Belgians in the Congo. Congo: the bleeding heart of Africa. "Free State" of King Leopold

Implementation time: 1884 - 1908
Victims: indigenous people of the Congo
Place: Congo
Character: racial
Organizers and performers: King Leopold II of Belgium, detachments of the "Public Forces"

In 1865, Leopold II ascended the Belgian throne. Since Belgium was a constitutional monarchy, the country was ruled by a parliament, and the king had no real political power. Having become king, Leopold began to advocate for the transformation of Belgium into a colonial power, trying to convince the Belgian parliament to adopt the experience of other European powers actively developing the lands of Asia and Africa. However, having stumbled upon the complete indifference of the Belgian parliamentarians, Leopold decided to establish his personal colonial empire at any cost.

In 1876, he sponsors an international geographical conference in Brussels, during which he proposes the creation of an international charitable organization to "spread civilization" among the population of the Congo. One of the goals of the organization was to be the fight against the slave trade in the region. As a result, the "International African Association" was created, of which Leopold himself became president. Hectic activity in the field of charity secured his reputation as a philanthropist and the main patron of Africans.

In 1884–85 A conference of European powers is convened in Berlin to divide the territories of Central Africa. Thanks to skillful intrigues, Leopold gets into his property a territory of 2.3 million square kilometers on the southern bank of the Congo River and establishes the so-called. Free State of the Congo. According to the Berlin agreements, he undertook to take care of the welfare of the local population, "improve the moral and material conditions of their lives", fight the slave trade, encourage the work of Christian missions and scientific expeditions, and promote free trade in the region.

The area of ​​the new possessions of the king was 76 times the area of ​​Belgium itself. To keep the multi-million population of the Congo under control, the so-called. "Public forces" (Force Publique) - a private army formed from a number of local warlike tribes, under the command of European officers.

The basis of Leopold's wealth was the export of natural rubber and ivory. Working conditions on the rubber plantations were unbearable: hundreds of thousands of people died from starvation and epidemics. Often, in order to force local residents to work, the authorities of the colony took women hostage and kept them under arrest during the entire rubber harvest season.

For the slightest offense, workers were maimed and killed. As evidence of the “targeted” consumption of cartridges during punitive operations, the fighters of the “Public Forces” were required to present the severed hands of the dead. It happened that, having spent more cartridges than allowed, the punishers cut off the hands of living and innocent people. Subsequently, photographs taken by missionaries of devastated villages and crippled Africans, including women and children, were shown to the world and had a huge impact on the formation of public opinion, under the pressure of which in 1908 the king was forced to sell his possessions to the state of Belgium. Note that by this time he was one of the richest people in Europe.

The exact number of dead Congolese during the reign of Leopold is unknown, but experts agree that over 20 years the population of the Congo has declined. Figures range from three to ten million dead and premature deaths. In 1920, the population of the Congo was only half the population of 1880.

Some modern Belgian historians, despite the presence of a huge amount of documentary materials, including photographs, unequivocally proving the genocidal nature of Leopold's reign, do not recognize the fact of the genocide of the indigenous population of the Congo.

The Second Congo War, also known as the Great African War (1998-2002), was a war on the territory of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, in which more than twenty armed groups representing nine states participated. By 2008, the war and subsequent events had killed 5.4 million people, mostly from disease and starvation, making it one of the bloodiest wars in world history and the deadliest conflict since World War II.

Some of the photos shown here are just awful. Please, children and people with unstable mentality, refrain from viewing.

A bit of history. Until 1960, the Congo was a Belgian colony, on June 30, 1960 it gained independence under the name of the Republic of the Congo. Renamed Zaire in 1971. In 1965, Joseph-Desire Mobutu came to power. Under the guise of slogans of nationalism and the fight against the influence of the mzungu (white people), he carried out partial nationalization and cracked down on his opponents. But the communist paradise "in African" did not work out. Mobutu's reign went down in history as one of the most corrupt in the twentieth century. Bribery and embezzlement flourished. The president himself had several palaces in Kinshasa and other cities of the country, a whole fleet of Mercedes and personal capital in Swiss banks, which by 1984 amounted to approximately $ 5 billion (at that time this amount was comparable to the country's external debt). Like many other dictators, Mobutu was elevated to the status of an almost demigod during his lifetime. He was called "the father of the people", "the savior of the nation". His portraits hung in most public institutions; members of parliament and government wore badges with the president's portrait. In the headline of the evening news, Mobutu appeared every day sitting in heaven. Each banknote also featured a picture of the president.

In honor of Mobutu, Lake Albert was renamed (1973), which since the 19th century has been named after the husband of Queen Victoria. Only part of the water area of ​​this lake belonged to Zaire; in Uganda, the old name was used, but in the USSR the renaming was recognized, and in all reference books and maps Lake Mobutu-Sese-Seko was listed. After the overthrow of Mobutu in 1996, the former name was restored. However, today it became known that Joseph-Desire Mobutu had close “friendly” contacts with the US CIA, which continued even after the US declared him persona non grata at the end of the Cold War.

During the Cold War, Mobutu led a rather pro-Western foreign policy, in particular, supporting the anti-communist rebels of Angola (UNITA). However, it cannot be said that Zaire's relations with the socialist countries were hostile: Mobutu was a friend of the Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu, established good relations with China and North Korea, and allowed the Soviet Union to build an embassy in Kinshasa.

Joseph Desire Mobutu

All this led to the fact that the economic and social infrastructure of the country was almost completely destroyed. Wages were delayed for months, the number of hungry and unemployed reached unprecedented levels, inflation was at a high level. The only profession that guaranteed stable high earnings was the military profession: the army was the backbone of the regime.

In 1975, an economic crisis began in Zaire, in 1989 a default was declared: the state was unable to pay its external debt. Under Mobutu, social benefits were introduced for families with many children, the disabled, etc., but due to high inflation, these benefits quickly depreciated.

In the mid-1990s, a mass genocide began in neighboring Rwanda, and several hundred thousand people fled to Zaire. Mobutu sent government troops to the eastern regions of the country to expel refugees from there, and at the same time the Tutsi people (in 1996, these people were ordered to leave the country). These actions caused widespread discontent in the country, and in October 1996 the Tutsis rebelled against the Mobutu regime. Together with other rebels, they united in the Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of the Congo. Led by Laurent Kabila, the organization was supported by the governments of Uganda and Rwanda.

