King Leopold was first inspired by a book titled Java; or How to Manage a Colony. Leopold became so fascinated that he began corresponding with the author, an English lawyer, known by the name, J.W.B Money. In the book, Money mentioned that profit would come from forced labor; however, Leopold agreed and added that forced labor was the only way to improve the undeveloped peoples of the Far East. Not only desire for money but also for power, were Leopold’s dying reasons to acquire a colony.

Leopold strongly believed that overseas colonies were key to a country’s greatness, and he worked hard to acquire colonial territory from belgium. The Belgian Government lent Leopold money as a citizen still to try to acquire the colony. In 1866 Leopold instructed the Belgian ambassador to speak to Queen Isabella II of Spain about giving the philippines to belgium. In 1868 Leopold replaced the ambassador with someone that would carry out his plan to acquire the Philippines, but without funds he was not able to. After the failed attempts to acquire the Philippines he then turned his attention to colonize Africa. In 1876 Leopold organized a private meeting called the international African Society. Two years after the meeting in 1878 King Leopold hired an explorer Henry Stanley to explore and acquire a colony in the Congo. Henry Stanley helped King Leopold II of Belgium to claim Congo by negotiating with its local leaders, although he would not apply any treaties that allowed power over Congo. King Leopold approached Henry Stanley wanting help to set up bases in the Congo, so he could quietly claim and start working the territory. He would send Stanley on exploration missions such as ones along the Congo River, hoping to acquire more land. Conquest of Central Africa would be easy. Centuries of slave hunting had weakened the local tribes, and no unity and hundreds of different languages made it even easier to gain control. Stanley made 450 Congo chiefs sign treaties that gave Leopold a complete trading monopoly, while Leopold told questioners that he was opening Africa to free trade. These are examples of how they deceived natives of the region.