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...
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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.
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
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
King Leopold II died in December of 1909. The king was not mourned by many, for his reputation was demolished due to his actions in the Congo. His dream of a colony that would make him rich beyond belief was realized at a high cost. He spent many years trying to achieve this dream; he concocted the idea before he was twenty and it was not realized until he was fifty. King Leopold II could only see the good that was coming from the colonization: trade, money, respect and self-fulfillment. He swayed countries into thinking what he was doing was going to benefit the Congolese. For his actions, King Leopold II will always be remembered as a spineless, greedy, and cunning ruler who would stop at nothing to achieve his goal.
As a political figure, King Leopold of Belgium had minimal power, yet he acknowledged the political and financial advantages of colonization, and acquired the Congo as a private colony whereas Britain snatched up colonies globally, including the “crown jewel” of all colonies, India. Belgium and Britain demonstrated a stark contradiction of two opposing methods of colonization. These two countries methods’ of domination ultimately decided the fates of each party, ...
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 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 sheer magnitude of the death toll in King Leopold II 's Congo remains a little known fact in most Western nations, even today. The eight to ten million African lives lost during Leopold 's rule over the Congo have been forced from the collective conscious of Americans and Europeans. Perhaps the shame of inaction is too much to bare. Inaction during a genocide seems deplorable in this day and age, yet intervention by Western nations is never really guaranteed. There are several reasons, all inexcusable, why Western nations failed to intervene while millions of Congolese were being senselessly slaughtered. The atrocities committed in Leopold 's Congo went unpunished for years because of a carefully constructed smoke screen of humanitarianism,
While Leopold II, the King of Belgium, desperately wanted an overseas colony, The Belgian people did not share his enthusiasm; which created the feelings of neglect and apathy Belgium had towards Congo. The Congo Free State, established “in the margins of the Berlin Conference” in 1885, allowed Leopold to “gain international recognition of his possession” which he had begun to take control of since the 1870s. However, while Leopold was securing control of the Congo, the Belgian people were not interested in controlling colonies, as they believed that colonies “would merely soak up resources that would be better used for social purposes at home.” Thus, the Belgian people decided to solve the problem of having an unwanted colony by separating the Belgian government from...
The cost of maintaining the expeditions and building infrastructure to get the immense natural resource wealth out of the Congo soon depleted most of Leopold’s fortune, so he managed to ob...
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.
From the outset we learn that the domination of a people is achieved in many ways, and that the abuses of the Congolese came in many forms. Absolute control of the national military was a central feature of conquest; in this context, Belgians stayed in command of the Force Republique, even after independence was declared. Africans were also pitted against each other by a strategically imposed hierarchical social system among the enslaved. African “masters” were thus compelled to participate in the subjugation of their fellow Africans, a system reminiscent of the divide-and-conquer strategies utilized against the enslaved in plantations stateside, such as we witnessed in the movie Sankofa. In fact, this forced enslavement, hard physical labor, social displacement, the separation of families, cultural domination, and dehumanization of whole populations should all be sadly familiar to Americans given their similar histories.
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 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.
Over a period from 1960-1965, the first Republic of the Congo experienced a period of serious crisis. There was a terrible war for power that displayed senseless violence and the desperation to rule. There were many internal conflicts among the people. The country eventually gained independence from Belgium. For many countries this would be a time for celebration. Unfortunately for the people of the Congo this became a time to forget. Almost immediately after independence and the general elections, the country went into civil war. Major developed cities like Katanga and Kasai wanted to be independent from the Lumumba government. Different factions started to fight the government and Katanga and Kasai tried to secede from the rest of the country out of fear of the mutinous army that was out of control looting and killing.