Government troops could not oppose anything to the rebels, and in May 1997, opposition troops entered Kinshasa. Mobutu fled the country, again renamed the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

This was the beginning of the so-called Great African War, in which more than twenty armed groups representing nine African states participated. More than 5 million people died in it.

Kabila, who came to power in the DRC with the help of the Rwandans, turned out to be not a puppet at all, but a completely independent political figure. He refused to dance to the tune of the Rwandans and declared himself a Marxist and follower of Mao Zedong. Having removed his Tutsi "friends" from the government, Kabila received in response a mutiny of the two best formations of the new army of the DRC. On August 2, 1998, the 10th and 12th infantry brigades rebelled in the country. In addition to this, fighting broke out in Kinshasa, where Tutsi fighters flatly refused to disarm.

On August 4, Colonel James Cabarere (Tutsi by origin) hijacked a passenger plane and, together with his followers, flew it to the city of Kitona (the rear of the DRC government troops). Here he teamed up with the frustrated fighters of Mobutu's army and opened a Second Front against Kabila. The rebels captured the ports of the Bas-Congo and took control of the Iga Falls hydroelectric plant.

Kabila scratched his black turnip and turned to his Angolan comrades for help. On August 23, 1998, Angola entered the conflict, throwing tank columns into battle. On August 31, Cabarere's forces were destroyed. The few surviving rebels retreated into friendly UNITA territory. To the heap, Zimbabwe (a friend of the Russian Federation in Africa, where salaries are given in millions of Zimbabwean dollars) joined the massacre, which deployed 11 thousand soldiers to the DRC; and Chad, on whose side the Libyan mercenaries fought.

Laurent Kabila

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It is worth noting that the 140,000th DRC forces were demoralized by the events taking place. Of all this crowd of people, Kabila was supported by no more than 20,000 people. The rest fled into the jungle, settled in the villages with tanks and evaded the fighting. The most unstable raised another rebellion and formed the RCD (Congolese Rally for Democracy or the Congolese Movement for Democracy). In October 1998, the position of the rebels became so critical that Rwanda intervened in the bloody conflict. Kindu fell under the blows of the Rwandan army. At the same time, the rebels actively used satellite phones and confidently escaped from under the blows of government artillery, using electronic intelligence systems.

Starting in the fall of 1998, Zimbabwe began to use Mi-35s in combat, which struck from the Thornhill base and, apparently, were controlled by Russian military specialists. Angola threw into battle the Su-25s bought in Ukraine. It seemed that these forces would be enough to grind the rebels to powder, but no such luck. The Tutsis and the RCD were well prepared for the war, acquiring a significant number of MANPADS and anti-aircraft guns, after which they began to clear the sky of enemy vehicles. On the other hand, the rebels failed to create their own air force. The infamous Viktor Bout managed to form an air bridge consisting of several transport vehicles. With the help of an air bridge, Rwanda began to transfer its own military units to the Congo.

It is worth noting that at the end of 1998, the rebels began to shoot down civilian planes landing on the territory of the DRC. For example, in December 1998, a Boeing 727-100 of Congo Airlines was shot down from a MANPADS. The rocket hit the engine, after which the plane caught fire and crashed into the jungle.

By the end of 1999, the Great African War was reduced to the confrontation between the DRC, Angola, Namibia, Chad and Zimbabwe against Rwanda and Uganda.

After the end of the rainy season, the rebels formed three fronts of resistance, and went on the offensive against government troops. However, the rebels could not maintain unity in their ranks. In August 1999, the armed forces of Uganda and Rwanda entered into a military clash with each other, failing to share the Kisagani diamond mines. In less than a week, the rebels forgot about the troops of the DRC and began to selflessly divide diamonds (that is, to wet each other with Kalash, tanks and self-propelled guns).

In November, large-scale civil strife subsided and the rebels initiated a second wave of offensive. The city of Basankusu was under siege. The Zimbabwean garrison defending the city was cut off from the allied units, and its supply was carried out by air. Surprisingly, the rebels were never able to take the city. There was not enough strength for the final assault, Basankusu remained under the control of government troops.

A year later, in the fall of 2000, the Kabila government forces (in alliance with the army of Zimbabwe), using aircraft, tanks and cannon artillery, threw the rebels out of Katanga and recaptured the vast majority of the captured cities. In December, hostilities were suspended. In Harare, an agreement was signed to create a ten-mile security zone along the front line and deploy UN observers in it.

During 2001–2002 the regional balance of power did not change. Opponents, tired of the bloody war, exchanged sluggish blows. On July 20, 2002, Joseph Kabila and Rwandan President Paul Kagame signed a peace agreement in Pretoria. In accordance with it, a 20,000-strong contingent of the Rwandan army was withdrawn from the DRC, all Tutsi organizations on the territory of the DRC were officially recognized, and Hutu armed formations were disarmed. On September 27, 2002, Rwanda began the withdrawal of its first units from the territory of the DRC. Other participants in the conflict followed.
However, in the Congo itself, the situation has changed in the most tragic way. On January 16, 2001, the assassin's bullet overtook the President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Laurent Kabila. The government of the Congo is still hiding from the public the circumstances of his death. According to the most popular version, the reason for the murder was the conflict between Kabila and the deputy. Minister of Defense of the Congo - Kayabe.

The military decided to carry out a coup d'état after it became known that President Kabila had instructed his son to arrest Kayambe. Zam, along with several other high-ranking military officers, made their way to Kabila's residence. There, Kayambe drew a pistol and shot the president 3 times. As a result of the ensuing skirmish, the president was killed, Kabila's son, Joseph, and three of the president's guards were injured. Cayambe was destroyed on the spot. The fate of his assistants is unknown. All are listed as MIA, although most likely they have been killed long ago.
Kabila's son, Joseph, became the new president of the Congo.

In May 2003, a civil war broke out between the Congolese Hema and Lendu tribes. At the same time, 700 UN troops found themselves in the very center of the massacre, who had to endure attacks coming from both sides of the conflict. The French looked at what was happening, and drove 10 Mirage fighter-bombers to neighboring Uganda. The conflict between the tribes was extinguished only after France delivered an ultimatum to the combatants (either the conflict ends, or the French aviation begins to bombard enemy positions). The terms of the ultimatum were met.

