Because King Leopold the second already basically has his colony, this chapter deals with his attempts to keep going in search of turning a profit. He has neatly burned through his significant personal funds, and now turns to every side for cash: banks, wealthy families, the church, money from bonds, and finally his own country. King Leopold has so masterfully shaped the public opinion about himself (creating scientific gatherings, claiming he skips a course at lunch to economize, altering the date on his will to make a financial move seem benevolent) that he is able to convince his country to lend him 25 million francs.
With this infusion of cash, he is now able to put together his superior technology in weaponry (breech loading rifles, maxim gun), medicine (quinine for malaria), and transportation (steamboats) to start a push to develop some infrastructure in the Congo which will eventually help transport valuable goods to the coast which he will be taking.
The start of the chapter talks about Leopold's family life, which is deteriorating. In his efforts to create ties between himself and the Austria-Hungary ruling family, he marries of both of his daughters to princes from there. They are horrible match-ups, so much so that after cheating on her husband the prince, Louise actually chose to go to an insane asylum instead of returning to her husband. There seems to be a pattern with the women around Leopold; they either go crazy, die, or end up in a worse situation (Louise, Carlota, Prostitute & Stephanie).
Everything seems to work out for King Leopold--governments buy his ploys, a disillusioned and betrayed Sanford dies without causing any troubles, and Stanley does as he is told. Still no one knows Leopold's true purpose with the Congo.
November 1889, when the Anti-Slavery Conference was held, Turkey had been invited to keep diplomatic ties strong, yet Turkey only abolished slavery ten years later in 1899. When Islamic harems were mentioned as something that kept the slave trade going, the Turkish delegation erupted with laughter, probably due to the fact that they thought of harems as nothing out of the ordinary, as men of many different levels of power had harems of varying sizes. Turkey was basically on the other side of the spectrum toward slavery in relation to all the guests at the conference, yet they weren't treated with indignant delegates and forceful talks. It seems as if customary niceties towards other countries had quelled the righteous voices of the righteous people representing their countries.
Questions:
1. Why is Stanley's love life discussed so often? What is the purpose?
2. What is more important to Leopold: money or power? Why?
3. Why does Leopold move to annex part of the Nile instead of solely focusing on the Congo?
4. Why does Stanley feel such loyalty towards King Leopold?
5. Where would Leopold stop in his quest for his colony? Could anything stop him?
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