Latest / The History of Belgium: A Small Country with a Giant Colonial Legacy — Fexingo History
The Iron Road of Blood: Building the Congo Railway
In this episode of The History of Belgium, hosts Lucas and Luna explore the brutal construction of the Matadi-Kinshasa railway, a 400-kilometer lifeline that enabled the Congo Free State's rubber and ivory exploitation. Built between 1890 and 1898 under the supervision of engineer Albert Thys, the railway cost thousands of African lives through forced labor, starvation, and disease. Lucas details the engineering challenges of bypassing the Livingstone Falls, the coercion of local chiefs to supply workers, and the legacy of this infrastructure as a tool of colonial control. The episode…
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