The Great African War finally ended on June 30, 2003. On this day, in Kinshasa, the rebels and the new president of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Joseph Kabila, signed a peace agreement, dividing power. The headquarters of the armed forces and the navy remained under the authority of the president, the rebel leaders led the ground forces and the air force. The country was divided into 10 military districts, handing them over to the leaders of the main groups.

The large-scale African war ended with the victory of government troops. However, peace never came to the Congo, as the Congolese Ituri tribes declared war on the United Nations (MONUC mission), which led to another massacre.

It is worth noting that the Ituri used the tactics of a "small war" - they mined roads, raided checkpoints and patrols. The UN-sheep crushed the rebels with aircraft, tanks and artillery. In 2003, the UN conducted a series of major military operations, as a result of which many rebel camps were destroyed, and Ituri leaders were sent to the next world. In June 2004, the Tutsi raised an anti-government insurgency in South and North Kivu. The next leader of the irreconcilables was Colonel Laurent Nkunda (a former ally of Kabila Sr.). Nkunda founded the National Congress for the Defense of the Tutsi Peoples (CNDP for short). The military operations of the DRC army against the rebel colonel lasted for five years. At the same time, by 2007, five rebel brigades were under the control of Nkunda.

When Nkunda drove the DRC forces out of the Virunga National Park, the UN sheep again came to the aid of Kabila (the so-called Battle of Goma). The onslaught of the rebels was stopped by a furious blow of "white" tanks and helicopters. It is worth noting that for several days the combatants fought on equal terms. The rebels actively destroyed UN equipment and even took control of two cities. At some point, the UN field commanders decided “That's it! Enough!" and used multiple launch rocket systems and cannon artillery in battles. It was then that the forces of Nkunda came to a natural end. On January 22, 2009, Laurent Nkunda was arrested during a joint military operation by the Congolese and Rwandan army after his escape to Rwanda.

Colonel Laurent Nkunda

Currently, the conflict in the territory of the DRC continues. The government of the country, with the support of UN forces, is waging war against a wide variety of rebels who control not only remote parts of the country, but also try to attack large cities and make attacks on the capital of a Democratic state. For example, at the end of 2013, the rebels tried to take control of the capital's airport.

A separate paragraph should be said about the uprising of the M23 group, which included former soldiers of the army of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The uprising began in April 2012 in the east of the country. In November of the same year, the rebels managed to capture the city of Goma on the border with Rwanda, but government forces soon drove them out. During the conflict between the central government and M23, several tens of thousands of people died in the country, more than 800 thousand people were forced to leave their homes.

In October 2013, the DRC authorities announced the complete victory of the M23. However, this victory is of a local nature, since the border provinces are controlled by various bandit groups and mercenary groups that are not incorporated into the vertical of Congolese power. The next amnesty interval (with the subsequent surrender of weapons) expired for the Congo rebels in March 2014. Naturally, no one handed over their weapons (there were no idiots on the border). Thus, the conflict that began 17 years ago and does not think to end, which means that the battle for the Congo is still ongoing.

Colonel Sultani Makenga, rebel leader from M23.

These are the fighters of the French "Foreign Legion" patrolling the village market. They do not wear hats because of the special "caste" chic ...

These are wounds left by a panga - a wide and heavy knife, a local version of the machete.

And here is the panga itself.

This time the panga was used as a carving knife...

But sometimes there are too many marauders, the inevitable quarrels over food, who will get the "roast" today:

Many corpses burned in conflagrations, after battles with rebels, simbu, just marauders and bandits, often do not count some parts of the body. Please note that both feet are missing from the female charred corpse - most likely they were cut off even before the fire. The arm and part of the sternum - after.

And this is already a whole caravan, recaptured by the government unit from the Simbu ... They should have been eaten.

However, not only the Simba and the rebels, but also regular army units are engaged in looting and robbery of the local population. Both their own and those who came to the territory of the DRC from Rwanda, Angola, and so on. As well as private armies consisting of mercenaries. Among them there are many Europeans ...

In the second half of the 19th century, the progressive European powers decided to introduce the indigenous African population to civilization, and seriously engaged in the development of the "black continent". It was under this pretext that groups of European and American scientists and researchers were sent to Africa, and ordinary people thought the same way. In fact, no one pursued good goals, the capitalists needed resources, and they got them.

At home, Leopold II is known as a great monarch who developed the economy of his country. In fact, the prosperity of Belgium and the state of the king ensured the oppression of the inhabitants of the Congo. In 1884-1885, the Congo Free State was created, headed by the King of Belgium. A small European state began to control an area 76 times larger than its own. Rubber trees were of particular value in the Congo, and the demand for rubber increased greatly at the end of the 19th century.

Leopold introduced cruel laws in the country, obliging local residents to work in the extraction of rubber. Production standards were set, for the implementation of which one had to work 14-16 hours a day. Failure to comply with the standard entailed punishment, and refusal to work was sometimes punishable by death. As a warning to others, entire villages were sometimes even destroyed. The so-called Public Forces controlled the situation in the country. These organizations were led by former military men from Europe, who hired thugs from all over Africa to "work". It was they who punished and executed the guilty people of the Congo Free State, which was a huge colony of slaves.

Cutting off hands and inflicting various injuries was a particularly common punishment. Cartridges were saved in case of uprisings. In 10 years, rubber exports grew from 81 tons to 6,000 tons in 1901. The local population was subjected to exorbitant taxes, however, this was not enough for the Belgian king. He became a real millionaire, while in the Congo people were dying from epidemics, hunger and the actions of people subordinate to him. In total, from 1884 to 1908, about 10 million local residents died in the Congo.

It took several years to draw the attention of the public and world powers to the situation in the Congo. In 1908, Leopold was removed from power, but he destroyed the traces of his atrocities. For many years, only a few knew about the genocide of the Congolese, and in Belgium itself there was even a monument “to the king from the grateful inhabitants of the Congo.” In 2004, a group of activists cut off the hand of a Congolese sculpture so that no one would forget the cost of Belgium's economic success.

