1 00:00:01,480 --> 00:00:04,240 Speaker 1: Hello friends, I'm Robert Evans, and this is Behind the Bastards, 2 00:00:04,280 --> 00:00:05,920 Speaker 1: the show where we tell you everything you don't know 3 00:00:06,000 --> 00:00:08,360 Speaker 1: about the very worst people in history. And this is 4 00:00:08,440 --> 00:00:11,320 Speaker 1: part two of our episode on Leopold, the second King 5 00:00:11,360 --> 00:00:14,480 Speaker 1: of Belgium. In part one we sort of went over 6 00:00:14,520 --> 00:00:17,880 Speaker 1: how Leopold conned his way into becoming king of the Congo, 7 00:00:18,640 --> 00:00:21,480 Speaker 1: how he tricked the locals into signing over their rights 8 00:00:21,560 --> 00:00:24,800 Speaker 1: to their land, and how he conscripted thousands of them 9 00:00:24,840 --> 00:00:28,080 Speaker 1: into a slave army. Uh So, now we're going to 10 00:00:28,120 --> 00:00:31,400 Speaker 1: get back into all that and the rest of the terrible, 11 00:00:31,480 --> 00:00:34,479 Speaker 1: terrible story of the Belgian Congo. So the first five 12 00:00:34,560 --> 00:00:36,760 Speaker 1: or so years of the Congo project or great for Leopold. 13 00:00:36,760 --> 00:00:38,800 Speaker 1: He's in total control, richer than God, and most of 14 00:00:38,800 --> 00:00:41,760 Speaker 1: Europe still believes he's improving a lot of the Congolese people. 15 00:00:42,120 --> 00:00:45,000 Speaker 1: But in around eighteen ninety, a black journalist named Colonel 16 00:00:45,120 --> 00:00:48,680 Speaker 1: and he's not really a colonel, George Washington Williams saw 17 00:00:48,720 --> 00:00:51,160 Speaker 1: the actual Congo. So he didn't like take the tour 18 00:00:51,280 --> 00:00:53,360 Speaker 1: where you get led through the nice parts of the 19 00:00:53,400 --> 00:00:55,560 Speaker 1: Congo like he He went on foot and he got 20 00:00:55,600 --> 00:00:58,880 Speaker 1: in there and he saw the fucking nightmare that Leopold 21 00:00:58,920 --> 00:01:01,520 Speaker 1: had built. And he wrote an article called an open 22 00:01:01,600 --> 00:01:04,480 Speaker 1: Letter to King Leopold uh and it was the first 23 00:01:04,480 --> 00:01:09,000 Speaker 1: expos of Leopold's blood soak rubber regime. UM William's document 24 00:01:09,080 --> 00:01:11,319 Speaker 1: is remarkable because he's basically the only person up to 25 00:01:11,360 --> 00:01:14,000 Speaker 1: that point who actually sat down with African people and 26 00:01:14,040 --> 00:01:16,399 Speaker 1: asked them what was going on in the Congo. He 27 00:01:16,480 --> 00:01:18,800 Speaker 1: retraced a lot of Stanley's right along the Congo and 28 00:01:18,840 --> 00:01:20,440 Speaker 1: actually talked to some of the people who had signed 29 00:01:20,480 --> 00:01:23,039 Speaker 1: treaties giving their land to Leopold. He learned that a 30 00:01:23,080 --> 00:01:25,400 Speaker 1: great number of chiefs had been tricked into signing things 31 00:01:25,400 --> 00:01:28,039 Speaker 1: with magic tricks. Um. One of the tricks was that, 32 00:01:28,160 --> 00:01:31,160 Speaker 1: like Stanley, had bought a bunch of electric batteries in London, 33 00:01:31,560 --> 00:01:34,680 Speaker 1: and when quote when attached to the arm under the coat, 34 00:01:34,760 --> 00:01:37,240 Speaker 1: communicated with a band of ribbon which passed over the 35 00:01:37,280 --> 00:01:39,680 Speaker 1: palm of the white brother's hand, And when he gave 36 00:01:39,720 --> 00:01:42,240 Speaker 1: the black brother a cordial grasp of the hand, the 37 00:01:42,280 --> 00:01:44,840 Speaker 1: black brother was greatly surprised to find his white brother 38 00:01:44,959 --> 00:01:47,680 Speaker 1: was so strong that he nearly knocked him off his feet. 39 00:01:48,200 --> 00:01:50,760 Speaker 1: When the native inquired about the disparity of strength between 40 00:01:50,800 --> 00:01:52,480 Speaker 1: himself and his white brother. He was told that the 41 00:01:52,480 --> 00:01:54,680 Speaker 1: white man could pull up trees and performing the most 42 00:01:54,680 --> 00:01:57,840 Speaker 1: prodigious feats of strength. So he did a hand buzzer. 43 00:01:57,920 --> 00:02:00,440 Speaker 1: He did a hand buzzer and these like if you 44 00:02:00,440 --> 00:02:02,880 Speaker 1: don't know what electricity is. Yeah, he's just some sort 45 00:02:02,920 --> 00:02:09,000 Speaker 1: of superman. Let's sign the peace treaty. Yeah yeah, holy ship. Yeah. 46 00:02:09,040 --> 00:02:11,520 Speaker 1: Another trick was to use a magnifying glass to light 47 00:02:11,520 --> 00:02:15,680 Speaker 1: a cigar and then claim that white people had sun powers. Um, 48 00:02:15,720 --> 00:02:17,680 Speaker 1: and he'll burn up your villain, basically like I have 49 00:02:17,800 --> 00:02:21,040 Speaker 1: power over the sun and I'll plage on fire. Yeah 50 00:02:20,200 --> 00:02:26,440 Speaker 1: ye god, what a bluff. Yeah yeah yeah. So um 51 00:02:26,480 --> 00:02:29,640 Speaker 1: Williams writes this open letter. Um. He frames it as 52 00:02:29,720 --> 00:02:32,840 Speaker 1: like presuming Leopold doesn't know how terrible things are. He 53 00:02:32,880 --> 00:02:34,760 Speaker 1: writes about the taking of hands and like all of 54 00:02:34,800 --> 00:02:37,160 Speaker 1: the death and the people who are being like starved 55 00:02:37,160 --> 00:02:39,880 Speaker 1: to death as porters, carrying this sort of like modest 56 00:02:39,880 --> 00:02:42,200 Speaker 1: proposal style like of course, you know, but it's an 57 00:02:42,200 --> 00:02:45,120 Speaker 1: indictment or think there's a little bit of a satirical 58 00:02:45,200 --> 00:02:49,640 Speaker 1: bit um And yeah, so Williams publishes this that, but 59 00:02:49,760 --> 00:02:52,800 Speaker 1: unfortunately he dies not long after writing the letter, and 60 00:02:52,919 --> 00:02:55,239 Speaker 1: Leopold's able to clamp down on any kind of outrage 61 00:02:55,280 --> 00:02:58,239 Speaker 1: after for a little while. But seven or eight years later, 62 00:02:58,280 --> 00:03:01,359 Speaker 1: another guy who's an amateur journalist named Morrell stumbles upon 63 00:03:01,400 --> 00:03:04,040 Speaker 1: the conspiracy. So he was working as a mid level 64 00:03:04,040 --> 00:03:06,320 Speaker 1: employee for a shipping line that had the contract to 65 00:03:06,360 --> 00:03:08,880 Speaker 1: handle all shipping into the Congo Free State, and so 66 00:03:08,960 --> 00:03:11,399 Speaker 1: every so often Morrell would get sent over to Belgium 67 00:03:11,440 --> 00:03:13,280 Speaker 1: and he would report on what's going into and out 68 00:03:13,280 --> 00:03:15,720 Speaker 1: of the port of Antwerp. And so he realizes that 69 00:03:15,760 --> 00:03:18,160 Speaker 1: the only thing coming out of the Congo into Europe 70 00:03:18,240 --> 00:03:22,240 Speaker 1: is rubber, just shiploads of rubber, impossible quantities of it, 71 00:03:22,400 --> 00:03:25,080 Speaker 1: larger quantities than have been reported in fact. And the 72 00:03:25,120 --> 00:03:27,280 Speaker 1: only thing that's going being sent out to the Congo 73 00:03:27,560 --> 00:03:31,080 Speaker 1: rather than trade are just guns and money, and a 74 00:03:31,080 --> 00:03:33,200 Speaker 1: lot more guns than you'd need for any kind of 75 00:03:33,200 --> 00:03:40,640 Speaker 1: philanthropic enterprise. Um Man, Yeah, so exactly, exactly. So he starts, 76 00:03:40,640 --> 00:03:42,080 Speaker 1: he never actually goes to the Congo, but he just 77 00:03:42,120 --> 00:03:44,560 Speaker 1: starts digging, and he starts talking to other people who 78 00:03:44,560 --> 00:03:48,320 Speaker 1: have worked there, and basically, um he starts a newspaper 79 00:03:48,520 --> 00:03:52,120 Speaker 1: that is focused entirely on exposing King Leopold's crimes to 80 00:03:52,160 --> 00:03:55,200 Speaker 1: the world and starts publishing it all throughout Europe. Um. 81 00:03:55,240 --> 00:03:57,720 Speaker 1: He's active all over the world and basically becomes like 82 00:03:57,760 --> 00:04:00,360 Speaker 1: the Congo equivalent of Wiki leaks. So all the guys 83 00:04:00,400 --> 00:04:03,200 Speaker 1: who had worked in Leopold's Congo and felt bad kind 84 00:04:03,280 --> 00:04:04,800 Speaker 1: to him and be like, I saw this, this is 85 00:04:04,800 --> 00:04:07,920 Speaker 1: what happened. Here's some documents I managed to smug. Well, 86 00:04:07,960 --> 00:04:10,920 Speaker 1: it's also like you're like, yeah, this is what wikilliks 87 00:04:10,920 --> 00:04:13,640 Speaker 1: was supposed to be, Like, this is what it could be. 88 00:04:14,440 --> 00:04:17,760 Speaker 1: And this is also why people like that have legitimacy, 89 00:04:17,839 --> 00:04:21,680 Speaker 1: because and why conspiracies have legitimacy because guess what there 90 00:04:21,720 --> 00:04:27,480 Speaker 1: have been Yeah, big complex conspiracy gigantic conspiracies. So Morrel 91 00:04:27,720 --> 00:04:31,040 Speaker 1: starts this newspaper and he winds up creating was probably 92 00:04:31,080 --> 00:04:34,760 Speaker 1: the first modern human rights organization, the Congo Reform Association, 93 00:04:34,880 --> 00:04:39,360 Speaker 1: which is dedicated to stopping this fi nightmare in the Congo. UM. 94 00:04:39,560 --> 00:04:43,800 Speaker 1: King Leopold responded by inventing the first modern international pr campaign. 