Belgium and King Leopold II

Leopold II of Belgium personally owned the Congo Free State from 1885 to 1908. The Congo was perhaps the most brutally exploited colony in the history of imperialism. Leopold's agents forced Congolese people to harvest rubber under quotas enforced through mutilations, killings, and the burning of villages. Estimates of deaths from Leopold's regime range from 5 to 10 million people. International outcry (including from journalists like E.D. Morel and writers like Joseph Conrad, whose novella Heart of Darkness was inspired by his time in the Congo) eventually forced Belgium to take the colony from Leopold in 1908.