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Jesus Christ, Belgium, what is wrong with you (lemmy.world)

submitted 1 month ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 42 points 1 month ago (10 children)

Concensus is that is was not so much "the Belgians", but mostly king Leopold II and his band of mercenaries. The Belgian government fucked up by allowing it to persist for so long.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago (5 children)

Nowadays the king is more a costly ceremonial position but i can imagine back then no one dared say no to their monarchs whims.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 month ago (3 children)

Bit of a weird situation in Belgium. There was a delicate balance of power between the monarch and the rest of the government. The Congo Free State was under the king's personal authority, until word of the atrocities got out and the Belgian parliament took it from him.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago

It would still not be "the Belgians" then, but the Belgian monarch and the government. At that time especially, that had very little to do with the Belgian people

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