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Symbols
King Leopold II used much of the revenue from his territory in the Congo to build elaborate palaces and monuments throughout Belgium. The palaces and monuments of Belgium could be said to symbolize Leopold’s hypocrisy, and, more generally, the parasitic relationship between Western prosperity and African exploitation.
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Monuments and Palaces Symbol Timeline in King Leopold’s Ghost
The timeline below shows where the symbol Monuments and Palaces appears in King Leopold’s Ghost. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 2
...and powerful. In the meantime, Leopold invested large sums in Belgian building projects: he built beautiful parks, monuments, and palaces , modeled off of the great structures of France.
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Chapter 11
...to extract huge sums of money from his Congo territory; with his fortune, he built museums, palaces, and monuments. In 1895, he was sixty years old, and still trying to grow the Belgian empire....
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Chapter 14
...of economic depression. Though Leopold had always claimed to live modestly, his propensity for building huge palaces and monuments now infuriated his people. Leopold was incensed by his new unpopularity in Europe.
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Chapter 18
...discovered that he’d left a vast fortune, which he wanted to be spent on future monuments and palaces (diverting inheritance from his daughters). The Belgian Parliament spent years trying to transfer Leopold’s fortune...
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