HISTORY
IMPERIALISM ASIA
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Question
[CLICK ON ANY CHOICE TO KNOW THE RIGHT ANSWER]
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was interested in the rubber trade in southern Asia.
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would not give in to the demands of European missionaries to stop forced labor.
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worked to improve the lives of the African people of the Congo.
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forced African tribes to gather wild rubber in the Congo region.
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Detailed explanation-1: -Leopold was frustrated that tiny Belgium possessed no colonies. As a constitutional monarch, he held little power at home. But he yearned to rule a rich colonial empire. Leopold invited Stanley to Belgium and persuaded the now famous explorer to return to the Congo acting as the king’s personal agent.
Detailed explanation-2: -Under his regime, millions of Congolese inhabitants, including children, were mutilated, killed or died from disease and famine.
Detailed explanation-3: -The rubber came from wild vines in the jungle, unlike the rubber from Brazil (Hevea brasiliensis), which was tapped from trees. To extract the rubber, instead of tapping the vines, the Congolese workers would slash them and lather their bodies with the rubber latex.
Detailed explanation-4: -Leopold was able to seize the region by convincing other European states at the Berlin Conference on Africa that he was involved in humanitarian and philanthropic work and would not tax trade. Via the International Association of the Congo, he was able to lay claim to most of the Congo Basin.