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King Leopold Greed

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I think that it was financial greed that motivated King Leopold the II the most. He was once quoted saying that, “there is really nothing left for us kings except money!”(Hochschild, Adam) The whole reason for the genocide that came about was all a result of King Leopold trying to attain wealth. He felt that creating a new settlement would be his in to creating his own wealth. Also he was so stingy with munitions supplied to his private army he made his soldiers prove that they hit the person they were aiming for by cutting off their head. Otherwise they would be punished for wasting a bullet.

Well in comparison to halters genocide of the Jews, King Leopold’s persecution isn’t perceived as being nearly as sever. Now when I say this I don’t mean that King Leopold was any better than Hitler, because he wasn’t, but with regard to sheer volume of lives lost in WWII King Leopold looked like a child. In Hitler’s case from 1939-1945, just 6 years, over 60 million deaths were credited to WWII worldwide. Where as with King Leopold his persecutions lasted from 1885-1908 a span of 23 …show more content…

I think that people rely on the United States too much to intervene and when they take no action the country is ridiculed for its decision. I also feel that US citizens are too involved in the rest of the world, I get the want and need to help other people that are less fortunate than you but the US’s method for intervention just ends up making people hate us more at times. It’s not our job to baby sit the rest of the world, but we should be teaching other countries that are in distress how to properly and sustain a modern and civil form of rules and government. what needs to happen is the United Nations would need to come together and intervene as a whole. It should never be up to one nation to decide the path of another nation, but for some reason citizens think that they need to do

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Thousands killed in the Leopold outbreak. King Leopold should be condemned for his brutal actions, and for making the population more then half in population, like in Lukolela “The population in the villages of Lukolela in January 1891 must have been not less than 6,000 people, but when I counted the whole population in Lukolela at the end of December 1896. I found it to be only 719… but judge of my heartache when on counting them all again on Friday and Saturday last, to find only a population of 352 people.” (Document 5) In 1800-1900’s, King Leopold wanted to and planned to take control of the Congo people.

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With the passing of decades, most Europeans mistakenly believed that King Leopold spent his considerable fortune funding public works in the Congo and stopping slavery in East Africa. He was the unintimidating King of Belgium; but it was all a sham. Underneath the veneer of generosity and graciousness laid a cunning and self-engrossed scoundrel, a duplicitous fraud to rival the evil charm of Iago or Richard III. Under the guise of an international charitable foundation, he personally owned the colony of the Congo, and he ran it as a brutal business investment. His “charity” resulted in the death of ten million people, approximately 50% of the population in the Congo.

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A vast number of complex cultures and populations have suffered under the violently oppressive rule of an authoritarian leader. Through imperialistic control, slavery, and force, fascist and totalitarian regimes have historically inflicted pain and damage unto millions of innocent civilians. These leaders, these dictators, these societal adversaries, demand that the people work for the state under their forsaken rule. Thus, one man essentially controls the way citizens live, move, and provide. Of the most malicious, greedy, and malevolent fascist leaders, Leopold II of Belgium reigns supreme.

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When case like genocide happened everyone will think about how to help people who become the suspect of the genocide. It is better for U.S do an intervention by not only use their military power but cooperate with other. U.S can intervened by gathering the member of United Nation to make an action to solve the problem rather by directly use their own power. If U.S directly use their own power it seems like that there is a personal interest in helping the country that face the genocide. This kind of mind set is not from Americans but from people who are not U.S

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According to The Casement Report, a report that documented all the violent actions that King Leopold took on the people of Africa, an example of a brutal action that the Belgium people took was “ A widow came and declared that she had been forced to sell her daughter, a little girl about ten.... I found on returning that the statements made with regard to the girl were true.... The girls had again changed hands and was promised in sale to a town whose people are open cannibals.” These cruel actions taken upon the people of Africa was inhumane, and definitely not humanitarian. King Leopold publicized these incidents to the rest of the world so that he can gain their fear, and everyone would listen to him through terror.

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