From an economic perspective, King Leopold II's governance of the Congo Free State was a highly successful, albeit ruthlessly efficient, model of extractive colonialism. His primary motivation was profit, and he transformed the Congo into a vast plantation for rubber and a hunting ground for ivory, generating immense personal wealth. He invested heavily in infrastructure within the Congo, such as railways, but these were primarily designed to facilitate the extraction and transportation of raw materials to European markets, not for the benefit of the local population. The economic system relied on effectively free labor, achieved through coercion and violence, which drastically reduced production costs and maximized profit margins. This model highlights the dynamics of global capitalism at the turn of the 20th century, where raw materials from colonized territories fueled industrial growth in Europe. The immense wealth accumulated by Leopold personally and by his associates demonstrates the lucrative, yet destructive, nature of such unchecked exploitation, leaving the Congo impoverished and underdeveloped despite its rich natural resources.