WEBVTT - Part One: King Leopold II: The First Modern Bastard 0:00:00.280 --> 0:00:03.480 Hello, friends, and welcome back to Behind the Bastards, the 0:00:03.480 --> 0:00:05.920 show where we tell you everything you don't know about 0:00:05.920 --> 0:00:08.400 the very worst people in history. On this show, we 0:00:08.480 --> 0:00:14.320 cover monsters like Adolf Hitler, Saddam Hussein, Eric, Prince Will Wheaton, 0:00:14.480 --> 0:00:18.200 and today's topic, King Leopold. But before we get to 0:00:18.280 --> 0:00:20.959 King Leopold, I'd like to introduce my guest for the week, 0:00:21.079 --> 0:00:24.239 Andrew T host of YO is this racist in general 0:00:24.239 --> 0:00:28.480 man about town? Hello Andrew, what's up? Well? Today we're 0:00:28.520 --> 0:00:32.519 talking about a little Belgian dude named Leopold. You've ever 0:00:32.520 --> 0:00:37.800 heard of King Leopold of Belgium. Uh? Not particularly King 0:00:37.880 --> 0:00:40.440 Leopold the Second, If that makes it. Yeah, I feel 0:00:40.440 --> 0:00:43.680 like the closest I'm gonna come is. I feel like 0:00:44.040 --> 0:00:46.600 at some point I got a box of fancy chocolates 0:00:46.600 --> 0:00:49.879 that might have had a Leopold. Maybe not the bad Leopold. 0:00:49.960 --> 0:00:53.880 I assume a good Leopold. This is not a good Leopold. Yeah, 0:00:54.760 --> 0:00:58.880 probably not this particularly Leopold. Yeah. Uh. Leopold the Second 0:00:58.920 --> 0:01:01.040 was King of Belgium once upon of time, and he was, 0:01:01.160 --> 0:01:03.400 in my opinion, the first world leader to be truly 0:01:03.440 --> 0:01:06.760 shitty in the modern sense of the word. Like like 0:01:06.760 --> 0:01:09.080 like the kind of shitty that like Putin and Trump 0:01:09.400 --> 0:01:12.560 right right right, so not right, we're discounting our Genghis 0:01:12.640 --> 0:01:16.000 Khans and yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, because Genghis Khan like 0:01:16.080 --> 0:01:18.080 did what he did, but he didn't have like a 0:01:18.080 --> 0:01:20.760 bunch of newspapers, did he. He was just like I'm 0:01:20.760 --> 0:01:22.720 gonna conquer some ship, right right right. This is the 0:01:22.720 --> 0:01:28.319 transition from barbarian bastards into media bastards exactly. And I 0:01:28.319 --> 0:01:31.280 think Leopold of Belgium is really where it happens in 0:01:31.319 --> 0:01:34.320 a modern like obviously other people had toyed with aspects 0:01:34.360 --> 0:01:37.360 of this. He really nailed it. Uh So King Leopold 0:01:37.360 --> 0:01:41.080 the Seconds dad was obviously King Leopold the First, uh 0:01:41.080 --> 0:01:43.279 and he was the first king of Belgium. Not obvious? 0:01:43.440 --> 0:01:46.000 Is that? Is it always like a like one piguets 0:01:46.080 --> 0:01:49.480 two or is it like a your grandfather was Leopold 0:01:49.480 --> 0:01:52.760 the first, I'm Gerald of Belgium, but you're gonna be 0:01:52.840 --> 0:01:55.559 Leopold too. I think that's more how it happens most 0:01:55.600 --> 0:01:59.200 of the time, not this time. This time, Leopold the 0:01:59.240 --> 0:02:02.160 First was like this went so well, yeah, we're gonna 0:02:02.200 --> 0:02:06.200 have at the second. Um so Leopold the First was 0:02:06.280 --> 0:02:09.040 like the again, the very first king of Belgium at all, 0:02:09.080 --> 0:02:10.880 because Belgium had just been made a thing in the 0:02:10.919 --> 0:02:14.160 wake from the Napoleonic Wars. So during the whole fighting 0:02:14.240 --> 0:02:16.840 between Napoleon and everyone else in Europe, Belgium was generally 0:02:16.880 --> 0:02:20.000 the battleground, where like the everyone would sort of duke 0:02:20.040 --> 0:02:22.040 it out between the Germans and the French and the 0:02:22.080 --> 0:02:25.760 French and everybody else. Yet Waterloo was in Belgium. So 0:02:25.840 --> 0:02:28.919 after Napoleon's but gets kicked, the European powers who win 0:02:28.960 --> 0:02:32.359 are like, okay, we can't have France and Germany fighting 0:02:32.440 --> 0:02:36.000 over Belgium forever. We're gonna make it its own thing. 