95 00:04:44,080 --> 00:04:46,159 Speaker 1: He bought a shipload of journalists of his own, and 96 00:04:46,200 --> 00:04:48,159 Speaker 1: he had them all right puff pieces about how great 97 00:04:48,200 --> 00:04:51,000 Speaker 1: the Congo actually was. He would pay for journalists to 98 00:04:51,000 --> 00:04:53,720 Speaker 1: go on lavish, carefully controlled trips through the Congo. He'd 99 00:04:53,720 --> 00:04:56,080 Speaker 1: give them exclusive interviews when they got back, and he'd 100 00:04:56,160 --> 00:04:58,160 Speaker 1: use his network of agents to help them place their 101 00:04:58,240 --> 00:05:01,120 Speaker 1: articles in newspapers. He got journalists in the New York 102 00:05:01,160 --> 00:05:04,240 Speaker 1: Times to write quotes like I have witnessed more atrocities 103 00:05:04,240 --> 00:05:06,520 Speaker 1: in London streets than I have ever seen in the Congo. 104 00:05:07,240 --> 00:05:09,440 Speaker 1: He would pay for journalists to give public speeches, and 105 00:05:09,480 --> 00:05:13,800 Speaker 1: he would lobby politicians. Leopold's regime was heavily criticized for 106 00:05:13,839 --> 00:05:16,279 Speaker 1: its widespread use of something called the jacote, which is 107 00:05:16,440 --> 00:05:19,279 Speaker 1: a hippo hyde whip which was used to punish laborers. 108 00:05:19,560 --> 00:05:21,960 Speaker 1: Prisoners were often lashed to death by it, and it's 109 00:05:22,000 --> 00:05:24,880 Speaker 1: possible that like literally several million people were killed with 110 00:05:24,960 --> 00:05:28,440 Speaker 1: his whip. Um So Leopold starts catching flak for this, 111 00:05:28,560 --> 00:05:31,159 Speaker 1: and he decides to distract attention from his whipping millions 112 00:05:31,160 --> 00:05:33,520 Speaker 1: of people to death by sending journalists to British colonies 113 00:05:33,560 --> 00:05:37,279 Speaker 1: and having them write lurished expose of abuses in British colonies. 114 00:05:37,600 --> 00:05:40,080 Speaker 1: So his pet reporters would write stories about like how 115 00:05:40,120 --> 00:05:42,680 Speaker 1: the British were using whips on prisoners in South Africa 116 00:05:42,960 --> 00:05:45,760 Speaker 1: or something terrible they've done to people in India. And 117 00:05:45,800 --> 00:05:50,160 Speaker 1: then exactly what about Hillary style? That's exactly it. Like 118 00:05:50,200 --> 00:05:53,120 Speaker 1: I said, he invented the modern art of being shitty, 119 00:05:53,360 --> 00:05:56,479 Speaker 1: like he's he's doing what about is um on a 120 00:05:56,600 --> 00:05:59,200 Speaker 1: massive scale? Did he did he have like an anti 121 00:05:59,240 --> 00:06:02,640 Speaker 1: sdent for like the media, like playing the media or 122 00:06:02,640 --> 00:06:04,800 Speaker 1: did he just make all of I think he invented 123 00:06:04,880 --> 00:06:09,279 Speaker 1: this playbook because other people had. Obviously, every the media's 124 00:06:09,279 --> 00:06:11,799 Speaker 1: existed for a while. Other people have used the media 125 00:06:12,360 --> 00:06:14,839 Speaker 1: one degree or another. But he is the first person 126 00:06:14,880 --> 00:06:17,080 Speaker 1: that I've ever run across who's using it in the 127 00:06:17,200 --> 00:06:20,120 Speaker 1: same way politicians use it today, in the same way 128 00:06:20,160 --> 00:06:22,200 Speaker 1: world leaders use it today, Like this is a very 129 00:06:22,279 --> 00:06:26,080 Speaker 1: modern pr campaign. Um he buys he uses his Congo 130 00:06:26,120 --> 00:06:28,600 Speaker 1: earnings to buy the editors of a bunch of newspapers, 131 00:06:28,600 --> 00:06:32,240 Speaker 1: including the London Times. So he's spending like thousands of 132 00:06:32,240 --> 00:06:36,040 Speaker 1: dollars on just owning editors. UM, so that number one, 133 00:06:36,040 --> 00:06:38,320 Speaker 1: they'll kill stories that are negative to with the Congo 134 00:06:38,360 --> 00:06:41,080 Speaker 1: free state, and so that he can place his positive 135 00:06:41,080 --> 00:06:44,240 Speaker 1: stories once he gets like positive journalists to go, you know, 136 00:06:44,320 --> 00:06:45,960 Speaker 1: have a tour of the Congo and then come and 137 00:06:45,960 --> 00:06:48,839 Speaker 1: write about it. Um. And this is all basically a 138 00:06:48,880 --> 00:06:51,800 Speaker 1: delaying action. Leopold knows eventually the truth is going to 139 00:06:51,800 --> 00:06:54,320 Speaker 1: get out, but he's playing for time. He's got twenty 140 00:06:54,400 --> 00:06:56,960 Speaker 1: years before rubber stops being his problem. He doesn't need 141 00:06:57,000 --> 00:06:58,599 Speaker 1: to do this forever. He just needs to do it 142 00:06:58,600 --> 00:07:00,520 Speaker 1: for a little while. He just wants to as much 143 00:07:00,520 --> 00:07:03,120 Speaker 1: money as he can out of the situation. Um. And 144 00:07:03,240 --> 00:07:06,040 Speaker 1: eventually the sheer weight of facts did change public opinion 145 00:07:06,080 --> 00:07:09,160 Speaker 1: against him, but it took like twenty years. At one point, 146 00:07:09,240 --> 00:07:11,560 Speaker 1: Leopold has said to have seen a cartoon of himself 147 00:07:11,560 --> 00:07:13,960 Speaker 1: in a German newspaper. UM. And in the cartoon, he's 148 00:07:13,960 --> 00:07:16,960 Speaker 1: cutting the hands off of Africans and he reportedly laughed 149 00:07:16,960 --> 00:07:19,520 Speaker 1: at that and said, cut off hands. That's idiotic. I'd 150 00:07:19,560 --> 00:07:21,720 Speaker 1: cut off all the rest of them, but not the hands. 151 00:07:21,760 --> 00:07:25,080 Speaker 1: That's the thing I need in the congo. So he's 152 00:07:25,080 --> 00:07:30,760 Speaker 1: a real piece of work. Um. Now in Leopold had 153 00:07:30,800 --> 00:07:34,080 Speaker 1: started dating a sixteen year old prostitute named Caroline um. 154 00:07:34,240 --> 00:07:35,960 Speaker 1: This is when the congo is at the height of 155 00:07:36,000 --> 00:07:38,640 Speaker 1: its rubber production. UM. So he'd been hooked up to 156 00:07:38,680 --> 00:07:41,280 Speaker 1: her via a pimp named Duro, who was a former 157 00:07:41,360 --> 00:07:44,480 Speaker 1: officer in the French army. We know now that Caroline's 158 00:07:44,480 --> 00:07:47,400 Speaker 1: whole relationship with Leopold was likely a con game, an 159 00:07:47,400 --> 00:07:51,960 Speaker 1: incredibly successful scheme to snatch his inheritance. But at the time, Uh, 160 00:07:52,040 --> 00:07:55,320 Speaker 1: King Leopold, blood drenched, absolute ruler of the Congo, was 161 00:07:55,360 --> 00:07:58,800 Speaker 1: smitten with this teenage prostitute. Adam hoss Child writes that 162 00:07:59,000 --> 00:08:01,720 Speaker 1: quote to the extent that someone like Leopold was capable 163 00:08:01,760 --> 00:08:04,280 Speaker 1: of love, this teenage prostitute proved to be the love 164 00:08:04,320 --> 00:08:08,160 Speaker 1: of his life. Um so he's really got it for 165 00:08:08,200 --> 00:08:12,160 Speaker 1: this girl hard. He names her the barrenness of Vaughan. Uh. 166 00:08:12,200 --> 00:08:16,160 Speaker 1: And the unseemliness of their relationship isn't really acknowledged in 167 00:08:16,160 --> 00:08:18,800 Speaker 1: the nineteen ten biography. It just calls her one of 168 00:08:18,800 --> 00:08:21,720 Speaker 1: the king's quote favorites. Uh, and it dances around the 169 00:08:21,720 --> 00:08:24,720 Speaker 1: fact that they got together while the Queen was still alive. Um. 170 00:08:24,760 --> 00:08:27,000 Speaker 1: In general, it refers to the King's constant parade of 171 00:08:27,040 --> 00:08:32,120 Speaker 1: mistresses as distractions. Um so yeah. Caroline went on to 172 00:08:32,160 --> 00:08:34,040 Speaker 1: write a bit about their life together, and she gives 173 00:08:34,040 --> 00:08:37,480 Speaker 1: this additional insight into the kind of man Leopold was. Quote. 174 00:08:37,600 --> 00:08:40,200 Speaker 1: Every evening a steam launch took the King to appear 175 00:08:40,280 --> 00:08:43,840 Speaker 1: leading to my villa through a subterranean passage. Speaking about this, 176 00:08:43,960 --> 00:08:46,599 Speaker 1: I can't help remarking on the extraordinary taste of the 177 00:08:46,679 --> 00:08:49,840 Speaker 1: king for everything which had a secret and mysterious character. 