Summary Of King Leopold's Ghost

Where There Aren’t No Ten Commandments from the novel King Leopold’s Ghost, written by Adam Hochschild’s was an interesting journey. Adam discussed the terrible and unmoral conditions of the Congo state from the 1800s through the 1900s. Throughout the text, the writer told the history of King Leopold II of Belgium who conquered the port of Congo which was multiple times larger than Belgium itself. There, he was the sole ruler unlike his “limited power at home”. It included tales of European males fleeing their home country in favor of gaining recognition in their life, Africans losing their homes, families and even their lives because they were not up to standards of the highly “civilized”. Additionally, I have accumulated some comparisons

It included things such as politics. For instance, the book refers to “Leopold’s power” as being “absolute” (King Leopold’s Ghost). In the Americas, specifically the Caribbean, conquerors there had to report to Queen Victoria who resided at the home country. This left the conquistadors with an economic responsibility and no real political influence or power in the home country. Therefore, they could be as brutal as they wanted to without the queen knowing about their gruesome behavior. While actions such as those committed that would have been condemned by Queen Victoria would have been praised by Leopold or awarded with a slap on the wrist” (King Leopold’s Ghost). Other differences included land conditions, climate, and trade goods each colony provided. For example, the Caribbean was known for their sugar plantations and rich soil. Africa on the other hand, offered things such as ivory. Unfortunately, most of the land was uncultivable or what they addressed as “vacant land”. Also, they did not “have the resources to exploit the entire territory, so another set of decrees carved parts of the Congo into several giant blocks, whose “vacant land” was leased out for long periods as concessions to private companies” ( King Leopold’s Ghost). I personally thought this was a highly clever way to not only get use of the land, but also collect a profit from the

For example, Leopold establishing three colonies for children for education and military purposes. Most of conquerors would not think twice about the kids enough and the value of education. Their idea was to keep them ignorant enough, therefore the slaves were easy to manipulate. For Africa, their main goal was to raise soldiers and “gather the most male children possible”.
In conclusion, the Congo was an Empire of ivory, built on exploitation. They utilized get rich quick schemes and their actions against black natives was absolutely senile. In comparison to the Americas, they used forced labor, came to colonize for new opportunities, and had various successful slave revolts. I thought this source was very important to read because it taught me various things previous history classes would have never. Mostly because only the winners write the