The Compagnie Maritime Belge ( CMB ) is one of the oldest Antwerp ship-owners . It is controlled by the Saverys family who also own major stakes in the Exmar and Euronav groups.
86-512: CMB was founded in 1895 under the name Compagnie Belge Maritime du Congo (CBMC). At the request of Leopold II of Belgium and with support from British investors, a maritime connection was opened with Congo Free State . On 6 February 1895 the CMBC ship Léopoldville was the first to leave port of Antwerp for Congo Free State . For sixty years the Congo boats ( Kongoboten ) were a constant presence in
172-418: A "visionary hero." According to Michel, "To use the word 'genocide' in relation to the Congo is absolutely unacceptable and inappropriate. ... maybe colonisation was domineering and acquiring more power, but at a certain moment, it brought civilisation." Michel's remarks were countered by several Belgian politicians. Senator Pol Van Den Driessche replied, "[A] great visionary? Absolutely not. What happened then
258-708: A Belgian. When both of these plans failed, Leopold shifted his aspirations of colonisation to Africa. After numerous unsuccessful schemes to acquire colonies in Africa and Asia, in 1876 Leopold organized a private holding company disguised as an international scientific and philanthropic association, which he called the International African Society , or the International Association for the Exploration and Civilization of
344-495: A business headquartered at Luton Airport . The new airline began commercial operations from Bovingdon Airport at the start of 1946. In 1951, Hunting Air Travel changed its name to Hunting Air Transport. Another change of name occurred in late 1953, when Hunting Air Transport became Hunting-Clan Air Transport. This change of name resulted from the Hunting family's decision to split the group and to transfer their airline business to
430-629: A colony as a private citizen. The Belgian government lent him money for this venture. During his reign, Leopold saw the empires of the Netherlands, Portugal, and Spain as being in a state of decline and expressed interest in buying their territories. In 1866, Leopold instructed the Belgian ambassador in Madrid to speak to Queen Isabella II of Spain about ceding the Philippines to Belgium, but
516-399: A distinctly Belgian character. Leopold extracted a fortune from the Congo, initially by the collection of ivory , and after a rise in the price of rubber in the 1890s, by forced labour from the people to harvest and process rubber. He ran the Congo using the mercenary Force Publique for his personal enrichment. Failure to meet rubber collection quotas was punishable by death. Meanwhile,
602-782: A fleet of nearly 90 aircraft. It was formed in 1972 as Air Bridge Carriers UK, acquired by the Hunting group in the 1980s, rechristened to Hunting Cargo Airlines in 1992 and transferred to Ireland in 1997. In June 1998, it was sold to a consortium consisting of CMB and Safair (part of the Imperial Group) and rechristened ACL ( Air Contractors Limited). In 2007, Imperial sold its shareholding, and CMB has been its sole owner since 2010. Its major clients include DHL , UPS , TNT Express and Aer Lingus ; and it charters out its aircraft through Europe Airpost and Safair. As of September 2013, ASL Aviation's owned fleet consisted of: Shares of
688-575: A great number of buildings, urban projects and public works. According to the historians Wm. Roger Louis and Adam Hochschild , this was largely possible thanks to the profits generated from the Congo Free State , though this is disputed. These projects earned him the epithet of "Builder King" (Dutch: Koning-Bouwheer , French: Roi-Bâtisseur ). The public buildings were mainly in Brussels , Ostend , Tervuren and Antwerp , and include
774-416: A large fortune in Congo securities, only some of which the Belgian government and Leopold's three estranged daughters were able to win back. As Leopold's older brother, the earlier crown prince Louis Philippe , had died the year before Leopold's birth, Leopold was heir to the throne from his birth. When he was 5 years old, Leopold received the title of Duke of Brabant , and was appointed a sub-lieutenant in
860-589: A large share of the local population could sell only to the state, which could set prices and thereby control the income the Congolese could receive for their work. For local elites, however, this system presented new opportunities, as the Free State and concession companies paid them with guns to tax their subjects in kind. Under his regime, millions of Congolese inhabitants, including children, were mutilated, killed or died from disease and famine. In addition,
946-452: A major international scandal in the early 20th century, and Leopold was forced by the Belgian government to relinquish control of the colony to the civil administration in 1908. Leopold fervently believed that overseas colonies were the key to a country's greatness, and he worked tirelessly to acquire colonial territory for Belgium. He envisioned "our little Belgium" as the capital of a large overseas empire. Leopold eventually began to acquire