178 00:08:50,160 --> 00:08:52,280 Speaker 1: Anyone who could sell him any house, so long as 179 00:08:52,280 --> 00:08:54,280 Speaker 1: it was built on the side of an abandoned quarry, 180 00:08:54,400 --> 00:08:58,200 Speaker 1: or if it had a secret staircase. So basically, he's 181 00:08:58,240 --> 00:09:01,640 Speaker 1: gone from being too cheap to like rinse his like 182 00:09:01,679 --> 00:09:04,480 Speaker 1: a handkerchief. He's like a cartoon villain. Yeah, to like 183 00:09:04,520 --> 00:09:07,400 Speaker 1: a cartoon villed with like layers built into mountain sides 184 00:09:07,440 --> 00:09:12,560 Speaker 1: and hidden boat like grottos and stuff. Yeah. But Caroline 185 00:09:12,559 --> 00:09:15,400 Speaker 1: seems to have his number. Um. So she's both got 186 00:09:15,480 --> 00:09:17,760 Speaker 1: him on madly in love with her. But she also 187 00:09:17,880 --> 00:09:21,760 Speaker 1: like she takes advantage of his hypochondriasm or whatever you 188 00:09:21,800 --> 00:09:23,880 Speaker 1: call that, Like whenever she wanted him to leave her alone, 189 00:09:23,920 --> 00:09:26,360 Speaker 1: she'd pretend to have a cough and then he'd hide 190 00:09:26,360 --> 00:09:29,280 Speaker 1: for days, um because he was scared of So she's 191 00:09:29,400 --> 00:09:34,280 Speaker 1: she's my favorite person in this story. She's lockdown. Um. 192 00:09:34,440 --> 00:09:37,720 Speaker 1: So the king is sort of the nineteen hundreds come around, 193 00:09:37,800 --> 00:09:41,559 Speaker 1: is in his late sixties, um, and he takes to 194 00:09:41,679 --> 00:09:46,240 Speaker 1: visiting his teenage mistress in a large tricycle. Um, because again, yeah, 195 00:09:46,480 --> 00:09:52,280 Speaker 1: he's getting more and more Yeah for the genocidal murderer. 196 00:09:52,360 --> 00:09:55,160 Speaker 1: Yeah righting a big tricycle to hang out with his 197 00:09:55,200 --> 00:09:59,720 Speaker 1: teenage girlfriend. Um, just as bad everyone who every white 198 00:09:59,720 --> 00:10:02,480 Speaker 1: guy riding a tricycle with the big old mustache, you 199 00:10:02,480 --> 00:10:05,959 Speaker 1: are all as bad as king. Yeah. So he's writing 200 00:10:05,960 --> 00:10:08,640 Speaker 1: a big tricycle. He drinks nothing but hot water. Uh. 201 00:10:08,679 --> 00:10:10,959 Speaker 1: And he starts referring to himself in the third person 202 00:10:11,000 --> 00:10:16,040 Speaker 1: at this point in time. Um, so yeah, he's a weirdo. Um, 203 00:10:16,040 --> 00:10:18,640 Speaker 1: he's not entirely past his old ways at this point. 204 00:10:18,720 --> 00:10:21,040 Speaker 1: There's like a story of the time his mistress bought 205 00:10:21,080 --> 00:10:24,040 Speaker 1: a new hat for him, um, and gives it to him, 206 00:10:24,080 --> 00:10:26,720 Speaker 1: and he like flies into a rage. Uh. And he 207 00:10:26,760 --> 00:10:29,440 Speaker 1: only calms down when she explains him that she got 208 00:10:29,480 --> 00:10:31,080 Speaker 1: it for a bargain and it was like a deal 209 00:10:31,120 --> 00:10:32,680 Speaker 1: that she bought it a quarter of its value. So 210 00:10:32,760 --> 00:10:35,560 Speaker 1: like he's still he's just he's just a weirdo. He's 211 00:10:35,559 --> 00:10:39,920 Speaker 1: a weird guy. He's like a weird old rich letcher 212 00:10:40,000 --> 00:10:44,120 Speaker 1: who's just knows what's going on in the congo but 213 00:10:44,200 --> 00:10:47,400 Speaker 1: doesn't like I mean Look, here's the other part. The 214 00:10:47,440 --> 00:10:49,679 Speaker 1: other way to look at that, I suppose is maybe 215 00:10:49,679 --> 00:10:52,240 Speaker 1: not in such a direct degree, but as Americans, we 216 00:10:52,280 --> 00:10:54,640 Speaker 1: all have similar types of blood on our hands that 217 00:10:54,720 --> 00:10:57,440 Speaker 1: we are electing to not think about. Yeah, but we're 218 00:10:57,480 --> 00:11:01,280 Speaker 1: not we're not driving it in the same way. But 219 00:11:01,600 --> 00:11:04,280 Speaker 1: we absolutely like we all have these phones that we 220 00:11:04,320 --> 00:11:06,760 Speaker 1: know are made by people who hate the work that 221 00:11:06,760 --> 00:11:09,600 Speaker 1: they're doing. And they're like including minerals that are mined 222 00:11:09,679 --> 00:11:12,800 Speaker 1: from like conflict written nations and often use slave labor 223 00:11:12,800 --> 00:11:14,360 Speaker 1: in one. And we know that, like the fabric in 224 00:11:14,400 --> 00:11:16,640 Speaker 1: our clothes is often their slave labor. At some point 225 00:11:16,640 --> 00:11:21,079 Speaker 1: in the production line. Leopold knows that because he's signing 226 00:11:21,120 --> 00:11:23,839 Speaker 1: the orders and saying cut off more hands, cut off 227 00:11:23,840 --> 00:11:27,040 Speaker 1: more hands, and he's just it's just amazing to me 228 00:11:27,080 --> 00:11:29,400 Speaker 1: that he's able to do that all day every day 229 00:11:29,720 --> 00:11:33,200 Speaker 1: and then write a tricycle to his teenage girlfriend's house. Um, 230 00:11:33,720 --> 00:11:37,800 Speaker 1: but that's it's amazing what you're saying. But to me, 231 00:11:37,880 --> 00:11:40,440 Speaker 1: I'm like, it's a little bit just degrees. I mean, look, 232 00:11:40,440 --> 00:11:44,080 Speaker 1: we're all able to it is degrees. We're all able 233 00:11:44,080 --> 00:11:49,920 Speaker 1: to compartmentalize the misery that's necessary for our comfort. Um, 234 00:11:50,040 --> 00:11:54,520 Speaker 1: but this guy, this guy. Uh. One of the things 235 00:11:54,600 --> 00:11:57,160 Speaker 1: that was interesting to me reading that pro Leopold biography 236 00:11:57,240 --> 00:12:00,880 Speaker 1: is that, well, it does talk about nineteen ten, the 237 00:12:00,920 --> 00:12:04,920 Speaker 1: air after he died spoiler. Um. So this biography of him, 238 00:12:04,960 --> 00:12:07,600 Speaker 1: it's very positive. It talks about how there's atrocities, but 239 00:12:07,640 --> 00:12:09,400 Speaker 1: it always kind of doesn't talk about the detail. It 240 00:12:09,480 --> 00:12:13,040 Speaker 1: just said he definitely committed atrocities. But look at this 241 00:12:13,480 --> 00:12:18,079 Speaker 1: or look at how, look at how and everyone did 242 00:12:18,880 --> 00:12:21,600 Speaker 1: is like everyone did, and we'll get to that in 243 00:12:21,640 --> 00:12:24,520 Speaker 1: a little. Um. What is interesting to me is that 244 00:12:24,600 --> 00:12:29,000 Speaker 1: this biography does condemn his mistress for capitalizing on the congo. 245 00:12:29,960 --> 00:12:32,400 Speaker 1: It notes that she was called the Queen of the 246 00:12:32,480 --> 00:12:35,720 Speaker 1: Congo by the people of Belgium for she was to 247 00:12:35,760 --> 00:12:38,680 Speaker 1: benefit largely by the atrocities committed in the Free State. 248 00:12:38,760 --> 00:12:41,920 Speaker 1: We're sweating and bleeding natives labored so as to accumulate 249 00:12:41,960 --> 00:12:44,520 Speaker 1: millions for the royal favorite. So like he again, he 250 00:12:44,600 --> 00:12:48,520 Speaker 1: doesn't really attack Leopold ever, like he's like, yeah, he 251 00:12:48,600 --> 00:12:51,480 Speaker 1: did some bad stuff, But this biographer goes off on 252 00:12:51,520 --> 00:12:54,760 Speaker 1: her mistress for like taking money from him. That's that's 253 00:12:54,800 --> 00:12:57,520 Speaker 1: blood money, which it is blood money, but like she's 254 00:12:57,640 --> 00:13:04,400 Speaker 1: the least objectionable person situation. Um so, yeah, yeah, she 255 00:13:04,480 --> 00:13:07,559 Speaker 1: has a little Melannia asked, I suppose she is, and 256 00:13:08,280 --> 00:13:10,240 Speaker 1: she maybe knew more what she was getting into at 257 00:13:10,240 --> 00:13:14,120 Speaker 1: the top. Yeah, she probably knew less about them because, 258 00:13:14,120 --> 00:13:16,920 Speaker 1: like I doubt, just a rich guy. Yeah, she just 259 00:13:16,960 --> 00:13:18,599 Speaker 1: wanted to marry a rich guy, Like I doubt. He 260 00:13:19,160 --> 00:13:20,560 Speaker 1: doesn't seem like the kind of guy who have talked 261 00:13:20,559 --> 00:13:24,280 Speaker 1: to his mistress about the hands or that they were 262 00:13:24,360 --> 00:13:27,360 Speaker 1: murdering people with. And it's at the time especially quite 263 00:13:27,440 --> 00:13:30,480 Speaker 1: easy to ignore you forget about. You don't share a 264 00:13:30,559 --> 00:13:32,600 Speaker 1: lot of that stuff with you, Yeah, especially not your 265 00:13:32,640 --> 00:13:36,360 Speaker 1: teenage child bride. And as a teenage child bride to 266 00:13:36,520 --> 00:13:38,800 Speaker 1: just feel like, I don't read those books. Yeah, I 267 00:13:38,840 --> 00:13:41,760 Speaker 1: don't read that article. Yeah yeah. Um So. In the 268 00:13:41,760 --> 00:13:44,200 Speaker 1: early nineteen hundreds, more and more stories of abuse in 269 00:13:44,240 --> 00:13:46,760 Speaker 1: the Congo hit the world press. People actually started to 270 00:13:46,760 --> 00:13:49,080 Speaker 1: take notice and care. They read about things like an 271 00:13:49,200 --> 00:13:52,319 Speaker 1: entire towns worth of boys being giving fifty lashes each, 272 00:13:52,760 --> 00:13:55,160 Speaker 1: which is a fatal sentence for laughing in the presence 273 00:13:55,160 --> 00:13:57,840 Speaker 1: of a white man. Uh. In nineteen o four, one 274 00:13:57,880 --> 00:13:59,640 Speaker 1: of the rubber companies in the Congo put one of 275 00:13:59,640 --> 00:14:01,560 Speaker 1: its own men on trial, mostly to show that they 276 00:14:01,559 --> 00:14:04,080 Speaker 1: were trying to do something about all of the horrible crimes. 