0:02:37.240 --> 0:02:39.040 And since it was going to be a new country, 0:02:39.200 --> 0:02:43.840 obviously it needed a king um so they Leopold the 0:02:43.840 --> 0:02:45.840 First got the job because he was a German prince 0:02:45.960 --> 0:02:49.040 who didn't have a kingdom of his own, okay, so 0:02:49.240 --> 0:02:51.720 it was just like split off, right, this is like 0:02:52.040 --> 0:02:54.480 we're going to give Megan Marcole Whales or whatever or 0:02:54.720 --> 0:02:57.079 part of Wales. Yeah, part of Whales, yeah, yeah, it's 0:02:57.080 --> 0:02:58.919 that exactly that sort of thing. They actually tried him 0:02:58.919 --> 0:03:01.080 out to be king of Greece first, but he didn't like, 0:03:01.240 --> 0:03:05.919 didn't fit for whatever. Yeah, that's an option. We're gonna 0:03:05.960 --> 0:03:08.760 find you with something, buddy, don't worry leap. Oh my god, 0:03:08.800 --> 0:03:11.640 I'm gonna put you in a kingdom. Greece isn't the 0:03:11.720 --> 0:03:14.880 right one. Yeah, of course you try a starter kingdom. 0:03:14.919 --> 0:03:18.799 Everyone has a kingdom to start. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, Greece 0:03:18.880 --> 0:03:23.680 was his unsold pilot. Yeah. Um. And he was, by 0:03:23.800 --> 0:03:26.160 all accounts, a pretty good king of Belgium if you're 0:03:26.200 --> 0:03:30.079 into that sort of thing. Yeah. Um, waffles, waffles and 0:03:30.160 --> 0:03:36.440 chocolate and pocolate, getting by beer, yeah, great beer, getting 0:03:36.880 --> 0:03:39.760 jammed by the Germs, great beer. Great at getting jammed 0:03:39.800 --> 0:03:43.160 by the Germans. That's Belgium in a nutshell. Um. But yeah, 0:03:43.200 --> 0:03:45.360 he was a good king. While he was king. Midway 0:03:45.400 --> 0:03:47.440 through his reign in eighteen forty eight, there was like 0:03:47.480 --> 0:03:49.840 this big year of revolutions all across Europe, and all 0:03:49.840 --> 0:03:53.160 these European countries had their monarchs overthrown except for Belgium. 0:03:53.200 --> 0:03:56.760 So he's the Christian spring we call that, Yes, the 0:03:56.800 --> 0:04:01.640 white white Man's springs, that's the lad three hundred years. 0:04:02.720 --> 0:04:04.920 What a time, what a time for the whites, given 0:04:05.000 --> 0:04:09.440 up for the whites. Yeah um so Leopold the first 0:04:09.560 --> 0:04:12.960 solid King. I've got two main sources for today's podcast, 0:04:13.000 --> 0:04:15.120 which I shouldn't note now. The first is a biography 0:04:15.160 --> 0:04:18.000 called Leopold, the Second King of Belgium. Uh. It's a 0:04:18.040 --> 0:04:22.040 pro monarchist book that was written in nineteen ten um. 0:04:22.080 --> 0:04:24.800 The article is critical about Leopold sometimes, but he thinks 0:04:24.800 --> 0:04:26.480 he was like a great king and he thinks kings 0:04:26.480 --> 0:04:28.720 are a good idea. So it's an interesting book because 0:04:28.720 --> 0:04:31.520 it gives you an idea of how Leopold himself would 0:04:31.520 --> 0:04:34.120 sort of present himself and defend himself and let you 0:04:34.160 --> 0:04:36.200 know what the propaganda at the time was well, and 0:04:36.279 --> 0:04:40.320 also write just critical enough to be legitimate. Well, no, no, 0:04:40.720 --> 0:04:43.839 it's totally I guess for the time it wasn't bad. 0:04:44.160 --> 0:04:46.560 What I mean is the you put it in just 0:04:46.600 --> 0:04:51.480 the faintest of criticism to give the exactly you know, yeah, 0:04:51.880 --> 0:04:54.560 this is a real investigation. Yeah, it's like the monarch's 0:04:54.600 --> 0:04:58.480 equivalent of one of those like celebrity biographies out of 0:04:58.720 --> 0:05:03.120 Ben Affleck or whatever. Yeah. Yeah, the Heraldo Interview of 0:05:03.720 --> 0:05:06.680 books exactly right, exactly. And then the other book is 0:05:06.720 --> 0:05:09.279 a book called King Leopold's Ghost by Adam hosh Child, 0:05:09.360 --> 0:05:12.560 which takes the stance that Leopold was one of history's 0:05:12.600 --> 0:05:15.440 great monsters. Anyway, So these are these are most of 0:05:15.480 --> 0:05:17.679 what I come from, a sort of the contrasting views 0:05:17.720 --> 0:05:20.200 that these two books. Person, you read two books for 0:05:20.240 --> 0:05:24.960 a podcast, Get out of your mind. Come on, there's 0:05:24.960 --> 0:05:28.360 a lot to dig into here, and there's not a lot. 0:05:28.440 --> 0:05:30.600 You're making me feel real bad. I'm like, usually good 0:05:30.640 --> 0:05:34.279 for half a Wikipedia article. Holy sh it, well this 0:05:34.360 --> 0:05:38.599 is at least the equivalent of like four Wikipedia articles. Jeez, 0:05:38.680 --> 0:05:43.039 go ahead, alright. So Leopold the seconds Mom Louise was 0:05:43.160 --> 0:05:45.960 almost a love match is the term the book uses 0:05:46.120 --> 0:05:48.960 for his dad, the King Um And it says this 0:05:49.160 --> 0:05:52.080 because the king was already in love with her before 0:05:52.080 --> 0:05:56.800 they get married. That makes it a love match. He 0:05:56.920 --> 0:06:00.280 liked her when she was fourteen, so it's love. Yeah, 0:06:01.480 --> 0:06:04.160 there were hell of it, and she had the right land. 0:06:06.200 --> 0:06:08.240 She had some nice land. I'm related to the right 0:06:08.360 --> 0:06:11.000 enemies she was with I think from the Orleone family, 0:06:11.080 --> 0:06:14.800 so she was like she had some solid ass royal pedigree. 0:06:15.640 --> 0:06:18.440 You know, you get some German from King Leopold the first, 0:06:18.520 --> 0:06:20.520 you get a little bit of French from his wife 0:06:20.560 --> 0:06:22.360 and then their baby is sort of a mix. So 0:06:22.440 --> 0:06:25.800 maybe Germany and France won't fight over belgimin what a 0:06:25.880 --> 0:06:30.200 brave Yeah, didn't war? Yeah. So Leopold the second was 0:06:30.279 --> 0:06:34.359 born Leopold Louis Philippe Mary Victor. Uh, and he was 0:06:34.400 --> 0:06:37.360 his parents second child. His older brother died eleven months 0:06:37.360 --> 0:06:40.440 before he was born. Um, so if you think about 0:06:40.440 --> 0:06:43.919 that timeline a lot, it's not very fun. Because Leopold's 0:06:43.920 --> 0:06:48.360 older brothers born, he dies eleven months later, they pop 0:06:48.400 --> 0:06:51.760 out another son, Yeah, immediately, immediately, not a lot of 0:06:51.839 --> 0:06:55.520 morning time, or maybe they just kind of, you know, 0:06:55.560 --> 0:07:01.000 fun the pain away. But yeah, yeah, that's probably would happened. 0:07:01.080 --> 0:07:04.160 That's the optimistic look. Um. Alright, So at age five, 0:07:04.240 --> 0:07:07.159 Leopold's father declared him Duke of Brabant, which is how 0:07:07.200 --> 0:07:09.800 he was addressed right up until his coronation. Uh he 0:07:10.280 --> 0:07:13.400 said five, age five, Yeah, age five, Yeah you can 0:07:13.480 --> 0:07:15.200 you'll have to be a duke at age five. And 0:07:15.240 --> 0:07:18.400 he looks he looks like he looks like people in 0:07:18.440 --> 0:07:21.040 this pretty little duke. We'll have the pictures up on 0:07:21.040 --> 0:07:24.200 our website. He has no chin um and a kind 0:07:24.200 --> 0:07:26.400 of a lopsided face. But maybe that's just the painting 0:07:26.480 --> 0:07:29.080 looks a little bit like a ghost, like a human ghost. 0:07:29.240 --> 0:07:32.800 It looks like the painting of a ghost that you 0:07:32.840 --> 0:07:35.360 find in the basement of an old house. And then 0:07:35.640 --> 0:07:38.160 like there's a rush of wind and the camera falls over, 0:07:38.280 --> 0:07:41.200 and like your friend gets mauled by a spirit. Yeah, 0:07:41.360 --> 0:07:45.760 and that's this guy's selfie essentially. Yeah, that's this guy's like, 0:07:45.840 --> 0:07:47.520 this is the image we want to put out into 0:07:47.520 --> 0:07:50.880 the world. Yeah, this was like hanging in palaces. So 0:07:50.960 --> 0:07:53.360 he looks like a creeper from day a little spooky boy, 0:07:53.440 --> 0:07:57.240 but he's still a baby. Um. So, the biography notes 0:07:57.280 --> 0:07:59.720 that Leopold and his siblings were brought up in quote 0:07:59.760 --> 0:08:02.560 the simplest manner and taught to behave as if they 0:08:02.560 --> 0:08:05.960 were normal citizens rather than noryalty. That sounds great until 0:08:05.960 --> 0:08:09.000 you get to the next part quote. The king further 0:08:09.080 --> 0:08:11.520 expressed the wish to develop