white agents of the Free 1016 00:54:27,120 --> 00:54:29,000 Speaker 1: State got a bonus if they were able to find 1017 00:54:29,160 --> 00:54:32,200 Speaker 1: more recruits for the Force Publique. Many agents wound up 1018 00:54:32,200 --> 00:54:34,440 Speaker 1: buying them in from various chiefs and effect doing the 1019 00:54:34,480 --> 00:54:36,680 Speaker 1: same thing as the Arab slavers they bragged about fighting. 1020 00:54:37,000 --> 00:54:41,040 Speaker 1: State agents also got bonuses for quote reducing recruiting expenses, 1021 00:54:41,280 --> 00:54:43,839 Speaker 1: so if they outright enslaved people rather than paid them 1022 00:54:43,880 --> 00:54:46,520 Speaker 1: to join, they got more money in their pocket. As 1023 00:54:46,520 --> 00:54:49,319 Speaker 1: many as three quarters of all volunteers for the Force 1024 00:54:49,360 --> 00:54:52,359 Speaker 1: Publique died before they could receive training. Most of those 1025 00:54:52,440 --> 00:54:57,880 Speaker 1: volunteers were teenagers, right, yeah, so they're just volunteers, quote unquote, 1026 00:54:58,080 --> 00:55:02,239 Speaker 1: that's fucking incredible. It was like, we have our indentured 1027 00:55:02,320 --> 00:55:05,880 Speaker 1: servant army is going to fight your slave arm So 1028 00:55:05,920 --> 00:55:10,240 Speaker 1: basically the Congo at this point is groups of white 1029 00:55:10,239 --> 00:55:12,719 Speaker 1: guys with soldiers going into the jungle to collect a 1030 00:55:12,719 --> 00:55:15,360 Speaker 1: bunch of other soldiers and they'll put them in chains 1031 00:55:15,520 --> 00:55:17,200 Speaker 1: and like march them through the jungle and most of 1032 00:55:17,200 --> 00:55:18,840 Speaker 1: them will die, and then they'll train those guys up 1033 00:55:18,880 --> 00:55:21,120 Speaker 1: to fight, and they'll take those guys into the jungle 1034 00:55:21,400 --> 00:55:23,719 Speaker 1: to tell people to collect rubber from people, and to 1035 00:55:23,800 --> 00:55:27,680 Speaker 1: kill everyone who doesn't provide enough rubber, and to kill 1036 00:55:27,719 --> 00:55:29,520 Speaker 1: a lot of the people who do provide enough rubber, 1037 00:55:29,600 --> 00:55:32,640 Speaker 1: just because these kids are like starving to death, and 1038 00:55:32,680 --> 00:55:35,360 Speaker 1: maybe they have to shoot an animal, or maybe there's 1039 00:55:35,440 --> 00:55:37,799 Speaker 1: rebels and they get into a firefight, but they don't, 1040 00:55:39,040 --> 00:55:40,879 Speaker 1: and then you got to take hands from the So 1041 00:55:41,280 --> 00:55:44,200 Speaker 1: it just keeps spiraling out of control and becoming like 1042 00:55:44,280 --> 00:55:47,319 Speaker 1: even more of a nightmare to everybody but Leopold, because 1043 00:55:47,360 --> 00:55:51,120 Speaker 1: again he's sitting back in Belgium this time. Um. Since 1044 00:55:51,200 --> 00:55:53,440 Speaker 1: Leopold was the absolute monarch, he got to rule by 1045 00:55:53,680 --> 00:55:56,840 Speaker 1: royal decree. His first decree was that all quote vacant 1046 00:55:56,920 --> 00:56:00,000 Speaker 1: land was now property of the state. He didn't explain 1047 00:56:00,000 --> 00:56:02,640 Speaker 1: in what vacant meant, because obviously farmers don't live on 1048 00:56:02,719 --> 00:56:05,160 Speaker 1: every inch of their farmland, so basically most of the 1049 00:56:05,200 --> 00:56:07,600 Speaker 1: land in the Congo was now just his. Uh. He 1050 00:56:07,719 --> 00:56:10,200 Speaker 1: leased this land to a series of private corporations. And 1051 00:56:10,200 --> 00:56:12,520 Speaker 