Between 1885 and 1908, Leopold II of Belgium ruled the Congo, a region of central Africa, as his personal colony, exploiting resources and inhabitants for its own gain. . Leopold allowed and encouraged Europeans and other Westerners to enter the Congo and establish businesses whose primary purpose was to harvest rubber, which was abundant but difficult to access in the Congo, using the Congolese as laborers for the Europeans. Rubber picking in the Congo brutally exploited the people of the Congo, while depriving the Congo of its wealth, with the rubber being “sold” to Europeans at prices far below its true value. It was not until others, particularly the British and Americans, exposed the horrible conditions of the Congo that the Belgian government reluctantly took control of the Congo, but the damage was done. Scholars, such as Martin Meredith, assert that Leopold II was "an ambitious, greedy and devious monarch" whose "primary aim...was to amass as large a fortune as possible." Meredith also cites Joseph Conrad, who described the Congo Free State "as 'the most vile race of pillage that ever disfigured the history of human consciousness.' Yet some scholars and officials support Leopold II and the Congo Free State. At the time of independence, Belgian King Baudouin I declared that "'The independence of the Congo constitutes the culmination of the work conceived by the genius of King Leopold II.'" In addition, Belgian museums presented exhibitions , in the words of Jan-Bart Gewald, “Which unfortunately attempted to nuance, or even minimize, the colonial past of the Congo. » The colonial experience of the Congo, was detrimental to the Congo both in the colonial era and in the post-colonial era, because...... middle of paper ......s, Edgar . Rubber collection in Congo. 1885. Documents of the African Past. Edited by Robert O. Collins. Princeton, NJ: Markus Wiener Publishers, 2001. Ewans, Martin. “Belgium and the colonial experience.” Journal of Contemporary European Studies 11, no. 2 (November 2003): 167-180. Gewald, Jan-Bart. “More than red rubber and numbers: a critical assessment of the Congo Memory exhibition at the Royal Museum for Central Africa, Tervuren, Belgium.” International Journal of African Historical Studies 39, no. 3 (October 2006): 471-486. Hamilton, Richard F. “A Neglected Holocaust.” Human Rights Review 1, no. 3 (April 2000): 119-123. Louis, William Roger. “Roger Casement and the Congo”. The Journal of African History. 5. no. 1 (1964): 99-120. Meredith, Martin. The destiny of Africa: a story of fifty years of independence. New York: Public Affairs, 2005.