in the children the sentiment 0:08:11.560 --> 0:08:13.360 of duty and not to allow them to have an 0:08:13.360 --> 0:08:15.680 opinion of their own with regard to their duties and 0:08:15.680 --> 0:08:19.960 their studies. Um. Basically, the king was trying to crush 0:08:19.960 --> 0:08:21.960 the individuality of his kids so that they would just 0:08:22.000 --> 0:08:25.600 fit the role of king. That's kind of yeah, good 0:08:25.720 --> 0:08:28.400 actually is it in that? Well what else are you 0:08:28.400 --> 0:08:31.680 gonna do? Because I got to do this dumb job? Well, 0:08:31.720 --> 0:08:33.880 I mean you could try to make them be healthy, 0:08:33.880 --> 0:08:36.719 fully formed people. Yeah, but why then they got to 0:08:36.760 --> 0:08:40.360 be king? Yeah? Well okay, that's fair. I mean you 0:08:40.440 --> 0:08:43.440 were taking Leopold the first side. Yeah, well he's the 0:08:43.440 --> 0:08:46.320 good one again, I'm probably this chocolate. Um No, but right, 0:08:46.400 --> 0:08:49.960 isn't that the he's He's he's just as trapped as 0:08:50.000 --> 0:08:53.280 everyone else, you know, Yes, so if he's got to 0:08:53.280 --> 0:08:54.720 do this thing, you might as well make it so 0:08:54.880 --> 0:08:57.600 he can do this thing. Okay, So you're expressing some 0:08:57.640 --> 0:09:00.520 motivation maybe two, why you would do this, why you 0:09:00.520 --> 0:09:02.559 would do what he winds up doing, and you don't 0:09:02.600 --> 0:09:05.920 even know what he winds up doing do? Yeah? What 0:09:05.960 --> 0:09:08.319 did I just defend? We are still? Let me just 0:09:08.360 --> 0:09:10.960 say right now, whatever he does, I stand behind it. Well, 0:09:11.360 --> 0:09:14.559 he kills about ten to fifteen million people. Yeah, it's fine. Okay, 0:09:14.679 --> 0:09:20.040 Well what's it? Um? So when Leopold is fifteen, his 0:09:20.080 --> 0:09:22.079 mom dies of some illness or another. It's one of 0:09:22.120 --> 0:09:24.280 those things where the writers at the time aren't specific. 0:09:24.320 --> 0:09:27.280 They're just like she took ill and was secret and 0:09:27.280 --> 0:09:29.640 then she and then she dies, Like, yeah, it's probably 0:09:29.679 --> 0:09:33.440 dip theoria or some weird named the flue disease. Yeah, 0:09:34.280 --> 0:09:36.120 would be a big deal, I guess. I mean it's 0:09:36.160 --> 0:09:41.320 probably as a flu like that killed everybody back then. Um. Yeah. 0:09:41.360 --> 0:09:45.680 And King Leopold's ghost, Adam hosh Child, describes Leopold's childhood 0:09:45.720 --> 0:09:49.199 as being kind of stark and cold. Quote, if Leopold 0:09:49.240 --> 0:09:50.920 wanted to see his father, he had to apply for 0:09:50.960 --> 0:09:53.120 an audience. When the father had something to tell the same, 0:09:53.240 --> 0:09:56.000 he communicated it through one of his secretaries. I mean, look, 0:09:56.040 --> 0:10:02.920 this is not just uh eighteenth century arrested element. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, 0:10:02.920 --> 0:10:05.320 that's kind of kind of what's going on. Like, he 0:10:05.360 --> 0:10:09.240 definitely has a buster Bluth vibe to him. Um again, 0:10:09.400 --> 0:10:13.160 especially once you see this fucking painting, you'll get it audience. 0:10:13.360 --> 0:10:15.640 The biography that was written at the time says that 0:10:15.720 --> 0:10:17.439 it is worthy of note that the late king never 0:10:17.520 --> 0:10:20.400 had any comrades or playmates. His childhood was passed among 0:10:20.440 --> 0:10:23.640 his teachers and tutors, and the disciplinarian father made even 0:10:23.640 --> 0:10:26.040 more the relationship with his brother and sister a very 0:10:26.080 --> 0:10:30.120 formal one, frank childish gaiety and brotherly expansion and confidence 0:10:30.120 --> 0:10:34.280 were banished. The princess thoughts thus became concentrated upon himself 0:10:34.440 --> 0:10:37.880 and his natural activity and vitality, his exuberant strength were 0:10:37.880 --> 0:10:41.760 expended on work and study. Tight yeah about it, No, friends, 0:10:41.800 --> 0:10:47.600 does nothing but work. Yeah, he's a duke. Yeah, I 0:10:47.600 --> 0:10:49.640 mean he's already achieved a lot. I mean he has 0:10:49.720 --> 0:10:52.640 kind of a boss baby. Yeah, just throwing that out there. 