King Leopold didn’t enter the Congo as an invading army; he went in as a charity. He founded a group that was originally called the International African Association. They were a humanitarian organization that promised to make life better in Africa, and they received donations from around the world.

Most people who donated to the International African Association thought they were helping to fund public works in the Congo and putting an end to slavery in East Africa. 

Somewhere between 10 to 15 million were murdered, brutally.

When an entire village failed to meet its quota or refused to pay the rubber tax, soldiers were sent in. An army of men would march into the town, slaughter the people, and burn the village to the ground. This happened a lot. One Swedish missionary reported that 45 towns had burned down in his area alone since he’d arrived.

Some villages were destroyed for almost no reason at all. One village was decimated by the soldiers, with 50 men killed and 28 taken prisoner. The women were chained neck to neck and dragged out of the town. Although they had met their quota, their recorded infraction was that “the rubber brought by the villagers to the State was not of the best quality.”


The entire population was enslaved and 32 towns were destroyed while 'mapping' the congo. Workers who didn’t meet their quotas were dismembered, limb by limb, or killed. Workers were frequently brutally beaten because in order to get the vines to make the rubber, they had to climb to dangerous places.

All the Congolese were vaccinated - and somehow over 500,000 died. "Sleeping sickness" was endemic.

The Belgians used psychological terror as a way to motivate the Congolese. In some places, this meant doing some horrible things to the workers’ families.

Women were often kidnapped from villages that didn’t provide enough rubber. They were held hostage until the chief could meet his quota. Even then, though, the women often stayed prisoners. When the quota was met, the men of the village had to buy back their wives by giving up some of their livestock

One African soldier reported that his European commander had ordered him to make an example of the town. “He ordered us to cut off the heads of the men and hang them on the village palisades, also their sexual members,” the soldier said, “and to hang the women and children on the palisade in the form of a cross.”

After a massacre, the papers reported, “Some of the victims were eaten by cannibals. [ . . . ] The bodies of all who were slain were mutilated, their heads having been cut off. [ . . . ] From three bodies, the flesh has been carved and eaten.”

One man named Nsala was interviewed after being photographed looking at his five-year-old daughter’s severed hand. He explained to the photographer that his daughter had lost her hand because he hadn’t made his rubber quota that day. His overseer had cut off her hand and foot, killed her and the man’s wife, and cannibalized both victims.

Then the soldiers gave the body parts to the man, a token to remind him that he had better meet his quota next time.

Don't forget, all of this was done by a humanitarian organization.