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Leopold II of Belgium
Leopold II was the second king of the Belgians from 1865 to 1909, and the founder and sole owner of the Congo Free State from 1885 to 1908.
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politics · King of the Belgians from 1865 to 1909 · monarch · also Leopold II of Belgium, Leopold II van.toluca.cuautitlan.cesyt.policia.d.f België, King Leopold II, Belgium
Born 9 April 1835 · Died 17 December 1909 · Q12967
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Leopold II and Princess Clémentine Of Belgium make Joyous Entry into the city of 'Antwerp' in 1909
Leopold II and Princess Clémentine Of Belgium make Joyous Entry into the city of 'Antwerp' in 1909
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Leopold II, Het hele Verhaal, Johan Op De Beeck Horizon, 2020 ISBN 9789463962094 King Leopold II In a letter to his niece Queen Victoria about the critical condition of his sick son Prince Leopold, Duke of Brabant.
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2026· 7 entries
Public attention spiked: 14,104 Wikipedia readers in one day, 5.5× the usual 2,587, with 2 article edits. Editors noted: Interceptor: Reverting non-constructive edits by ~2026-38643-32
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Public attention spiked: 14,104 Wikipedia readers in one day, 4.8× the usual 2,968, with 2 article edits. Editors noted: Interceptor: Reverting non-constructive edits by ~2026-38643-32
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Public attention spiked: 13,305 Wikipedia readers in one day, 4.5× the usual 2,968, with 0 article edits.
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Public attention spiked: 13,305 Wikipedia readers in one day, 5.1× the usual 2,587, with 0 article edits.
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Public attention spiked: 19,520 Wikipedia readers in one day, 6.6× the usual 2,968, with 0 article edits.
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Public attention spiked: 9,169 Wikipedia readers in one day, 3.1× the usual 2,968, with 0 article edits.
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2020· 15 entries
“Leopold II, Het hele Verhaal, Johan Op De Beeck Horizon, 2020 ISBN 9789463962094 Leopold II in a letter to his prime minister, warning him for possible insurrections, as the Belgian Socialist Party demands the Universal right to vote for all workers.”
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“Leopold II, Het hele Verhaal, Johan Op De Beeck Horizon, 2020 ISBN 9789463962094 Prince Leopold II in his function of Senator in the Senate of Belgium.”
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“Leopold II, Het hele Verhaal, Johan Op De Beeck Horizon, 2020 ISBN 9789463962094 Prince Leopold II in a letter to his father Leopold I on may 1861 when recovering from a cold on vacation in villa Solitude in Austria complaining how he misses female company.”
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“Leopold II, Het hele Verhaal, Johan Op De Beeck Horizon, 2020 ISBN 9789463962094 King Leopold II In a letter to his niece Queen Victoria about the critical condition of his sick son Prince Leopold, Duke of Brabant.”
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“Leopold II, Het hele Verhaal, Johan Op De Beeck Horizon, 2020 ISBN 9789463962094”
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“Leopold II, Het hele Verhaal, Johan Op De Beeck Horizon, 2020 ISBN 9789463962094 King Leopold II In a 1870 speech to the Belgian Parliament as a reaction to the growing threat of war between Prussia and France.”
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“Leopold II, Het hele Verhaal, Johan Op De Beeck Horizon, 2020 ISBN 9789463962094 Leopold II in a 1870 letter to Belgian Prime Minister Jules d'Anethan after his negative reaction to Leopold's propositions to mandate Conscription and increased Military spending in the context of the Franco-Prussian war.”
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“Leopold II, Het hele Verhaal, Johan Op De Beeck Horizon, 2020 ISBN 9789463962094 Leopold II in 1865 when accending to the throne.”
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“Leopold II, Het hele Verhaal, Johan Op De Beeck Horizon, 2020 ISBN 9789463962094 Leopold II in 1885 about the protests and Social unrest due to extreme poverty among the many farmers in Belgium.”
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“Leopold II, Het hele Verhaal, Johan Op De Beeck Horizon, 2020 ISBN 9789463962094 Leopold II in a letter to his prime minister, requesting a military inventory, in view of possible protests due to the social unrests in the country, partly stirred up by the BSP (Belgian Socialist Party).”
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“Leopold II, Het hele Verhaal, Johan Op De Beeck Horizon, 2020 ISBN 9789463962094 King Leopold II complains to his prime minister, because the Belgian government did not grant him the extra powers he had requested (One of which was to overrule laws instituted by democratic vote in parliament).”