0:10:53.400 --> 0:10:56.120 So he grows up, He serves in the Belgian military, 0:10:56.160 --> 0:10:59.679 he apparently does okay. By his early twenties, Leopold becomes 0:10:59.720 --> 0:11:02.080 an fluential figure in Belgian politics. You know, he's the 0:11:02.120 --> 0:11:04.120 crown prince. Everyone who's going to wind him being king? 0:11:05.200 --> 0:11:07.199 And he kind of looks a little like Adam Driver. 0:11:08.720 --> 0:11:12.560 He yeah, he looks here, he looks like a anime 0:11:12.720 --> 0:11:15.920 Adam Driver. Yeah. Yeah, that's who you would cast his 0:11:16.000 --> 0:11:19.960 anime Adam Drive. Yeah yeah in the movie. So Um. 0:11:20.120 --> 0:11:22.560 Like many rich young people, he traveled far and wide 0:11:22.559 --> 0:11:24.559 in his early twenties. He went all throughout the Middle East, 0:11:24.640 --> 0:11:28.040 North Africa, parts of Asia. But he was not traveling 0:11:28.080 --> 0:11:31.920 for his enjoyment. Uh, he was basically traveling. The biography, 0:11:31.920 --> 0:11:34.600 he says, it's like a commercial employee. So he was 0:11:34.679 --> 0:11:38.080 essentially looking for financial opportunities for Belgium because this is 0:11:38.120 --> 0:11:41.880 the period when all of Europe is colonizing the entire world. 0:11:42.960 --> 0:11:45.720 Belgian doesn't have a colony. So he's traveling all around 0:11:45.720 --> 0:11:48.240 the Middle East and Asia basically being like what can 0:11:48.720 --> 0:11:51.760 who's yeah, who's like can we take? Yeah? Yeah, what 0:11:51.840 --> 0:11:55.040 can we get? Does this hop ahead to the Congo? Oh? Yes, 0:11:55.080 --> 0:11:57.520 oh nice, Yeah, that's where we're headed. Tight, Okay, how 0:11:57.520 --> 0:11:59.560 do I know that tiny bit of history. It's one 0:11:59.600 --> 0:12:01.719 of those things that drops in every now and then 0:12:01.760 --> 0:12:04.440 you'll hear like, oh, yeah, the Belgium's did something bad 0:12:04.480 --> 0:12:06.719 in the Congo, but you don't ever get I don't 0:12:06.760 --> 0:12:09.400 know any details story. In fact, I probably no more 0:12:09.440 --> 0:12:14.080 plot points from Michael Crichton's The Congo than than realities 0:12:14.160 --> 0:12:17.800 the Congo. Yes, I mean there's unconfirmed reports that he 0:12:17.800 --> 0:12:19.760 he tried to find the lost city of Zinch but 0:12:19.840 --> 0:12:25.760 no great movie. Is that what what they were doing there? Yeah? Yeah, 0:12:25.760 --> 0:12:27.959 they're trying to find diamonds. That a monkey there's a 0:12:28.000 --> 0:12:32.360 monkey city. Yeah, find diamonds and monkeys were evil. Yeah, 0:12:32.480 --> 0:12:36.560 that's more what I remember. Solid to bed. There's a laser. 0:12:37.120 --> 0:12:40.280 There is a laser. There's definitely a laser in that movie. Man, 0:12:40.440 --> 0:12:44.040 what a weird it's a ride, Michael, We're still watching 0:12:44.040 --> 0:12:48.840 his bullshit. I can't believe West World. Yeah, um okay, 0:12:49.160 --> 0:12:52.679 So Prince Leopold, one of his favorite books as he's 0:12:52.679 --> 0:12:54.880 a young man studying trying to find a new colony 0:12:54.920 --> 0:12:57.960 for Belgium is a book about the Dutch East Indies 0:12:58.080 --> 0:13:03.600 called Java, How to Manage Your Colony. Uh yeah, why 0:13:03.640 --> 0:13:05.959 would you? Oh my god, I mean, I guess that's 0:13:05.960 --> 0:13:08.000 why you have to tell people your favorite book is. 0:13:08.720 --> 0:13:12.520 But yeah, that's well, no, I mean, because so the 0:13:12.559 --> 0:13:15.439 book is all about how the Dutch colonized the island 0:13:15.440 --> 0:13:17.560 of Java and how they got a shipload of coffee 0:13:17.559 --> 0:13:20.520 and sugar and like dies and tobacco and it it 0:13:20.679 --> 0:13:23.120 made basically made so much money that they were able 0:13:23.120 --> 0:13:26.880 to buy a bunch of railroads and canals back in Holland. Um, so, 0:13:27.320 --> 0:13:29.400 like the book is all about that. So so it 0:13:29.679 --> 0:13:32.880 outlines sort of how they were able to monetize Java 0:13:32.960 --> 0:13:34.920 so well, and like it talks about how the king 0:13:35.520 --> 0:13:38.280 basically brought in a bunch of private companies and became 0:13:38.360 --> 0:13:40.560 a major shareholder in those companies and it was the 0:13:40.600 --> 0:13:44.319 company's job to farm the land and to produce the resources, 0:13:44.320 --> 0:13:46.360 and they export them to Belgium. So the king didn't 0:13:46.400 --> 0:13:49.959 have to send Dutch government workers over and do anything. 