Democratic Republic Of Congo Essay

The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has had a long history of bloody conflict, civil war, and western exploitation dating back to 1885 when King Leopold II of Belgium brutally exploited the country for rubber. Agents of King Leopold II would storm a village, hold the women hostage until the men reached a quota of rubber. When the men left in search of the material, often for days or weeks, dying of exhaustion in the process, the women were raped and starved (Adam Hochschild, 161). Since that time the DRC has been caught in a cycle of continuous exploitation of natural resources by more developed countries. The DRC is caught in the political science theory called resource curse. Resource curse states that a developing country with a high amount of natural resources is at an increased risk for civil war and doomed to slower development because of political corruption, lack of economic diversification, and failure to invest in human capital (Nadira Lalji,

In today’s global market economy there is a link between the current state of conflict in Congo and the American consumer. That link is consumer electronics such as laptops, gaming consoles, and most noticeably cellphones. A majority of the minerals that are used to create the components that function inside an average cellphone or smartphone come from conflict zones like the DRC. Although American consumers are far from responsible for the wars in Central Africa, they are a part of the engine that sustains the conflicts in the region. If American consumers were to become more aware of the global impact their spending habits have, and demand that major companies produce products “ethically”, this would be a huge step forward in helping to create policies aimed at ending the unethical exploitation of the DRC and