FillyofDelphi
Banned
Leopold II, a highly contoversial man even in his own time for the extremes to which he is broadly considered to have taken colonial exploration, is never the less facinating in his dedication to and methoids for securing a colony for Belgium: firmly believing a nation could only grow great if it had that outlet for it's goods and a place to vent it's growing population while still keeping them loyal to and producing for the motherland. In the end, through a massive public relations campaign, strategic sponsorship of expeditions and groups, and a complex game of personal and international dipolomacy, he miraculously managed to secure personal rule of the Congo as a "Free State": probably the biggest personal gain since Cortes was granted "a province for a garden", and for over twenty years ran the territory like an unregulated, bloody minded bussinesses.
That success however, only came after a string of failed ventures from Guatamala, to the South Pacific, to attempting to buy the Phillipenes from Spain. However, let's shift the man's luck around a bit and ask what might change if he succeeded in obtaining a different, or potentially multiple, concessions. How might that effect the broader patern of 2nd wave colonialism?
That success however, only came after a string of failed ventures from Guatamala, to the South Pacific, to attempting to buy the Phillipenes from Spain. However, let's shift the man's luck around a bit and ask what might change if he succeeded in obtaining a different, or potentially multiple, concessions. How might that effect the broader patern of 2nd wave colonialism?