Rubber and Blood

What This Book Covers

1. Chapter One - The King with No Empire
2. Chapter Two - The Scramble for Africa
3. Chapter Three - The Congo Free State Is Born
4. Chapter Four - The Reign of the Force Publique
5. Chapter Five - Rubber Fever
6. Chapter Six - The Whistleblowers
7. Chapter Seven - Leopold’s Lies and Legacy
8. Chapter Eight - From Rubber to Uranium
9. Chapter Nine - A Wound That Never Closed
10. Chapter Ten - Truth, Memory, and Justice

Excerpt

CHAPTER ONE The King with No Empire IN 1865, LEOPOLD II became the king of Belgium. And from the very first day, it wasn’t enough. He ruled a country the size of Maryland. A postage stamp surrounded by giants. Britain had India. France had Algeria. Even the Dutch had Indonesia. And Belgium? Nothing. No colonies. No empire. No legacy. Leopold wasn’t content to be a caretaker monarch. He wanted to be remembered. And he knew that in the 19th century, there was only one guaranteed way to etch your name in history: Conquest. Belgium had only existed since 1830. It was young, rich, and industrious — full of coal, steel, and ambition. But geopolitically? It was irrelevant. Leopold saw colonization...