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“Leopold II, Het hele Verhaal, Johan Op De Beeck Horizon, 2020 ISBN 9789463962094 King Leopold II threatens to abdicate in the chaos of late 19th-century Belgium, when he fails to obtain the extra powers he had requested and, at the same time, in the first democratic elections in which non-citizens from the upper class are allowed to vote, the Christian Democrats and Socialists win the elections).”
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“Leopold II, Het hele Verhaal, Johan Op De Beeck Horizon, 2020 ISBN 9789463962094 King Leopold II explains on the back of a lettre in which he threatens to abdicate.”
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“Leopold II, Het hele Verhaal, Johan Op De Beeck Horizon, 2020 ISBN 9789463962094 King Leopold II in a letter to the treasurer of the Monarch's Private fortune: Auguste Goffinet.”
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“Leopold II, Het hele Verhaal, Johan Op De Beeck Horizon, 2020 ISBN 9789463962094 Prince Leopold II in a travel note after reading in the Spanish Archive "Archivo General de Indias" in Sevilla in 1862.”
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2010· 1 entry
Louis Michel, a Belgian member of the European Parliament and former Belgian foreign minister, called Leopold II a "visionary hero
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1999· 1 entry
With the publication of King Leopold's Ghost by American historian Adam Hochschild, which recounts Leopold's plan to acquire the colony, the exploitation, and the large death toll
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1968· 1 entry
Stated that population figures at the start of Leopold's control are only "wild guesses", and that attempts by E
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1960· 1 entry
And became known as the Republic of the Congo
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1924· 1 entry
Put the population at about 10 million, these various approaches suggest a rough estimate of a population decline by 10 million
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1917· 1 entry
Prince Lónyay de Nagy-Lónya et Vásáros-Namény)
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1910· 1 entry
By Lacroix's second husband, Antoine Durrieux
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1909· 16 entries
Died 1909-12-17.
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“You just have to dare to succeed.”
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“Excuse me, dear niece, for this letter, which is really just a health bulletin. Especially concerned with a health so dear to me, I am almost unable to speak of anything else.”
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“I do not want to miss a good chance of getting us a slice of this magnificent African cake.”
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“Whoever has a cold is stupid, because he just had to avoid catching a cold.”
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“Did you know: Leopold II was a hypochondriac.”
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“I am very satisfied with my invention. With this pocket, the rain can fall, and i'm not afraid: my beard will stay dry. You laugh, but you don't laugh when a woman, after washing her hair, dries it and wraps it in a towel. You are not laughing, and yet it is the same. Women drying their hair, and I guaranteeing my beard from the rain, we are only keeping us from colds!”
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“Nothing is more difficult than arriving at a court where nobody knows anyone in the world, add to that the Austrian Etiquette, and you can imagine what kind of evening I had to endure.”
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“A battle with the Netherlands must be a surprise on our part, we must suddenly present ourselves there with weapons, disrupt the order, and keep the provinces that want to join, let the others go free as they please.”
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“Leopold II - Het Hele Verhaal (Aflevering 1) Prince Leopold in a letter to his brother Prince Philippe and sister Princess Carlota, on being received by the Austrian court to meet his future bride 'Marie Henriette of Austria.”
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“A Prince must not speak the language of the tribunes and proclaim absolute principles in terms which are likely to deeply offend those who are of another opinion than his own.”
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“The Congo Free State is unique in its kind. It has nothing to hide and no secrets and is not beholden to anyone except its founder.”
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“Citation de la comédienne et grande courtisane française Émilienne d'Alençon.”
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“Young trees need stakes to support them, but the stakes must be removed once the trees begin to grow, precisely so not to hinder their growth.”
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“I sleep poorly. This long abstinence is destroying me. My nature needs frequent contacts with the beautiful gender. I don't understand how priests can live like this.”
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“I have only one goal and one desire, namely to give myself a practical instruction, to get to know the world and its inhabitants. There will come times when this knowledge will be of use to me.”
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1908· 2 entries
The situation in the Congo improved in certain respects
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“Bulletin Officiel de Congo Belge - Années 1908 et 1909, page 174. King Leopold II in a speech on 17 december 1865.”
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1901· 1 entry
“Leopold II, King of the Belgians in a letter to his minister, Charles Woeste, dated June 9, 1901.”