1: this gets to the real brilliance of his scheme because 1052 00:56:12,600 --> 00:56:15,239 Speaker 1: Leopold didn't have to dirty his hands actually running any 1053 00:56:15,239 --> 00:56:18,200 Speaker 1: of the rubber harvesting. He was able to private right. Yeah, 1054 00:56:18,400 --> 00:56:21,239 Speaker 1: other people paid for their right to mind rubber and 1055 00:56:21,239 --> 00:56:23,560 Speaker 1: cut off hands and do all the actual work, and 1056 00:56:23,680 --> 00:56:26,480 Speaker 1: LEOPOLDLD owned the rights to a huge chunk of their profits. 1057 00:56:26,680 --> 00:56:29,239 Speaker 1: So basically, these companies would come in and give him 1058 00:56:29,280 --> 00:56:34,080 Speaker 1: an owning stake in the corporation, licensed the scheme of 1059 00:56:35,239 --> 00:56:39,520 Speaker 1: incliving people, cutting off their hands, etcetera. Yeah. Adam hash 1060 00:56:39,640 --> 00:56:42,799 Speaker 1: Child in King Leopold's Ghost compares the Congo Free State 1061 00:56:42,840 --> 00:56:46,160 Speaker 1: to a venture capital firm. Quote he had essentially found 1062 00:56:46,160 --> 00:56:49,080 Speaker 1: a way to attract other people's capital to his investment schemes. 1063 00:56:49,080 --> 00:56:51,640 Speaker 1: While he retained half the proceeds. In the end, what 1064 00:56:51,719 --> 00:56:54,120 Speaker 1: with various taxes and fees the companies paid the state, 1065 00:56:54,280 --> 00:56:57,680 Speaker 1: it came to more than half. So in the eighteen nineties, 1066 00:56:57,719 --> 00:57:00,560 Speaker 1: the Congo Free State really starts putting out rubber, and 1067 00:57:00,560 --> 00:57:02,560 Speaker 1: suddenly King Leopold is one of the richest guys in 1068 00:57:02,600 --> 00:57:05,880 Speaker 1: the world. He starts buying gigantic monuments and palaces and 1069 00:57:05,880 --> 00:57:08,520 Speaker 1: shipped for Belgium, big showy projects, some of which are 1070 00:57:08,520 --> 00:57:11,000 Speaker 1: still there, and it is to make people like him. 1071 00:57:11,000 --> 00:57:13,760 Speaker 1: It's to keep him popular at home. He's succeeding beyond 1072 00:57:13,760 --> 00:57:15,640 Speaker 1: his wildest dreams in the business side of things, but 1073 00:57:15,680 --> 00:57:18,000 Speaker 1: his personal life is just kind of one series of 1074 00:57:18,040 --> 00:57:22,040 Speaker 1: train Wrex after the other. Um. Yeah, his son had 1075 00:57:22,080 --> 00:57:24,920 Speaker 1: died in eighteen sixty four, which led to an understandable 1076 00:57:25,000 --> 00:57:27,760 Speaker 1: estrangement between Leopold and his wife. It took eight years 1077 00:57:27,800 --> 00:57:29,440 Speaker 1: before they could stand to be around each other and 1078 00:57:29,480 --> 00:57:32,880 Speaker 1: try again. This passage from Leopold's biography tells you a 1079 00:57:32,920 --> 00:57:36,480 Speaker 1: lot about the relationships between the sexes. In the eighteen 1080 00:57:36,520 --> 00:57:39,680 Speaker 1: sixties quote, Leopold the Second was anxious to have a 1081 00:57:39,720 --> 00:57:42,840 Speaker 1: male heir, and in eighteen seventy two Queen Marie Henriette 1082 00:57:42,880 --> 00:57:46,280 Speaker 1: consented to resume conjugal life with her royal spouse, from 1083 00:57:46,280 --> 00:57:49,800 Speaker 1: whom she had separated some time before. She sacrificed herself, 1084 00:57:49,840 --> 00:57:52,640 Speaker 1: as one may say, for her country. A child was 1085 00:57:52,680 --> 00:57:54,880 Speaker 1: born unto them, but alas it was a daughter and 1086 00:57:54,920 --> 00:57:58,200 Speaker 1: not a son, which was given unto them, So that's 1087 00:57:58,200 --> 00:58:00,440 Speaker 1: messed up for a lot of reasons. She's one of 1088 00:58:00,440 --> 00:58:03,240 Speaker 1: which is just that Even in the pro Leopold biography, 1089 00:58:03,320 --> 00:58:06,960 Speaker 1: it just admits that having sex with Leopold is a sacrifice. 