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An essay on the role of king leopold of belgium
An essay on the role of king leopold of belgium
Imperialism inafrica
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During the age of Imperialism, the Congo fell under the power of King Leopold of Belgium. Leopold Benefited from new technologies, cleverly exploited imperial rivalries between European powers in Africa, and used western ideological developments for his own gain, the Belgian king’s ambitions and greed were the most important factors in creating his atrocious Belgian free state. The creation of the Belgian ruled Congo led to the enslavement of native African tribes. Leopold and other European countries attempt to create an African empire were helped by new technologies. Advancements in the medical field, like the creation of Quinine, aided against malaria and antibiotics which helped the wounded. It allowed for a greater amount of people to …show more content…
Social Darwinism led to the belief that more advanced societies were meant to take control over the weaker ones in a game of survival of the fittest. In this case it was the Europeans that were supposedly meant to take over the Africans. Europeans saw Africans as subhuman and were treated awfully. A great example of this was when Leopold decided to host a world fair displaying African culture. “The most extraordinary tableau, however, was a living one:267 black men, women and children imported from the Congo.” A human zoo where Europeans could see Africans in their native habitat. Leopold used these ideological developments to justify and cover his activities in the Congo. Leopold lied to the public saying he would bring Christianity to the Africans, end Arab slavery and told many European powers that his Congo state would be open to free trade. Leopold also deceived many Humanitarian movements, he tried to appear as a philanthropist and hosted many anti-slavery conferences in Brussels which provided cover for his atrocious actions in the Congo. One of his most successful lies was the founding of the “IAC” or Association of the Congo which would supposedly try to make Africans as European as possible, in the context of converting them to Christianity and civilizing them according to western standards. The “IAC” was used as cover for Leopold’s terrible actions in the Congo. He used slave Labor to produce his wealth and there was no fair treatment of Africans from Europeans who were at the “Congo Free State”. Leopold created the Force Publique which was a gendarmerie that was meant to keep the security and suppress any native uprisings. The Force Publique usually used violence and routinely killed any opposition to
The book mainly chronicles the efforts of King Leopold II of Belgium which is to make the Congo into a colonial empire. During the period that the European powers were carving up Africa, King Leopold II of Belgium seized for himself the vast and mostly unexplored territory surrounding the Congo River.
Adam Hochschild's "King Leopold's Ghost" is a lost historical account starting in the late 19th century continuing into the 20th century of the enslavement of an entire country. The book tells the story of King Leopold and his selfish attempt to essentially make Belgium bigger starting with the Congo. This was all done under an elaborate "philanthropic" public relations curtain deceiving many countries along with the United States (the first to sign on in Leopold's claim of the Congo). There were many characters in the book ones that aided in the enslavement of the Congo and others that help bring light to the situation but the most important ones I thought were: King Leopold, a cold calculating, selfish leader, as a child he was crazy about geography and as an adult wasn't satisfied with his small kingdom of Belgium setting his sites on the Congo to expand. Hochschild compares Leopold to a director in a play he even says how brilliant he is in orchestrating the capture of the Congo. Another important character is King Leopold's, as Hochschild puts it, "Stagehand" Henry Morton Stanley. He was a surprisingly cruel person killing many natives of the Congo in his sophomore voyage through the interior of Africa (The first was to find Livingston). Leopold used Stanley to discuss treaties with African leaders granting Leopold control over the Congo. Some of the natives he talked to weren't even in the position to sign the treaties or they didn't know what they were signing.
Leopold paid a large monthly price to a journalist to ensure a stream of sympathetic articles about his activities in the Congo. The French did not feel threatened by Belgium or by Leopold’s claims. Their main fear was that when the king ran out of money, as they were sure he would, in his expensive plan to build a railway, he might sell the whole territory to their rival, Britain. When talking to the British, Leopold hinted that if he didn’t get all the land he wanted, he would leave Africa completely, which meant he would sell the Congo to France. The bluff worked, and Britain gave in. Staff in place and tools in hand, Leopold set out to build the infrastructure necessary to exploit his colony. Leopold’s will treated the Congo as if it were just a piece of uninhabited land to be disposed of by its owner. Leopold established the capital of his new Congo state at the port town of
So when he does this he set up fake chair organizations which only help one to meet but still had and publish Literature but all which course actually from King Leopold and he commissions famous explorer Henry Morgan Stanley best known for finding doctor Livingstone. Stanley was the guy who actually explore Africa for King Leopold and mark out the territory for his organization which pretends not to be Belgium. This is an important powerful book which provides concise account of the abuses which have really held Africa backs for so long. The focus of the colony after a while became the Rubber trade so there we be basically a cowry labor system where people would be a force by the threat of destruction of their villages or suction of their children to me rubber codes. The problem with harvesting rubber is the vines near the village will gets exhausted will not
Hochschild concludes that the world must never forget the events of Leopold’s Congo. This event is evidence that it is the result of human greed that led to so much suffering, injustice, and corruption.
Hochschild also wants to show the heroism that took place afterwards in what became the first human rights movement of our time. Hochschild does an excellent and detailed job of showing how clever and cunning (like a fox) Leopold was in obtaining and maintaining his hold in the Congo. Early on Leopold became obsessed with the idea of colonies and the profit that they could bring to his country.
