Camp Gagnon: What King Leopold Did in The Congo Will Terrify You

Host: Mark Gagnon
Date: December 10, 2025
Episode Theme:
A deep, unflinching exploration of King Leopold II's regime in the Congo Free State—its origins, the atrocities committed, how the world responded, and the lingering effects today. Mark Gagnon unpacks the history and horror of one of colonialism’s worst episodes, providing not just context but a call to remember and reckon with these crimes.

Overview

In this harrowing episode of Camp Gagnon, Mark Gagnon delves into the dark and often overlooked chapter of colonial history: the exploitation and mass murder perpetrated by King Leopold II in the Congo Free State (1885–1908). Mark describes the rise of Leopold’s private empire, the mechanism of terror and forced labor, the role of international activism in ending the regime, and the lasting scars on modern-day Congo and Belgium. This episode is explicit in its descriptions—Mark insists that sanitizing this history does a disservice to its victims and the lessons it holds for all.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Horrific Catalyst: The Photograph That Shook The World

• [00:00]
  • Mark opens with the iconic story of a tragic photograph taken by missionary Alice Harris in Baringa in 1904, showing Insala, a Congolese man, grieving over the severed hand and foot of his young daughter—punished, like many villagers, for not meeting the regime’s rubber quotas.
  • Quote:
    • “That single photograph forced Europe and America to confront the truth they had been ignoring… While King Leopold II appeared to be this polite constitutional monarch, sitting in a nice palace in Brussels—in Central Africa, he ruled a private empire nearly 80 times the size of Belgium. But it was built on forced labor, terror quotas and death.”
    • (Mark Gagnon, 00:16)

2. The “Scramble for Africa” & Leopold’s Cunning Rise

• [04:00]
  • The Berlin Conference (1884–85): European powers carved up Africa with no African input—the so-called “Scramble for Africa.”
  • Mark critiques the historical name:
    • “I always felt like [‘scramble’] was a little blasé… It was a colonial occupation that killed millions of people.”
    • (Mark, 04:36)
  • Leopold, eager for imperial glory, failed in initial colonial ventures—eventually masking his ambitions as ‘philanthropy,’ pitching Belgium’s rule as humanitarian.
  • Hosted the Brussels Geographical Conference, launching the International African Association as a humanitarian front, while secretly assembling the machinery of conquest.

3. Henry Morton Stanley: The Empire’s Foot Soldier

• [08:00]
  • Stanley, famed for finding Livingstone, is recruited by Leopold to establish trading posts and gather ‘treaties’ with local chiefs—often by trickery or threat.
    • “Sign this or we’ll kill everyone in your village”: the implicit or explicit deal with illiterate chiefs.
  • The US (via former ambassador Henry Shelton Sanford) is first to recognize Leopold’s front, pressuring Europe to follow suit.
  • Leopold claims the Congo as his private property—not Belgium’s.
    • “He didn’t take it as the king of Belgium. He took it for himself. Legally, the entire Congo became his personal property, not Belgium’s. Literally, Leopold’s property.”
    • (Mark, 12:22)

4. The Atrocity Machine: Rubber, Quotas, and Death

• [14:00]
  • The invention of the inflatable rubber tire in 1887 triggers a rubber boom—Congo’s forests, rich in rubber, become a resource curse.
  • Leopold issues decrees turning all ‘vacant’ land into state property, forcing communities into brutal rubber and ivory collection.
  • Quotas are enforced by extreme violence; missed quotas mean mutilation, hostages, or outright massacre.
  • The infamous practice:
    • “Every bullet fired had to be accounted for with a severed hand.”
    • Baskets of hands were presented to European officers as proof of punishment.
    • “A basket of human hands. It’s beyond vile.”
    • (Mark, 19:42)

5. Witnesses and Documentarians: Exposing the Horror

• [20:00]
  • Missionaries—such as William Henry Shepard—document the aftermath of raids:
    • “He counted 81 severed hands drying over a fire…”
  • Alice Harris’ photos provide incontrovertible evidence, galvanizing action abroad.

6. The Force Publique: Leopold’s Private Army

• [22:00]
  • Leopold’s paramilitary enforcers are composed of white officers and forcibly recruited Africans from distant tribes (to avoid sympathy).
  • Recruited children, abused into soldiers; ex-slave traders are sometimes used for supplying men—while Leopold presents himself as an abolitionist.
  • Absolute, top-down brutality was policy.
    • “The violence wasn’t chaotic. It was policy, pushed all the way from the king himself.”
    • (Mark, 23:47)

7. Resistance, Reform, and the Birth of Human Rights Activism

• [25:29]
  • African-American journalist George Washington Williams visits, coins “crimes against humanity.”
    • “It was the first recorded use of that phrase which would later shape international law.”
    • (Mark, 25:55)
  • E.D. Morel, British clerk, uncovers trade irregularities; with Roger Casement (British consul), he ignites an international campaign—the Congo Reform Association (CRA), seen as the first modern human rights movement.
  • Literary figures (Mark Twain, Arthur Conan Doyle, Joseph Conrad) amplify the cause.
  • Missionary photography, notably by Alice and John Harris, personalizes suffering for Western audiences.

