Quote:
Originally Posted by pj67coll
The civil war was not caused by the big bad foreigners stealing all their mineral wealth.
- Peter.
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I forgot you're from South Africa.
This is from Wikepedia:
"Congo Free State (1885–1908)
Main article: Congo Free State
Children mutilated during King Leopold II's rule
The Congo Free State was a corporate state privately controlled by Leopold II, King of the Belgians through the Association Internationale Africaine, a non-governmental organization. Leopold was the sole shareholder and chairman. The state included the entire area of the present Democratic Republic of the Congo. Under Leopold II's administration, the Congo Free State became the site of one of the most infamous international scandals of the turn of the twentieth century. The report of the British Consul Roger Casement led to the arrest and punishment of white officials who had been responsible for cold-blooded killings during a rubber-collecting expedition in 1903, including one Belgian national for causing the shooting of at least 122 Congolese natives. Estimates of the total death toll vary considerably. In the absence of a census, the first was made in 1924, it is even more difficult to quantify the population loss of the period. Roger Casement's famous 1904 report estimated ten million people. According to Casement's report, indiscriminate "war", starvation, reduction of births and tropical diseases caused the country's depopulation.[1]
The European and U.S. press agencies exposed the conditions in the Congo Free State to the public in 1900. By 1908 public and diplomatic pressure led Leopold II to the annex the Congo as the Belgian Congo colony."
"Belgian Congo (1908–1960)
Main article: Belgian Congo
On November 15, 1908 King Léopold II of Belgium formally relinquished personal control of the Congo Free State. The renamed Belgian Congo came under the administration of the Belgian parliament, which lasted until independence was granted in 1960.[citation needed]
The Belgian administration might be most charitably characterized as paternalistic colonialism. Roman Catholic and Protestant churches dominated the education system and the curricula reflected Christian and Western values. In 1948 Christian missions controlled 99.6% of educational facilities. They had little regard for native culture and beliefs. Native schools provided a mainly religious and vocational education."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Democratic_Republic_of_the_Congo