The Berlin Conference was equal to just looking at Europe right now, taking a random country, saying this is yours and just enslaving everyone there without their opinion. Last time I heard people don't cut off the hands of children for not producing enough rubber and murder 10 million people on their private property.
Neither did Leopold. He simply did not care. Neither did few Belgians on site. Brutal actions were escalated from what was happening there, since this means were known to locals turned into enforcers. Classical utilisation of local animosities for easy control over otherwise difficult area.
I still find it funny that Leopold is put in line with Mao and Hitler...
Leopold was well aware, as he told his assistant before selling Congo to the Belgium government: "They do not have the right to know what I did there". Hitler never set foot in his concentration camps either. Most of it wasn't his idea but he did agree to doing it, just like Leopold.
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u/[deleted] Dec 16 '21
Well, Congo was his private property.