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#17328017982531032-539: A member of the winning consortium contracted to manage the Atomic Weapons Establishment , a contract that lasted until 2003. More recently, it refocused on its core oil and gas activities. In December 2008, it completed the disposal of Gibson Energy , its operation transporting and marketing crude oil in Canada, for a total consideration of £517m. On 16 August 2010, Hunting PLC announces
1118-604: A mistress Caroline Lacroix , a 16-year-old French prostitute, and they remained together until his death ten years later. Leopold lavished upon her large sums of money, estates, gifts, and a noble title, Baroness de Vaughan. Owing to these gifts and the unofficial nature of their relationship, their affair ironically lost Leopold more popularity in Belgium than any of his crimes in the Congo. Caroline bore two sons, Lucien Philippe Marie Antoine, Duke of Tervuren , and Philippe Henri Marie François, Count of Ravenstein . Their second son
1204-413: A new decree mandating that Africans in a large part of the Free State could sell their harvested products (mostly ivory and rubber) only to the state. This law extended an earlier decree declaring that all "unoccupied" land belonged to the state. Any ivory or rubber collected from the state-owned land, the reasoning went, must belong to the state, thus creating a de facto state-controlled monopoly. Therefore,
1290-534: A new holding company which they had set up together with the Scottish Clan Line , a rival shipping company owned by the Cayzer family. In June 1998, Hunting Cargo Airlines was sold to a consortium consisting of CMB (Belgium) and Safair (part of the Imperial Group) and rechristened ACL (Air Contractors Limited). In the 1990s, Hunting became involved in defence contracts, notably, in 1993, being
1376-593: A personal payment of 50 million to him. The Congo Free State was transformed into a Belgian colony under parliamentary control known as the Belgian Congo . Leopold went to great lengths to conceal potential evidence of wrongdoing during his time as ruler of his private colony. The entire archive of the Congo Free State was burned and he told his aide that even though the Congo had been taken from him, "they have no right to know what I did there". When
1462-635: A step likened to the Truth and Reconciliation Committee set up in South Africa after the apartheid regime was abolished. On 30 June, the 60th anniversary of the Democratic Republic of the Congo's independence, King Philippe released a statement expressing his "deepest regret" for the wounds of the colonial past, and the "acts of violence and cruelty committed" in the Congo during colonisation but did not explicitly mention Leopold's role in
1548-521: A subsidiary completely owned by the CMB Group. Bocimar's vessels usually carry the prefix Mineral , CMB (vessels owned by Bocimar) or FMG (Vessels chartered out to Fortescue Metals Group ) As of 2017, its fleet consisted of 60 vessels ranging from Handysize to Capesize. CMB owns 1 panamax tanker Delphis NV is a regional container shipping company headquartered in Antwerp, Belgium. Delphis
1634-404: A time of some economic and social progress. He argued that people should recognize some positive aspects of the king as well as the negative, but hours after the six-metre (20 ft) statue was erected near Kinshasa's central station, it was officially removed. Hunting plc Hunting plc is a British -based supplier to the oil and gas industry . Some 27% of the business is owned by
1720-532: The Belgian Constitution came in 1893. Universal male suffrage was introduced, though the effect of this was tempered by plural voting . The eligibility requirements for the Senate were reduced, and elections would be based on a system of proportional representation , which continues to this day. Leopold pushed strongly to enable a royal referendum, whereby the king would have the power to consult
1806-619: The Catholic Party , Progressive Liberals and the Labour Party caused the Belgian Parliament to compel the king to cede the Congo Free State to Belgium in 1908. The deal that led to the handover cost Belgium the considerable sum of 215.5 million Francs. This was used to discharge the debt of the Congo Free State and to pay out its bond holders as well as 45.5 million for Leopold's pet building projects in Belgium and
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#17328017982531892-522: The Congo Free State , an area 76 times larger than Belgium, was established under Leopold II's personal rule and private army , the Force Publique . In 1894, King Leopold signed a treaty with Great Britain which conceded a strip of land on the Congo Free State's eastern border in exchange for a lifetime lease of the Lado Enclave , which provided access to the navigable Nile and extended
