It literally was his own personal fiefdom because he directly owned it. It wasn’t until all the bad press came out that the Belgian government forced him to hand it over to Belgium proper. The Belgian government then proceeded to do a light form of Leopold’s system: forced labor via imprisonment but without the incentive to chop off limbs.
Absolutely. I’ve used it to write basic scripts that I didn’t feel like spending time on. I’ve also used it to write cover letters. I always make sure to peruse through it to see what it did and make sure it works or sounds right.