What role did Belgium play in the imperial expansion of the 19th century?

Leopold II tryed to have a colony in South America, China which did not work out and later created the Congo Free State with him has head of state. Right under the nose of France and England.


But not until his death the colony did belong to Belgium and was "private" property of Leopold II. Untill the 20th century most of the income came from rubber and ivory.


The wealt of the Belgium state came before WW1 from the leading role that Belgium had in chemical and industrial industry (not very well known but at the start of WW1 Belgium was the 5th economical world power). Unhappily the Germans destroyed and plundered occupied Belgium (only a small part at the coast could be held by the Belgians).


Only after WWI the Belgians could realy "exploit" the colony.


Again WWII destroyed the economy in Belgium but the colony provided a lot of raw material for the war effort to the Allies (f.e. the uranium from which were made the A-bombs came almost completly from Congo).

What role did Belgium play in the imperial expansion of the 19th century?
They took large swaths of central Africa, but lost a great deal of the territory to the British and French, eventually holding on to only the Congo. This was still a sizeable portion of Central Africa, and very mineral rich as well. They exported diamonds and rubber, and did quite well economically until they were conquered early in WWII
Reply:This is a good question as many people haven't realized that Belgium was actually a major colonial power. Under Leopold, they conquered much of central Africa, and terrorized and abused the people of the Congo region in order to extort vast quantities of rubber for export.

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