Many times Africa is described as an unstable continent due to many inner conflicting problems. The majority of these problems were not self-inflicted, but came about due to outside influences, and the biggest impacts were imperialism and the colonization of African nations that took place between the nineteenth and twentieth century. Out of all of the African nations, the Belgian Congo was one of the poorest and unfairly treated nations. Yes, imperialism and colonization are some of the big reasons why Africa was broken and still is today, but the only reason why the Belgian Congo suffered the most out of all the other nations was mainly due to King Leopold II of Belgium. The extreme unawareness of King Leopold II on Belgian Congo caused it to collapse to detrimental levels. With little to no support systems in place, the Congo region never truly received the help to better its situation. For the majority of the nineteenth century, European nations did not care enough to explore the unsafe Congo. Being new and unexplored, they did not want to take the risk of encountering deadly unknown diseases, which is why it was not considered a worthwhile area to take control of. But, unlike many others, King Leopold II seen profits when it came to the uncharted African land and stated “I do not want to miss us getting a slice of this magnificent African cake” in 1876. So, despite all the negative possibilities, in 1877 King Leopold II of Belgium assembled a team with Henry Morton Stanley to take a look at the unseen region and make treaties with native people. Not only did he believe that colonies could only bring positive feedback, such as economic progress and respect from other nations. He considered that it was his right to help the Con... ... middle of paper ... ...s. Besides ethnic and cultural differences, the natives of the Congo suffered a much harsher obstacle, which were King Leopold’s cruel punishments. As mentioned before, Leopold was a brutal inhumane ruler and his actions were unlike any other. His most notorious punishment was having the workers cut off hands of other workers for not meeting the quotas. Since, the requirements were so high and unrealistic, natives would fight villages to cut hands off in order to be ready when they did not meet the quota. This resulted in many deaths and a large population of mutated people. In addition to that he would also starve or just kill workers for being disobedient. As a consequence, these heartless acts caught the eye of the press in the early 1900s, and by 1908 pressures from other nations would end up being the main reason why King Leopold II lost control of the Congo.
Congo was an astounding bestseller novel. It was a great fictional novel that took place in the depths of the Congo rainforest. The novel was later made into a movie. Both the novel and the movie were good, however, I prefer the novel. It just seemed like a more entertaining piece than the movie. This movie was based much upon the novel, but had many alternatives and a completely different ending than the novel.
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.
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
“‘I will give them my Congo,’ Leopold told Stinglhamber, ‘but they have no right to know what I did there.’”1
It is obvious that it was not the forced labor in Congo that caused massive uproar among Europeans and Americans, as forced labor was part of their history for centuries, but the extreme brutality that occurred there. However, the blatant disregard for human life was not unique to the Congo, and was found in many other European and American colonies. Characters such as E.D. Morel and Roger Casement publicized the horrors of the Congo, and it was spread throughout various countries. This was the first time that the “common” people were aware of the extent of the brutality and exploitation endured by
In order to achieve his dream, King Leopold II wanted to be sure that no other country got in his way. Belgium was a small country and Leopold knew that his country posed no threat to others. If he started to conquer the Congo, other countries might follow suit and overcome him.
The late 19th century saw a new wave of European Imperialism. The colonies of England, France, and Germany are some of the most common examples of late imperialism, but this wave of late imperialism saw the rise of a new major European power: Belgium. King Leopold held a massive tract of land in Central Africa that would come to be know as The Congo Free State. According to the editors of The Encyclopedia Britannica (2015), a small group of investors headed by King Leopold would be drawn to the land after Morton Stanley’s exploration of the land during the 1870’s. Once they had acquired their land they would set up a system that was meant to extract maximum profit from the natural resources of Central Africa. They had a complete disregard
The conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo following independence in 1960 was primarily inherited from its European colonizers. The notion that the 80-year exploitative occupation of Belgium could leave the Congo anything but traumatized and unstable is farfetched. This was cogently conveyed in the very first sequence of the film, Lumumba, which presented evidence using actual footage and archival images of the violent legacy of colonization. Far from the benevolent guardianship that King Leopold tried to claim, African rule under Belgium was marked by the physical, psychological, social, economic and cultural subjugation of the Congolese.