0:13:50.000 --> 0:13:53.240 The king just said, I own Java corporations. Come in, 0:13:53.360 --> 0:13:56.000 give me a steak in your profits, and do whatever 0:13:56.040 --> 0:13:58.680 you want. I think it's just cool to have political 0:13:58.760 --> 0:14:02.040 leaders also owned corporates. That has never been a problem 0:14:02.080 --> 0:14:04.079 and never will be a problem. No, it seems to 0:14:04.120 --> 0:14:06.600 always work out great. Um. It seems to work out 0:14:06.600 --> 0:14:10.120 great percent of the time. Um. The book also did 0:14:10.200 --> 0:14:12.480 note that the Dutch prophets in Java would have been 0:14:12.480 --> 0:14:15.320 impossible without a huge amount of forced labor. Uh. And 0:14:15.679 --> 0:14:18.439 young Prince Leopold agreed with this and said that forced 0:14:18.480 --> 0:14:21.320 labor was quote the only way to civilize and uplift 0:14:21.360 --> 0:14:24.680 these indolent and corrupt peoples of the far East. Yeah, yeah, 0:14:25.040 --> 0:14:28.000 he ain't wrong. Go ahead, what else? What else? God thought? 0:14:28.040 --> 0:14:31.720 You said this guy was bad? Alright? Uh? So late 0:14:31.720 --> 0:14:33.480 in his dukedom, you know, a few years before he 0:14:33.520 --> 0:14:36.000 becomes king, Leopold gets in front of Belgium Senate and 0:14:36.040 --> 0:14:38.800 he urges them to take up foreign colonies. So they 0:14:38.880 --> 0:14:43.280 got a king and a senate. Yeah, that work so basically, 0:14:43.320 --> 0:14:46.040 the King of Belgium is kind of a ceremonial figure. 0:14:46.080 --> 0:14:48.080 He's got he's got more power than like the Queen 0:14:48.120 --> 0:14:50.720 in England has today. It's heading towards, but it's heading 0:14:50.760 --> 0:14:53.800 towards that. There's no formal power, lots of soft power, 0:14:54.040 --> 0:14:56.360 lots of soft power in a little bit of formal power. 0:14:56.800 --> 0:14:59.600 But um, you can't do things as the king like 0:15:00.040 --> 0:15:03.480 us make colonies. M you can't do things as the 0:15:03.560 --> 0:15:07.560 king likes in the army places. Um. And so Leopold's 0:15:07.640 --> 0:15:10.160 dad seems to be okay with that. But Leopold the 0:15:10.200 --> 0:15:13.120 second is growing up chopping at the bent to do 0:15:13.240 --> 0:15:15.800 ship and doesn't want to become a monarch who just 0:15:15.840 --> 0:15:18.760 waves at the crowd. Um, why not. So he gets 0:15:18.840 --> 0:15:20.800 up in front of the Senate and he says, quote, 0:15:21.000 --> 0:15:24.320 I am profoundly convinced of our vast resources, and I 0:15:24.360 --> 0:15:27.520 passionately wish that my beautiful country would show the necessary 0:15:27.560 --> 0:15:30.320 pluck to derive all the benefit which, in my opinion, 0:15:30.360 --> 0:15:32.680 it can derive. I think that the moment for our 0:15:32.720 --> 0:15:36.280 expansion abroad has arrived. We must not lose time. Otherwise, 0:15:36.320 --> 0:15:38.760 the best positions in markets which are becoming more rare. 0:15:38.800 --> 0:15:42.520 Every day will be occupied by nations more enterprising than ourselves. 0:15:43.200 --> 0:15:45.520 And when he talks about positions in markets, he's talking 0:15:45.520 --> 0:15:49.080 about whole countries and stuff. I mean, millions of people. 0:15:49.320 --> 0:15:54.880 It's more chilling in the original Flemmish. Yeah yeah, yeah, nailed. 