1978-514: The Franco-Prussian War , he managed to preserve Belgium's neutrality in a period of unusual difficulty and danger. Leopold pushed for a reform in military service, but he was unable to obtain one until he was on his deathbed. The Belgian army was a combination of volunteers and a lottery, and it was possible for men to pay for substitutes for service. This was replaced by a system in which one son in every family would have to serve in
2064-665: The French Riviera , including the Villa des Cèdres and its botanical garden , and the Villa Leopolda . Thinking of the future after his death, Leopold did not want the collection of estates, lands and heritage buildings he had privately amassed to be scattered among his daughters, each of whom was married to a foreign prince. In 1900, he created the Royal Trust , by means of which he donated most of his properties to
2150-651: The Labour Party . Increasing social unrest and the rise of the Labour Party forced the adoption of universal male suffrage in 1893. During Leopold's reign other social changes were enacted into law. Among these were the right of workers to form labour unions and the abolition of the livret d'ouvrier , an employment record book . Laws against child labour were passed. Children younger than 12 were not allowed to work in factories, children younger than 16 were not allowed to work at night, and women younger than 21 years old were not allowed to work underground. Workers gained
2236-1093: The Parc du Cinquantenaire/Jubelpark (1852–1880), memorial arcade and complex, the Basilica of the Sacred Heart (1905–1969) and Duden Park in Brussels (1881); the Hippodrome Wellington racetrack (1883), the Royal Galleries and Maria Hendrikapark in Ostend (1902); the Royal Museum for Central Africa and its surrounding park in Tervuren (1898); and Antwerpen-Centraal railway station in Antwerp (1895–1905). In addition to his public works, Leopold acquired and built numerous private properties for himself inside and outside Belgium. He expanded
2322-557: The Second World War , the company introduced new ships, including the cargo passenger liners Jadotville (1956) and Baudouinville (1957). However, in 1961 it sold both these liners to P&O , who renamed them Chitral and Cathay and placed them in service in the Far East. In 1960 the company Armement Deppe was acquired, and between 1975 and 1982 gradually also the tramp ship company Bocimar. The company entered
2408-531: The 1890s the company invested in oil tankers and became a tanker broker. In the 1930s and 1940s, it diversified into aircraft maintenance and manufacturing as well as air transport , establishing Hunting Aircraft in 1944 by the purchase of Percival Aircraft: this business was absorbed into the British Aircraft Corporation in 1960. At the end of 1945, Hunting entered the airline business and established Hunting Air Travel Ltd ,
2494-414: The Belgian government took over the administration in 1908, the situation in the Congo improved in certain respects. The brutal exploitation and arbitrary use of violence, in which some of the concessionary companies had excelled, were curbed. Article 3 of the new Colonial Charter of 18 October 1908 stated that: "Nobody can be forced to work on behalf of and for the profit of companies or privates", but this
2580-414: The Belgian nation in perpetuity, and arranged for the royal family to continue using them after his death. On 15 November 1902, Italian anarchist Gennaro Rubino attempted to assassinate Leopold, who was riding in a royal cortege from a ceremony at Church of St. Michael and St. Gudula in memory of his recently deceased wife, Marie Henriette . After Leopold's carriage passed, Rubino fired three shots at
2666-596: The Belgian throne in 1865 and reigned for 44 years until his death, the longest reign of a Belgian monarch to date. He died without surviving legitimate sons; the current King of the Belgians, Philippe , descends from his nephew and successor, Albert I . He is popularly referred to as the Builder King (Dutch: Koning-Bouwheer , French: Roi-Bâtisseur ) in Belgium in reference to the great number of buildings, urban projects and public works he commissioned. Leopold
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2752-506: The CMB group are listed on NYSE Code CMB.BR, Euronext Brussels and are included in the Next 150 index . Its major shareholders are Saverco/Marc Saverys (49,43%), Victrix/Virginie Saverys (15,99%) with the balance owned by CMB and third parties Similar to other ship owners, CMB's earnings declined in the worldwide economic recession starting from 2007. However, they started to bounce back towards
