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Imperialism In King Leopold's Congo

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Imperialism is the act of a stronger nation extending its powers over a weaker nation to dominate its economics, political and cultural lifestyle. This is a common practice among the Europe nations, seeking new resources and materials. The materials than gets transported back to companies to manufacture into products to be sold to the markets. During the 1870s, Belgium became one of the most modernised nations at the time. It was prospering due to the success in the textile and iron industries. However, King Leopold II did not want just wealth. He desired to be the most prosperous and best nation in Europe. Africa was a country that was rich in raw materials and resources such as ivory and rubber. Therefore, Leopold commanded the Europeans …show more content…

Leopold commissions Henry M Stanley to create trades in Congo. After Stanley reports that Congo may potentially harbour vast resources, Leopold joined the Berlin Conference in 1885. He claimed that he was interested in ‘promoting Christianity in Congo and civilise the nation to profit the Congolese’. He was mistaken as a philanthropist and no one had suspected him; “He has welcomed Christian missionaries to his new colony; his troops, it is said, have fought and defeated local slave traders who preyed on the population; and for more than a decade European newspapers have praised him for investing his personal fortune in public works to benefit the Africans.” [1] In reality, Leopold’s policies were callously ruining the land and petrifying the Congolese, abusing the labours to work long hours without …show more content…

During the Berlin Conference, the European nations only approved Belgium to imperialise Congo because they were manipulated into believing Belgian had a pure aim to aid the Congo and spread the Christian religion. However, in harsh reality, King Leopold II took advantage of Congo for his own greed and wealth, invading the rights of the Congolese. Hands were chopped off and wives and children were hostage to force labour upon the Congo men. Leopold controlled Congo for approximately 45 years, but the aftermath of his reign lingered for years including death of fellow Congolese and loss of religion. He was a huge role in the deterioration of the Congo’s social, economic and political status. Without a doubt, Leopold played the major role in the atrocities committed by the Belgian in the Congo with the partial support of

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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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According to the overview, “between 1500 and 1800, European nations traded for slaves, gold, and ivory along the west coast of Africa, but they did not go deeply into the continent.” In 1884, fourteen countries met in Berlin to discuss the division of Africa to prevent war from breaking out.. This meeting would come to be known as the Berlin Conference led by Ottoman Bismarck. Up until 1885, they stated that if a leader wanted to control a certain part of Africa, then they must prove that they have control over that area and that was it. This was the beginning of European imperialism in Africa.

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Founded in document D African colonies and their exports. Economic factors were more of a driving force behind imperialism since the imperialists were in search of  natural resources for improving technology and their national pride. The Europeans went to Africa because of their many resources and their quantities of gold, fur, and yarn all superior resources for the Europeans. Africa had dealt with  European

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In the 1800s Africa was an uncolonized country. Europe wanted to imperialize Africa. King Leopold of Belgium was one of the first to colonize parts of Africa for himself. Europe however found out a way to help split up Africa equally, this led to war within Europe. King Leopold was interested in money, not nationalism or culture attitude.

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As Frantz Facon once stated that “imperialism leaves behind germs of rot which we must clinically detect and remove from our land by from our minds as well”, one can assert without much exertion that such European powers, in the course of Imperialism, indeed, brought about an array of irreversible impairments such as ethnic tensions, slavery, increased local warfare, and many others. Rwanda, for instance, is a country that is rife with the presence of such an irretrievable deficiency. Rwanda, indeed, has shown a startling economic growth and become an emergent leader country in Central Africa. The World Bank has recently eulogized Rwanda’s recent remarkable development success, which it

