Leopold II [ a ] 9 April — 17 December was the second King of the Belgians from to , and the founder and sole owner of the Congo Free State from to Born in Brussels as the second but eldest-surviving son of King Leopold I and Queen Louise , Leopold succeeded his father to the Belgian throne in 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. Leopold 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.
At the Berlin Conference of —, the colonial nations of Europe authorised his claim and committed the Congo Free State to him. Leopold ran 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 rubber in the s, by forced labour from the native population to harvest and process rubber.
Leopold's administration was characterized by systematic brutality and atrocities in 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 While it has proven difficult to accurately estimate 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 , the second child of the reigning Belgian monarch, Leopold I , and of his second wife, Louise , the daughter of King Louis Philippe of France.
