King Leopold's Exploitation of the Congo Colony

For over 400 years European explorers had sailed into the broad Congo estuary, planning to fight their way up the falls and rapids that begin only 100 miles inland, and then travel up the river to its unknown source. All attempts failed until Henry Morton Stanley was hired by Leopold, the King of the Belgians, to explore into the Congo area basin. King Leopold did not do this in the name of exploration, but instead he did …

…lives and destroyed everything that they knew and believed in. King Leopold even made sure that the Congolese people adopted Christianity, and lost their own religion. "The Roman Catholic Church exerted a predominant influence in the social and educational life of the Congo. In religion as in finance, the monopoly idea was in high favour. Since all education was in the hands of the missions until 1946, you either accepted a Christian education, or had nothing."