In the photo, a man looks at the severed arm and leg of his five-year-old daughter, who was killed by employees of the Anglo-Belgian Rubber Company as punishment for a bad job collecting rubber. Congo, 1900

Leopold II (King of the Belgians)

The American film "Apocalypse Now" has long become a classic of cinema, and one of its characters, the crazy Colonel Kurtz, is practically the standard of madness on the screen. But few people know that the novel Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad, which inspired the creators of this film, was written based on real events that took place in the Congo at the end of the 19th century. And they were much darker than any movie fantasy ...

Bastard and throne

The gigantic territory of the Congo Basin for a long time remained beyond the reach of European discoverers, although the banks near its mouth were still visited by Portuguese caravels at the end of the 15th century. Dense tropical forests prevented them from penetrating deep into uncharted lands, and cascades of huge waterfalls prevented them from going up the Congo River. To this was added a whole bunch of infections and a truly deadly climate for Europeans. Therefore, the territories located in the heart of the "Black Continent" remained unknown until the 1870s - the era of amazing people and no less amazing events.

Map of the Congo, 1906
culture22.dk

One of these people was born on January 28, 1841 in the small Welsh town of Danby and was baptized under the name "John Rowlands, bastard." His mother, Betsy Perry, was a housewife, and John did not know anything about his father: there were too many "candidates", including the local drunk John Rowlands.

From the age of six, John lived in a workhouse in St. Asaph, where he fully drank the atmosphere characteristic of such establishments. At the age of fifteen, he left the inhospitable walls, and two years later he signed up as a cabin boy on an American sailing ship and arrived in New Orleans. The surrounding people remembered the mind of the young man and his tendency to boast. After some time, Rowlands changed his surname to Rolling, and later decided to name himself after the merchant Henry Stanley, who gave him a job. So the New World recognized the ambitious journalist Henry Morton Stanley. Stanley later claimed that he not only grew up in the United States, but was also born there - however, when the "native Yankee" was worried, he sometimes cut through a characteristic Welsh accent.

Henry Morton Stanley
wasistwas.de

Stanley's finest hour came in 1871, when he went in search of the world-famous explorer David Livingston, who had disappeared somewhere in the wilds of South Africa. The former bastard approached the matter on a grand scale: his rescue expedition numbered almost two hundred people, becoming the largest hitherto known. Stanley did not consider the lives of the porters and made his way through the jungle literally ahead. At the slightest suspicion of hostility, he fired on and burned the oncoming villages. In November 1871, Livingston was found and rescued. Being a true master of self-promotion, Stanley took full advantage of the opportunity to become famous. He decorated books about his adventures with photographs, maps and drawings, readers received a lot of details about the hitherto unknown land - and, of course, remembered the name of the one who showed them this land. It was considered an honor to meet with Stanley the most prominent people of the era - for example, the famous American General Sherman.

Well, if the bastard has achieved such success and world fame, then why not try the king? Leopold II became the legitimate King of Belgium in 1865. His father Leopold I, a representative of the Saxe-Coburg-Gotha dynasty, served the Russian emperors Paul I and Alexander I, became a member of the House of Lords and a general in the British army, accepted the crown of Greece, but soon abandoned it and became the first king of Belgium, which separated from the Netherlands in June 1830. The future Leopold II was brought up in traditional strictness from childhood, almost not communicating with his parents - so, to meet with his father, the son had to make an appointment.

Leopold II
wikimedia.org

Having become king, Leopold II saw with his own eyes that empires rule the world: British, French, German, Russian ... Almost all European countries of that time had colonies across the ocean, and very extensive ones. While Belgium... "Little country, small people" ("Petit pays, petits gens")- this is how Leopold once said about his homeland. Few Belgians were seriously interested in the possibility of capturing new lands and obtaining new sources of income.

In search of a suitable place to apply his ambitions, Leopold went through almost the entire globe - from Argentina and Ethiopia to the Solomon Islands and Fiji. The king even tried to buy lakes in the Nile Delta in order to drain them and claim sovereignty over the resulting territory. Leopold carefully studied the reports of travelers, geographers, and even convened a geographical conference in Brussels chaired by the Russian traveler P.P. Semyonov-Tyan-Shansky. The search continued for several years, and then Stanley discovered a whole world in Africa - still nobody.

Meeting with Stanley, Leopold suggested that he organize a new expedition to the Congo. Stanley agreed and set to work with ardent enthusiasm. Traveling again to Africa and almost dying of malaria there, he brought over four hundred treaties with tribal leaders and village elders. According to the typical text of the treaty, for one piece of cloth per month, the chiefs (and their heirs) voluntarily transferred all sovereignty and rights of government over their lands, and also agreed to help the Belgian expeditions with labor in laying roads and constructing buildings.

The sudden appearance of a new player on the African continent provoked a strong reaction from other European powers. Britain remembered that the Portuguese, allies of the British, discovered the Congo four centuries ago. However, at the Berlin Conference, the skillful diplomat Leopold managed to enlist the support of the United States, France and Germany against Britain and Portugal.

On February 26, 1885, the General Act was signed, then the Free State of the Congo was proclaimed, Leopold II (as a private individual) became its sovereign, and Stanley became its governor. At the same time, almost all the highest and middle ranks of the administration were personally selected by the king, who, the king, ruled the colony directly.

Now the white man, colonizing new lands, was helped by multi-shot rifles against warlike natives, quinine against malaria, river steam boats against long distances. The government of the new "state" passed laws according to which all the rubber collected by local residents was surrendered to the authorities, and each local man was required to work forty hours a month for free. Years passed, for the time being, no one in Europe even suspected a real kingdom of civilized terror in Central Africa.

Soldier, king and journalist

In 1890, "thunder from a clear sky" struck. George Washington Williams, a black veteran of the U.S. Northern Army and Mexican Republican Army, as well as a lawyer, Baptist pastor, and founder of a Negro newspaper, who had visited the Congo a year earlier, wrote an open letter to King Leopold. In it, Williams described the swindling tricks of Stanley and his assistants, who intimidated the natives: electric shocks from wires disguised as clothes, lighting a cigar with a magnifying glass with the threat of burning a recalcitrant village, and much more.

George Washington Williams
wikimedia.org

Williams openly accused the Belgian colonial government of slave trade and kidnapping. Even the Congolese armed forces often consisted of slaves: the Belgians paid three pounds for the head of a man who was suitable for military service. On August 2, 1891, Williams died, but the wave he raised did not subside.

