Summary Of King Leopold's Ghost By Adam Hochschid

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In King Leopold’s Ghost, author Adam Hochschid thoroughly describes the many atrocities committed by the very oppressive King Leopold of Belgium in the Congo. As a result of the Berlin Conference in 1884, the scramble for Africa occurred, in which European powers attempted to seize control of various African territories. King Leopold II of Belgium was able to gain control of the territory around the Congo River. Eventually, the terrible ruler ended up dehumanizing the people of the Congo by forcing them to collect rubber. If the Congolese people did not meet the quotas imposed upon them by Leopold, they would face severe consequences, including beatings and even death. Upon seizing control of the Congo, King Leopold announced that he was traveling to the Congo for a “humanitarian” cause in order to bolster his image. Due to this, people all around the world began to view him as a great leader who was improving the conditions of life in the Congo. This shows the cunning …show more content…

I believe that the author does a brilliant job in recounting the true atrocities that were committed by King Leopold and his men in the Congo. The author showed great passion in writing this book and expressed great amounts of sympathy towards the people of the Congo who became the victims of King Leopold and his men. Some of the statistics that the author stated were very interesting to me, such as how 4 to 8 million people were murdered by King Leopold, a statistic described by the author as “a death toll of Holocaust dimensions”. I believe that this one simple statistic is enough to describe how oppressive King Leopold and his men truly were. The fact that the atrocities committed in the Congo are relatively unknown in most parts of the world is terrible. I firmly believe that everyone in the world should be educated about these instances of genocide so that it never happens again. Nobody deserves to be treated the way the Congolese people were under King

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