this post was submitted on 08 Sep 2025
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Jesus Christ, Belgium, what is wrong with you (media.piefed.social)
submitted 1 day ago by PugJesus@piefed.social to c/historymemes@piefed.social
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[–] PugJesus@piefed.social 54 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Explanation: While all of the European powers in Africa in the 19th and early 20th century were varying degrees of exploitative and genocidal under the excuse of 'civilizing' Africans, the Belgians take the cake for sheer pointless fucking cruelty. King Leopold II and the 'Congo Free State' engaged in... truly horrific practices that beggar belief. Amputations, reprisal murders for not meeting quotas, casually exterminating literal millions of human beings.

It's one of the ugliest parts of an already quite ugly part of history.

[–] ComfortableRaspberry@feddit.org 34 points 1 day ago

I heard a podcast from a journalist that was there a few years before and after the Belgians left. And he also told how he still vividly remembers sitting in a boat with two Belgian soldiers, they had to accompany him while traveling. And they started to compete and bet on their marksman skills. They ended up with using a random civilian they saw at the distant shore as a target. Just to see whether they could kill him from their current distance. One of them was successful.

But the journalist also mentioned that this was something of the less horrible stuff that was going on there. He was just so baffled they were so open and carefree about it on front of a foreign journalist.

[–] xxce2AAb@feddit.dk 6 points 1 day ago

Meanwhile, England sitting at the next table couldn't help but overhear the conversation. "You know," England thought to itself, "given some of the shit I get up to, maybe Belgium has a point."

Proceeds to invent the soggy train-station sandwich

[–] finitebanjo@piefed.world 6 points 1 day ago

Belguim: "We didn't start the fire. It was always burning since the world's been turning."

[–] carrylex@lemmy.world -4 points 21 hours ago* (last edited 16 hours ago) (1 children)

(Not so) Fun Fact: HIV-1 likely originated there suring that time period

[–] PugJesus@piefed.social 8 points 21 hours ago

Not really relevant to the horrific atrocities committed by the Belgians in the Congo, but, uh, okay.