277 00:14:04,480 --> 00:14:07,280 Speaker 1: The guy Charles Couldron was accused of murdering at least 278 00:14:07,320 --> 00:14:09,640 Speaker 1: a hundred and twenty two Africans. The case wound up 279 00:14:09,640 --> 00:14:11,800 Speaker 1: revealing a bunch of fun up details about like how 280 00:14:11,840 --> 00:14:14,120 Speaker 1: all the hostage taking and the hand taking and stuff 281 00:14:14,160 --> 00:14:17,680 Speaker 1: actually worked. Um. But Caldrone was released due to quote 282 00:14:17,679 --> 00:14:21,160 Speaker 1: extenuating circumstances. The court said that he'd had to contend 283 00:14:21,200 --> 00:14:24,800 Speaker 1: with quote great difficulties under which could Drone found himself 284 00:14:24,840 --> 00:14:27,960 Speaker 1: accomplishing his mission in the midst of a population absolutely 285 00:14:27,960 --> 00:14:30,680 Speaker 1: resistant to any idea of work, and which respects no 286 00:14:30,760 --> 00:14:32,960 Speaker 1: other law than force, and knows no other means of 287 00:14:32,960 --> 00:14:39,080 Speaker 1: persuasion than terror. Um. So yeah, they were asking for 288 00:14:39,120 --> 00:14:42,600 Speaker 1: it defense. They were asking for it works it that 289 00:14:42,600 --> 00:14:45,280 Speaker 1: also still works today kind it does, but it was 290 00:14:45,360 --> 00:14:47,720 Speaker 1: it was stopping. This is at the point where it 291 00:14:47,720 --> 00:14:50,640 Speaker 1: was working less and less in the congo um and 292 00:14:50,680 --> 00:14:53,120 Speaker 1: in the early nineteen hundreds, Leopold starts dealing with more 293 00:14:53,120 --> 00:14:56,800 Speaker 1: and more resistance to his ideas um, both in the 294 00:14:56,880 --> 00:14:59,440 Speaker 1: congo end at home. So this is also kind of 295 00:14:59,520 --> 00:15:01,480 Speaker 1: the point of where socialism is starting to rise, and 296 00:15:01,560 --> 00:15:05,000 Speaker 1: socialists obviously are a big fans of kings. Um. Leopold 297 00:15:05,000 --> 00:15:07,960 Speaker 1: declared himself a mortal enemy of socialism. He fought against 298 00:15:08,080 --> 00:15:10,680 Speaker 1: the universal right to vote for all Belgians. Still in 299 00:15:10,720 --> 00:15:14,000 Speaker 1: the playbook, both of those things. In nine two, the 300 00:15:14,000 --> 00:15:16,760 Speaker 1: Belgian Labor Party called a general strike and Leopold called 301 00:15:16,800 --> 00:15:19,000 Speaker 1: for it to be brutally stopped. The strikers were fired 302 00:15:19,080 --> 00:15:21,760 Speaker 1: upon by city guards and eight people were killed. The 303 00:15:21,800 --> 00:15:25,040 Speaker 1: massacre was a calculated message to the socialists, don't funk 304 00:15:25,040 --> 00:15:27,320 Speaker 1: with the money trained. Leopold was willing to kill a 305 00:15:27,320 --> 00:15:28,800 Speaker 1: hell of a lot more than eight people to keep 306 00:15:28,800 --> 00:15:31,800 Speaker 1: the money coming. In has Child's book relates one six 307 00:15:31,840 --> 00:15:34,520 Speaker 1: week campaign in the Congo that killed quote over nine 308 00:15:34,560 --> 00:15:37,200 Speaker 1: hundred natives, men, women, and children in order to add 309 00:15:37,240 --> 00:15:39,840 Speaker 1: twenty tons of rubber a month to one region's productivity. 310 00:15:40,000 --> 00:15:41,720 Speaker 1: They gives you an idea of the kind of calculus 311 00:15:41,720 --> 00:15:45,200 Speaker 1: he's making. Yeah, Yeah, that's how I mean. Right, it's 312 00:15:45,200 --> 00:15:48,080 Speaker 1: just lives for rubber. Yeah, it's just lives for rubber 313 00:15:48,120 --> 00:15:51,000 Speaker 1: has a commodity price. Yeah. Um. I have to point 314 00:15:51,000 --> 00:15:53,720 Speaker 1: out that none of the revelations brutality did much to 315 00:15:53,760 --> 00:15:56,400 Speaker 1: hurt Leopold's popularity at home in Belgium. He was growing 316 00:15:56,640 --> 00:15:58,800 Speaker 1: less popular and even hated in a lot of Europe. 317 00:15:59,120 --> 00:16:01,880 Speaker 1: But even today are Belgian museums that proudly talk about 318 00:16:01,920 --> 00:16:04,720 Speaker 1: his anti slavery campaigns that ignore the whole genocide thing. 319 00:16:05,560 --> 00:16:08,440 Speaker 1: The crimes against humanity didn't hurt Leopold's legacy. The only 320 00:16:08,480 --> 00:16:11,240 Speaker 1: thing Belgium couldn't forgive him for was being a shitty 321 00:16:11,320 --> 00:16:14,840 Speaker 1: dad and having a mistress. In nineteen o four, Leopold's 322 00:16:14,880 --> 00:16:17,480 Speaker 1: daughter Stephanie sued her father, the king, for keeping her 323 00:16:17,560 --> 00:16:20,680 Speaker 1: chunk of her mother's inheritance. Leopold fought in court for 324 00:16:20,720 --> 00:16:23,320 Speaker 1: the right to deny his children their inheritance, and in 325 00:16:23,360 --> 00:16:26,240 Speaker 1: fact denied them any wealth or property even after his death. 326 00:16:26,760 --> 00:16:30,080 Speaker 1: Around this time, a Belgian cabinet minister noted that quote, 327 00:16:30,280 --> 00:16:32,960 Speaker 1: the king has but two dreams, to die a billionaire 328 00:16:33,040 --> 00:16:38,200 Speaker 1: and to disinherit his daughters. I mean, what father doesn't 329 00:16:38,240 --> 00:16:41,080 Speaker 1: want that? A lot of ways kind of cool, A 330 00:16:41,080 --> 00:16:45,160 Speaker 1: lot always kind of cool. Uh So in nineteen o six, 331 00:16:45,280 --> 00:16:48,880 Speaker 1: King Leopold finally marries the Baroness. They have two sons. 332 00:16:49,280 --> 00:16:51,840 Speaker 1: His second son was born with a malformed arm, that 333 00:16:51,920 --> 00:16:55,040 Speaker 1: just sort of ended in a stump with no hand. Obviously, 334 00:16:55,080 --> 00:16:57,400 Speaker 1: some people suggested this might be a judgment from God 335 00:16:57,440 --> 00:16:59,840 Speaker 1: for all the millions of hands that Leopold ordered severed, 336 00:17:00,080 --> 00:17:02,200 Speaker 1: which is almost more fucked up if you think about 337 00:17:02,200 --> 00:17:05,760 Speaker 1: the morality behind, Like this guy cut off millions of 338 00:17:05,760 --> 00:17:09,399 Speaker 1: people's hands, let's funk off his innocent baby's hand. Yeah, 339 00:17:09,480 --> 00:17:13,080 Speaker 1: that's not how you do that, if you got first 340 00:17:13,080 --> 00:17:17,919 Speaker 1: of all, that is definitely how God do that. God 341 00:17:18,320 --> 00:17:21,560 Speaker 1: is punchy on the messages. Yeah, God, God ain't great 342 00:17:21,600 --> 00:17:25,880 Speaker 1: with making sure these people get their just desserts. Yeah, yeah, 343 00:17:25,960 --> 00:17:28,680 Speaker 1: because right, because it's so funny. It's like all these 344 00:17:28,840 --> 00:17:30,919 Speaker 1: like just so kind of stories where God is just 345 00:17:31,000 --> 00:17:34,879 Speaker 1: a little like tricky metaphor man, like, Oh, you didn't 346 00:17:34,880 --> 00:17:37,480 Speaker 1: expect this, didn't You didn't think God would do that? 347 00:17:39,280 --> 00:17:43,720 Speaker 1: Just God, get it right, man? Yeah, Hey, speaking of hands, 348 00:17:43,960 --> 00:17:48,280 Speaker 1: why don't you use both of them to order the 349 00:17:48,280 --> 00:17:51,439 Speaker 1: products that we are about to advertise. Here they go 350 00:17:57,440 --> 00:18:01,439 Speaker 1: and we're back. So the general and seemliness of the 351 00:18:01,520 --> 00:18:04,200 Speaker 1: king's young bride and the disinheritance of his daughters meant 352 00:18:04,200 --> 00:18:06,800 Speaker 1: the public sort of deserted Leopold. Once the Human rights 353 00:18:06,800 --> 00:18:10,080 Speaker 1: campaign against his atrocities really took off. In nineteen o eight, 354 00:18:10,119 --> 00:18:12,760 Speaker 1: King Leopold was forced to bequeath his control of the 355 00:18:12,760 --> 00:18:15,720 Speaker 1: Congo to the Belgian government. In exchange, they paid for 356 00:18:15,760 --> 00:18:18,280 Speaker 1: the colonies hundred and ten million francs worth of debt, 357 00:18:18,520 --> 00:18:20,639 Speaker 1: most of which had been accrued because Leopold used the 358 00:18:20,680 --> 00:18:23,000 Speaker 1: Free State as a bank to buy gifts for his mistresses. 359 00:18:24,280 --> 00:18:26,680 Speaker 1: Before he hands over control of the colony, he'd ruled 360 00:18:26,720 --> 00:18:29,000 Speaker 1: with an iron fist for more than twenty years. Leopold 361 00:18:29,080 --> 00:18:32,080 Speaker 1: has all of the Congo state records burned. I will 362 00:18:32,119 --> 00:18:34,320 Speaker 1: give them my Congo, he said. But they have no 363 00:18:34,480 --> 00:18:38,560 Speaker 1: right to know what I did there. Oh what fun 364 00:18:39,080 --> 00:18:43,159 Speaker 1: such a piece of ship. So the thing that I 365 00:18:43,280 --> 00:18:45,880 Speaker 1: say all the time or think about, it's like, yes, 366 00:18:45,960 --> 00:18:50,200 Speaker 1: of course there have been massive conspiracies in history, and 367 00:18:50,520 --> 00:18:55,719 Speaker 1: I'm sure today, but like oftentimes, like there isn't like 368 00:18:55,760 --> 00:18:58,560 Speaker 1: the basic human competency to pull off some of the 369 00:18:58,600 --> 00:19:02,080 Speaker 1: more far fetched, you know, like a pizza gate style thing. 