King Leopold's Ghost, By Adam Hochschild

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Recommended: Consequences of British rule in Nigeria

“A secret society of murders”, this was a reoccurring quote that stuck through my mind post watching King Leopold’s Ghost, based off the book by Adam Hochschild. Watching this movie opened my eyes to the wickedness, greed, and extreme lack of humanity that King Leopold encompassed. He made the innocent citizens of the Congo suffer immensely. This made me wonder what other countries that were controlled by outside empires, such as Nigeria controlled by Britain, were treated during this time. Also, what life was like for the citizens of free countries? While the Congo, Nigeria, and Liberia are all relatively in the same location and have similar terrain, during the 1870's to 1914 they experienced many different types of treatment have different …show more content…

Liberia was free and in debt while the Congo was being colonized by Belgium and undergoing torture. The citizens of the Congo were being forced into slavery and were economically exploded. The citizens of the Congo were being forced to work hard labor and live in inhumane conditions. There was no organized government controlling them. Belgium was exploiting the Congo and killing any disobedient citizens. Although the Congo suffered much more then Liberia, Liberia was still suffering. Similarly to the Congo, Liberia was going through economic troubles. Liberia was trying to modernize their country, which lead to foreign debt. This debt lead to many countries trying to step in and a loss of a large sum of land in Liberia. Luckily, due to other countries interests in having an alliance with the USA, Liberia’s government was never overthrown. Some of Liberia’s natural resources are diamonds, iron ore, rubber, and gold. Similarly, three major resources in the Congo are gold, diamonds, and rubber. During this time period, the Congo definitely got the short end of the stick. Nigeria also got the short end of the …show more content…

Great Britain controlled Nigeria, and the Congo was controlled by Belgium. They both were treated very badly. Although, Britain was not as cruel to Nigeria as Belgium was to the Congo. Nigeria was taken over in stages unlike the Congo which was rapidly attacked by King Leopold. Britain forced hard labor on all men between 15-50 years old, and women between 15-40. Meanwhile, in the Congo, everyone, including minors was forced to work. The Nigerians were forced to work jobs such as road making. Conditions were not great either: for every 1000 laborers, there were 24 deaths per year. Nigerians were also greatly taxed, but had no idea where their money was going. Britain used a system called “indirect rule” which basically meant they would rule Nigeria under remotely the same government. Overtime, the original government was completely forgotten about. Also, Britain took use of the palm nuts, kernels, cocoa, cotton, and peanuts that were grown in Nigeria. Although there was many negative things brought to Nigeria from Britain, Britain greatly attributed to the urbanization of Nigeria. With Britain came streets, larger towns, and many other necessities.The Congo could not relate to this fact. The Congo is still negatively being effected by King Leopold’s actions

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