History of King Leopold II (Essay Sample)

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History of King Leopold II
King Leopold II was the second King of Belgians and was born in April 1835 and died in December 1909. He is perceived as the oldest son of Leopold I and Louise of Orleans since he was the oldest surviving son of the family, but the second born. He became the second King of Belgium as a predecessor to his father, in the year 1865. In this paper, we will be looking at the early life of King Leopold II, assess his personality and describe him based on the big five personality traits.
King Leopold II’s Early Life
King Leopold II was born in Brussels as the second born of the first king of Belgium, Leopold I The French revolutionary events of 1848, which had spared Belgium caused King Leopold II’s mother to flee to the United Kingdom(Ocampo 34)., which at the time was being ruled by a cousin to Leopold (Queen Victoria). Barely two years later, Louise Philippe died. The death affected Louse and her health deteriorated, leading to her death later in the same year. At the time of his mother’s death, Leopold was only 15 years of age.
Marriage Life
The death of his mother seemed to cause Leopold need to look for new companionship and three years later (1853) at the age of 18 years; Leopold married Marie Henriette who was from Austria in Brussels, on the 22nd day of August. Marie was a very friendly lady and social. She was pretty beautiful and she was consequently labeled, “The rose of Brabant.” This marriage resulted into birth of four children, three of whom were daughters and one son. The son was also named Leopold and unfortunately died from pneumonia after accidentally falling into a pond in year 1869 at the age of nine. This death of the son brought a lot of sorrow to the family, leading to unhappy living. This was mainly because the family had lost the potential heir of the kingship after King Leopold II. The family had tried to get another son, but it never materialised and worse to them, resulting to the birth of their last daughter, Clementine. The father was unhappy with the birth of another daughter into the family, leading to complete separation of the couple.
Thereafter, King Leopold II had many mistresses, with one of the notable being Caroline Lacroix. Caroline was a French prostitute aged 16 years and remained with King Leopold II since 1899 for a decade until the death of the king. Sources close to King Leopold II reported that Caroline was not familiar to the Belgians and prior the death of the king; they had married secretly some 5 days before the king died, in a religion based ceremony. Due to the nature of the nature of the Belgian law, the marriage was rendered invalid due to their failure to perform a civil ceremony. Although Caroline had bore King Leopold II two sons, the sons could not claim the throne since their mother’s marriage was not recognised by the government.
King Leopold II’s Political Career
King Leopold II’s political career was easy to start, since his elder brother who would have been the automatic heir of his father had died. He was therefore the only potential successor. At the age of nine, he was given the tittle “Duke of Brabant” and consequently appointed in the army as a sub-lieutenant. His official political life started upon reaching the majority age, when he became a member of the Belgian senate. In his life before succeeding his father, he liked exploration, travelling mostly to the Mediterranean countries and those along the coast. Following the death of his father on 10th December 1865, he took an oath to succeed his father as the King and on 17th December he took office at the age of 30 years.
King Leopold II’s reign realised many developments politically. Among the major developments was his move, making the primary education free and compulsory. He also withdrew all the state support on Roman Catholic primary schools. During his reign, some social changes were enacted into law, among which were the freedom to form labour unions by workers. He also oversaw laws against child labour being passed, which defined limits within which children under certain ages should act. For instance, the law stated that children under the age of 12 were not allowed to work in factories. Another major achievement in his reign also, was the constitution. The historical1st revision of the Belgian’s constitution was achieved in the year 1893, led by Leopold II.
During his reign, King Leopold II overcame an assassination by Rubino, an Italian anarchist (Hochschild 312). The assassination had been designed to capture the King unaware while he was travelling on his royal cortege from a ceremony of his deceased wife. After King Leopold II’s carriage has passed, the assassin fired three bullets at the king but luckily, they all missed him. Rubino could not escape arrest by the police and has arrested immediately.
King Leopold II has been remembered in his political life, for founding and exploiting the Congo Free State (Morel 80-87). After many failed trials to obtain colony, King Leopold II focused on Africa through a disguised company which was named International African Society and sent the famous explorer Henry Stanley as an ambassador to explore and establish in Congo, a colony. Henry succeeded and Congo Free State was established, which today is known as Democratic Republic of Congo.
A Description of the Environment King Leopold II Lived in Using Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions
In any society, understanding of how people are connected across different cultures is paramount. The psychologist Dr. Geert Hosstede through his research based on data collected on IBM discovered some pattern, and called them the five dimensions of culture. I will use those dimensions, to describe the environment in which King Leopold II grew up in.
i. Power/Distance (PD)
Leopold II lived in a society which was governed by a monarchical government and the Kingships were acquired through succession from one family and therefore the societal connections were loose. Based on this dimension of culture, the environment in which King Leopold II grew up can be described as having high PD.
ii. Individualism (IDV)
This dimension of culture describes the strength of the ties which exist between people in the community. The interpersonal connection in the environment in which King Leopold II grew up, was low and therefore there was high IDV.
iii. Masculinity (MAS)
The dimension looks at how children are perceived or treated in the community with respect to their gender. In the society in which King Leopold II grew up in, seems to prefer male children as opposed to female gender. This can be evident in the case where Leopold II was not happy with his family after the death of their son and even separating with his wife, after the last attempt to look for a boy failed to materialise, resulting into the birth of their lastborn daughter, Clemente. The successors of the kings were supposed to be male and hence from these instances, we can conclude that the masculinity in the environment in which King Leopold II grew up in was high (high MAS).
iv. Uncertainty/Avoidance Index (UAI)
This dimension looks at the level to which people look for new truths. King Leopold II lived in an environment in which they sought new colonies and he himself established the Cong Free State. We can therefore, under this dimension describe his environment as with Low UAI.
v. Long Term Orientation
In this dimension, the point of interest is how society values long-standing. King Leopold II believed that acquisition of colony was important for empowerment of his nation in the long run. There was also education systems supported by Belgian government which would indicate that the environment in which King Leopold II grew up valued the long-standing by empowering the youth through education. There is also evidence that the society values tradition, since the king supposed to be succeeded by his eldest son, as dictated by their tradition. We can therefore describe the environment as with high LTO.
Description of King Leopold II based on Big Five personality traits
According to Fiske, personalities can be viewed from five common dimensions: openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism (John 7). In this paper, I will be looking at King Leopold II under these dimensions.
a. Openness
In this personality, the persons seem to depict characteristics such as being very imaginative (Srivastava). Such people seem to have a broad interest range. They are interested in many things than the normal people. Looking at King Leopold II, he was very much i...