2838-495: The CMB group. Delphis controls a fleet of 40 owned and chartered container vessels ( 500 to 2500 TEU capacity) of which it owns 10 container vessels, including A La Marine, El Torro, Hermes Arrow and Maersk Nimes Its management team consists of Alexander Saverys (managing director), Chris Vermeersch (chief financial officer and manager finance). ASL Aviation group is registered in Dublin. It owns, operates and manages
2924-538: The CMB, sold its shares to the holding Almabo and his shipping society Exmar, led by Marc Saverys . In 1995, half of CMB Transport (CMBT) was sold to Safmarine, a South African shipping company. In 1999, with the sale of the African network of AMI, CMB group's participation in the liner sector ceased and they focussed on the bulk carrier sector. In the same year, CMB gained full control of Euronav, an operator of crude oil tankers. On June 28, 2019, Ocean Yield ASA announced
3010-413: The Congo Free State , including forced labour, torture, murder, kidnapping, and the amputation of the hands of men, women, and children when the quota of rubber was not met. In one of the first uses of the term, George Washington Williams described the practices of Leopold's administration of the Congo Free State as " crimes against humanity " in 1890. While it has proven difficult to accurately estimate
3096-636: The Congo Free State had long-lasting negative impacts. Ethnic groups subjected to more intensive rubber exploitation exhibited significantly lower economic development over a century later, driven by disruptions to traditional economic systems and human capital accumulation. Their work also examined how colonial co-option of local chiefs during the rubber era may have undermined leader accountability, linking to broader critiques of indirect rule strategies across Africa. The oppressive policies under Leopold's personal rule are seen as engendering entrenched underdevelopment with enduring economic and political consequences in
3182-490: The Congo, she traveled on steamboats owned by the state and its company allies, who controlled where she went and what she saw. When she returned to England, Jones placed her articles in the newspapers. She stated "I have witnessed more atrocities in London streets than I have ever seen in the Congo." Thereafter, the king paid her a monthly salary to lobby members of Parliament. International opposition and criticism at home from
3268-420: The Congo, which he never personally visited, by using the mercenary Force Publique for his personal gain. He extracted a fortune from the territory, initially by the collection of ivory and, after a rise in the price of natural rubber in the 1890s, by forced labour from the native population to harvest and process rubber. Leopold's administration was characterized by systematic brutality and atrocities in
3354-649: The Congo. In 1878, under the auspices of the holding company, he hired explorer Henry Stanley to explore and establish a colony in the Congo region. Much diplomatic maneuvering among European nations resulted in the Berlin Conference of 1884–1885 regarding African affairs, at which representatives of 14 European countries and the United States recognized Leopold as sovereign of most of the area to which he and Stanley had laid claim. On 5 February 1885,
3440-474: The East Indies. Similar methods of forced labour were employed to some degree by Germany, France, and Portugal where natural rubber occurred in their own colonies. Efforts by Leopold to dampen international criticism of human rights abuses included the sponsoring of an author, May French Sheldon , by his British consule Sir Alfred Lewis Jones on an expedition of the Congo Free State in 1891. While in
3526-552: The Force Publique were required to provide the hand of their victims as proof when they had shot and killed someone, as it was believed that they would otherwise use the munitions (imported from Europe at considerable cost) for hunting. As a consequence, the rubber quotas were in part paid off in chopped-off hands. Shortly after the Brussels Anti-Slavery Conference (1889–1890), Leopold issued
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3612-525: The Free State's sphere of influence northwards into Sudan. After rubber profits soared in 1895, Leopold ordered the organization of an expedition into the Lado Enclave, which had been overrun by Mahdist rebels since the outbreak of the Mahdist War in 1881. The expedition was composed of two columns: the first, under Belgian Baron Dhanis , consisted of a sizable force, numbering around 3,000, and
3698-627: The Hunting family. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index . The company was founded in 1874 by Charles Hunting, a veterinary surgeon , as a shipping business . The business, originally known as Hunting & Pattison , was managed by the founder's son, Charles Samuel Hunting, and comprised two sailing ships , the Genii and the Sylvia . In
