Leopold II (1835-1909) reigned as the King of the Belgians from 1865 to 1909. Leopold became the founder and sole owner of the Congo Free State, a private project undertaken on his own behalf. Currently, the present-day Democratic Republic of the Congo. Leopold extracted a fortune from the Congo, initially by the collection of ivory, and by forced labour from the native population to harvest and process rubber. Under his regime millions of the Congolese people died. Modern estimates range from 1 million to 15 million, with a consensus growing around 10 million.