370 00:19:02,119 --> 00:19:04,320 Speaker 1: You're like, how could everyone cover this up? And then 371 00:19:04,480 --> 00:19:08,480 Speaker 1: it's like just hearing a story of nineteenth century to 372 00:19:08,640 --> 00:19:13,600 Speaker 1: twentieth century like attention to detail. Because he's a genius 373 00:19:13,640 --> 00:19:16,919 Speaker 1: like he really is like a genius in the sense 374 00:19:17,080 --> 00:19:20,640 Speaker 1: that like if you saw a character execute a plan 375 00:19:20,800 --> 00:19:23,360 Speaker 1: like this in a movie, it would be like, that's 376 00:19:23,359 --> 00:19:25,560 Speaker 1: a little far fext that he get away with it, 377 00:19:25,600 --> 00:19:29,440 Speaker 1: But he did, and he's he is an evil genius. Yeah, 378 00:19:29,880 --> 00:19:32,160 Speaker 1: And I guess you know what, and it's I guess 379 00:19:32,160 --> 00:19:34,080 Speaker 1: it was from a time when little people were less 380 00:19:34,119 --> 00:19:36,320 Speaker 1: empowered to speak up, yes, because that's the real thing. 381 00:19:36,359 --> 00:19:38,199 Speaker 1: It's like it would be hard to pull off a 382 00:19:38,200 --> 00:19:43,320 Speaker 1: pizza Gate because it's not like the top conspirators would 383 00:19:43,320 --> 00:19:45,359 Speaker 1: go to jail, but it's like there's gonna be a 384 00:19:45,440 --> 00:19:48,000 Speaker 1: janitor who's like, what the fund is this? What is 385 00:19:48,040 --> 00:19:51,439 Speaker 1: going on? Kids in this basement? Yeah, and that's like 386 00:19:51,600 --> 00:19:55,399 Speaker 1: less likely to happen. That was more controllable back in 387 00:19:55,440 --> 00:19:58,240 Speaker 1: the day, clearly. Yeah. And and even when that it 388 00:19:58,359 --> 00:20:01,840 Speaker 1: started coming out, Um, there's a lot less of a 389 00:20:01,920 --> 00:20:04,640 Speaker 1: media landscape. You only get the news from your newspapers. 390 00:20:04,920 --> 00:20:07,879 Speaker 1: You read every newspaper. Most people don't read much of 391 00:20:07,960 --> 00:20:11,280 Speaker 1: one newspaper. So if you're a guy like Leopold, you've 392 00:20:11,320 --> 00:20:15,040 Speaker 1: got the money to make the press do what you want. 393 00:20:15,119 --> 00:20:18,280 Speaker 1: And if I if I understand my history correctly, which 394 00:20:18,280 --> 00:20:20,840 Speaker 1: I probably don't. That was a time when the public 395 00:20:20,960 --> 00:20:24,240 Speaker 1: had more of an expectation that media was biased. It 396 00:20:24,320 --> 00:20:26,600 Speaker 1: was just the right. Well, yeah, this is like a 397 00:20:26,640 --> 00:20:29,320 Speaker 1: lot of this is right around the time when America 398 00:20:29,400 --> 00:20:32,680 Speaker 1: gets involved in a war with Spain. That's essentially pushed 399 00:20:32,680 --> 00:20:36,400 Speaker 1: by two different newspaper magnets wanting to sell more papers. 400 00:20:36,400 --> 00:20:38,400 Speaker 1: So like, yeah, the press, he doesn't have a great 401 00:20:38,440 --> 00:20:41,280 Speaker 1: reputation now, yeah, but even it still didn't have a 402 00:20:41,320 --> 00:20:45,760 Speaker 1: great reputation then. Um, so yeah, it's like a perfect storm, 403 00:20:45,800 --> 00:20:48,919 Speaker 1: but it also is it was a legitimately brilliant scheme, 404 00:20:49,000 --> 00:20:51,399 Speaker 1: and he did his best to cover his tracks. Uh. 405 00:20:51,560 --> 00:20:54,080 Speaker 1: And he died in December of nineteen nine at the 406 00:20:54,080 --> 00:20:58,560 Speaker 1: age of eighty four. Uh super rich. Uh did you 407 00:20:58,680 --> 00:21:03,320 Speaker 1: make that billion? Well we'll get to that in a minute. Um. 408 00:21:03,359 --> 00:21:06,480 Speaker 1: The biography published the next year said that quote, were 409 00:21:06,480 --> 00:21:09,159 Speaker 1: it not for his private life, his domestic affairs, and 410 00:21:09,240 --> 00:21:11,960 Speaker 1: his avarice, he would have retained his popularity to the 411 00:21:12,080 --> 00:21:15,119 Speaker 1: very last. Belgium as a nation, with the exception of 412 00:21:15,119 --> 00:21:18,760 Speaker 1: the socialists, would have forgiven him the Congo atrocities. Indeed, 413 00:21:18,960 --> 00:21:22,160 Speaker 1: she has forgiven him, for after all, she is destined 414 00:21:22,240 --> 00:21:24,639 Speaker 1: to benefit by them, and she will not grudge her 415 00:21:24,760 --> 00:21:28,639 Speaker 1: king the Royal commission he pocketed on the enterprise. And 416 00:21:28,680 --> 00:21:30,600 Speaker 1: this is where again I want to point out that 417 00:21:30,880 --> 00:21:34,600 Speaker 1: in some total there's no percent agreed upon death toll 418 00:21:34,680 --> 00:21:38,000 Speaker 1: for Leopold's regime in the Congo, but the likely numbers 419 00:21:38,040 --> 00:21:41,199 Speaker 1: are between ten and thirteen million, possibly as high as 420 00:21:41,240 --> 00:21:46,840 Speaker 1: fifteen million people um. And the Congo was definitely the 421 00:21:46,840 --> 00:21:50,119 Speaker 1: bloodiest of any of the colonists in Africa by a 422 00:21:50,280 --> 00:21:52,960 Speaker 1: substantial margin. But they all killed a lot of people, 423 00:21:53,000 --> 00:21:54,440 Speaker 1: and a lot of them killed a lot of people 424 00:21:54,480 --> 00:21:56,560 Speaker 1: making rubber. And one of the things that was found 425 00:21:56,600 --> 00:22:00,719 Speaker 1: out after Leopold's death is that in the bloody French 426 00:22:00,920 --> 00:22:04,560 Speaker 1: and German colonies that were producing rubber, Leopold owned a 427 00:22:04,640 --> 00:22:07,720 Speaker 1: majority of several of the large rubber making corporations and 428 00:22:07,760 --> 00:22:10,679 Speaker 1: those colonies too, so he was also the first like 429 00:22:10,960 --> 00:22:16,720 Speaker 1: pan multinational. Right, the corporations can be the conduits for 430 00:22:16,720 --> 00:22:19,919 Speaker 1: the scumbags, because the corporations are the scumbags, of course. 431 00:22:20,000 --> 00:22:24,080 Speaker 1: But Jesus Christ, yeah, so he's he's he's a real monster. 432 00:22:24,560 --> 00:22:27,320 Speaker 1: The late king achieved his ambition of disinheriting his daughters. 433 00:22:27,320 --> 00:22:30,040 Speaker 1: He left them only fifteen million francs, the exact amount 434 00:22:30,040 --> 00:22:33,359 Speaker 1: he'd inherited from his father. His entire fortune went to 435 00:22:33,400 --> 00:22:37,040 Speaker 1: Baroness Devon, the prostitute courts On that he fell in 436 00:22:37,040 --> 00:22:40,320 Speaker 1: love with and married. After his death, she immediately married drou, 437 00:22:40,400 --> 00:22:42,160 Speaker 1: her pimp, and spent the rest of her life living 438 00:22:42,240 --> 00:22:44,680 Speaker 1: lavishly off the gold made by the blood of Congolese labor. 439 00:22:45,440 --> 00:22:48,800 Speaker 1: Which she doesn't come out as good as I don't know. 440 00:22:49,119 --> 00:22:52,320 Speaker 1: I kind of like that his inheritance got stolen by 441 00:22:52,480 --> 00:22:56,960 Speaker 1: a scheming prostitute and her pimp friend. Yeah, that's better 442 00:22:57,040 --> 00:23:02,040 Speaker 1: than I can us. If she had murdered him, that 443 00:23:02,040 --> 00:23:04,960 Speaker 1: would have if she'd strangled him with his own beard 444 00:23:05,040 --> 00:23:08,480 Speaker 1: job al Yeah, or poison him. Maybe she did poison him. 445 00:23:08,520 --> 00:23:10,560 Speaker 1: Maybe she had poisoned him. I can't hope, so I 446 00:23:10,680 --> 00:23:16,200 Speaker 1: certainly don't know. Um oh what a grim mass tail. Fuck. Yeah. 447 00:23:16,240 --> 00:23:20,200 Speaker 1: His biography, the nineteen ten biography, summed up Leopold's life 448 00:23:20,240 --> 00:23:24,080 Speaker 1: this way Leopold the second New Belgium, New Europe and 449 00:23:24,160 --> 00:23:27,159 Speaker 1: new humanity. And like a strong man, he had a 450 00:23:27,200 --> 00:23:30,800 Speaker 1: deep contempt for everything and everybody. He loved his country 451 00:23:30,840 --> 00:23:36,280 Speaker 1: and his own interests for all. Love is after all selfish. 