What was Leopold II thinking?

As far as I know (based on a handful of books), Leopold was in it for the money. His use of Stanley showed his immense ambitions.

That it cost a fortune to even get close to the "untold riches" was not perceived at that time as far as I know.

The only country with a proven wealth was, of course, South Africa, But that was based on massive immegration and gold and diamonds galore.

Ivan
 
It was so poorly managed, that Belgium took over the colony from the crown, and managed to run it much much better than Leopold did.

And they still ran it into the ground, which tells you how poorly a job Leopold did of it.
 
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