AR 5 Francs

Struck: 1871
Mint: Royal Belgian Mint
Size: 37mm
Weight: 25.0g
Die Axis: 180°
Grade: AU
Ref: KM# 24.

Obv: LEOPOLD II ROI DES BELGES. Portrait of Leopold II of Belgium left.
Rev: L'UNION FAIT LA FORCE. Belgian coat of arms within a wreath dividing the value with a motto above and the year below.
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Leopold II was born on April 9th, 1835 and was King of the Belgians from 1865 to 1909. He is most noted for his personal and private ownership of the colony of the Congo Free State where he committed horrible atrocities for his own personal gain.

Leopold used Henry Morton Stanley to help him lay claim to the Congo, the present-day Democratic Republic of the Congo. At the Berlin Conference of 1884–1885, the colonial nations of Europe authorized his claim by committing the Congo Free State to improving the lives of the native inhabitants. Leopold ignored these conditions and ran the Congo using the mercenaries “Force Publique”. He extracted a fortune from the territory, initially by the collection of ivory, and after a rise in the price of natural rubber in the 1890s, by forced labor from the native population to harvest and process rubber.

Leopold's administration of the Congo was characterized by atrocities, including torture and murder, resulting from notorious systematic brutality. In 1890, George Washington Williams coined the term "crimes against humanity" to describe the practices of Leopold's administration of the Congo. The hands of men, women, and children were amputated when the quota of rubber was not met and millions of the Congolese people died. These and other facts were established at the time by eyewitness testimony, on-site inspection by an international commission of inquiry, and the 1904 Casement Report. In 1908, pressure from the Congo Reform Association and other international groups induced the Belgian government to take over the administration of the Congo from Leopold as a new territory, Belgian Congo.

Leopold died on December 17th, 1909. His funeral cortege was booed by the crowd.