King Leopold II used slave labor and torture on Africans to obtain raw materials from which to shape his fortune. He also killed over 10 million people during the time he ruled, and is mostly talked about for his murders and his involvement in the East African slave trade. He is the second king of Belgium, his father is the first. Leopold always believed that the overseas colonies were the key to success for the Belgian empire. This led to the Berlin Conference. It was then that everything went wrong for the Congo and this is the main reason why Leopold is remembered as a murderer and is compared to Adolf Hitler. Leopold II is the founder of the Congo Free State and is the deadliest dictator in the history of the world. King Leopold II was a troubled boy from the start. Leopold was born in Brussels, Belgium, on April 9, 1835. He is the son of Leopold I, the first king of the Belgians, and his mother, Queen Louise Marie, who was not from Belgium. Her cousins ​​were both Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom and her husband, Prince Albert. This meant that Leopold was born into the royal family and would most likely become an important figure in the history of Belgium. Since Leopold II had been born, he was destined to ascend the throne once his father died. This in itself is a lot of pressure for a child to handle. This was most likely the first spark that explained why he was the deadliest dictator who ever lived. His childhood was not at all pleasant. One reason is that his mother thought his nose made him look deformed and his father spoke of him as “the little tyrant.” This above all made him very angry and upset. Growing up, Leopold was also very shy and walked funny. While his brother Philippe was very... middle of paper... Opold and rose to become the deadliest dictator in the world. Leopold II is the deadliest dictator that has ever existed in the history of the world. The reason for this is that it is responsible for over 10 million deaths and continues to haunt Congo and the world. It set the tone for Congo for over 100 years. Who knows what will happen in the next 100. Once you compare yourself to leaders like Mao Zedong and Adolf Hitler, you know you've done something terribly wrong. Works Cited http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leopold_II_of_Belgium http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/336654/Leopold-II http://www.yale.edu/gsp/colonial/belgian_congo/ http://www.nndb.com/people/036/000094751/ http://www.bookrags.com/biography/leopold-ii2/ http://www.enotes.com/homework-help/who-was- king-leopold-ii-what-did-he-have-do-with -467109 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3516965.stm