Forced Labor in King Leopold’s Ghost
In King Leopold’s Ghost by Adam Hochschild, forced labor seems to be a recurring theme throughout the book. Forced labor would be non-existence or be very minimal if it wasn’t for colonialism. Google defines colonialism as an exploitation by a stronger country of weaker one; the use of the weaker country's resources to strengthen and enrich the stronger country. King’s Leopold’s Ghost, Belgium is known as the stronger country in search of a colony (Congo) for its own exploitation. Professor Landstreet defines forced labor as the most extreme form of slavery, work that people are compelled to do against their will and subjected to physical punishment if they don’t perform their work. In the following essay I will be discussing the social structure, ideologies and power relations in context with forced labor.
The scramble for Africa started from 1800s to the start of the First World War (1914). Prior to the 19th century, the rest of the world knew very little about Africa, the Dark Continent. Africa brought huge areas of lands under the control of Europeans. Colonies were created and forced labor was introduced to bring land and labor together. The main purpose of forced labor was to acquire raw materials, ivory and rubber, for processing in European industries. Leopold garnered public support at home by publicly announcing his intent to Christianize and modernize the Congolese population, all the while planning the forced labor of men, women, and children for the lucrative ivory and rubber business.
Forced labor was centered around the Force Publique. The Force Publique was created in 1885, when King Leopold II of Belgium, who held the Congo Free State as his private property, order...
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...abor to get what he wanted, ivory and rubber. Leopold was able to colonize and pillage Congo for its resources during the Scramble for Africa through forced labor. The quote that sums up my essay and the book is best described at the end of chapter 15. Massacring huge numbers of natives will eventually frighten the survivors into gathering rubber. This shows the intentions of forced labor by the Force Publique and the reason for the population drop in Congo during Leopold’s rule.
Works Cited
Hochschild, Adam. King Leopold's Ghost. New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1998.
Print.
Landstreet, Peter. A World of Sociology. Part 1. 2009. Print.
Landstreet, Peter. “Power and Power relations lecture”. Sociology 1010. York University.
11 January 2010
Landstreet, Peter. “Power and Power relations lecture”. Sociology 1010. York University.
18 January 2010
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
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.
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.
...ermore established imperial rule in the Congo. The Force Publique was Leopold’s governing army. They were to oversee the work of the now colonized people of the Congo. Another of Leopold’s objectives was to gain wealth from his acquired colony. With the Force Publique, he would force the Congolese to gather ivory from the land. Those who refused had their elders, women and children held hostage until they complied. Leopold’s International African Association was to be a humanitarian project that would help to end slavery, however, by forcing the people to work for him, he was enslaving those he supposedly sought to help. When the popularity of the bicycle rose in the late 19th, manufactures were in need of rubber for their tires. Leopold saw this as an opportunity to gain more wealth and quickly had the Force Publique force the people into harvesting rubber.
The growing of tobacco, cotton, rice, and indigo and the plantation economy created a tremendous need for labor in Southern English America; slavery and indentured servants were great for this type of industry. Slavery was a systematic controlling structure under which African Americans are treated as property and are forced to work in harsh labor settings. Where as indentured servants, Europeans or Americans, signed an agreement and were bound by indentures to work for another for a specified time especially in benefit for payment of travel expenses and maintenance. Slaves were to be held against their will from the time of their capture, purchase or birth, and deprived of the right to leave, to refuse to work, or to demand compensation.
Back in the 1700’s slavery had just come to the Americas and was thought as a revolutionary entity that was necessary for all people. The owners of these slaves forced them work all day long through all the elements just to get their money. Even if they, by some means, escaped slavery they still did the hard labor, which others were not willing to do, for money.
At this point in time, geographic areas close to trade routes had more economic resources which brought them power and they could use this power to target areas with profitable natural resources, such as ivory or rubber, without risk. Explorers were sent to Africa in search of whatever could make King Leopold money. They were able to explore more parts of the Congo River and set up trade routes. The explorers would do whatever they had to do to get their way even if it meant taking a life. This was also during the time of slave trading. King Leopold was able to have his men set up trading post to sell African Americans. They would get on a ship and travel the long journey across the Atlantic Ocean from Africa to Europe. “Forced-marched to the coast, their necks locked into wooden yokes, the slaves were rarely given enough food, and because caravans usually traveled in the dry season, they often drank stagnant water” (Hochschild, 1998. Page 202). This just shows that no one cared about the Africans and how they were being treated; as long as the whites got what they wanted, they were
The novel, King Leopold’s Ghost written by Adam Hochschild, creates the main idea by shedding light upon the dark side of human history that incorporates tyranny and slavery. It is in the nonfiction category bringing back the time of King Leopold II, King of Belgians, and how he owned the Congo Free State for over twenty years. He used it to exploit their main natural resources of ivory, helping Belgium. In order to achieve the wanted result: torture, maiming, and terror were used to scare the slaves to work. It was not until the natural resources were exhausted did the objections from powerful countries result in a change. Henry Morton Stanley, an explorer, was sent by Leopold to make treaties with the leaders so that Leopold II could take
Forms of labor included child slavery that existed throughout American History. As industrialization moved workers from farms and home workshops into urban areas and factory work. Children were often preferred, because factory owners viewed them as more manageable, cheaper, and less likely to start a rebellion.2 Growing opposition to children in the North caused many factories to move to South. By early 1900’s, states varied considerably in whether they had implemented child labor standards.3Child labor peaked in the nineteenth century. American children worked in large numbers in places like mines, glass factories, textiles, agriculture, canneries, home industries, and as newsboys, messengers, shoe shiners and peddlers....
Over the course of human history, many believe that the “Congo Free State”, which lasted from the 1880s to the early 1900s, was one of the worst colonial states in the age of Imperialism and was one of the worst humanitarian disasters over time. Brutal methods of collecting rubber, which led to the deaths of countless Africans along with Europeans, as well as a lack of concern from the Belgian government aside from the King, combined to create the most potent example of the evils of colonialism in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century’s. The Congo colonial experience, first as the Congo Free State then later as Belgian Congo, was harmful to that region of Africa both then and now because of the lack of Belgian and International attention on the colony except for short times, the widespread economic exploitation of the rubber resources of the region, and the brutal mistreatment and near-genocide of the Congolese by those in charge of rubber collecting.
They are not only its inert or consenting target; they are always also the elements of its articulation” (Foucault, “Two Lectures” 34). Power may take various forms, all of which are employed and exercised by individualsand unto individuals in the institutions of society. In all institutions, there is political and judicial power, as certain individuals claim the right to give orders, establish rules, and so forth as well as the right to punish and award. For example, in school, the professor not only teaches, but also dictates, evaluates, as well as punishes and rewards.
Forced labor takes many forms. Some victims are born into slavery, which still exists in some parts of the world. Some are trafficked. Some get trapped in endless debt through fraudulent job recruitment schemes or unreasonable pay deductions. Some are confined to workplaces through various forms of physical and psychological coercion.
Powercube.net. 2014. Hegemony and invisible power | Understanding power for social change | powercube.net | IDS at Sussex University. [online] Available at: http://www.powercube.net/other-forms-of-power/hegemony-and-invisible-power/ [Accessed: 23 Mar 2014].