French journalist Edmond Dean Morel joined the British shipping company Elder Dempster in 1891 and gained access to extensive statistics on West Africa. Once Morel noticed that almost exclusively soldiers, officers and rifles with cartridges were brought to the Congo in exchange for rubber and ivory. Of course, international trade in those days was very specific - but still not so much. In this case, instead of trade, outright robbery took place. In addition, messages began to come from the Congo from missionaries, merchants, and even agent officers themselves.

It turned out that the norms for the delivery of rubber were constantly increasing, and at times: instead of 40 hours, the population of the Congo had to work 20-25 days a month. The pickers were forced to go to the forests far from their native places (sometimes hundreds of kilometers away), without receiving any payment or receiving pennies. The collection of rubber was controlled by a network of agents from different countries of Europe or the United States, who commanded local detachments. If the plan was overfulfilled, then the agent's salary increased, and he returned home faster, otherwise organizational conclusions could follow (for example, an increase in the service life). How the agent would succeed was of no concern to anyone, and some of them raised the fee dozens of times.

Congolese slaves
nationstates.net

Natives who were indignant or did not fulfill the norm were whipped with scourges of dried hippo skin, imprisoned, and this is even in the best case: some of the guilty were cut off their hands or genitals. Agents recruited local concubines without asking their consent, soldiers took away food from the natives. For each cartridge fired, it was necessary to report - and the soldiers brought the right hands of the people killed or simply “punished” by them.

Villages-"debtors" were burned, their population was exterminated. Often, officers shot people on a dare or just for fun. During the suppression of one of the uprisings in the Congo, the tribe took refuge in a large cave and refused to leave it. Then, at the exit from the cave, fires were laid out and it was blocked for three months. Later, 178 bodies were found in the cave. To equip the new stations where the agents lived, porters were required, who were recruited from among the local residents and subjected to merciless exploitation: there were cases when not a single person returned from a difficult campaign of several hundred kilometers.

"The Ten Commandments are fairy tales, and whoever is thirsty - drinks to the bottom"

Although Kipling in his poems described Burma as a territory where the ten commandments do not apply, what happened in the Congo was too much even for the familiar Europeans. A monstrous international scandal broke out, the echoes of which even reached Australia. Bishops, newspaper publishers, members of the British Parliament protested. Even Conan Doyle and Mark Twain devoted their talents to the investigation. One could consider their accusations as rich fantasy and slander of the king - however, in this case, famous writers and publicists scrupulously listed eyewitness accounts. There are also many photographs depicting the atrocities of the colonialists in the Congo.

Slave punishment. Photo from work conan Doyle "The Crime of the Congo"
africafederation.net

Eyewitnesses testified that many areas of the Congo, previously densely populated, are now deserted, the roads are overgrown with grass and shrubs. The number of victims is still disputed - according to some sources, up to half of the entire population of the Congo died. Leopold II denied everything, sponsoring expeditions of necessary witnesses, and remained untouched. The fate of some junior officers was different: already at the beginning of the 20th century, several people were tried and executed.

The tragedy of the Congo was also reflected in fiction. In 1890, the future writer Joseph Conrad enlisted on a Belgian steamer bound for the Congo. In the Belgian colony, Conrad personally saw more than once Africans who died of exhaustion or were shot in the head. Conrad described the slaves seen in the Congo in the novel Heart of Darkness, published in 1899 (the same scenes are in his diary):

“I could see all the ribs and joints, protruding like knots on a rope. Each was wearing an iron collar around his neck, and they were all connected by a chain, the links of which hung between them and tinkled rhythmically.

One of the characters in the novel, Mr. Kurtz, an ivory merchant and jungle stationmaster who “decorated” her with staked severed heads, may have been inspired by Captain Leon Rom (and several other prototypes). Born Belgian, Rom made a quick career in the colonial administration of the Congo, then in the local armed forces, rising to the rank of captain and head of an important station located at Stanley Falls. According to a number of reports, after the natives killed and ate two employees of the station, 21 severed heads of the rebels were brought to the captain's house - Rum decorated the flower bed with them.

Leon Rome
wikimedia.org

In 1908, the Congo Free State was annexed by Belgium and officially became a colony. However, peace on this earth did not come even after gaining independence in 1960: there were long decades of turbulent events ahead.

Literature:

1. Conan Doyle, Arthur. The Crime of the Congo. - London, Hutchinson & Co., 1909.
2. Firchow, Peter Edgerly. Envisioning Africa: Racism and Imperialism in Conrad's Heart of Darkness. - Lexington, University Press of Kentucky, 2000.
3. Hochschild Adam. King Leopold's Ghost. - London, Mariner Books, 1998.
4. Kyunne M. Hunters for rubber. A novel about one type of raw material. - Moscow, Foreign Literature Publishing House, 1962.
5. Twain Mark. Monologue of King Leopold in defense of his dominion in the Congo. Sobr. op. in 8 volumes. Volume 7. - M .: Pravda, 1980.

By the end of the 19th century, almost all European states, which felt at least to some extent capable of snatching a piece of the tropical pie, sought to join the division of the African continent. Even little Belgium, which itself gained independence from the Netherlands only in 1830, and until that moment had never had it at all, four decades later felt itself in a position to start a colonial epic in Africa. And, what should be noted, the epic is quite successful. At least, the Belgian colonization of the Congo entered the world as one of the most striking examples of the cruelty of the colonialists towards the civilian population, their readiness to use any methods for the sake of profit.

"Free State" of King Leopold

Located in the very center of the African continent, the land of the Congo remained a no man's land for a long time. The Portuguese, French, English colonialists had not yet mastered it by the second half of the 19th century. The endless forests of Central Africa were inhabited by numerous Negroid tribes, as well as pygmies - undersized natives of the continent. Arab traders made periodic raids into the territory of the Congo from neighboring Sudan. Here it was possible to capture "live goods", as well as profit from ivory. Europeans, for a long time, practically did not enter the territory of the Congo, with the exception of individual travelers. However, in 1876, it was the vast and unexplored lands in the center of Africa that attracted the attention of the Belgian King Leopold II. First of all, the king became interested in the possible natural wealth of the Congo, as well as the prospects for growing rubber on its territory, a crop that was in special demand in the 19th century and was exported from Brazil, where there were numerous plantations of rubber hevea.

