KLG p 33-60

"(Leopold) never bothered to learn Flemish, spoken by more than half its subjects. In this snobbery Leopold was not alone, for at this time his country's bitter language division marked class as well as region." p 33
Leopold had a sense of superiority and didn't treat all of his people equally. He ruled quite systematically and thoroughly. Like his father said, he was a "fox," and he ruled a bit like a fox, too. The way he ruled ended up being really effective since he ended up controlling so much land.

"If Leopold wanted to see his father. he had to apply for an audience. When the father had something to tell the son, he communicated it through one of his secretaries. It was in this cold atmosphere, as a teenager in his father's court, that Leopold first learned to assemble a network of people who hoped to win his favor." p 34
I think that is was this sort of distant relationship that helped Leopold separate himself emotionally to what he was doing with the Kongo slavery.
Do you think that Leopold's relationship with his father affected the way he chose to rule?

Livingstone, Stanley and the other explorers, Leopold saw, had succeeded in stirring Europeans by their descriptions of the "Arab" slave-traders leading sad caravans of chained captives to Africa's east coast. p 42
How much did Stanley and Leopold have in common? What were their biggest differences?
Leopold and Stanley were both exploring men who in search of power. But Leopold was looking for total control over a population while Stanley was looking for power to help populations escape from rulers like Leopold.