Question

9. What led to conflict in the Congo Free State?

Answer 1

Answer:

Africans were forced into brutal labor by Belgian rulers to collect rubber, leading to millions of deaths

Explanation:

Under the rule of Belgium, with King Leopold II as its head, the Congo Free State, roughly on the territory of modern day DR Congo, had suffered immensely. Initially, the colony was not barely sustainable, always being on the verge of bankruptcy, but that all changed with the sudden big demand fro rubber. The Congo Basin had loads of it, and the Belgians intended to use that to make profit. The native population was quickly mobilized and was forced to brutal labor force, being constantly tortured, mutilated, beaten up, given only so much food so that they can barely survive to work the next day. This, combined with other factors, led to lot of deaths, the numbers vary anywhere from one to fifteen million deaths. Understandably, the native people rebelled against this, and it turned out to be a long and bloody conflict, where the end result was just more deaths.