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| Currency of the Belgian Congo |
Belgian Congo 100 Francs banknote 1960 King Leopold II
Central Bank of the Belgian Congo and Ruanda-Urundi
Banque Centrale du Congo Belge et du Ruanda-Urundi
Centrale Bank van Belgisch Congo en Ruanda-Urundi
Banque Centrale du Congo Belge et du Ruanda-Urundi
Centrale Bank van Belgisch Congo en Ruanda-Urundi
Belgian Congo banknotes, Belgian Congo paper money, Belgian Congo bank notes.
Obverse: Portrait of Leopold II, King of the Belgians (9 April 1835 – 17 December 1909). Leopold II was the founder and sole owner of the Congo Free State, a private project undertaken on his own behalf. He used Henry Morton Stanley to help him lay claim to the Congo, an area now known as the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Reverse: African basket weavers.
Belgian Congo banknotes - Belgian Congo paper money
1955-1959 Issue
10 Francs 20 Francs 50 Francs 100 Francs
Leopold II of Belgium
Leopold II (French: Léopold Louis Philippe Marie Victor, Dutch: Leopold Lodewijk Filips Maria Victor; 9 April 1835 – 17 December 1909) was the second King of the Belgians, and is chiefly remembered for the founding and exploitation of the Congo Free State. Born in Brussels the second (but eldest surviving) son of Leopold I and Louise of Orléans, he succeeded his father to the throne on 17 December 1865, reigning for 44 years until his death, the longest of any Belgian monarch.
Leopold was the founder and sole owner of the Congo Free State, a private project undertaken on his own behalf. He used Henry Morton Stanley to help him lay claim to the Congo, an area now known as the Democratic Republic of the Congo. At the Berlin Conference of 1884–1885, the colonial nations of Europe committed the Congo Free State to improving the lives of the native inhabitants. From the beginning, however, Leopold essentially ignored these conditions and ran the Congo using a mercenary force for his personal gain. Some of the money from this exploitation was used for public and private construction projects in Belgium during this period.
Leopold extracted a fortune from the Congo, initially by the collection of ivory, and after a rise in the price of rubber in the 1890s, by forcing the population to collect sap from rubber plants. Villages were required to meet quotas on rubber collections, and individuals' hands were cut off if they did not meet the requirements. His regime was responsible for the death of an estimated 2 to 15 million Congolese. This became one of the most infamous international scandals of the early 20th century, and Leopold was ultimately forced to relinquish control of it to the Belgian government.