452 00:23:36,359 --> 00:23:40,400 Speaker 1: It's the Victorian Age is a bleak gas period. There's 453 00:23:40,440 --> 00:23:42,800 Speaker 1: also you know, speaking of although it's not exactly the 454 00:23:42,800 --> 00:23:46,119 Speaker 1: same players, but it's the same types of institutions every 455 00:23:46,119 --> 00:23:49,119 Speaker 1: one of y'all who whenever this comes out, you'll have 456 00:23:49,359 --> 00:23:52,639 Speaker 1: just enjoyed the royal wedding. Yeah, that ship has built 457 00:23:52,680 --> 00:23:55,240 Speaker 1: off the back of ship, like exactly like this, well, 458 00:23:55,560 --> 00:24:00,159 Speaker 1: less artful than this a lot not even good was 459 00:24:00,480 --> 00:24:04,280 Speaker 1: because this is if you can like the it's it's 460 00:24:04,400 --> 00:24:06,760 Speaker 1: up there with the Holocaust in terms of like the 461 00:24:06,840 --> 00:24:11,000 Speaker 1: greatest crimes in human history. But as a scheme, his 462 00:24:11,280 --> 00:24:16,800 Speaker 1: planned is it's like almost artwork. It's like watching The 463 00:24:17,440 --> 00:24:21,440 Speaker 1: Joker and The Good Christinal and Batman. Yeah, but also 464 00:24:21,560 --> 00:24:24,119 Speaker 1: that one too, where you're like it has similar moments 465 00:24:24,119 --> 00:24:26,600 Speaker 1: of like I feel like some of these lives are 466 00:24:26,640 --> 00:24:30,120 Speaker 1: just to do the lie. Yeah, it's not even about 467 00:24:30,160 --> 00:24:33,040 Speaker 1: achieving the aid need to do this yeah yeah, yeah, 468 00:24:33,040 --> 00:24:34,679 Speaker 1: there's a lot of like the funk you do that 469 00:24:34,760 --> 00:24:38,440 Speaker 1: for well, it's crazy and so one of the more 470 00:24:38,480 --> 00:24:40,640 Speaker 1: I mean, there's so many fund up things about this. 471 00:24:41,000 --> 00:24:44,720 Speaker 1: I really recommend reading King Leopold's Ghost by Adam host Child. 472 00:24:44,760 --> 00:24:47,399 Speaker 1: It's a great book. And it really delves into the 473 00:24:47,480 --> 00:24:50,960 Speaker 1: human misery caused by this regime. But you know, you're 474 00:24:51,000 --> 00:24:54,920 Speaker 1: you're talking ten to fifteen million people killed, millions more 475 00:24:55,080 --> 00:24:59,240 Speaker 1: left without hands, left maimed, starved, like whose villages were 476 00:24:59,280 --> 00:25:02,760 Speaker 1: destroyed the go Today, it's still probably the least stable 477 00:25:02,800 --> 00:25:05,080 Speaker 1: state in Africa, or at least one of them, because 478 00:25:05,280 --> 00:25:08,760 Speaker 1: all social order was destroyed. He swats the party like that. 479 00:25:09,119 --> 00:25:15,199 Speaker 1: It continues to this day. Leopold's profits, Yeah, roughly a 480 00:25:15,240 --> 00:25:20,199 Speaker 1: billion dollars in modern currency. That's bonkers, that's I feel like, 481 00:25:20,240 --> 00:25:23,760 Speaker 1: that's fucking nothing for what he did in terms of right. 482 00:25:25,080 --> 00:25:28,840 Speaker 1: Not a billion dollars in nineteen o nine money. Billion 483 00:25:28,920 --> 00:25:32,080 Speaker 1: dollars in today's money is what he got for killing 484 00:25:32,160 --> 00:25:37,840 Speaker 1: ten to fifteen million people and destroying Central Africa. That's Jesus. Yeah, 485 00:25:38,119 --> 00:25:41,080 Speaker 1: he's not even extracting enough wealth, like you could do 486 00:25:41,160 --> 00:25:44,719 Speaker 1: that just by closing up bookshops. Yeah, And I think 487 00:25:44,760 --> 00:25:46,480 Speaker 1: a lot of that is because he had to spend 488 00:25:46,520 --> 00:25:49,680 Speaker 1: so much money on an army, on policing the state 489 00:25:49,720 --> 00:25:52,000 Speaker 1: of fighting, because there were a bunch of rebellions, people 490 00:25:52,000 --> 00:25:54,240 Speaker 1: who thought back. He had to he had to suppress 491 00:25:54,280 --> 00:25:56,800 Speaker 1: those rebellions, and he had to pay all these journalists 492 00:25:56,800 --> 00:25:59,840 Speaker 1: and like, yeah, there you go, fucking capitalists, and he's 493 00:25:59,880 --> 00:26:03,359 Speaker 1: like and profitable to be the worst person. Although I 494 00:26:03,359 --> 00:26:06,560 Speaker 1: guess that was the second lesson that everyone turned is like, oh, 495 00:26:06,600 --> 00:26:09,119 Speaker 1: the real prophets in pr and making people think they 496 00:26:09,160 --> 00:26:11,119 Speaker 1: want to do this now. I want to ask you 497 00:26:11,160 --> 00:26:13,600 Speaker 1: a question that occurred to me when I finished researching this, 498 00:26:13,680 --> 00:26:18,800 Speaker 1: and I wonder about this, like is Leopold a worse 499 00:26:18,960 --> 00:26:22,919 Speaker 1: person than Hitler? Because I can't not think about that 500 00:26:22,960 --> 00:26:26,959 Speaker 1: line in The Big Lebowski where what's his name Walter's like, 501 00:26:27,119 --> 00:26:29,800 Speaker 1: say what you will about national socialism. At least it's 502 00:26:29,800 --> 00:26:34,480 Speaker 1: an ethos. Hitler committed crimes on a on a similar, 503 00:26:34,520 --> 00:26:37,000 Speaker 1: if not much greater scale if you include all of 504 00:26:37,000 --> 00:26:40,320 Speaker 1: the war dead, but he had like an ideology behind it, 505 00:26:40,359 --> 00:26:43,960 Speaker 1: as opposed to Leopold, who this was never anything but money. 506 00:26:44,240 --> 00:26:47,560 Speaker 1: There was no hatred, there was no goal, there was 507 00:26:47,600 --> 00:26:50,479 Speaker 1: no view of the world. It was purely if I 508 00:26:50,520 --> 00:26:53,040 Speaker 1: can make money, and killing these people is the fastest 509 00:26:53,080 --> 00:26:55,600 Speaker 1: way to get it. I don't care what happens to 510 00:26:55,600 --> 00:26:58,680 Speaker 1: them because I want money. And it was also like separate. 511 00:26:58,720 --> 00:27:04,600 Speaker 1: I mean, obviously, I guess it's just different things. They 512 00:27:04,640 --> 00:27:07,800 Speaker 1: are very different things. Although, like when you look at 513 00:27:07,840 --> 00:27:10,280 Speaker 1: the Holocaust, and this is something that's often glossed over 514 00:27:10,280 --> 00:27:12,520 Speaker 1: when people talk about the Holocaust is how much of 515 00:27:12,560 --> 00:27:15,119 Speaker 1: it was a money making endeavor from the German state 516 00:27:15,480 --> 00:27:18,560 Speaker 1: because they were literally mining people to death in terms 517 00:27:18,560 --> 00:27:20,680 Speaker 1: of like taking their hair, taking the gold fillings out 518 00:27:20,680 --> 00:27:24,160 Speaker 1: of them, taking their businesses beforehand, and taking their property. 519 00:27:24,320 --> 00:27:26,199 Speaker 1: So I mean you have with most of like and 520 00:27:26,240 --> 00:27:28,520 Speaker 1: with really with every great genocide, because like if you 521 00:27:28,560 --> 00:27:30,440 Speaker 1: look at the Rwandan genocide, there was a lot of 522 00:27:30,480 --> 00:27:33,440 Speaker 1: financial motivation. There are people wanting each other's farms and one, yeah, 523 00:27:34,000 --> 00:27:36,280 Speaker 1: I I have to imagine like those are the things 524 00:27:36,320 --> 00:27:39,040 Speaker 1: that allow I mean, like all look but like all 525 00:27:39,119 --> 00:27:42,600 Speaker 1: conflict to It's like like especially anything sectarian or religious, 526 00:27:42,600 --> 00:27:45,640 Speaker 1: like the Crusades. You know, you can make an economic 527 00:27:45,680 --> 00:27:49,359 Speaker 1: case for the Crusades or or or colonialism or at large, 528 00:27:49,480 --> 00:27:52,359 Speaker 1: like all that is sort of possible. I think the 529 00:27:52,400 --> 00:27:56,040 Speaker 1: thing with Leopold's evil is as as we've discussed already. 530 00:27:56,080 --> 00:28:00,840 Speaker 1: It's like, though not in the same degree, anyone listening 531 00:28:00,880 --> 00:28:07,119 Speaker 1: to this on a podcast thing and on exactly is 532 00:28:07,440 --> 00:28:14,320 Speaker 1: complicit in something along Leopold's vector whereas it's fewer of 533 00:28:14,440 --> 00:28:19,359 Speaker 1: us listening to this podcast are complicit in some type 534 00:28:19,359 --> 00:28:21,840 Speaker 1: of thing that Hitler has involved in. So I think 535 00:28:21,840 --> 00:28:24,640 Speaker 1: it behooves us to say Hitler is more evil because 536 00:28:25,280 --> 00:28:28,320 Speaker 1: we don't want to be part you know. Yeah, the 537 00:28:28,320 --> 00:28:31,320 Speaker 1: banality that I mean, look, not banality, but the you know, 538 00:28:31,400 --> 00:28:35,320 Speaker 1: the it's in the direction of banality. I think you're 539 00:28:35,359 --> 00:28:37,560 Speaker 1: onto something that's great there. And I think that's why 540 00:28:37,640 --> 00:28:39,920 Speaker 1: the idea of the banality of evil is so important 541 00:28:40,040 --> 00:28:43,240 Speaker 1: is because Hitler is it's so easy to see the 542 00:28:43,280 --> 00:28:45,560 Speaker 1: evil and Hitler because he was he was showy with 543 00:28:45,720 --> 00:28:48,160 Speaker 1: like he's the most showy villain in all of history. 