Leopold II was the most successful dictator in relation
to his goals. Although he was subject to limited outrage of the European community,
he furthered Belgium and increased his own wealth, the goal of any monarch. The
other dictators had more obstacles in their way, and had more extravagant
goals.
Leopold II was born into power, and had few vocal
opponents in his country, allowing him to do essentially whatever he wanted. He
was able to hide things from his country, as nobody was looking for the bad
things in their king. He was able to create the International African
Association under the pretense of spreading civility and Christianity throughout
Africa. He was able to declare that the Congo Free State (CFS) was being helped
by the Belgian government, not so that they could exploit the CFS, but to help
establish order and good morals in the Congo. Leopold was also able to act in
the way he did because everyone else was doing it. If the other European monarchs
had scolded him, and chastised his way of dealing with the native Congolese,
they would have been seen as hypocrites, and would have been forced to revise
their own treatment of the native Africans. Some, like Irish MP Roger Casement,
did speak out, but they did not have the support base Leopold did.
By using the CFS to gain natural
resources, Leopold was able to accumulate a massive amount of wealth, and put
some of it in a trust for his descendants. The rest of this wealth was then
used to fund Leopold’s immense public and private works buildings. Leopold
built lavish palaces for himself, and also built buildings for public use with
the money he received form the lucrative CFS. He did not waste his time
attempting to exploit anything other than rubber for more than a few years once
he realized the demand for rubber. Leopold’s buildings earned him the title “Builder
King,” and garnered him the respect and love of his subjects.
The
other dictators were not as successful in their endeavors because they did not have
the international support-or blackmail-that Leopold had. The fascist leaders,
Franco and Petain, had the Allies against them during and post-World War II, while
the communist leaders, Ceausescu, Hoxha and Tito, had Western Europe and the
United states against them in the Cold War era. Although the communists had some support from
the USSR, the lack of support from inside their own countries caused their
downfall. Romania executed Ceausescu after his “Fascist Agitators” speech, Yugoslavia
fell apart less than twenty years after Tito died because of economic,
religious and social tensions, and Albania lasted less than ten years after
Hoxha died, becoming a democracy. Spain was transitioned into a constitutional monarchy
in the reign of Franco’s hand-picked successor, and The French people turned
against Petain once he was put on trial.
The
other European dictators also had goals of fundamentally changing the political
structure that they were governing in, from monarchies or republics into fascist
and communist utopias. All of the communist leaders had a falling-out with one
or another of the leaders of the USSR, and attempted to embark on their own
brand of socialism, be it “Socialism in One Family,” “Titoism,” or simply a
continuation of Stalinism. The fascists were fighting against the tide of
liberalism, attempting to bring back the status quo from wherever the republics
that had preceded them had hidden it. Leopold simply continued an already
established monarchy, and did not fight the tide of liberalization, but
redirected it to fit his brand of dictatorship. He established universal male
suffrage in Belgium, and he made secular primary school mandatory.
All
in all, Leopold had better resources, better allies, and a better country to
impose his dictatorial views upon. He did not attempt to revolutionize his
country, just to do what his people wanted in order to distract them from the
atrocities in the CFS. He was not openly opposed by any Western European
nation, and he participated in the Berlin Conference to make sure he got what
he wanted. The other European dictators tried to achieve too much without
giving their people reason to support them other than “ideals.” Leopold made
Belgium richer, more beautiful, better educated, and kept the CFS out of the
limelight long enough to make a substantial profit off of it.
