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Prologue, and Chapters 1, 2, and 3

• King Leopold II of Belgium privately controlled and owned the Congo Free States (Congo) from 1885-1908.

• In 1908, the area was annexed to Belgium and known as the Belgian Congo.

• Leopold used his control to strip the area of wealthy in the form of ivory and rubber.

• The stripping of the wealth was done through forced labor and slave labor of the natives.

• Various people publicized these atrocities and slowly the international community began to pressure Leopold to end his tyranny.

• When Leopold's reign ended and Belgium ruled the area, little changed inside the country.

• The changes inside the country occurred when the ivory and rubber were exhausted.
• Europeans held many bizarre and strange theories about Africa.

• In the 1480s a Portuguese explorer, Diogo Cao, sailed along the west coast of Africa and was the first European to discover the mouth of the Congo River...

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