The notion that Africa was in need of a civilizing force was prevalent throughout the Western world during the colonial period and, in many ways, remains popular today. King Leopold II of Belgium drew heavily on the popularity of philanthropy when he began his plot to takeover Central Africa. He wined and dined the heads of key humanitarian organizations, scientists, and explorers, continually reassuring him that his interests in the Congo were purely based on good will and a healthy curiosity. Leopold was not the first, or the last, head of state to claim to have intentions of civilizing Africa as a curtain to disguise a greater colonizing mission; why shouldn 't they believe him? Through this guise Leopold was able to slowly and carefully build for himself a privately owned colony. He initially imposed himself as a warden to the Congo, under the auspices of the International African Association and later the Committee for the Studies of the Upper Congo. Later, he slyly changed the patron organization to the International Association of the Congo, an organization without philanthropic goals; this change went
The objective of colonialism and imperialism was for colonies to gain political power and wealth. “For Leopold, colonies existed for one purpose: to make him and his country rich.” Adam Hochschild’s original book, King Leopold’s Ghost explains land grabbing in Africa during the nineteenth century. Leopold wanted Congo as his own territory to benefit from the resources such as minerals. The king ruled the Africans using terror and tortured them when they disobeyed his orders. Heroic efforts by Mark Twain and Archbishop of Canterbury to expose the inhumane crimes committed by Leopold resulted to the first human activists of the twentieth century. The book narrates the story of King Leopold II of Belgium and his tyrannical rule in Congo. It was
King Leopold II would send his soldiers to kidnap the Congolese men’s wives and daughters. The ransom that the Congolese men would have to pay was to collect a certain amount of kilograms of rubber and other resources. The Congolese men would have to produce the goods instead of trading them like any country would. The congolese men couldn't disobey the belgians because the belgians had guns while their supply of choice would be knives and swords which weren't a match for guns. King Leopold II would collect slaves and ivory and trade to other countries which would increase his income. If the Congolese failed to reach belgian standards their hands and ears were amputated the Belgian soldiers did this in order to scare other workers so that they
The scramble for Africa represents the most thorough and systematic process of colonialism in world history. The European colonial powers managed to conquer and control almost the entire continent of Africa in a short, twenty-five year period from about 1875 to 1900. Some of the European states involved were already well-established global powers; the others were up and coming nations that desired to emulate and compete with the dominant imperial states. Various factors allowed for and contributed to the conquering of the whole of Africa by European states. The slow, but ever-growing European presence on the perimeter and the completion for dominance between the major European states acted as the platform for the inevitable quest for the middle. The obstacles brought on by indigenous resistance were no match for the European military might and technological superiority. The idea that indigenous territories were in need of Western intervention aided by scientific racism served to legitimize colonialism, especially in the face opposition within the imperial powers. The spark that set off the chain reaction of conquest was the Belgian occupation of the Congo by King Leopold II. Scramble for Africa was bloody and eventful end to the Long 19th century that was brought on by colonialism and that left the continent of Africa in a state of shambles up unto the present day.
The Belgian Congo, as Zaire and now the Democratic Republic of the Congo, were formerly called was the creation of King Leopold of Belgium who desperately wanted a colony. By the late 19th century there was little land left for the taking except in Africa and it had become obvious that taking over independent lands was neither wise nor practical. King Leopold II, King of the Belgians, was a man of enormous appetites both for land and food—he once ate two whole pheasants at a restaurant in Paris, and it was not unusual for him to order several entrees. His colony was 75 times larger than Belgium.
The Congo is an African country ruined by European imperialism. It was taken over by King Leopold II of Belgium in 1885. In 1908 the Congo would become known as the Belgian Congo. During Leopold’s rule in the Congo, he was accused of enslaving the Congolese and killing 10 million of them through forced labor, starvation and outright extermination. Belgium’s rule of the Congo caused other European countries to “race” for power in African colonies; this was called the “Scramble for Africa”.
The Congo was for long a colony of Belgium. The Belgians occupied the Congo and unlike the British Raj which brought tangible benefits for India and the Indian people, the Belgians in contrast did nothing for the African population in the Congo. They exploited the Congo for its minerals and raw material till a changing world scenario that marked the end of colonialism made Belgium agree to give independence to the Congo.