0:15:54.880 --> 0:15:57.440 But although he probably would have been speaking just French 0:15:57.640 --> 0:16:04.920 for alright, so well you can say, you can say 0:16:05.000 --> 0:16:07.720 Walloon if you want. I'm getting what is that. That's 0:16:07.760 --> 0:16:11.160 the other group of people. There's Belgium is made up 0:16:11.160 --> 0:16:14.760 of Flemish people and Walloons. Yeah, the wall Unatics, of course, 0:16:15.000 --> 0:16:17.080 band aid on their face. We got it. It's a 0:16:17.160 --> 0:16:19.920 rough name to grow into the world stage taking on. 0:16:20.800 --> 0:16:24.840 Uh well, you know, you gotta get you get enough rifles, 0:16:24.840 --> 0:16:28.440 get enough cutlasses, everything starts to make sense. I don't 0:16:28.440 --> 0:16:30.480 feel like it does. I feel like Germany was so 0:16:30.600 --> 0:16:34.360 fierce in part because German is like, that's like an name, 0:16:34.440 --> 0:16:37.880 like the Germans are coming. Imagine if if the name 0:16:37.920 --> 0:16:40.440 got switched and the Belgians were called the Germans, and 0:16:40.480 --> 0:16:42.960 like the Nazis had tried to invade and everyone was like, oh, 0:16:43.000 --> 0:16:46.480 the Walloons are invading. Yeah, that's not gonna go. Yeah, yeah, 0:16:46.800 --> 0:16:51.520 Well listen let's boot up a risk game. We'll figure 0:16:51.520 --> 0:16:57.880 it out, all right. Um so, yeah, Leopold, the first Leopold, 0:16:57.880 --> 0:17:00.600 the seconds Dad died in December of eighteen sixty five, 0:17:00.680 --> 0:17:03.360 the same year the American Civil War ended. Leopold is 0:17:03.400 --> 0:17:06.600 now with the king and thirty years old. Uh. This 0:17:06.680 --> 0:17:08.720 appears to be the point when he decided to grow 0:17:08.720 --> 0:17:12.400 a gigantic mountain man beard tight, which he would maintain 0:17:12.480 --> 0:17:16.080 for the rest of his Yeah. Well, there's a lot 0:17:16.080 --> 0:17:18.280 of pictures of Leopold with a beard. Will post him 0:17:18.280 --> 0:17:21.440 on the site. Some of them look uncomfortably like me. 0:17:21.880 --> 0:17:24.840 Some of them are clear missteps in the beard growing process, 0:17:24.840 --> 0:17:27.439 where he's got like gigantic mutton chops and it's he 0:17:27.520 --> 0:17:31.000 looks like a fucking hair octopus style of the time. Yeah, 0:17:31.320 --> 0:17:35.560 he he went through some rough patches in his sartorial history, 0:17:35.600 --> 0:17:38.680 for sure. That's pretty that's get any easy kind of 0:17:39.240 --> 0:17:43.359 we're looking at Yeah, that's a rough picture and almost 0:17:43.359 --> 0:17:46.040 he's almost wearing bell bottoms in that picture. Hey, it's 0:17:46.080 --> 0:17:52.920 the sixties. It is the eighteen sixties. Boom alright. Uh so, yeah, 0:17:53.000 --> 0:17:55.440 Leopold the King of Belgium. He's super frustrated because the 0:17:55.480 --> 0:17:58.119 King doesn't have that much in the way of power. Uh. 0:17:58.240 --> 0:18:02.600 Leopold takes two sort of bocking the restrained role that 0:18:02.640 --> 0:18:05.080 he has in Belgian politics. There's a story of like 0:18:05.160 --> 0:18:07.879 this guy who came to visit him, uh, because like, 0:18:07.960 --> 0:18:09.840 you know, the King's got a visit with like his 0:18:09.920 --> 0:18:12.920 donors and benefactors and whatnot. And this guy complains about 0:18:12.960 --> 0:18:15.240 the poor state of the roads around his property, and 0:18:15.320 --> 0:18:17.520 Leopold interrupts him and says, I have no authority to 0:18:17.640 --> 0:18:19.840 change the roads. You ought to address yourself to the press, 0:18:19.960 --> 0:18:22.560 especially to the small papers. The municipality and the government 0:18:22.560 --> 0:18:25.359 will do anything they ask. So he was like, he 0:18:25.840 --> 0:18:28.720 was like making that point. I'm frustrated that, like I 0:18:28.760 --> 0:18:31.040 can't do anything, so I'm just kinda like to take 0:18:31.080 --> 0:18:35.800 it to the press. King is not allowed to do anything. Um. 0:18:35.920 --> 0:18:38.600 He sort of set to work making himself into kind 0:18:38.640 --> 0:18:40.480 of an image for the Belgian people. He was the 0:18:40.520 --> 0:18:43.520 aristocratic equivalent of an alpha male. Uh. He spent a 0:18:43.520 --> 0:18:46.879 lot of time doing science work and and and you know, 0:18:47.119 --> 0:18:50.880 supporting the arts and sciences. Nineteenth century science is just 0:18:50.960 --> 0:18:53.960 like beakers of lead and ship He's he's pouring colored 0:18:53.960 --> 0:18:57.199 water into bakers. He's got goggles on, you know, you 0:18:57.240 --> 0:18:59.960 know how that goes. Yeah, there's a quote from his 0:19:00.000 --> 0:19:02.760 biography that says he used to sleep in a camp 0:19:02.760 --> 0:19:05.399 bed so like a military cot, and had a general 0:19:05.440 --> 0:19:08.200 horror of everything that could innervate or render him a feminate. 