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Impact of colonialism in congo
King leopold and the congo essay
Imperialism and the Congo
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As the Scramble for Africa intensified, it became clear that certain fundamental rules had to be established; with this purpose in mind, Bismarck formed the Berlin Conference in November, 1884 (Hochschild, 84). Despite not being present at the conference, Leopold made out quite well. He gained the seaport Matadi and all the land required to build his railway from that port all the way around the rapids to Stanley Pool (Hochschild, 86). Leopold was able to gain so much because he successfully maintained the notion that this colony would be a free trade zone for Europeans; they still did not realize that he alone had a trade monopoly of the region (Hochschild, 86). The conference ended in February, 1885 and in May of that year, “the king named his new, privately controlled country the État indépendant du Congo, the Congo Free State” (Hochschild, 87).
In 1890, an African-American named George Washington Williams discovered for himself the true nature of Leopold's Congo. Williams' path to the Congo took a curved route; he was a former soldier who earned a theology graduate's degree from Howard University, was a newspaper writer and founder, as well as a former politician and historian (Hochschild, 102-105). After being introduced to Henry Shelton Sanford during his lobbying campaign in Washington, Williams himself became enthused with the Congo and saw there an opportunity for African-Americans (Hochschild, 105). He met with Leopold for an interview, where he was as enchanted by the king and his noble mission in Africa as all who had come before (Hochschild, 106). While attempting to recruit young, black Americans for work in the Congo, he was faced with questions regarding life there; realizing his own ignorance, he perso...
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...son author Adam Hochschild claims for writing King Leopold’s Ghost was “to show how profoundly European colonialism has shaped the world we live in” (Hochschild, 318). He issues a note of caution regarding the causes of the widespread despair in the Congo; that colonialism alone is insufficient to explain these terrible results, and in attempting to label it as such, ignores the myriad of other causes that create havoc and repression around the world (Hochschild, 318). Some of these other factors that have prevented African nations to become prosperous and peaceful democracies are the oppression of women, the apotheosis of militia leaders such as Mobutu, and the continuation of slave-culture (Hochschild, 318).
Works Cited
Hochschild, Adam. King Leopold's ghost: a story of greed, terror, and heroism in Colonial Africa. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1998. Print.
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.
Alas, in 1961 Patrice Lumumba was assassinated by a US- sponsored plot 7 months after independence, and replaced him with a “puppet dictator named Mobutu” (Kingsolver). In her book, Barbara Kingsolver surfaces a forgotten part of our nation’s history in the exploitation of the Congo through her main characters, the Price family, who are missionaries sent to the Kilanga village. Through characters’ narratives that “double as allegories for the uneasy colonial marriage between the West and Africa” (Hamilton, Jones), Kingsolver creates a relatable way for her readers to understand the theme she is trying to convey, which is “‘what did we do to Africa, and how do we feel about it?’” (Snyder). Kingsolver began with this theme and developed the rest of the novel around it, just as she does with her other works, and sticking with her trademark technique, she utilizes her book as a vessel for “political activism, an extension of the anti-Vietnam protests” she participated in college (Snyder).
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.
The book King Leopold’s Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa is written by Adam Hochschild. Adam Hochschild is the author of many books. He teaches writing at the Graduate School of Journalism at the University of California at Berkeley.
King’s Leopold’s Ghost, Belgium is known as the strongest 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 in the 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.
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 oppression, which is inflicted upon the Congo in the hope of spreading imperialism, is highlighted by the main characters. Both Kurtz and Nathan seek to change the very lives and beliefs of the people of the Congo and establish supremacy over them, and both of these characters share a heart of darkness and a tainted determination in their endeavor. For Conrad’s pivotal character, the level of intelligence, sophistication, and civilization is the true dilemma in Africa. Kurtz goes to the Congo in order to civilize an uncivilized people, to make “savages” into upstanding men and women who can contribute to the productivity of society. Kingsolver, conversely, illustrates the push for a conversion of both church and state. The Poisonwood Bible depicts an invasion into a society, not merely of a people grouped together into “savages”, and shows that society being warped and forced to conform to American ideology. Rather than the sophistication of its people, Nathan journ...