Leopold II, who was also called the “king-dealer”, despite the fact that he was the monarch of a very small European state, had a certain “scent” for real treasures. And the Congo, with its vast territory, richest minerals, large population, forests - the "lungs of Africa", was really a real treasure. However, Leopold did not dare to go straight for the capture of the Congo for fear of competition with other, larger, colonial powers. In 1876, he created the International African Association, which positioned itself more as a research and humanitarian organization. European scientists, travelers, patrons, gathered by Leopold among the members of the association, spoke about the need for "civilization" of the wild Congolese tribes, the cessation of the slave trade and violence in the deep regions of Central Africa.

With "research and humanitarian purposes" an expedition was sent to Central Africa by Henry Morton Stanley, a thirty-eight-year-old American journalist of English origin, famous by that time. Stanley's expedition, sent to the Congo Basin at the initiative of Leopold II, of course, was paid for and equipped by the latter. A few years after Stanley's expedition, Leopold II managed to finally establish control over a vast territory in the center of Africa and enlist the support of European powers, playing on the contradictions between them (England did not want to see the Congo French or German, France - English or German, Germany - English or French ). However, the king did not dare to openly subordinate the Congo to Belgium. The creation of the Congo Free State was announced. In 1885, the Berlin Conference recognized the rights of King Leopold II personally to the territory of the Free Congo. Thus began the history of the largest personal possession of the Belgian monarch, several times larger than both the area of ​​​​the territory and the population of Belgium proper. b

However, King Leopold did not even think of "civilizing" or "liberating" the native population of the Congo. He used his rights as sovereign to openly plunder this vast territory, which has gone down in history as the greatest example of colonial abuse. First of all, Leopold was interested in ivory and rubber, and he sought at any cost to increase their exports from the Congo subject to him.

However, the subjugation of such a colossal territory as the Congo, inhabited by tribes who did not at all want to submit to the “liberator king”, required significant efforts, including the presence of a permanent military contingent. Since the Congo was officially listed as a “Free State” for the first thirty years of colonization and was not a Belgian colony, it was not possible to use the Belgian regular army to conquer Central African territory. At least officially. Therefore, already in 1886, work began on the creation of Force Publique (hereinafter referred to as Force Publique) - "Public Forces", which for eighty years - during the years of the existence of the "Free State of the Congo" and later - when it was officially turned into a colony of the Belgian Congo, - performed the functions of colonial troops and gendarmerie in this African country.

"Force Publik" against slaves and slave owners

To create Force Publik units, Captain Leon Roger arrived in the Congo, who on August 17, 1886 was appointed commander of the "Public Forces". In terms of manning the units of the "Free Congo Army", the Belgian king decided to use the classic scheme for the formation of colonial troops. The rank and file was recruited from among the natives, primarily from the Eastern Province of the Congo, but also from among the Zanzibar mercenaries. As for non-commissioned officers and officers, they were mostly Belgian military personnel who arrived in the Congo under a contract in order to earn and receive regular military ranks. Also among the officers and non-commissioned officers there were also people from other European countries who arrived in the "Free State" for the same purpose as the Belgians.

Francis Dani (1862-1909) was one of the first Belgian soldiers to arrive in the Congo and soon become successful in the service. Irish by mother and Belgian by father, Dani graduated from military school in Paris and then joined the Belgian army. In 1887, almost immediately after the formation of the Social Forces, twenty-five-year-old Lieutenant Dani arrived in the Congo.

The young officer quickly earned the trust of his superiors and in 1892 was appointed commander of a military detachment sent to the Eastern Province against the Arab merchants who by that time controlled the entire eastern part of the Congo. The Arab slave traders considered the territory of the Eastern Province to be their own possession and, moreover, belonging to the Sultanate of Zanzibar, which could not but cause discontent of the Belgian administration. The fighting, which went down in history under the name of the Belgian-Arab wars, lasted from April 1892 to January 1894. During this time, Force Pyublik units managed to capture three Arab fortified trading posts in Kasongo, Kabambari and Nyangwe. Francis Dany, who directly commanded the "Public Forces" in the war against the Arab slave traders, received the noble title of baron and in 1895 became the lieutenant-governor of the Free State of the Congo.

However, in the early stages of its existence, the "Public Forces" experienced serious problems with discipline. Soldiers - Africans were dissatisfied with the conditions of service, especially since many of them were recruited by force and did not have positive motivation. Naturally, native uprisings broke out in the military units from time to time, and for a long time the “Public Forces” had to fight with themselves, or rather, with their own rank and file. After all, the Belgian officers and non-commissioned officers, who did not particularly favor the Africans, treated the mobilized recruits very cruelly. They were beaten for the slightest infractions with whips - "shamboks", which were canceled in the "Public Forces" only in 1955, they were poorly fed, they did not provide medical care. Moreover, many soldiers were recruited from the very peoples who had recently been conquered by the Belgians with great difficulty and bloodshed.

So, in 1896, soldiers recruited from the Tetela people rebelled. They killed several Belgian officers and entered into a direct confrontation with the rest of the "Public Forces" of the Congo. Francis Dani, who by this time was the lieutenant governor, led the operation to defeat the rebels, which dragged on for two years - until 1898. The main difficulty in pacifying the tetel was the acquaintance of the rebellious mercenaries with the basics of European military art, which Belgian sergeants and lieutenants taught African recruits at their own heads in the training camps of the "Public Forces".

The suppression of uprisings of the native population after the defeat of the Arab slave traders in the east of the Congo for a long time became the main task and main occupation of the "Public Forces". It should be noted that the soldiers of the colonial troops dealt with the local population with great severity, although they themselves were mostly Congolese. In particular, entire villages of the rebel tribes were burned to the ground, limbs were cut off for adults and children, and prisoners were exploited on rubber plantations. The severed hands of the natives were presented by the soldiers of the "Public Forces" as evidence of "not in vain" service. Often, severe punishments awaited the local population, not only for the uprisings - for simply not fulfilling plans to collect rubber. Again, the bloody activities in the Congo were presented to the then "world community" by King Leopold as a "fight against slave traders", allegedly for the benefit of the indigenous population of the African country. The European media depicted cannibalism, the slave trade, and the cutting off of hands among the African tribes that inhabited the Congo, thereby orienting the public to support the harsh measures of the colonial administration in the fight against the "terrible savages."