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1900· 2 entries
Created the Royal Trust, by means of which he donated most of his properties to the Belgian nation in perpetuity, and arranged for the royal family to continue using them after his death
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“Immo Royal, In Belgium you can find more than 7,500 hectares of royal real estate. Journalists conducted an in-depth investigation into the patrimony of the Royal Donation for the first time in 90 years. King Leopold II in a letter to the Minister of Finance on April 9, 1900, in honor of his 65th birthday.”
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1899· 1 entry
In his 65th year, Leopold took as a mistress Caroline Lacroix, a 16-year-old French prostitute, and they remained together until his death ten years later
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1895· 1 entry
Leopold ordered the organisation of an expedition into the Lado Enclave, which had been overrun by Mahdist rebels since the outbreak of the Mahdist War in 1881
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1894· 1 entry
King Leopold signed a treaty with the United Kingdom which conceded a strip of land on the Congo Free State's eastern border in exchange for a lifetime lease of the Lado Enclave, which provided access to the navigable Ni
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1889· 1 entry
Died in a suicide pact with his mistress, Baroness Mary Vetsera, at the Mayerling hunting lodge
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1885· 2 entries
Various socialist and social democratic groups drew together and formed the Labour Party
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Career landmark: Sovereign of the Congo Free State (1885–1908).
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1880· 1 entry
And four years later restored state support to Catholic schools
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1878· 1 entry
Under the auspices of the holding company, he hired explorer Henry Stanley to explore and establish a colony in the Congo region
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1876· 1 entry
Leopold organised a private holding company disguised as an international scientific and philanthropic association, which he called the International African Society, or the International Association for the Exploration
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1869· 1 entry
At the age of nine from pneumonia after falling into a pond
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1868· 1 entry
When Isabella II was deposed as queen of Spain, Leopold tried to press his original plan to acquire the Philippines
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1866· 2 entries
“King Leopold's Ghost Leopold II, Hair to the Belgian throne, 1866.”
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Leopold instructed the Belgian ambassador in Madrid to speak to Queen Isabella II of Spain about ceding the Philippines to Belgium, but the ambassador did nothing
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1865· 4 entries
And reigned for 44 years until his death, the longest reign of a Belgian monarch to date
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“Pierre Vercauteren: A king unjustly maligned. (Page 18) Leopold II on the evening of his accession in 1865 confided to the baron Lambermont. Léopold II, Count Louis de Lichtervelde (p.55).”
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By which time he had reached the rank of lieutenant-general
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Career landmark: King of the Belgians (1865–1909).
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1861· 1 entry
Awarded Knight Grand Cross in the Order of the Netherlands Lion (1861).
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1855· 1 entry
When he became a member of the Belgian Senate
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1854· 1 entry
“Prince Leopold II on his second wedding trip in a letter to his father Leopold I of Belgium in 1854.”
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1853· 5 entries
“All the King's Men' A search for the colonial ideas of some advisers and "accomplices" of Leopold II (1853-1892). (Hannes Vanhauwaert), Preface:A historiographical picture of Leopold II (1835-1909) Leopold to Edouard Blondeel, the Belgian Consul in Egypt, 1855.”
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Career landmark: Senator by Right (1853–1865).
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“All the King's Men' A search for the colonial ideas of some advisers and "accomplices" of Leopold II (1853-1892). (Hannes Vanhauwaert), Emile Banning (1836-1898): The Don Quichotte of the ‘liberal civilization’ in Congo Banning had a final private meeting with the king, which, according to the anecdotal press, culminated in this bitter altercation. WALRAET, M. Emile Banning. Un grand Belge, 54.”
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“All the King's Men' A search for the colonial ideas of some advisers and "accomplices" of Leopold II (1853-1892). (Hannes Vanhauwaert), 5. A prospectus by the military Chazal and Brialmont, The Importance of General Chazal in Colonial Politics. KMLKG, Papiers Chazal, 65/1, Chazal aan de hertog van Brabant, 28 juni 1859.”
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“All the King's Men' A search for the colonial ideas of some advisers and "accomplices" of Leopold II (1853-1892). (Hannes Vanhauwaert), Preface:A historiographical picture of Leopold II (1835-1909) Parliamentary Annals of Belgium. Legislative session of 1855-1856. Senate. Brussel, n.d., 67.”
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1835· 1 entry
Born 1835-04-09.
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