Notable Segment:

• The Propaganda Machine
  • [31:50]
    • Leopold launches intensive propaganda, buys off journalists, and destroys incriminating records.
    • “Control access and pay media and attack the critics and destroy evidence—became a model for many authoritarian regimes that came later.”

8. Collapse & Aftermath: The End of Leopold’s Reign

• [36:00]
  • International scandal, economic collapse (rubber resources depleted, competition from Asia) force Belgium to annex the Congo in 1908, buying it (at great expense) from Leopold, who maintains financial interest even after.
  • Leopold dies in 1909, public reaction is icy.
    • “Crowds reportedly booed as his coffin passed by.”
    • (Mark, 38:42)
  • Brutality recedes but exploitation persists; old structures remain, Congolese kept powerless.

9. Legacy: Memory, Denial, and Ongoing Repercussions

• [40:00] – end
  • Belgian colonial narratives long denied or whitewashed the truth—statues and debates remain flashpoints.
  • Only in recent years have leaders expressed regret (but not full apologies).
  • The effect on modern Congo: instability and generational trauma, with cycles of violence rooted in colonial devastation.
  • Multiple calls to remember, to expand the public memory beyond one photograph or the work of international celebrities.
  • Quote (closing reflection):
    • “The Congo Free State remains one of the clearest examples of what can happen when greed and unchecked power go unchallenged, and how determined people can actually still force the world to confront a truth that it so badly wanted to ignore.”
    • (Mark, 41:33)

Memorable Quotes & Moments

• Opening Image:

  • “Sitting before her is a man named Insala, staring at the only remains of his five year old daughter. A tiny hand and a foot wrapped in leaves... That single photograph forced Europe and America to confront the truth they had been ignoring.”
  • (Mark, 00:08 – 00:20)

• On Colonial Mindset:

  • “Literally, all these European countries and their monarchs were like, all right guys, let’s stop fighting each other. Let’s just go to Africa, steal all their resources, and everyone wins.”
  • (Mark, 06:22)

• On Leopold’s Deception:

  • “He decided to hide his actual goals behind, like, a noble, philanthropic sort of veil.”
  • (Mark, 10:21)

• Rubber Quotas and Violence:

  • “Violence became the easiest way to stay profitable... the most infamous practice is maybe the most disturbing, and there’s... photographs, and this was the practice of cutting off hands.”
  • (Mark, 17:09–18:22)

• The Force Publique:

  • “And the violence wasn’t chaotic. It was policy, pushed all the way from the king himself.”
  • (Mark, 23:47)

• Birth of ‘Crimes Against Humanity’:

  • “...the situation amounted to crimes against humanity. It was the first recorded use of that phrase which would later shape international law.”
  • (Mark, 25:55)

• On Leopold’s Legacy in Belgium:

  • “Crowds reportedly booed as his coffin passed by...”
  • (Mark, 38:42)

• Podcast Closing Reflection:

  • “I mean, yeah, it’s pretty hard to ignore just how vile it was. Like, the image... the image of seeing this guy looking at the hand of his daughter... is just like, oh my gosh.”
  • (Mark, 41:09)

Timestamps for Important Segments

• 00:00: Opening: Insala’s tragedy and the infamous photograph
• 04:00: Scramble for Africa & Leopold’s strategy
• 08:00: Stanley’s role, treaties, and acquisition of Congo
• 12:22: Leopold claims the Congo as personal property
• 14:00: Rubber boom and escalation of violence
• 17:09: System of quotas, punishment, and mutilation
• 20:00: Missionaries, evidence, and pressure for reform
• 22:00: The Force Publique – the machinery of oppression
• 25:29: The rise of reformers, origins of “crimes against humanity”
• 31:50: Leopold’s propaganda and information warfare
• 36:00: International pressure, Belgium takes the Congo
• 40:00: Colonial legacy, ongoing trauma, Belgian reckoning
• 41:33: Mark’s concluding remarks and call for historical memory

Tone & Style

Mark’s tone is passionate, direct, and committed to unsanitized historical truth. He balances accessible explanations with deep moral gravity, interspersing historical facts with reflective, occasionally incredulous personal reactions (“It’s just beyond vile,” “Like, it’s just…crazy”). The episode avoids academic jargon, aiming for clarity and emotional resonance.

Conclusion

Even for listeners unfamiliar with the details, this episode serves as an essential primer on the Congo Free State—explaining how Leopold II engineered a system of exploitation masked in philanthropy, how atrocities became policy, and how pioneering activists laid the foundation for modern human rights campaigns. Mark challenges his audience to remember these events and to recognize their echoes in present-day struggles against authoritarianism and historical denial.

Recommended Further Reading:

• King Leopold’s Ghost by Adam Hochschild
• Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness
• Mark Twain’s King Leopold’s Soliloquy

For feedback, questions, or additional reading suggestions, Mark invites further discussion in the comments and promises upcoming episodes exploring other facets of African history.