Congo (Kinshasa), Congo free state, 5 Centimes – 1888

Description

The Free State of the Congo was a personal possession of King Leopold of Belgium, which convinced the other European powers at the Berlin conference of 1885 of its humanitarian purposes to achieve control of the region. Leopoldo had financed the exploration of the area hiring Stanley who secured treaties with local leaders before the Berlin conference. The Congo free state covered the Congo basin, in what is now the democratic republic of the Congo and the reign of Leopoldo was infamous due to the amount of atrocities committed by the monarch, who ordered the territory for its enrichment and personal recreation with numerous atrocities committed. Leopoldo extracted ivory, rubber and minerals through a framework of companies that hid the activities, since only humanitarian and philanthropic actions were supposed in the region. The British consul report in 1903 was essential to uncover reality and to increase international pressure. This pressure leads to the annexation by the Belgian Parliament of the territory in 1908 becoming the Belgian Congo.