Belgium, of course, was hardly the only country engaged in the “scramble for Africa.” Britain, France, Germany, Spain and the rest also raced to invade, divide and control the continent, exploiting its minerals, trading them elsewhere and pocketing the proceeds. A similar process had occurred many times before, from ancient Rome through to the conquest of the Americas, but this scramble for resources (both mineral and, in the form of slavery, human) was particularly brutal.