0:19:08.720 --> 0:19:12.640 So he's kind of like he's a proud boy. Yeah, 0:19:12.840 --> 0:19:17.040 that's what they call people who aren't racist soy boys. 0:19:17.119 --> 0:19:22.480 Is that right? Yeah, because eating soy feminizes you again, Yeah, 0:19:22.520 --> 0:19:26.320 that's what the that's all right thing? Yeah, um, hey, 0:19:26.400 --> 0:19:28.840 well at least we know that they have a nice 0:19:28.920 --> 0:19:32.080 historical antisy. Leopold would have been all about that stuff. 0:19:32.160 --> 0:19:35.000 So he's he's growing a giant, weird beard, he's sleeping 0:19:35.000 --> 0:19:38.920 in a palace in a military cot. He's scared of girls. Uh, 0:19:38.920 --> 0:19:43.240 he hates spending money. His biography says, quote his pocket 0:19:43.240 --> 0:19:46.800 handkerchief was only renewed on Sunday mornings when going to Mass, 0:19:46.800 --> 0:19:49.040 and on no account would he take another in the interval. 0:19:49.200 --> 0:19:51.840 If his valet's changed his towels more than once a week, 0:19:51.880 --> 0:19:54.639 they were sure to receive a good scolding from his majesty. 0:19:54.920 --> 0:19:58.840 What So he's like a gross miser, Yeah, don't clean 0:19:58.880 --> 0:20:01.399 those tells which one of those wasn't one of the 0:20:01.440 --> 0:20:03.840 all right guys living in their mom's basement. I think 0:20:03.920 --> 0:20:09.040 most of them are definitely Yeah, yeah that guy. Yeah, 0:20:09.119 --> 0:20:12.560 rouche Vie, the pickup artist guy that was found living 0:20:12.560 --> 0:20:16.240 in his mom's basement. Literally, that's what this guy was. 0:20:16.720 --> 0:20:20.080 Leopold was missing. Yeah, yeah, I guess the Beard. The 0:20:20.119 --> 0:20:23.520 Beard experiment clearly on that factor. His mom died young, 0:20:23.600 --> 0:20:27.720 so he became a king. Yeah yeah, instead, okay, called 0:20:27.760 --> 0:20:33.359 peacocking everyone. How you interact women the kingdom? Yeah, I 0:20:33.359 --> 0:20:39.240 mean having a castle is pretty solid peacocking Yeah, undeniable. Yeah. 0:20:39.320 --> 0:20:42.159 Leopold the Second was noted in his biography, is the 0:20:42.160 --> 0:20:45.000 first king to treat his kingship as a corporate endeavor. 0:20:45.080 --> 0:20:47.879 His primary concern was making money, not for Belgium, but 0:20:47.920 --> 0:20:52.000 for himself. It was all about the bottom line. Um. 0:20:52.040 --> 0:20:56.359 So there's um Like when you talk about dictators and 0:20:56.400 --> 0:20:59.760 warlords and terrorists, there's like a tendency to call them 0:20:59.760 --> 0:21:04.000 side paths and sociopaths. Sociopath is like an actual medical diagnosis. 0:21:04.000 --> 0:21:07.080 And I don't think guys like Hitler or Stalin really 0:21:07.119 --> 0:21:09.760 fit it, um because they all had histories of like 0:21:09.840 --> 0:21:12.720 warm family life and like people who cared about them 0:21:12.720 --> 0:21:16.640 and people that they like sacrificed for. At times, Leopold 0:21:16.760 --> 0:21:20.720 might have been a straight up like yeah, because that's 0:21:20.760 --> 0:21:23.240 that's that's what they say, right, is like so many 0:21:23.920 --> 0:21:30.280 CEOs and fortune fid uh whatever. Then there corporately like 0:21:30.720 --> 0:21:34.720 psychopathic traits. Yeah. Even his positive biography says that while 0:21:34.760 --> 0:21:37.520 he was charming, he was quote devoid of enthusiasm and 0:21:37.640 --> 0:21:41.040 set himself and was quite incapable of arousing any and others. 0:21:41.040 --> 0:21:46.040 So he just can't unctually touch people's heart. He can't 0:21:46.160 --> 0:21:51.600 motivate people. Um, so, yeah, we're gonna get more into 0:21:52.320 --> 0:21:55.720