European Imperialism In King Leopold II

In the 19th Century King Leopold II was the king of Belgium and he was looking for a way to expand his power and influence of the Belgium state. During this time imperialism was becoming very prominent, especially in European countries. Imperialism was a way for a country to easily gain wealth by implementing military force on another country or group of people. They would extract resources and goods from these places and, in its wake, imperialism destroyed these societies and their cultures. King Leopold II is a perfect example of European Imperialism and in his book King Leopold’s Ghost; Adam Hochschild details the effects that King Leopold II had on the Congo in Africa. Hochschild also argues that Leopold’s rule had an impact in the Congo

Williams was a journalist and had met Henry Shelton Sanford. Williams listened to Sanford explain the contribution that Leopold was doing to improve Africa and the slave-trade. This interested Williams because he thought that the Congo could potentially be a place for African Americans to return to and make their home again. Once he got there he was shocked at how badly the African people were mistreated and how the Congo was nothing like Sanford had explained to him. “Instead of Leopold’s being the noble antislavery crusader he portrayed himself as, “Your Majesty’s Government is engaged in the slave-trade, wholesale and retail.” Williams produced a pamphlet called the Open Letter that he reported to the International Commission. The pamphlet circled throughout the Americas and Europe and it spoke about the mistreatment of the Africans. Williams saw Stanley’s men killing Africans with muskets, woman being kidnapped, and no hospitals or schools existed like Leopold had stated. Most people ignored him because George Washington Williams was black. I believe Hochschild wrote an extensive amount about Williams to show how much of a grasp Leopold had on the Congo and how difficult it would be to abolish what had already been

Since slavery dominated Congo for almost a century, many of the Africans had no education and the ones that did gained the most power. The example Hochschild gives is Joseph Desire Mobutu, who became president in 1965. Mobutu was a corrupt ruler who embezzled billions of dollars and ruled over Africa in an almost dictatorship way. Hochschild chose to include the quote from philosopher Ibn Khaldun. This quote said that “Those who are conquered always want to imitate the conqueror in his main characteristics.” This showed the way that Leopold ruled had an impact on later African rulers who chose to imitate his ruling authority. Because of Leopold’s rule many civil wars broke out among tribes after the Congo gained its independence. Many people lived in poverty since the main way to make money was harvesting rubber and there was little rubber left because of over exploitation. Hochschild proved that the effects of Belgian rule in the Congo are still