Belgian Congo facts

While investigating facts about Belgian Congo Genocide and Belgian Congo Slavery, I found out little known, but curios details like:

Belgian Colonists cut the hands of children if villages did not meet Rubber Quotas in Congo

how many died in belgian congo?

In 1961 Belgians, with CIA involvement, ordered the murder of a democratically elected Prime Minister of Congo who just wanted for the Congolese to regain the natural resources still being under foreign control since the colonial times

What happened in the belgian congo?

In my opinion, it is useful to put together a list of the most interesting details from trusted sources that I've come across answering what was the belgian congo. Here are 21 of the best facts about Belgian Congo Map and Belgian Congo Hands I managed to collect.

what were the effects of belgian rule of the congo?

1. Patrice Lumumba ,the first democratically elected PM of Congo and a pan-Africanist, lasted only 81 days before being killed by the Belgians and the CIA

2. Remy Van Lierde, a Belgian pilot and fighter ace, spotted and photographed a Giant Congo Snake emerging from a hole as he flew over the forests, that he claimed was close to 50 feet in length.

3. Belgians in the Congo would demand severed hands as punishment from Africans who failed to fulfil rubber quotas. Because the quotas were so unrealistic, severed hands became a currency in and of themselves - "soldiers were paid their bonuses on the basis of how many hands they collected"

4. Belgian and US involvement in the deposition and assassination of Patrice Lumumba, Congo's first Prime Minister after gaining Independence from Belgium. The West backed Joseph Mobutu who would become well known for his dictatorship and corruption in the Congo.

5. Léon Rom, a Belgian soldier and officer in the Congo, who was known to keep severed heads of Africans in his flower bed, and kept a gallows permanently in place at his station. Some speculate that he was the inspiration for Kurtz in "Heart of Darkness".

6. There's a Belgian prince who controls Africa's oldest national park in the Congo

7. The uranium for the Manhattan Project and the Atomic Bomb came from a Belgian mine in the Congo. Not wanting it to fall into Axis hands, the director had secretly sent it to New York in 1940 after flooding the mine, two years before he would be contacted by the U.S. government to purchase it.

8. The Belgian colonization of the Congo occurred under a front organization known as the International African Association, that portrayed itself as an altruistic and charitable organization, and received donations from families such as the Rothschilds and Viscount Ferdinand de Lesseps

9. Parents used to punish children by force-feeding them castor oil. It was also used as a torture method against Jews and political dissidents in Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, and as punishment for those 'too sick to work' in the Belgian Congo. Many died from dehydration from consuming too much.

10. HIV-1 originated in Leopoldville in Belgian Congo (modern-day Kinshasa), and colonial practices contributed to its crossover, transmission, and emergence out of Leopoldville.

Why was the belgian congo colonized?

You can easily fact check why did the belgian congo gain independence by examining the linked well-known sources.

The largest concentration of countries to never ban homosexuality is in Africa. A belt of former French and Belgian colonies from Mali to the Congo has never banned gay sex.

When the Belgians pulled out of the Congo in 1960, they left some 30 Congolese university graduates to fill over 4,000 administrative posts. This action left virtually no one who knew how to manage a country that size and dramatically furthered mass unrest. - source

David Norris, the Irish gay rights activist whose lawsuit resulting in Ireland decriminalizing homosexuality, was born in Leopoldville in the Belgian Congo (modern-day Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo) - source

Roger Casement. He authored the 1904 Casement Report investigating atrocities in the Belgian Congo rubber plantations and was knighted for similar efforts in Peru. He was executed for his involvement in the Easter Rising of 1916 which precipitated the creation of Ireland and Northern Ireland.

William Unek, an African police constable who committed 2 mass murders 3 years apart; first in the Belgian Congo in 1954 where he killed 21 people with an ax, and the next in modern day Tanzania in 1957 where he killed another 36 people. - source

When did belgian congo gain independence?

In private colony of Belgian king Leopold II in Congo, along many other atrocities, there was a punishment of cutting hands of workers who did not make the quota. As in an act of justice, last son of the king was born with a deformed hand.

How did the belgian congo gain independence?

Boma was the capital city of the Congo Free State and Belgian Congo from 1886 to 1926. In 1884 the people of Boma were forced to 'grant' a protectorate of their country to the International Association of the Congo, made up of European powers

The largest hostage crisis in history was on the Congo River & involved 2,000 European/American prisoners, Belgian commandos, the U.S. Air Force, Cuban CIA pilots, and hundreds of mercenaries.

The Belgian Colonialists would cut off the limbs of workers who failed to bring in enough rubber in the Belgian Congo.