Leopold II of Belgium

Leopold II (9 April 1835 – 17 December 1909) was the second King of the Belgians.

Leopold II of Belgium was the King of Belgium from 1865 until his death in 1909. He is most infamously remembered for the acquisition of the Congo Free State that was populated by around 20,000,000 Congolese. He was widely met with critical acclaim at this time as he claimed to be helping them when he was in reality enslaving them in order to benefit his own empire.

Villainy
By the time the treatment of the Congolese was exposed to the world, he had murdered approximately 50 % of the entire population, which would amount to a total of 10,000,000 people.

While the Congo Free State was under his tyranny, he forced many who were unwilling to work for him to be tortured or executed in gruesome fashion. This included having their hands, head, feet, ears, noses or legs chopped off as a method to scare others in the Congolese to do his bidding.

His Empire burnt villages, raped women and cannibalised the natives in order to warn the Congolese to obey him.

Aside from premeditated genocide, many died under his regime due to starvation or disease, many of the natives had to resort to eating human flesh and drinking their own urine in order to survive.