The land Leopold had obtained was about eighty times larger than that of Belgium itself. Plus, Leopold was proclaimed the “sovereign” ruler of the entire Congo Free State, granting him the power to exercise total control, where as, in Belgium, Leopold was forced to rule under a constitutional monarchy.... ... middle of paper ... ... “Africa Imperialism” History of Imperialism.
Prior to the 19th century, the Europeans traded mainly for African slaves. It turns out they were not immune towards certain diseases and therefore had an increasing risk of becoming sick. For years to come this continued, but not much land was conquered. Eventually, conference between only the Europeans was held to divide up the land appropriately, and the scramble for Africa began. The driving forces behind European imperialism in Africa were expanding empires, helping natives, and natural resources.
During the late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century, King Leopold II of Belgium invaded the Congo and used it to procure more wealth for himself and his nation. In doing so, as many as ten million Congolese were decimated, and they faced unspeakable horrors. Hochschild argues in King Leopold’s Ghost that all actions taken by King Leopold II were done out of nothing more than sheer greed and selfishness, and he used any means necessary to get what he wanted, and manipulated others into following suit by exploiting their own greed and racism. The only way the brutality was combated, Hochschild further goes on to describe, was through the actions of the few with a higher moral character.
The book, King Leopold’s Ghost by Adam Hochschild3, provides details of Leopold’s avarice. One example was when Leopold wanted to sell all the ivory found in the Congo, he increased incentives, and “Congo state officials and their African auxiliaries swept through the country on ivory raids, shooting elephants, buying tusks from villagers for a pittance, or simply confiscating them.” Even so, Leopold wrote to the prime minister that “the Congo state is certainly not a business. If it gathers ivory on certain of its lands, that is only to lessen its deficit.” Because only Leopold knew of the cruelty being used in the Congo, no one could testify against this benign claim. The entire process was not only unfair, but also it was cruel. To Leopold, the end, economic gain for Belgium and himself, justified the means. He even forced the Congolese to act as porters. “Even children were put to work: one observer noted seven- to nine-year-olds each carrying a load of twenty-two pounds.” These porters would carry loads for weeks at a time. Many died on the journey to their destination. Once again, the rest of Europe knew nothing of these atrocities. This went to show that Leopold was willing to do whatever was necessary to make a
While Leopold II, the King of Belgium, desperately wanted an overseas colony, The Belgian people did not share his enthusiasm; which created the feelings of neglect and apathy Belgium had towards Congo. The Congo Free State, established “in the margins of the Berlin Conference” in 1885, allowed Leopold to “gain international recognition of his possession” which he had begun to take control of since the 1870s. However, while Leopold was securing control of the Congo, the Belgian people were not interested in controlling colonies, as they believed that colonies “would merely soak up resources that would be better used for social purposes at home.” Thus, the Belgian people decided to solve the problem of having an unwanted colony by separating the Belgian government from...
King Leopold II of Belgium is known in history for his quest for African colonies and all of the atrocities he caused. Leopold II came to power in when he became King in 1865. When he became King, he was focused on mainly money and territory. King Leopold viewed the Congo as his own personal property, he first claimed the Congo in 1884 during the Berlin Conference, with the Congo Free State being declared in the following year. This became widely known as the European Scramble for Africa. The atrocities that Leopold caused were first exposed by American and British writers amd campaigners. With this publicity spreading, it eventually caused Leopold to hand over the country. In Adam Hochschild’s book, “King Leopold’s Ghost” reveals Leopold’s
From a young age, King Leopold was fascinated in obtaining his own colony in which he could exploit territory and resources from. At that time, Africa’s abilities in providing territory and resources were unknown for only a few people had explored the country. Leopold knew that he could not obtain Africa alone, thus Henry Stanley Morton proves his usefulness in this situation. Morton and many of Leopold’s missionaries were sent to map out the continent and illegally obtain territory through treaties, the basis of establishing order and rule for Leopold in Africa. Morton and the missionaries instilled terror by exploring the continent with combat weapons, such as elephant guns, and forced Africans to whip other Africans.
The Europeans were extremely cruel in their treatment towards the natives. “Full blooded, eager, restless, and aggressive, it pressed on me, and claimed me for its own, without allowing me the time to cast one retrospective glance at the horrors left behind” (Stanley 1). The people of the Congo were viciously invaded and treated with the harshest of cruelty. They believed that they had no choice but to give themselves to the stronger European country. “Men who had tried to run from the country and had been caught, were brought to the station and made to stand one behind the other, and an Albini bullet sent through them” (Scrivener 1).
Failure to purchase land elsewhere shifted Leopold focus shifted to Africa because other countries had already claimed every other appealing location, and they did not wish to sell. Plus, Central Africa offered little military threat, the peoples were extremely disjointed, and the land rich with ivory, so it appeared to be a prime location to conquer. Furthermore, Leopold was rather vocal that colonies where for profit, later his intentions masquerade as philanthropy. By the mid 1870s, Leopold’s awareness began to show and his youthful awkwardness began to fade as he claimed Africa needed protection, as he researched the continent, and Leopold’s Geographic Conference of 1876 brought his “intentions” to the public, as he tricked experts into planning aspects of his domination. Guests of the conference voted to create the International African Association, backed by powerful Europeans before its quick demise (39-45).