3784-852: The Wah Kwong Group (Hong Kong) and the Oak Maritime Group (Taiwan). It continues to build new vessels, the latest among them being at Hanjin Subic shipyard (HHIC Phil) and Samjin Shipyard (Korea) Bocimar's business consists mostly of the transport of dry bulk goods, especially coal, ores and grains. It has a portfolio of contracts with customers from the steel and energy sectors, especially those from Japan. Bocimar has offices in Tokyo (CMB Japan), Hong Kong, Singapore and New Delhi. Its handy size vessels are further owned under Bohandymar,
3870-493: The acquisition of newcastlemax dry bulk vessel from CMB for 40 million (USD) net of a seller's credit, with 15-year bareboat charter to CMB. In 2020, it was announced that the HydroTug, the first hydrogen-powered tugboat will be deployed in the port of Antwerp . Bocimar International NV's fleet mainly consists of Capesize and Handysize bulk carriers . Some of these vessels are owned jointly with other shipowners such as
3956-430: The age of nine from pneumonia after falling into a pond. His death was a source of great sorrow for King Leopold. The marriage became unhappy, and the couple separated after a last attempt to have another son, a union that resulted in the birth of their last daughter, Clementine . Marie Henriette retreated to Spa in 1895, and died there in 1902. Leopold had many mistresses . In 1899, in his 65th year, Leopold took as
4042-422: The ambassador did nothing. Leopold quickly replaced the ambassador with a more sympathetic individual to carry out his plan. In 1868, when Isabella II was deposed as queen of Spain, Leopold tried to press his original plan to acquire the Philippines. But without funds, he was unsuccessful. Leopold then devised another unsuccessful plan to establish the Philippines as an independent state, which could then be ruled by
4128-573: The army . He served in the army until his accession in 1865, by which time he had reached the rank of lieutenant-general. Leopold's public career began on his attaining the age of majority in 1855, when he became a member of the Belgian Senate . He took an active interest in the senate, especially in matters concerning the development of Belgium and its trade, and began to urge Belgium's acquisition of colonies. Leopold traveled abroad extensively from 1854 to 1865, visiting India, China, Egypt, and
4214-419: The assessment of the 1919 Belgian government commission: roughly half the population were killed or died during the Free State period. Hochschild points out that since the first official census by the Belgian authorities in 1924 put the population at about 10 million, these various approaches suggest a rough estimate of a population decline by 10 million. Smallpox epidemics and sleeping sickness also devastated
4300-419: The atrocities. Some activists accused him of not making a full apology. Leopold II remains a controversial figure in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In the capital Kinshasa (known until 1966 as Leopoldville in his honor) his statue was removed after independence. Congolese culture minister Christophe Muzungu decided to reinstate the statue in 2005. He noted that the beginning of the Free State had been
4386-474: The birth rate rapidly declined during this period. Estimates for the total population decline range from 1 million to 15 million, with a consensus growing around 10 million. Several historians argue against this figure due to the absence of reliable censuses, the enormous mortality of diseases such as smallpox or sleeping sickness and the fact that there were only 175 administrative agents in charge of rubber exploitation. Reports of deaths and abuse led to
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#17328017982534472-479: The colonial nations of Europe authorised his claim by committing the Congo Free State to improving the lives of the people. The central services of the state were located in Brussels. All officials within the Congo were Belgian, including those in administration, the army, and the courts. Belgian officers from the army played an essential role in the Congo’s governance. Even religious missions, especially Catholic ones, had
4558-611: The countries on the Mediterranean coast of Africa. His father died on 10 December 1865, and Leopold took the oath of office on 17 December, at the age of 30. He also served in the Belgian Senate during this time. Leopold became king in 1865. He explained his goal for his reign in an 1888 letter addressed to his brother, Prince Philippe, Count of Flanders : "the country must be strong, prosperous, therefore have colonies of her own, beautiful and calm." Leopold's reign
4644-463: The daughter of King Louis Philippe of France. His eldest brother, Louis Philippe, Crown Prince of Belgium , died in infancy in 1834. As heir apparent, Leopold was granted the title of Duke of Brabant in 1840. The French Revolution of 1848 forced his maternal grandfather, Louis Philippe, to flee to the United Kingdom. Louis Philippe died two years later, in 1850. Leopold's fragile mother