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Davidson makes reference to Idi Amin of Uganda as well as Jean-Bédel Bokassa of the Central African Republic, who both are examples of leaders who mirrored the actions of their colonial predecessors. Their rule was similar to that of European colonizers in that they thrived off of the inequality of Africans and took part in lavish celebrations while the majority of their country remained poor. While some believe this corruption is due to some innate greed possessed solely by Africans, a look into history tells you that modern day African rulers have simply just inherited and embraced the lifestyle of the European rules before them, which unfortunately included the massive hoarding of wealth. This hoarding of wealth did not come without any opposition however, which brings about the next theme of dictatorship and how rulers such as Bokassa and Amin maintained their positions of power through the crushing of dissent. The suppression of protests was done through the torture and murder of anyone who criticized, which is exactly how the European colonizers ruled out any opposition and another example of the brutal legacies of

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The definition of imperialism is an action by a strong nation to take control of another country. According to CDC Malaria is a “mosquito-borne disease caused by a parasite”. Between the late 1500’s and the early 1800’s Europeans didn’t enter Africa, because of the disease malaria. This ended during the 1800’s European countries such as France, Great Britain, Germany, Italy, Portuguese, Belgium, and spain imperialised Africa. “What was the driving force behind the imperialism in africa?”

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Throughout grade school, we were taught mainly American history. We learned about all the wars and who the key generals and soldiers were. I remember learning about slavery and how we were told it was some of the worst crimes to ever be committed. I now know and understand slavery to be a crime against humanity. While we learned very little about how slavery was abolished in the United States and especially globally, I knew this would be important fact in our history all over the world.

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Imperialism means that one country controls all political, economic, or cultural life in another country or region. Europe successfully did this in the Americas and established colonies in South Asia, Africa, and China. Although this would seem like a substantial amount of power, Europe did not gain much influence until later on. Once Europe recognized their own growing control, they embarked on what is now called the “New Imperialism”. Many components played into this seemingly rapid success, but one significant reason was that of the

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When King Leopold established the Congo Free State, he destroyed the link between the Congolese people and their homeland (Kenneth). King Leopold made one single country between Belgium and Congo. He combined the ethnicities of both of these cultures, taking away the Congolese people’s heritage and culture. In addition to this, the Roman Catholic Church forced their religion and values on the Congolese people, taking away their beliefs, and using violence if necessary. The Belgians forced their values upon the Congolese people in order to assimilate their religion and gain more power.

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From King Leopold’s Public Letter, he says “The task which Belgian agents have to accomplish in the Congo is noble. It is incumbent upon them to carry on the work of civilization in Africa. The aim is to regenerate races whose degradation and misfortune is hard to realize.” Through those words, King Leopold, the king of Belgium, was trying to show the other countries that he was a

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153 Words | 1 Pages

During the period of imperialism in Africa all of the countries were competing for the title of being the richest and the strongest. In fact, the whole scramble for Africa was an opportunity for countries to enhance their overall economy. For example, King Leopold II of Belgium was determined to get the area of land so he can become more wealthy. France’s politicians thought that an overseas company would strengthen the country when it came to wealth, prestige, and power, so as a result they invested in land more toward the west and north-west. Britain wanted to protect their trading routes which required them to purchase land in East Africa, and they they soon discovered the rewards of the land so the were determined to obtain as much as possible.

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The only thing Europeans loved more than political power was increasing their trade. In the 1800’s European nations had a desire to get a lead to widespread imperialism in Africa. With the end of slavery in 1833, European interest in Africa shifted to seizing colonies. King Leopold of Belgium acquired a private country in Africa that was 95 times bigger than Belgium and his purpose was to make money by taking out ivory and rubber.

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The usherance of the 21st century is heavy with expectation from the technological marvels presented in the last 100 years. From time machines, to sentient robots, to genetically enhanced humans, some of these marvels are much closer to reality than one might think. One such example, the autonomous car, has made leaps and bounds in improvement within the last decade. The current iteration of the autonomous car however, isn’t exactly smart. Sure, it may be able to drive to the location you tell it, and it may even have features like collision avoidance, or blind spot monitoring that manufacturers will market off as “highly intelligent” features.

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