Justified Violence in the Belgian Congo

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The Scramble for Africa was essentially driven by the idea of “New Imperialism.” “New Imperialism” started the era of colonialism amongst the European powers – specifically Great Britain, France, Belgium, Germany, Spain, and Portugal. It was driven by the idea of Social Darwinism, to aid the “dark people” on the “dark continent” of Africa because they were in need of “saving.” Imperialism became the primary focus through the late nineteenth century, and into the twentieth century; dividing the African continent into areas to be colonized under European rule. Although the countries primary focus was to spread Western religions and culture to the African continent, violence was used amongst the native peoples to further successful developments of the new European colonies. One of these colonies was the Belgian Congo, ruled by the Belgian King Leopold II. Under The King’s rule, acts of violence against the African people occurred regularly. Violence was believed to be a necessary component in the process of building a successful Belgian state.
King Leopold II had set intentions for the Belgian Congo before the Berlin Conference of 1884-1885. His desires were to fight slavery and explore Central Africa:
“To open to civilization - the only part of our globe where it has not yet penetrated, and to enlighten the darkness which envelops it, is this not, if I may say so, a crusade worthy of our century of progress?”
To carry out these plans, he requested a meeting in 1876, known as the Brussels Geographical Conference, amongst representatives of major European powers – Great Britain, Russia, France, Germany, Italy, Austro-Hungary and Belgium to discuss the exploration and civilization of Africa. To accomplish this, an International Com...

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...trage about violence in the Congo, Belgian administrators took a census in 1924, as they were concerned about the shortage of available workers. The same year, the official committee of the National Colonial Congress of Belgium declared: “We run the risk of someday seeing our native population collapse and disappear,” that the Congo state would be nothing more than a desert without the native population.
There has been much historical debate over whether the acts of violence inflicted on the native peoples would be considered genocide. Leopold never had the intentions of eliminating one ethnic group from existence; he believed he was furthering development of the state. Although slavery was banished amongst the European powers in 1890, it became a necessary component of the Congo. Nevertheless, the violence that occurred within the Congo is not to be forgotten.

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