4730-451: The death of several Belgian officers and the loss of his entire force. Nonetheless, Chaltin continued his advance, and on 17 February 1897, his outnumbered forces defeated the rebels in the Battle of Rejaf , securing the Lado Enclave as Free State territory until Leopold's death in 1909. Leopold amassed a huge personal fortune by exploiting the natural resources of the Congo. At first, ivory
4816-543: The deeply traumatized population. By 1896, African trypanosomiasis had killed up to 5,000 people in the village of Lukolela on the Congo River . The mortality statistics were collected through the efforts of British consul Roger Casement , who found, for example, only 600 survivors of the disease in Lukolela in 1903. Research by Lowes and Montero found King Leopold II's coercive labor practices for rubber extraction in
4902-483: The dry bulk trade in 1962 and continues to be a major dry bulk operator under its Bocimar banner. In 1975, the CMB group took a minority share in the dry bulk tramping company, Bocimar, which was increased to a majority share in 1982. In 1988, CMB bought Hessenatie, a large general cargo and container handling company in Antwerp. In July 1991 the Société Générale de Belgique , until then the main shareholder of
4988-486: The electorate directly on an issue, and use his veto according to the results of the referendum. The proposal was rejected, as it would have given the king the power to override the elected government. Leopold was so disappointed that he considered abdication . Leopold emphasized military defence as the basis of neutrality, and strove to make Belgium less vulnerable militarily. He achieved the construction of defensive fortresses at Liège , at Namur and at Antwerp . During
5074-407: The end of 2012, and started recording profits from 2013. Leopold II of Belgium Leopold II (9 April 1835 – 17 December 1909) was the second King of the Belgians from 1865 to 1909, and the founder and sole owner of the Congo Free State from 1885 to 1908. Born in Brussels as the second but eldest-surviving son of King Leopold I and Queen Louise , Leopold succeeded his father to
5160-560: The failed regicide , the king's security was questioned, because the glass of the landaus was 2 cm thick. Elsewhere in Europe, the news of this assassination attempt was received with alarm. Heads of state and the pope sent telegrams to the king congratulating him for surviving the assassination attempt. The Belgians rejoiced that the king was safe. Later in the day, in the Royal Theatre of La Monnaie before Tristan und Isolde
5246-790: The grounds of the Royal Castle of Laeken , and built the Royal Greenhouses , as well as the Japanese Tower and the Chinese Pavilion near the palace (now the Museums of the Far East ). In the Ardennes , his domains consisted of 6,700 hectares (17,000 acres) of forests and agricultural lands and the châteaux of Ardenne , Ciergnon , Fenffe, Villers-sur-Lesse and Ferage. He also built important country estates on
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#17328017982535332-890: The king arguing that bringing Christianity to the country outweighs a little starvation, and uses many of Leopold's own words against him. Writer Arthur Conan Doyle also criticised the "rubber regime" in his 1908 work The Crime of the Congo , written to aid the work of the Congo Reform Association. Doyle contrasted Leopold's rule with British rule in Nigeria , arguing that decency required those who ruled primitive peoples to be concerned first with their uplift, not how much could be extracted from them. As Hochschild describes in King Leopold's Ghost , many of Leopold's policies, in particular those of colonial monopolies and forced labour, were influenced by Dutch practice in
5418-459: The military. According to historian Jean Stengers, Leopold II’s imperialism was driven by economic advantage rather than political grandeur. Leopold sought to maximize profit through efficient exploitation, including forced labor and direct revenue. However, Stengers emphasizes that Leopold’s voracity was not solely for personal enrichment; it was also rooted in patriotism—a desire to ensure Belgium’s prosperity and embellishment. Leopold commissioned
5504-409: The native population, beatings, widespread killings, and frequent mutilation when production quotas were not met. One practice used to force workers to collect rubber included taking wives and family members hostage. Missionary John Harris of Baringa was so shocked by what he had encountered that he wrote to Leopold's chief agent in the Congo, saying: I have just returned from a journey inland to
5590-517: The people by her character and benevolence. Her beauty earned her the sobriquet "The Rose of Brabant". She was also an accomplished artist and musician. She was passionate about horseback riding , to the point that she would care for her horses personally. Some joked about this "marriage of a stableman and a nun ", the latter referring to the shy and withdrawn Leopold. The marriage produced four children: three daughters and one son, Prince Leopold, Duke of Brabant . The younger Leopold died in 1869 at
