While Leopold II did much to establish Belgium as an economically and militarily stable power in Europe, he is chiefly remembered for the nightmarish practices that were carried out in his name. He was the architect of one of history's greatest, if lesser known, crimes against humanity.
- How did Leopold II become famous?Although Leopold II established Belgium as a colonial power in Africa, he is best known for the widespread atrocities that were carried out under h...
- What was Leopold II’s family like?Leopold II was the second son of Leopold I, first king of the Belgians, and his second wife, Marie-Louise of Orléans. The couple's first son, Louis...
- How did Leopold II change the world?Leopold II implemented a forced-labour system in the Congo that was quickly copied by other European colonial powers. This brutal practice was a ca...
- What was Leopold II’s legacy?While Leopold II did much to establish Belgium as an economically and militarily stable power in Europe, he is chiefly remembered for the nightmari...
12 de jun. de 2020 · For many years Leopold II was widely known as a leader who defended Belgium's neutrality in the 1870-71 Franco-Prussian war and commissioned public works fit for a modern nation. Image source,...
The fourth son of Francis, duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, Leopold served with the allies against Napoleon’s forces during the Napoleonic Wars (1800–15); in 1816 he married Charlotte, the only child of the future king George IV of Great Britain. Although the princess died in 1817, Leopold continued to live in
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
12 de feb. de 2023 · Leopold I, (born June 9, 1640, Vienna—died May 5, 1705, Vienna), Holy Roman emperor during whose lengthy reign (1658–1705) Austria emerged from a series of struggles with the Turks and the French to become a great European power, in which monarchical absolutism and administrative centralism gained ascendancy.
Leopold was the founder and sole owner of the Congo Free State, a private 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.
- 17 December 1865 – 17 December 1909
- Louise of Orléans
After attending Yale University, Leopold worked for the U.S. Forest Service (1909–28), mainly in the Southwest. In 1924 the country’s first national wilderness area (Gila Wilderness Area in New Mexico) was created at Leopold’s urging. From 1933 to 1948 he taught at the University of Wisconsin.