In the 1880's, as the European powers were carving up Africa, King Leopold II of Belgium seized for himself the vast and largely unexplored territory surrounding the Congo River. Carrying out a genocidal plundering of the Congo, he looted its rubber, brutalized its people, and ultimately slashed the population by ten million--all while shrewdly cultivating his international reputation as a great humanitarian. Heroic efforts to expose this secret crime finally led to the first great international human rights movement of the 20th century in which everyone from Mark Twain to the Archbishop of Canterbury participated.
- ISBN10 0395759242
- ISBN13 9780395759240
- Publish Date 21 September 1998
- Publish Status Out of Print
- Out of Print 28 June 2021
- Publish Country US
- Imprint Houghton Mifflin
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 384
- Language English