5676-533: The port of Antwerp. In 1930 CBMC acquired Lloyd Royal Belge [ de ] , another Belgian shipowner. The name of the new company became Compagnie Maritime Belge (CMB), and new lines were opened towards America and the Far East. In the Second World War , on the December 24th, 1944, CMB's 1928 Leopoldville while transporting the 66th Infantry Division, Leopoldville was torpedoed and sank in under 3 hours, losing 763 American soldiers and 56 crew. After
5762-470: The pre-colonial population and the amount by which it changed under the Congo Free State, estimates for the Congolese population decline during Leopold's rule range from 1 million to 15 million. The causes of the decline included epidemic disease, a reduced birth rate, and violence and famine caused by the regime. Leopold was born in Brussels on 9 April 1835, the second child of the reigning Belgian monarch, Leopold I , and of his second wife, Louise ,
5848-409: The procession. The shots missed Leopold but almost killed the king's grand marshal , Count Charles John d'Oultremont. Rubino was immediately arrested and subsequently sentenced to life imprisonment. He died in prison in 1918. The king replied after the attack to a senator: "My dear senator, if fate wants me shot, too bad!" ("Mon cher Sénateur, si la fatalité veut que je sois atteint, tant pis"!) After
5934-424: The region resulted in the Casement Report , which detailed the extensive abuses under Leopold's regime. A widespread war of words ensued. In Britain, former shipping clerk E. D. Morel with Casement's support founded the Congo Reform Association , the first mass human rights movement. Supporters included American writer Mark Twain , whose stinging political satire entitled King Leopold's Soliloquy portrays
6020-525: The region. Inspired by works such as Joseph Conrad ’s Heart of Darkness (1902), originally published as a three-part series in Blackwood’s Magazine (1899) and based on Conrad's experience as a steamer captain on the Congo 12 years earlier, international criticism of Leopold’s rule increased and mobilized. Reports of outrageous exploitation and widespread human rights abuses led the British Crown to appoint their consul Roger Casement to investigate conditions there. His extensive travels and interviews in
6106-493: The right to be compensated for workplace accidents and were given Sundays off. Leopold's reluctance to use the Dutch language in public did little to solve the linguistic conflict in Belgium and made him more unpopular than his father with the Flemish Movement . However, his nephew and heir, Prince Baudouin , became something of a hero to the Flemings, and Leopold did make some speeches in Dutch shortly before and after Baudouin's premature death in 1891. The first revision of
6192-567: The start of Leopold's control are only "wild guesses", and that attempts by E. D. Morel and others to determine a figure for the loss of population were "but figments of the imagination". Adam Hochschild devotes a chapter of his 1998 book King Leopold's Ghost to the problem of estimating the death toll. He cites several recent lines of investigation, by anthropologist Jan Vansina and others, that examine local sources (police records, religious records, oral traditions, genealogies, personal diaries, and "many others"), which generally agree with
6278-472: The then Duchess of Kent , were all siblings. As a young man, Leopold II served in the Belgian military and achieved the rank of lieutenant-general. He also served in the Belgian Senate during this time. At the age of 18, Leopold married Marie Henriette of Austria , a cousin of Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria and granddaughter of the late Holy Roman Emperor Leopold II , on 22 August 1853 in Brussels. Lively and energetic, Marie Henriette endeared herself to
6364-441: The village of Insongo Mboyo. The abject misery and utter abandon is positively indescribable. I was so moved, Your Excellency, by the people's stories that I took the liberty of promising them that in future you will only kill them for crimes they commit. Estimates of the death toll range from one million to fifteen million, since accurate records were not kept. Historians Louis and Stengers in 1968 stated that population figures at
6450-615: Was founded in March 2004 and has offices in Antwerp and Oslo. It operates as a subsidiary of Saverco NV, one of the holding companies of CMB and provides logistics services in Europe through its subsidiary, Delphis logistics (founded 2009). Delphis fully owns the logistics company Team Lines and acquired the Sjursoya container terminal in Oslo, Norway in 2009. In March 2012, the remaining bulk carrier interests of Delphis were transferred formally to
