King Leopold II
At the time of the Conference, Belgium did not have an empire. Belgium's king, Leopold II, wanted to secure an empire for his country, so he hired British explorer Henry Morton Stanley to help him obtain the Congo Basin in Africa. Leopold ordered him to set up stations along the Congo River and to build roads and railways to bypass the Congo River rapids. The wealth that was generated from the exploitation of the Congo returned to transform the cities of Belgium into works of art.
King Leopold II
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King Leopold's Desire for Territory
Annick de Ville,
Architectural Historian |
King Leopold's Orders to H.M. Stanley Concerning Africa
Letter from King Leopold II to
British explorer H.M. Stanley, 1881 |
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