A favorite tactic of the Congo Free State administrators was to take hostage the women and children of indigenous tribes, after which their male relatives were forced to accelerate work on the rubber plantations. In fact, despite the fact that all European powers, including even such backward countries as Portugal, were officially banned by the time of the capture of the Congo by King Leopold, slavery was in the “Free State” in the order of things - it was the Congolese who worked on the plantations and became victims of genocide. By the way, the Belgian colonialists attracted mercenaries to manage plantations and supervise slaves, who were officially considered simply "workers", - blacks from yesterday's slave traders and slave overseers (yes, there were almost more slave traders among blacks at all times than among whites).

As a result, in a relatively short time, the colony managed to achieve significant success in the cultivation of rubber. In a few years, rubber has become the main export crop of the Congo, contributing, on the one hand, to a multiple increase in the income of Leopold II, who became one of the richest people in Europe, and on the other hand, to reduce the population of the Congo over thirty years (1885-1915) from 30 up to 15 million people. Not only Leopold, but also other Belgian political, military, and commercial figures built their wealth on the blood of the millions of people killed in the Congo. However, the full details of the genocide organized by the Belgians in the Congo are still waiting for their researcher - and they are unlikely to wait with the passage of time and due to the traditional attitude towards wars and death on the African continent as something quite understandable. Although, in fairness, the Belgian monarchy and the ruling dynasty should bear full responsibility for the genocide created by its representative Leopold. Especially when you consider how actively the Belgian leadership seeks to speak out on human rights violations - including imaginary ones - in other states of the world.

Even by the standards of other colonial powers, in the "Free State of the Congo" by the beginning of the twentieth century, outright lawlessness was going on. Under pressure from the public and his own officials, Leopold II in 1908 was forced to sell his personal property to Belgium. So the former "Free State" became the Belgian Congo. But the "Public Forces" remained - with the same name and purpose. By the time the Congo became an official Belgian colony, Force Publik had 12,100 troops. In organizational terms, the "Public Forces" united 21 separate companies, as well as artillery and engineering units. In six training centers, 2,400 native soldiers were simultaneously trained in combat, which, according to a long tradition of colonial troops - Italian, German and others - the Belgians also called "askari". A separate group of troops of the "Public Forces" was deployed in the province of Katanga. Here, six companies united 2875 people, in addition, a company of black cyclists was stationed in Katanga - a kind of "highlight" of the Belgian colonial troops, and in Boma - an engineering company and an artillery battery.

World wars: in Africa, Belgium fought much more successfully

During the First World War, the Belgian "Public Forces" in the Congo were met by 17,000 native soldiers, 235 native non-commissioned officers and officers, and 178 Belgian officers and non-commissioned officers. The main part of the "Public Forces" companies carried out garrison service and actually performed the functions of internal troops or gendarmerie to maintain order, ensure public security, and border control. The askari uniform was blue with a red fez as a headdress. During the First World War, the color of the uniform was changed to khaki.

When Belgium entered the First World War on August 3, 1914 on the side of the Entente, its European territory was largely occupied by superior German forces. However, in Africa, the Belgian troops, more precisely - the colonial "Public Forces" - were more successful. In 1916, units of the "Public Forces" invaded the territory of Rwanda and Burundi, which at that time belonged to Germany, as well as into German East Africa. The Belgians managed to conquer Rwanda and Burundi, but in German East Africa they “stuck” along with the British and the Portuguese, since the German units of Lettov-Vorbeck were able to push back the Entente forces and transfer the main theater of guerrilla warfare to the territory of Portuguese Mozambique. By the time of the occupation of Rwanda and Burundi in 1916, the "Public Forces" consisted of three brigades, uniting a total of 15 battalions. They were commanded by Charles Tober. During the years of hostilities in Africa, the "Public Forces" lost 58 Belgian officers and non-commissioned officers and 9077 Congolese troops.

Both in the First and in the Second World War, the Belgian units in Africa worked closely with the British colonial troops, in fact, being under operational control of the "senior comrades". Despite the fact that on May 28, 1940, Belgium capitulated and was completely occupied by Germany, its "Public Forces" in the Congo became part of the Allied forces. In 1940-1941. three mobile brigades and the 11th battalion of the "Public Forces" participated in the fighting against the Italian expeditionary force in Ethiopia, eventually defeating the latter together with the British. During the Belgian-Italian war in Ethiopia, 500 soldiers of the "Public Forces" died, while the Congolese colonial troops managed to capture 9 generals of the Italian army and about 150 thousand officers and privates.

In 1942, Belgian units from the Congolese troops were also stationed in Nigeria - in case of a possible landing of the Nazis in West Africa. The total number of units of the "Public Forces" by 1945 amounted to 40 thousand military personnel, organized into three brigades and smaller police and auxiliary units, as well as the maritime police. The Public Forces Medical Service, in addition to Africa, participated in the fighting in Burma, where it was part of the 11th East African Infantry Division of the British colonial troops.

After the end of World War II, the "Public Forces" in the Belgian Congo continued their military and gendarme service. As of 1945, the Public Forces included six infantry battalions (5th battalion at Stanleyville, 6th battalion at Watse, 7th battalion at Luluabura, 11th battalion at Rumangabo, 12th battalion at Elisabethville and the 13th battalion in Leopoldville), a brigade in Tisvil, 3 reconnaissance platoons, military police units, 4 coastal artillery pieces and an aviation unit. At the same time, the policy of the Belgian colonial authorities to strengthen the "Public Forces" continued. Local residents were called up for military service, and the level of combat and combat training was quite high, although the drill eventually contributed to the intensification of internal conflicts in the units. One of the serious problems was the lack of education of non-commissioned officers and officers recruited from the Congolese, as well as their low discipline. In fact, discipline in units manned by blacks could only be maintained with the help of tough "cane" practice, but the latter, of course, entailed the understandable hatred of the "whipped" Congolese privates for the Belgian platoon and company commanders.