544 00:28:48,520 --> 00:28:51,360 Speaker 1: Leopold was a weird old man who had a stupid 545 00:28:51,400 --> 00:28:54,760 Speaker 1: beard and sat in his office and never shot anybody 546 00:28:54,800 --> 00:28:57,880 Speaker 1: in RhoD of tricycle to his mistress and was just 547 00:28:57,920 --> 00:29:01,600 Speaker 1: this weird old dude who was happy to orchestrate one 548 00:29:01,640 --> 00:29:04,160 Speaker 1: of like the great crimes in human history just for 549 00:29:04,360 --> 00:29:06,920 Speaker 1: some cash in his pocket. And that's scarier. Yeah, and 550 00:29:07,040 --> 00:29:09,080 Speaker 1: you can imagine that he doesn't come up with the 551 00:29:09,120 --> 00:29:12,040 Speaker 1: hands for bullets scheme. No, he's just doesn't need to. 552 00:29:12,320 --> 00:29:15,520 Speaker 1: We can't let them have bullets. We have to make 553 00:29:15,560 --> 00:29:18,200 Speaker 1: sure that, like we're accounting for all the bullets, that 554 00:29:18,240 --> 00:29:20,600 Speaker 1: they're not saving them up for a rebellion. What can 555 00:29:20,640 --> 00:29:22,560 Speaker 1: we do, Oh, well, we just make sure they prove 556 00:29:22,640 --> 00:29:24,600 Speaker 1: to us they're using the bullets for good reason when 557 00:29:24,640 --> 00:29:27,040 Speaker 1: they fire them. How about we have them bringing a hand. Great, 558 00:29:27,240 --> 00:29:29,560 Speaker 1: and that's probably the end of the cons and then 559 00:29:29,600 --> 00:29:33,719 Speaker 1: the first person people lose hands, like, then a crime 560 00:29:33,760 --> 00:29:36,280 Speaker 1: on an unspeakable scale happens. And he's just like sitting 561 00:29:36,280 --> 00:29:38,360 Speaker 1: at home being like, boy, I wonder why productions down 562 00:29:38,360 --> 00:29:40,280 Speaker 1: this week. But he can also be like, I'm not 563 00:29:40,320 --> 00:29:42,160 Speaker 1: the one that came up with the hands thing. It's 564 00:29:42,200 --> 00:29:44,080 Speaker 1: a shame. He can even be like all the hand 565 00:29:44,120 --> 00:29:46,720 Speaker 1: things are real shame. Yeah, that's a real shame. One 566 00:29:46,760 --> 00:29:49,640 Speaker 1: of my new guys, you know these you know the walloons. Yeah, 567 00:29:49,720 --> 00:29:51,720 Speaker 1: you put them in charge of something and they mess 568 00:29:51,760 --> 00:29:53,520 Speaker 1: it up. I hate that we have to do this, 569 00:29:53,600 --> 00:29:56,160 Speaker 1: but of course we do need that rubber. Yeah, that's 570 00:29:56,160 --> 00:29:58,080 Speaker 1: that's the thing that you know. And look, that's a 571 00:29:58,200 --> 00:30:02,360 Speaker 1: version of every one of us calls ourselves every fucking day. Yeah. 572 00:30:02,560 --> 00:30:05,720 Speaker 1: So that's why I think most people would say Hitler 573 00:30:05,800 --> 00:30:09,280 Speaker 1: is a worse, more evil person because we don't want 574 00:30:09,280 --> 00:30:13,400 Speaker 1: to be complicit in our own evil. Hey, everybody, this 575 00:30:13,480 --> 00:30:17,760 Speaker 1: is Robert Evans from the future. I realized that this 576 00:30:17,840 --> 00:30:20,200 Speaker 1: podcast was a teeny bit incomplete. There was some more 577 00:30:20,200 --> 00:30:22,320 Speaker 1: information I want to give out, so I gained access 578 00:30:22,360 --> 00:30:24,680 Speaker 1: to a time machine and went back in time to 579 00:30:24,680 --> 00:30:27,640 Speaker 1: to record it. It was either fixed the podcast or 580 00:30:27,720 --> 00:30:32,080 Speaker 1: stop nine eleven. Hopefully I made the right decision. But UM, 581 00:30:32,200 --> 00:30:34,600 Speaker 1: I wanted to say a little bit more about the Chakote, 582 00:30:34,720 --> 00:30:36,720 Speaker 1: which we we talked about a little bit in this podcast. 583 00:30:36,760 --> 00:30:39,800 Speaker 1: That's the hippo hyde whip that was the primary disciplinary 584 00:30:39,840 --> 00:30:43,440 Speaker 1: tool in the Congo Free State. UM. The book King 585 00:30:43,520 --> 00:30:45,720 Speaker 1: Leopold's Ghost makes a big deal out of the Chakote, 586 00:30:45,760 --> 00:30:48,240 Speaker 1: and it's probably true that the Belgians under Leopold whipped 587 00:30:48,240 --> 00:30:51,040 Speaker 1: more people to death than any other regime in history. UM. 588 00:30:51,080 --> 00:30:53,000 Speaker 1: But that book also points out that whipping people to 589 00:30:53,040 --> 00:30:55,200 Speaker 1: death or nearly to death was basically the bedrock that 590 00:30:55,240 --> 00:30:58,600 Speaker 1: colonialism was founded upon. UM. It relates the story of 591 00:30:58,600 --> 00:31:00,760 Speaker 1: a guy named Roger Casement. We didn't get to talk 592 00:31:00,760 --> 00:31:02,480 Speaker 1: to you in this podcast, but he's a very interesting dude. 593 00:31:02,520 --> 00:31:04,920 Speaker 1: He's one of the men who investigated atrocities in the Congo. 594 00:31:05,240 --> 00:31:08,000 Speaker 1: He also wound up investigating a lot of atrocities in 595 00:31:08,000 --> 00:31:10,720 Speaker 1: the Amazon at a place called Puta Mayo, where the 596 00:31:10,760 --> 00:31:13,960 Speaker 1: Peruvian Amazon Rubber Company had been caught basically enslaving and 597 00:31:14,040 --> 00:31:17,720 Speaker 1: murdering people to produce even more rubber. UM. And this 598 00:31:17,840 --> 00:31:19,600 Speaker 1: was for I think the British. It was mostly a 599 00:31:19,640 --> 00:31:21,960 Speaker 1: British owned company, although it was like a corporation with 600 00:31:22,040 --> 00:31:24,880 Speaker 1: a lot of different sort of stockholders behind it. UM 601 00:31:25,000 --> 00:31:28,760 Speaker 1: and the Peruvian Amazon Rubber Company dealt out punishments with 602 00:31:28,960 --> 00:31:31,000 Speaker 1: a whip of their own that was actually a two 603 00:31:31,000 --> 00:31:33,160 Speaker 1: peer hide whip UM, but it was similar to the 604 00:31:33,240 --> 00:31:36,760 Speaker 1: jacote and its effect. Roughly thirty thousand indigenous people in 605 00:31:36,800 --> 00:31:40,640 Speaker 1: the Amazon died mining rubber for that company. UM whips. 606 00:31:40,720 --> 00:31:43,160 Speaker 1: It turns out we're basically the glue that made colonialism 607 00:31:43,400 --> 00:31:45,840 Speaker 1: UM possible. I found one book on slavery in the 608 00:31:45,840 --> 00:31:48,560 Speaker 1: British West Indies published in eighteen twenty four, that admits 609 00:31:48,560 --> 00:31:51,840 Speaker 1: that whips were quote the main spring of the agricultural 610 00:31:51,880 --> 00:31:54,560 Speaker 1: system in that region of the Empire. Whips were also 611 00:31:54,560 --> 00:31:56,560 Speaker 1: critical to the French colonies as far back as the 612 00:31:56,560 --> 00:31:59,520 Speaker 1: seventeen hundreds, when a visitor to the French Antilles noticed 613 00:31:59,600 --> 00:32:02,840 Speaker 1: that the use of whips was quote always excessive and barbarous, 614 00:32:02,840 --> 00:32:05,160 Speaker 1: with the potential of maiming the victim by assaulting his 615 00:32:05,200 --> 00:32:08,040 Speaker 1: private parts or even killing him, if not instantly, as 616 00:32:08,040 --> 00:32:10,280 Speaker 1: has already been the case, in due course, as is 617 00:32:10,320 --> 00:32:13,960 Speaker 1: often the case. So whipping and slavery go hand in hand. Obviously. 618 00:32:13,960 --> 00:32:15,920 Speaker 1: I don't think most people are surprised by that, but 619 00:32:15,960 --> 00:32:17,360 Speaker 1: I think a lot of people would be surprised to 620 00:32:17,400 --> 00:32:20,840 Speaker 1: know that Europeans didn't stop whipping subject people once slavery 621 00:32:20,960 --> 00:32:24,200 Speaker 1: was over. The Congo and the Amazon are proof of that, um, 622 00:32:24,280 --> 00:32:27,400 Speaker 1: but the atomic bomb is actually even more proof. After 623 00:32:27,480 --> 00:32:30,800 Speaker 1: Leopold died, the Belgians continued to control the Congo region, 624 00:32:30,880 --> 00:32:33,440 Speaker 1: and they moved on from rubber farming to mining. In 625 00:32:33,480 --> 00:32:35,720 Speaker 1: the first six months of nineteen twenty, a single gold 626 00:32:35,760 --> 00:32:38,920 Speaker 1: mine is recorded as issuing over twenty six thousand lashes 627 00:32:38,960 --> 00:32:41,640 Speaker 1: to his workers, more than eight lashes for every single 628 00:32:41,680 --> 00:32:46,840 Speaker 1: African quote employed there. I say, you know, employed in 629 00:32:46,920 --> 00:32:50,000 Speaker 1: quotation marks. Because the Belgians kept right on using forced labor, 630 00:32:50,120 --> 00:32:51,960 Speaker 1: as did the British and Kenya up and into the 631 00:32:52,000 --> 00:32:55,680 Speaker 1: modern era. By World War Two, Belgium required a hundred 632 00:32:55,720 --> 00:32:58,440 Speaker 1: and twenty days per year of labor for each adult 633 00:32:58,480 --> 00:33:01,040 Speaker 1: male inhabitant of the Congo reach. And it turns out 634 00:33:01,080 --> 00:33:04,080 Speaker 1: that of the uranium mind to make the bombs dropped 635 00:33:04,080 --> 00:33:07,680 Speaker 1: on Hiroshima and Nagasaki came from Congolese minds that used 636 00:33:07,680 --> 00:33:10,479 Speaker 1: forced labor, which means we can thank the Jacote for 637 00:33:10,520 --> 00:33:13,920 Speaker 1: the first atom bombs. The British are also famous for 638 00:33:13,920 --> 00:33:16,080 Speaker 1: flogging their colonial subjects well into the middle of the 639 00:33:16,080 --> 00:33:18,640 Speaker 1: twentieth century. By the nineteen twenties, Kenya was the colony 640 00:33:18,680 --> 00:33:20,720 Speaker 1: where the British used the most corporal punishment, or as 641 00:33:20,760 --> 00:33:24,320 Speaker 1: they called it, rough justice UH. Flogging was seen to 642 00:33:24,360 --> 00:33:27,000 Speaker 1: be necessary in order to deal with the quote raw 643 00:33:27,160 --> 00:33:30,240 Speaker 1: native Africans, who were perhaps so raw because the British 644 00:33:30,320 --> 00:33:33,240 Speaker 1: regularly whipped them bloody uh. There were attempts in the 645 00:33:33,320 --> 00:33:35,800 Speaker 1: nineteen thirties to alter British penal laws in the colony 646 00:33:35,880 --> 00:33:38,160 Speaker 1: to be less brutal, but they didn't exactly stop the 647 00:33:38,160 --> 00:33:41,360 Speaker 1: problem of white colonists treating black natives like shit. Brutality 648 00:33:41,360 --> 00:33:44,000 Speaker 1: and the Kenyan colony eventually led to the Mau Mau Uprising, 649 00:33:44,000 --> 00:33:46,680 Speaker 1: which started in nineteen fifty two when a bunch of rebels, 650 00:33:46,720 --> 00:33:49,200 Speaker 1: calling themselves the Mau Mau killed thirty two white people. 