The land Leopold had obtained was about eighty times larger than that of Belgium itself. Plus, Leopold was proclaimed the “sovereign” ruler of all the Congo Free Sta...
During the late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century, King Leopold II of Belgium invaded the Congo and used it to procure more wealth for himself and his nation. In doing so, as many as ten million Congolese were decimated, and they faced unspeakable horrors. Hochschild argues in King Leopold’s Ghost that all actions taken by King Leopold II were done out of nothing more than sheer greed and selfishness, and he used any means necessary to get what he wanted, and manipulated others into following suit by exploiting their own greed and racism. The only way the brutality was combated, Hochschild further goes on to describe, was through the actions of the few with a higher moral character.
During the 17th century, slavery was a widely used commodity with the Europeans, little do people know however that African kings also had and accepted slavery in their own nations. King Nzinga Mbemba of Congo and the King of Ouidah had similarities on the issue of slavery; they tolerated the use of slaves. Congo’s king had no contingency with slavery; in fact, he had slaves in his country. When the Portuguese were purchasing goods in Congo, the king had men “investigate if the mentioned goods are captives or free men” (NZ, 622). The fact that the king differentiates the men between ‘free’ and ‘captives’ illustrates that not all people in Congo are free. Whether these captives are from the country of Congo or not, they are still caught and held all across the nation against their will. King Mbemba kept slaves because the population of Congo was vastly declining due to the slave trade. In his letter, he pleads with the king of Portug...
On April 9, 1835, a king was born. Leopold Louis Philippe Marie Victor was the son of Leopold I of Belgium and Louise of Orleans. As a young prince, his parents saw Leopold II as a weakling who was not fit for this world and they often preferred his younger brother and sister. His parents rarely spoke to him and instead sent correspondences through their royal secretaries. If Leopold II wanted to speak with his father he would have to request and audience with him. Leopold II learned that in order to overcome these feelings of being unwanted that he would need to gain the favor of many people. Court officials were certainly eager befriend the future king. They taught him about the government, showed him maps and gave him information about the world. Leopold II visited many colonies of other empires. He became obsessed with the idea of having colonies and a larger kingdom to rule once he became king. He looked to acquire or purchase many territories but failed to do so. Leopold II finally looked into the continent of Africa where about 80 percent of it was still under indigenous rule. He had finally found his land to conquer.
Zins, Henryk S. "Joseph Conrad and the Early British Critics of Colonialism in the Congo." Lubelskie Materiały Neofilologiczne 22.(1998): 155-169. MLA International Bibliography. EBSCO. Sun. 08 May 2011.
One can easily note the physical and sexual violence brought upon the people (black and white) of Congo after independence, but we must locate the other forms of violence in order to bring the entire story of Patrice Lumumba to light. The director’s attempt at bringing the story of Patrice Lumumba to the “silver screen” had political intentions.
The Berlin Conference was started in 1884 by German Chancellor Otto Von Bismarck and lasted through February of 1885. It was designed to assist the European countries in developing themselves as a stronger force among world powers to allow them to overtake more unknown territories. “The motives for what became known as the ‘scramble for Africa’ in which Europeans began slicing up that cake, were political, economic, and cultural” (Nardo). King Leopold II, from Belgium, showed the strongest interest in the conference as he was strategically planning the capture of a colony to finally expand his empire. He felt that without the possession of other territories that Belgium held a lower status politically and economically than the countries that had already captured new lands.
As Marlow passes through the waters of the Congo, it is easily visible the trouble of the natives. “Black shapes crouched, lay, sat between the trees, leaning against the trunks, clinging to the earth half coming out, half effaced with the dim light, in all the attitudes of pain, abandonment, and despair.” (20) Show that the holding of these colonies has started. The soldiers have come in and taken the inhabitants and are destroying them and taking from them the one thing they deserve over everything, life. The imperialists seem to not care about the Africans and are just there for their land.