1090 00:58:07,120 --> 00:58:11,080 Speaker 1: I actually I'm surprised that the amount of agency she has, 1091 00:58:11,120 --> 00:58:14,120 Speaker 1: like she you know, she is the queen facing pressure, 1092 00:58:14,200 --> 00:58:18,680 Speaker 1: but it wasn't force that guillotined point or whatever she 1093 00:58:18,760 --> 00:58:21,480 Speaker 1: kind of was. I guess that's true. I guess that's 1094 00:58:21,520 --> 00:58:24,600 Speaker 1: between the lines, of course. Yeah, Jesus, it's I mean, 1095 00:58:24,600 --> 00:58:27,200 Speaker 1: she probably has more agency than the average. But at 1096 00:58:27,200 --> 00:58:28,840 Speaker 1: the same time, in the way she is less because 1097 00:58:29,400 --> 00:58:32,280 Speaker 1: it's less important for a commoner to have a son, 1098 00:58:32,880 --> 00:58:35,040 Speaker 1: because like the king, that's like the whole dynasty things. 1099 00:58:35,160 --> 00:58:38,280 Speaker 1: You might say she has even less. Um, we probably 1100 00:58:38,280 --> 00:58:43,360 Speaker 1: should say, yeah, we probably would be. Um. So, yeah, 1101 00:58:43,480 --> 00:58:46,760 Speaker 1: Leopold did not take having a daughter very well. Uh. 1102 00:58:46,840 --> 00:58:50,960 Speaker 1: This quote is from King Leopold's ghost. When the last daughter, Clementine, 1103 00:58:51,000 --> 00:58:53,480 Speaker 1: was born, according to his sister Louise, the king was 1104 00:58:53,520 --> 00:58:56,240 Speaker 1: furious and thenceforth refused to have anything to do with 1105 00:58:56,280 --> 00:58:59,720 Speaker 1: his admirable wife from the beginning. She wrote, quote, the 1106 00:58:59,800 --> 00:59:02,480 Speaker 1: king paid very little attention to me or my sister's. 1107 00:59:03,120 --> 00:59:05,520 Speaker 1: So he doesn't pay attention to his daughters, and he 1108 00:59:05,560 --> 00:59:07,520 Speaker 1: mostly seems to care when one of them, like fox 1109 00:59:07,600 --> 00:59:11,200 Speaker 1: with his garden. Um, here's a recollection from Luis. Large, 1110 00:59:11,280 --> 00:59:13,280 Speaker 1: juicy peaches grew on the walls of the gardens, and 1111 00:59:13,320 --> 00:59:15,040 Speaker 1: the king was very proud of them. I had a 1112 00:59:15,080 --> 00:59:17,480 Speaker 1: passion for peaches, and one day I dared to eat one, 1113 00:59:17,480 --> 00:59:20,000 Speaker 1: which was hidden away among the leaves. And that year 1114 00:59:20,040 --> 00:59:22,880 Speaker 1: peaches were plentiful. But the following day the king discovered 1115 00:59:22,920 --> 00:59:25,600 Speaker 1: the theft. What a dramatic moment. At once suspected, I 1116 00:59:25,640 --> 00:59:28,320 Speaker 1: confessed my crime and was promptly punished. I did not 1117 00:59:28,440 --> 00:59:32,200 Speaker 1: realize that the king counted his peaches. So while Leopold 1118 00:59:32,440 --> 00:59:36,960 Speaker 1: is running a nightmare hand harvesting rubber making scheme in 1119 00:59:37,000 --> 00:59:39,400 Speaker 1: the Congo, he's got enough time to make sure that 1120 00:59:39,440 --> 00:59:42,600 Speaker 1: his daughter doesn't steal a peach from himself. Because it's like, 1121 00:59:42,880 --> 00:59:46,480 Speaker 1: at least Ivanka Trump has the decency to pretend that 1122 00:59:46,560 --> 00:59:49,240 Speaker 