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King Leopold II of Belgium has millions of Congolese souls on his conscience #Congo atrocities
Created 2 years ago · 8 comments· 0 likes·🪙💰💸 10
SDXL 1.0
The darkest chapter of colonisation
ℹ️The systematic plundering of the Congo Free State between around 1888 and 1908 became known as the Congo atrocities, when concession companies, above all the Société générale de Belgique, operated rubber extraction by means of slavery and forced labour. This led to hostage-taking, killings, mutilations and rape on a massive scale. Estimates for the decline in the Congolese population range from 1.5 to 13 million. The causes included killings, famine, disease and a falling birth rate. The population may have been reduced by half. The Congo Free State was the private colony of the King of the Belgians, Leopold II of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. The main shareholder of the concession companies was the Congo Free State, i.e. Leopold II himself.
More information:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atrocities_in_the_Congo_Free_State ↗️: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8tSi4EZn-Kg ↗️ https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kongogr%C3%A4uel ↗️ (german)
King Leopold II Portrait in Neoclassical Style
A portrait of King Leopold II of Belgium. The illustration captures the subject in the style of Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, known for Neoclassical portraiture.
Created by SirHeckerich on Dec 23, 2023 using the SDXL 1.0 AI image generator model.
8 Comments
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Excellent! I'm so sad this is so low. It's an important piece of history and he is the cause of so many current ongoing conflicts in Central Africa. Thank you for sharing an important message and piece of art.
Creation Settings
- Text Prompts
- Portrait of the vile mass murderer King Leopold II of Belgium, illustration by Jean-Auguste-Dominique IngresWeight: 1long neck :: stretched torso:: stretched arms :: streteched legs :: low_quality :: text logos :: watermarks :: signatures :: out_of_frame :: jpeg artifacts :: ugly :: poorly drawn :: extra limbs :: extra hands :: extra feet :: backwards limbs :: extra fingers :: extra toes :: unrealistic, incorrect, ...Weight: -0.8
- Model
CKPT- Initial Resolution
Medium
- Aspect Ratio
3:4
- Runtime
Short
- Overall Prompt Weight
50%
- Refiner Weight
25%
- Sampling method
K_DPMPP_2M
I have been TOTALLY ignorant of chapters in African history pertaining to the leading role of monarchs, such as Leopold II. I have always assumed power rested with corporate interests with charters or close ties to First (Western) World governments. This, I further assumed, was reflected in the mercenaries and multiple factions that contested for power over the Congo after its independence in 1960.
I cannot tell you how much I appreciate learning that the sources of such powerful entities were much more deeply rooted and even more ignoble than I imagined. Thanks!