6536-529: Was booed by the crowd in expression of disapproval of his rule. Leopold's reign of exactly 44 years remains the longest in Belgian history. He was interred in the royal vault at the Church of Our Lady of Laeken . Attention to the Congo atrocities subsided in the years after Leopold's death. Statues of him were erected in the 1930s at the initiative of Albert I, while the Belgian government celebrated his accomplishments in Belgium. The debate over Leopold's legacy
6622-426: Was born with a deformed hand , leading a cartoon to depict Leopold holding the child surrounded by Congolese corpses with their hands sliced off: the caption said "Vengeance from on high". They married secretly in a religious ceremony five days before his death. Their failure to perform a civil ceremony rendered the marriage invalid under Belgian law. After the king's death, it soon emerged that he had left his widow
6708-456: Was deeply affected by the death of her father and her health deteriorated. She died of tuberculosis that same year, when Leopold was 15 years old. Leopold's sister Charlotte became Empress Carlota of Mexico in the 1860s. The British monarch at the time, Queen Victoria , was Leopold II's first cousin, as was Victoria's husband, Prince Albert , since Leopold's father, Albert's father, Duke Ernest I of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha , and Victoria's mother,
6794-435: Was exported, but this did not yield the expected levels of revenue. When the global demand for rubber exploded, attention shifted to the labour-intensive collection of sap from rubber plants. Abandoning the promises of the Berlin Conference in the late 1890s, the Free State government restricted foreign access and extorted forced labour from the natives. Abuses, especially in the collection of rubber, included forced labour of
6880-609: Was marked by a number of major political developments. The Liberals governed Belgium from 1857 to 1880, and during its final year in power legislated the Frère-Orban Law of 1879. This law created free, secular, compulsory primary schools supported by the state and withdrew all state support from Roman Catholic primary schools. The Catholic Party obtained a parliamentary majority in 1880, and four years later restored state support to Catholic schools. In 1885, various socialist and social democratic groups drew together and formed
6966-474: Was not enforced, and the Belgian government continued to impose forced labour on the natives, albeit by less obvious methods. The Belgian Congo gained independence in 1960 and became known as the Republic of the Congo . On 17 December 1909, Leopold II died at Laeken from an embolism , and the Belgian crown passed to Albert I , the son of Leopold's brother, Philippe, Count of Flanders . His funeral cortege
7052-414: Was performed, the orchestra played The Brabançonne , which was sung loudly and ended with loud cheers and applause. Leopold was the founder and sole owner of the Congo Free State , a private project undertaken on his own behalf. He used explorer Henry Morton Stanley to help him lay claim to the Congo, an area now known as the Democratic Republic of the Congo. At the Berlin Conference of 1884–1885,
7138-479: Was reignited in 1999 with the publication of King Leopold's Ghost by American historian Adam Hochschild, which recounts Leopold's plan to acquire the colony, the exploitation, and the large death toll. The debate then periodically resurfaced over the following 20 years. In 2010, Louis Michel , a Belgian member of the European Parliament and former Belgian foreign minister, called Leopold II
7224-564: Was shameful. If we measured him against 21st century standards, it is likely that Leopold would be hauled before the International Criminal Court in The Hague." In June 2020, a Black Lives Matter demonstration in Brussels protested the murder of George Floyd , causing Leopold II's legacy to become once again the subject of debate. MPs agreed to set up a parliamentary commission to examine Belgium's colonial past,
7310-412: Was the founder and sole owner of the Congo Free State, a private colonial project undertaken on his own behalf as a personal union with Belgium. He used Henry Morton Stanley to help him lay claim to the Congo, the present-day Democratic Republic of the Congo. At the Berlin Conference of 1884–1885, the colonial nations of Europe authorised his claim and committed the Congo Free State to him. Leopold ran
7396-516: Was to strike north through the jungle and attack the rebels at their base at Rejaf. The second, a much smaller force of 800, was led by Louis-Napoléon Chaltin and took the main road towards Rejaf. Both expeditions set out in December 1896. Although Leopold had initially planned for the expedition to carry on much farther than the Lado Enclave, hoping indeed to take Fashoda and then Khartoum , Dhanis' column mutinied in February 1897, resulting in
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