1: she loved her tie with her daddy, even though like 1123 00:59:49,320 --> 00:59:51,800 Speaker 1: in all those like stories she tells, it's sad and 1124 00:59:51,880 --> 00:59:54,280 Speaker 1: weird too, but it's like, at least she's like, I 1125 00:59:54,320 --> 00:59:56,160 Speaker 1: love him. He's my dad, you know, And I believe 1126 00:59:56,160 --> 00:59:58,320 Speaker 1: in all this sha he couldn't even get his daughters 1127 00:59:58,360 --> 01:00:01,760 Speaker 1: to be like I love Well, there's gonna be more 1128 01:00:01,800 --> 01:00:04,680 Speaker 1: about his daughter's coming in. He's he is not a 1129 01:00:04,720 --> 01:00:09,280 Speaker 1: great dad. Yeah, if you can't sell that already. Um, 1130 01:00:09,360 --> 01:00:12,200 Speaker 1: there's in fact no evidence that Leopold cared about any 1131 01:00:12,240 --> 01:00:15,120 Speaker 1: of his children as anything more than vehicles for his legacy. 1132 01:00:15,760 --> 01:00:18,560 Speaker 1: Even that fawning nineteen ten biography can't make it seem 1133 01:00:18,560 --> 01:00:21,480 Speaker 1: like Leopold had a single funk for his family as 1134 01:00:21,560 --> 01:00:24,000 Speaker 1: King Leo, I'm gonna be honest, that's so far the 1135 01:00:24,000 --> 01:00:30,840 Speaker 1: most relatable thing about it, just not liking his family. 1136 01:00:31,280 --> 01:00:33,720 Speaker 1: As King, Leopold grew older and richer, he also became 1137 01:00:33,720 --> 01:00:36,440 Speaker 1: a full on hypochondriac. He took to wearing a waterproof 1138 01:00:36,480 --> 01:00:39,320 Speaker 1: bag around his gigantic beard whenever he went outside in 1139 01:00:39,360 --> 01:00:42,800 Speaker 1: the rain or when he swam. He required his palace 1140 01:00:42,840 --> 01:00:45,600 Speaker 1: tablecloths to be boiled every day to kill any germs, 1141 01:00:45,840 --> 01:00:48,520 Speaker 1: which is at least a character evolution from not letting 1142 01:00:48,600 --> 01:00:53,920 Speaker 1: them wash his sheets. Yeah, napkin, Um yeah for him, 1143 01:00:54,000 --> 01:00:57,080 Speaker 1: So he's changing, He's had his own little heroes journey. Yeah, yeah, 1144 01:00:57,120 --> 01:01:00,560 Speaker 1: we all get there. Yeah, hypochondria. Um. This wind up 1145 01:01:00,600 --> 01:01:03,320 Speaker 1: being another really really long one. There was just so 1146 01:01:03,400 --> 01:01:05,760 Speaker 1: much research, So um, this is gonna be a two 1147 01:01:05,800 --> 01:01:09,000 Speaker 1: parter podcast and the second part is going to drop 1148 01:01:09,000 --> 01:01:12,720 Speaker 1: on Thursday. Uh so we'll be getting into the rest 1149 01:01:12,720 --> 01:01:15,880 Speaker 1: of Leopold's story and the tremendously dark story of the Congo. 1150 01:01:16,040 --> 01:01:19,200 Speaker 1: So so stick around, check back out on Thursday. It's 1151 01:01:19,200 --> 01:01:21,360 Speaker 1: gonna be great. In the meantime, you can check out 1152 01:01:21,400 --> 01:01:24,560 Speaker 1: andrew ts podcasts This Racist. You can also check out 1153 01:01:24,560 --> 01:01:26,840 Speaker 1: every other episode of Behind the Bastards. You can find 1154 01:01:26,920 --> 01:01:30,160 Speaker 1: us on Twitter at Bastards Pod and Instagram as well. 1155 01:01:30,200 --> 01:01:32,360 Speaker 1: You can find us on the Internet at behind the 1156 01:01:32,400 --> 01:01:34,520 Speaker 1: Bastards dot com and you can find me on Twitter 1157 01:01:34,600 --> 01:01:37,840 Speaker 1: at I Right. Okay, so Andrew and I will be 1158 01:01:37,880 --> 01:01:40,880 Speaker 1: back on Thursday with more Leopold, so check us out then.