The growth of anti-colonial sentiments in Congolese society in the 1950s led to the fact that in 1959 the gendarmerie, consisting of 40 gendarme companies and 28 platoons, was separated from the "Public Forces". The fears of the colonial administration regarding the possible development of an anti-colonial movement in the Congo resulted in the strengthening of the "Public Forces" even in the last years before the country's independence. The units of the "Public Forces" were kept in combat readiness, constantly trained and improved. So, by 1960, the "Public Forces" included three military groups, each of which had its own place of deployment and territory of responsibility.

The first was stationed in the province of Upper Katanga with a district command in Elisabethville, the second - in the Equatoria province with a center in Leopoldville, the third - in the Eastern province and Kivu with a district command in Stanleyville. In the province of Leopoldville, the command of the "Public Forces" and the second grouping, the 13th and 15th infantry battalions in Leopoldville proper, the 4th brigade, the 2nd and 3rd infantry battalions in Tisvil were stationed; 2nd reconnaissance artillery battalion, 3 gendarmerie companies and 6 gendarmerie platoons in Boma. The 4th infantry battalion, the 2nd combat training center, 3 separate gendarme companies and 4 gendarme platoons were based in the Equatoria province. The headquarters of the 3rd group, the 5th and 6th infantry battalions, the 16th gendarmerie battalion, the 3rd reconnaissance artillery battalion, 3 separate gendarme companies and 4 gendarme platoons were stationed in the Eastern Province. The 3rd combat training center, the 11th infantry battalion, the headquarters of the 7th gendarme battalion, 2 gendarme companies and 4 gendarme platoons were stationed in the Kivu province. The headquarters of the 1st military group, the 12th infantry battalion, the 10th gendarmerie battalion, the military police company, the 1st combat training center, the 1st guard battalion, the air defense battery, the 1st reconnaissance artillery were based in Katanga. division. Finally, the 9th gendarme and 8th infantry battalions were stationed in Kasai.

After decolonization...

However, on June 30, 1960, the independence of the Belgian Congo was officially proclaimed. A new country appeared on the map of Africa - the Congo, which, due to the multinational composition of the population, intertribal contradictions and the lack of political culture, which was not formed during the years of Belgian colonial rule, almost immediately entered a state of political crisis. On July 5, there was an uprising of the garrison in Leopoldville. The dissatisfaction of the Congolese soldiers was caused by the speech of Lieutenant General Emile Janssen, the commander-in-chief of the "Public Forces", in which he assured the native soldiers that their position in the service would not change even after independence was declared. The surge of anti-colonial sentiments led to the flight of the Belgian population from the country, the seizure and destruction of infrastructure by the rebellious Africans.

The “Public Forces” were renamed the National Army of the Congo, almost simultaneously with the renaming, all Belgian officers were dismissed from military service and replaced by Congolese, although most of the latter did not have a professional military education. After all, by the time the national independence of the Congo was declared, only 20 Congolese military personnel were studying at higher military educational institutions in Belgium, which is extremely small for a multi-million African country. Including the collapse of the "Public forces" of the Congo resulted in the famous Congolese crisis of 1960-1961 as a consequence. During this crisis in the Congo, more than 100 thousand people died in inter-tribal and internal political clashes. The cruelty of the citizens of the newly independent state towards each other was amazing - centuries-old "tribal grievances", traditions of cannibalism, methods of torture and execution brought to the Congolese land by slave traders and colonialists, or invented by the Congolese themselves back in the period when not a single Christian preacher did not enter the land of the Central African country.

The province of Katanga in the south of the Congo declared itself an independent state. It is in this province that deposits of uranium, diamonds, tin, copper, cobalt, and radium are concentrated, which forced the Belgian and American leadership that supported the Belgians to actually sponsor and arm the Katangese separatists. The Prime Minister of the Congo, the famous Patrice Lumumba, turned to the United Nations with a request for military assistance, but the UN peacekeeping contingent had to restore order in the southern province for two years. During this time, the leader of the Katangese separatists, Moise Tshomba, managed to capture and execute Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba. In 1964-1966 in the Eastern province of the Congo, an uprising of the Simba tribes broke out, brutally cracking down not only on the white population of the province, but also on urban residents and simply representatives of any other ethnic groups. It was suppressed with the help of Belgian paratroopers, which allowed the Soviet media to claim Belgian military intervention in the sovereign Congo.

In fact, in this case, a contingent of Belgian paratroopers, American and European mercenaries and Katangese "commandos" (former gendarmes) only restored some semblance of order in the territory captured by the Simba, and saved hundreds of hostages from among the white inhabitants from death. However, the troubles of the Kongo did not end with the Simba uprising. In 1965-1997 at the head of the Congo, which was called from 1971 to 1997. Zaire, stood Joseph Mobutu Sese Seko (1930-1997) - a former foreman of the Belgian "Public Forces", of course, who became a marshal in the independent Congo.

The Mobutu dictatorship has gone down in history as one of the most striking examples of African corrupt regimes. Under Mobutu, all the national wealth of the country was embezzled without a twinge of conscience, salaries were paid only to military personnel, policemen, and officials. The former colonial soldier, who suffered from obvious megalomania, at the same time did not care at all about the development of his own country - primarily due to the banal lack of education, more or less civilized upbringing, as well as the specific rules of the "African political game", according to which everyone the revolutionary sooner or later turns into a monster (like the dragon slayer in the famous fairy tale).

But even after the death of Mobutu, the Congo does not have political stability and up to the present time is characterized not only by the extreme poverty of the population, but also by a very turbulent military-political situation. Although the land of the Congo is one of the richest in Africa, if not on the entire planet. There are many minerals here - the world's largest deposits of diamonds, cobalt, germanium, the largest deposits of uranium, tungsten, copper, zinc, tin on the continent, quite serious oil deposits, gold mines. Finally, forest and water can also be classified as one of the most important national wealth of the Congo. And yet, a country with such riches still lives worse than the vast majority of other countries in the world, being one of the poorest countries on the planet, in which, in addition to poverty, crime and violence against people by both government troops and rebels flourish" armies."

Until now, peace cannot come to the land that was once in the personal possession of King Leopold and was pompously called the "Free State of the Congo." The reason for this lies not only in the backwardness of the local population, but also in the ruthless exploitation that the Belgian colonialists subjected this land to, including with the help of the "Public Forces" - mostly black soldiers who served their oppressors and sought to stand out not only in military spirit in battles , but also brutal reprisals against their own tribesmen.