Answer:
4) Belgium
Explanation:
The Belgian colonial empire was the result of the introduction of Belgium in the division of Africa during the last third of the 19th century, where King Leopold II managed to get him the majority of the Congo region. In addition, after the First World War, the Belgians obtained from Germany, through the Treaty of Versailles (1919), the colony of Rwanda-Urundi.
King Leopold II of Belgium found the means to establish what was effectively a private colony. The explorer Henry Morton Stanley had returned from exploring the Congo river basin, and tried to interest Britain to colonize the region, but presented a hostile environment that made it difficult to conquer for Europeans. Leopold II ordered Stanley to continue exploring the Congo and to obtain treaties with the local chiefs. Armed with these and a facade of the humanitarian associations that promised to end the slave trade, he persuaded the Berlin Conference of 1884-85 to deliver the Congo to the independent entity he created, the Free State of the Congo, and since then as its sole shareholder.
Leopold II began to exploit the Congo region to obtain rubber that became one of his most valuable assets. His regime in the Congo operated as a forced labor colony, with murder and mutilation as punishment for villagers who did not gather and supply the quota of rubber assigned to them. It is estimated that one million Congolese died during this period.
Although the Free State of the Congo was not officially a Belgian colony, Belgium was its main beneficiary, in terms of its trade, the employment of its citizens, and the wealth that Leopold II extracted and that was used for the construction of numerous public buildings Fine in Brussels, Ostend and Antwerp. This led to him being remembered in Belgium as the "King Builder". For the Royal Trust that he left most of his property to the nation.