651 00:33:49,880 --> 00:33:52,640 Speaker 1: This made England go batch it crazy. Uh. The English 652 00:33:52,680 --> 00:33:55,080 Speaker 1: forces rounded up a hundred and fifty thousand Kenyans and 653 00:33:55,120 --> 00:33:57,360 Speaker 1: through them into concentration camps, where they were starved and 654 00:33:57,360 --> 00:34:01,000 Speaker 1: beaten regularly. One survivor recalled, we were forced to do 655 00:34:01,080 --> 00:34:03,320 Speaker 1: work carrying bricks to build a school. We were beating 656 00:34:03,320 --> 00:34:05,400 Speaker 1: if we moved too slowly. It was very hard work. 657 00:34:05,440 --> 00:34:07,720 Speaker 1: They would just flog everyone. At times, four or five 658 00:34:07,760 --> 00:34:10,400 Speaker 1: guards with whips would come into the cell. So at 659 00:34:10,440 --> 00:34:13,560 Speaker 1: least twelve thousand people were killed during the Mamou uprising, 660 00:34:13,719 --> 00:34:15,239 Speaker 1: although it's hard to say how many of them died 661 00:34:15,239 --> 00:34:17,880 Speaker 1: from being whipped. The brutalizing effect of whipping people certainly 662 00:34:17,880 --> 00:34:19,759 Speaker 1: had an impact on the British men who did it. 663 00:34:20,120 --> 00:34:23,000 Speaker 1: A Kenyan judge who investigated whipping, torture and murder at 664 00:34:23,000 --> 00:34:25,760 Speaker 1: one British interrogation center compared it to a Nazi labor 665 00:34:25,760 --> 00:34:28,680 Speaker 1: camp and said, quote from the brutalizing of flogging, it 666 00:34:28,760 --> 00:34:31,799 Speaker 1: is only a step to taking a life without qualm. 667 00:34:31,840 --> 00:34:34,440 Speaker 1: So uh, I just thought this is a good information 668 00:34:34,480 --> 00:34:36,960 Speaker 1: to know. People talk about colonialism a lot and it 669 00:34:37,239 --> 00:34:40,279 Speaker 1: gets you know, a lot of well deserved harsh criticism 670 00:34:40,400 --> 00:34:43,080 Speaker 1: these days. But I think that the people who rightly 671 00:34:43,160 --> 00:34:46,320 Speaker 1: view it as a as a horrible historical crime also 672 00:34:46,400 --> 00:34:48,840 Speaker 1: tend to kind of push it further back in history 673 00:34:49,000 --> 00:34:51,000 Speaker 1: and sort of assume that most of the worst stuff 674 00:34:51,080 --> 00:34:53,600 Speaker 1: was done and you know, the seventeen and eighteen hundreds. 675 00:34:53,920 --> 00:34:57,799 Speaker 1: The reality is that colonialism was still exporting wealth from 676 00:34:58,120 --> 00:35:03,360 Speaker 1: African nations, you know, into Europe well into the twentieth century, 677 00:35:03,480 --> 00:35:06,239 Speaker 1: and that the European nations were using brutal and in 678 00:35:06,280 --> 00:35:10,000 Speaker 1: a lot of ways medieval justice measures in order to 679 00:35:10,080 --> 00:35:13,319 Speaker 1: keep the colonies compliant. So, uh, there's your happy little 680 00:35:13,320 --> 00:35:16,360 Speaker 1: reminder that not only was colonialism and nightmare, but it 681 00:35:16,440 --> 00:35:19,520 Speaker 1: is a nightmare that happened recently enough that a lot 682 00:35:19,560 --> 00:35:23,040 Speaker 1: of people are still alive to remember it today. Uh 683 00:35:23,120 --> 00:35:26,479 Speaker 1: So just keep that in mind, I guess. And now 684 00:35:26,520 --> 00:35:29,440 Speaker 1: I'm going to use my magical time powers to go 685 00:35:29,520 --> 00:35:32,200 Speaker 1: back to you know, when Andrew and I were sitting 686 00:35:32,239 --> 00:35:35,080 Speaker 1: in the room. Yeah, and we don't wanna We also 687 00:35:35,080 --> 00:35:38,200 Speaker 1: don't want to acknowledge like when you go to Belgium, 688 00:35:38,200 --> 00:35:40,520 Speaker 1: which I love Belgium, on there a couple of times 689 00:35:40,920 --> 00:35:43,719 Speaker 1: beautiful country, best beer I've ever had in the world, 690 00:35:43,920 --> 00:35:48,040 Speaker 1: gorgeous giant buildings, many in like the cities and stuff 691 00:35:48,280 --> 00:35:50,960 Speaker 1: like ain't really old, beautiful museums and stuff, many of 692 00:35:51,000 --> 00:35:56,360 Speaker 1: which are built on congo money um, and so you 693 00:35:56,480 --> 00:36:00,600 Speaker 1: don't and in like we're shooting on Belgium here, but 694 00:36:00,680 --> 00:36:02,600 Speaker 1: that's like all of Europe you go to, you go 695 00:36:02,680 --> 00:36:07,560 Speaker 1: to uh, American South and they're American North. Yeah, like 696 00:36:08,080 --> 00:36:11,520 Speaker 1: that's everything was built on the backs of that ship. 697 00:36:11,840 --> 00:36:16,239 Speaker 1: So and you know there's there were good people at 698 00:36:16,280 --> 00:36:19,000 Speaker 1: all times being like that sucks, this is really messed up. 699 00:36:19,160 --> 00:36:21,000 Speaker 1: But yeah, but that's the same every you pick up 700 00:36:21,040 --> 00:36:23,120 Speaker 1: an iPhone, you're like, it sucks that someone had a 701 00:36:23,160 --> 00:36:25,680 Speaker 1: south from that. I do need it though, well, and 702 00:36:25,719 --> 00:36:27,880 Speaker 1: there are and this is again the thing that Leopold's 703 00:36:27,880 --> 00:36:29,640 Speaker 1: Ghost is a good job of going into. There are 704 00:36:29,680 --> 00:36:32,759 Speaker 1: the heroes in this story. There's the guy like Colonel Washington, 705 00:36:32,840 --> 00:36:34,800 Speaker 1: who I was there and right, there's guys like Morrell 706 00:36:34,920 --> 00:36:37,400 Speaker 1: who are who like who don't even see it firsthand, 707 00:36:37,480 --> 00:36:40,440 Speaker 1: but put it together like this can't stand. I have 708 00:36:40,640 --> 00:36:43,359 Speaker 1: to do something and I hope that like like that's 709 00:36:43,400 --> 00:36:46,000 Speaker 1: the we got to focus on Leopold in this both 710 00:36:46,040 --> 00:36:48,720 Speaker 1: because his story is the blueprint of every terrible person 711 00:36:48,719 --> 00:36:50,960 Speaker 1: who came after him. He really is the first modern 712 00:36:51,640 --> 00:36:54,200 Speaker 1: monster world like head of State, the first one to 713 00:36:54,320 --> 00:36:58,120 Speaker 1: use pr in a really modern way. But it's important. 714 00:36:58,120 --> 00:36:59,920 Speaker 1: It's just as important to think about the guys like Morrell, 715 00:37:00,520 --> 00:37:03,239 Speaker 1: who are probably more relevant to our own lives because 716 00:37:03,239 --> 00:37:06,319 Speaker 1: they pointed like, well, you can do something. Yeah, and 717 00:37:06,360 --> 00:37:08,760 Speaker 1: you don't have to just say this it's a shame, 718 00:37:08,840 --> 00:37:13,799 Speaker 1: yeah exactly, and it might take fifteen years, but you can. Yeah, Like, 719 00:37:14,080 --> 00:37:16,799 Speaker 1: these guys will still win to some extent, but you 720 00:37:16,840 --> 00:37:20,120 Speaker 1: can know where the margins by which they win you 721 00:37:20,120 --> 00:37:22,680 Speaker 1: can put into their profits. Well, right, it's a it's 722 00:37:22,719 --> 00:37:24,239 Speaker 1: just a battle. All you can do is make it 723 00:37:24,320 --> 00:37:30,480 Speaker 1: less profitable. The Capitalist Revolution. That is our podcast for 724 00:37:30,520 --> 00:37:34,160 Speaker 1: the week. Uh, Andrew, you want to plug your plugables? 725 00:37:34,160 --> 00:37:36,480 Speaker 1: Oh yeah, well just just please listen to you know, 726 00:37:36,640 --> 00:37:38,840 Speaker 1: is this racist? Uh? I used to think it was 727 00:37:38,840 --> 00:37:41,880 Speaker 1: the most depressing podcast on the internet, but not anymore. 728 00:37:43,280 --> 00:37:45,200 Speaker 1: And I'm Robert Evans. You can find me on Twitter 729 00:37:45,239 --> 00:37:48,080 Speaker 1: at at I right, okay, you can find this podcast 730 00:37:48,120 --> 00:37:50,560 Speaker 1: on the internet at Behind the Bastards dot com. You 731 00:37:50,560 --> 00:37:53,400 Speaker 1: can find us on social media at at Bastard's Pod. 732 00:37:54,480 --> 00:37:56,960 Speaker 1: I've got a book you can find on Amazon, Brief 733 00:37:57,000 --> 00:38:00,000 Speaker 1: History of Vice. Um, so yeah, check my stuff out, 734 00:38:00,160 --> 00:38:03,040 Speaker 1: check us out. We will be back every single Tuesday 735 00:38:03,080 --> 00:38:05,040 Speaker 1: from now until the heat death of the Universe with 736 00:38:05,120 --> 00:38:08,640 Speaker 1: a new Bastard. So check that us next. Yes, I 737 00:38:08,680 --> 00:38:19,200 Speaker 1: can't wait. Yep. Okay, m h m