[42], Leopold II remains a controversial figure in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. These and other facts were established at the time by the 1904 Casement Report and by eyewitness testimony and on-site inspection by an international Commission of Inquiry. What happened then was shameful. [16]:280, International opposition and criticism from the Catholic Party, Progressive Liberals [32] and the Labour Party caused the Belgian parliament to compel the king to cede the Congo Free State to Belgium in 1908. Under his regime millions of Congolese people died. Cannibalism was used in some places to keep people in line. In addition to his public works, he acquired and built numerous private properties for himself inside and outside Belgium. This was a reference to how Congolese slaves' hands were cut off if they did not produce enough rubber during Leopold's colonial regime. After the king's death, it soon emerged that he had left Caroline a large fortune, which the Belgian government and Leopold's three estranged daughters tried to seize as rightfully theirs. Reports of deaths and abuse led to a major international scandal in the early 20th century, and Leopold was forced by the Belgian government to relinquish control of the colony to the civil administration in 1908. [17] In 1866, Leopold instructed the Belgian ambassador in Madrid to speak to Queen Isabella II of Spain about ceding the Philippines to Belgium. The eligibility requirements for the senate were reduced, and elections would be based on a system of proportional representation, which continues to this day. [17] In 1868, when Isabella II was deposed as queen of Spain, Leopold tried to press his original plan to acquire the Philippines. This law created free, secular, compulsory primary schools supported by the state and withdrew all state support from Roman Catholic primary schools. The entire archive of the Congo Free State was burned and he told his aide that even though the Congo had been taken from him, "they have no right to know what I did there".[16]:294. Some historians argue against this figure, citing the absence of reliable censuses, the enormous mortality of diseases such as smallpox or African trypanosomiasis, and the fact that there were only 175 administrative agents in charge of rubber exploitation. Caricature of Leopold II. Modern estimates range from one million to fifteen million, with a consensus growing around 10 million. She died of tuberculosis that same year, when Leopold was 15 years old. Leopold ignored these conditions and ran the Congo using the mercenary Force Publique for his personal gain. Increasing social unrest and the rise of the Labour Party forced the adoption of universal male suffrage in 1893. Leopold amassed a huge personal fortune by exploiting the natural resources of the Congo. [40] MPs agreed to set up a parliamentary commission to examine their country's colonial past, which was likened to the Truth and Reconciliation Committee set up in South Africa after the apartheid regime was abolished. [6], Leopold's public career began on his attaining the age of majority in 1855, when he became a member of the Belgian Senate. His statue in the capital Kinshasa (known until 1966 as Leopoldville in his honor) was removed after independence. From the beginning, Leopold ignored these conditions. "[39] Michel's remarks were countered by several Belgian politicians. On 30 June, the 60th anniversary of the Democratic Republic of the Congo's independence, King Philippe released a statement expressing his "deepest regret" for the wounds of the colonial past, and the "acts of violence and cruelty committed" in the Congo during colonisation[41] but did not explicitly mention Leopold's role in the atrocities. Absolutely not. Leopold was so disappointed that he considered abdication.[10]. After the failed regicide the security of the king was questioned, because the glass of the landaus was 2 cm thick. [75] Leopold granted them courtesy titles that were honorary, as the parliament would not have supported any official act or decree: Greater coat of arms as King of the Belgians, Greater coat of arms as Sovereign of the Congo Free State. He cites several recent lines of investigation, by anthropologist Jan Vansina and others, that examine local sources (police records, religious records, oral traditions, genealogies, personal diaries, and "many others"), which generally agree with the assessment of the 1919 Belgian government commission: roughly half the population perished during the Free State period.