Congo Free State
Topic: The Making of a Global World · NCERT: Beyond NCERT
Meaning
The Congo Free State was a large territory in central Africa. From 1885 to 1908 it was the personal property of King Leopold II of Belgium, not a colony of the Belgian state. Africans there were forced to collect wild rubber for export. Those who failed to collect enough faced brutal punishments, and millions are believed to have died. It is one of the worst examples of the "carving up" of Africa by European powers in the late 19th century.
Example
Leopold's control over the Congo was accepted around the time of the Berlin conference of 1885, where European powers divided Africa among themselves. After an international outcry against the abuses, the Belgian state took over the territory in 1908, and it became the Belgian Congo.