Wikipedia:Today's featured article/April 20, 2004



The Congo Free State was a private colony owned by Léopold II of Belgium between about 1877 and 1908. It included the entire area now known as the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and was the scene of native heartbreak and European brutality, greed and genocide on a colossal scale. In 1908, after Léopold's activities had finally been exposed in the Western press, it became, at least in theory, an orthodox colony of Belgium, and known as the Belgian Congo. (more...)

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