Very fascinating take on how Leopold was able to obtain a colony many times bigger than Belgium with pure politics, and maintain it with forced slavery and mercenaries. 
 There are lots of business lessons to be learned from Leopold: 
 - Perception is reality. The reality was forced slavery, and unspeakable cruelty by Leopold's agents. But in Europe Leopold told over and over the story that he was a humanitarian, and had the best interests of the Congo people in mind. 
 - You can control reality. Leopold wined and dined, and even bribed anyone with the ability to hurt the perception he spun of the Congo. Harder to do today, but not impossible. For instance a web startup just has to get cozy with Arrington and funding is around the corner. Leopold wasn't a king - he was a master at PR. 
 - History is written by the victors. Most published accounts of the era came from Leopold or his agents. Thus most people had no idea what was happening. I've seen this in current times: an authoritative article by a prominent newspaper that gets things wrong - then for people later researching the subject it becomes a source, and the myth builds. Thats what good PR can do! 
 - Economic incentive without proper checks can result in just about anybody becoming corrupt. Lots of "good" people in the book did unspeakable things to the natives for the sake of meeting their quota of ivory or rubber, or because they were ordered to. Similar stories have been told of American soldiers in Vietnam. In my view this pretty much proves man is neither inherently good or evil, but is entirely motivated by peer pressure and/or money. Joseph Conrad captured this well in Heart of Darkness