Original sentence: By the turn of the century, however, the violence used by Free State officials against indigenous Congolese and a ruthless system of economic exploitation led to intense diplomatic pressure on Belgium to take official control of the country, which it did by creating the Belgian Congo in 1908.Colonial rule in the Congo began in the late 19th century.King Leopold II of Belgium attempted to persuade the Belgian government to support colonial expansion around the then-largely unexplored Congo Basin.Their ambivalence resulted in Leopold's establishing a colony himself
Edited sentence: By the turn of the century, however, the violence used by Free State officials against indigenous Congolese and a ruthless system of economic exploitation led to intense diplomatic pressure on Belgium to take official control of the country, which it did by declaring the Belgian Congo in 1908.Colonial rule in the Congo basin began in the late-19th century.His government's ambivalence resulted in Leopold's establishing a colony himself.Leopold II, King of the Belgians from 1865 to 1909, attempted to persuade the Belgian government to support colonial expansion around the then largely-unexplored watershed of the Congo River