Essay On Leopold II Of Belgium

Admitted in the Memoir of Ndansi Kumalo, “Well, the white men have brought us some good things. For a start, they brought us European implements - plows; we can buy European clothes, which are an advance. The government has arranged for education and through that, when our children grow up, they may rise in status.” The Europeans admittedly brought many great things to the Natives of the countries they conquered; better technology, education, and overall help were given to the natives. In the beginning, Europeans tried as much as they could to prop up the natives to a better, civilised stature. However, as their power and grasp on the region increased, as did their greed. According to Richard Harding Davis in Leopold, The Janitor from the Congo and the Coasts of Africa, “The Charges brought against Leopold II, as King of the Congo, are three: (1) That he has made slaves of the twenty million blacks he promised to protect. (2) That, in spite of his promise to keep the Congo open to trade, he has closed it to all nations. (3) That the revenues of the country and all of its trade has retained to himself.” Such imperialism allowed far away kings to exploit their populaces of Native Africans as if they were just toys to the crown. Leaders would force their powerless and technologically underdeveloped subjects into fruitless

In order to achieve his dream, King Leopold II wanted to be sure that no other country got in his way. Belgium was a small country and Leopold knew that his country posed no threat to others. If he started to conquer the Congo, other

     There were many reasons for the European countries to be competing against each other to gain colonies in Africa. One of the main reasons may be that Europeans believed that the

European powers began to take over territories throughout the continent of Africa during the 19th century. Historian Adam Hochschild’s depiction of King Leopold of Belgium was written in 1998 and titled, King Leopold’s Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa. Hochschild talked extensively about the greed for money and slavery resulting in the genocide of the Congo and the protests of humanitarians that followed the King’s exploitation of Africans. In his thesis, the author stated that “[t]his is the story of that movement, of the savage crime that was its target, of the long period of exploration and conquest that preceded it, and of the way the world has forgotten one of the great mass killings of recent history.”

King Leopold was abusing his position of power to exploit the Congo for it’s raw materials, it can be said that the vivid cruel and gruesome images Conrad conveys in the book are merely mirroring the harsh reality of the brutalisation in Africa. One could therefore conclude that due to Conrad’s own experiences in the Congo he has to tell his story through a framed narrative, as it may be too difficult for him to share his story in the first person. Whether this was the case or not, it is clear than in ‘Heart of Darkness’ Conrad reveals the abuse of power to be ever present in the colonial age that Conrad lived in, and he demonstrates the abuse of power as something to be wary of and to fear, as it can result in madness.

Joseph Conrad uses the white colonist’s obsession with ivory to show the of imperialism. For the colonists “The word ‘ivory’ rang in the air, was whispered, was sighed. You would think they were praying to it” (Conrad 95). Life for the colonists’ in the Congo revolved around Ivory. Colonization effort for the Congo orbited around ivory and other financial gains. In the desperation to become wealth the colonists change the lives of the native Africans living there. The natives soon find their world completely different from their ancestors: “Black rags were wound round their loins, and the short ends behind waggled to and fro like tails. I could see every rib, the joints of their limbs were like knots in a rope; each had an iron collar on his

During King Leopold’s time he was scrambling for a way to create wealth, but could not dabble in the trade of Africans because of new abolition laws, then he got lucky. In the Berlin Conference held by Otto Von Bismarck, Africa was divided like a cake; pieces were given to European countries. While they had decided that they were “respecting” human rights, it was also believed that Africans needed to be governed. Through this Leopold gained the territory of the Congo, marking the beginning of colonialism, an era of unequal wealth and poverty.

Joseph Conrad 's Heart of Darkness is both a dramatic tale of an arduous trek into the Belgian Congo at the turn of the twentieth century and a symbolic journey into the deepest recesses of human nature. On a literal level, through Marlow 's narration, Conrad provides a searing indictment of European colonial exploitation inflicted upon African natives. By employing several allegoric symbols this account depicts the futility of the European presence in Africa.

The novella, Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad, is a piece that pushed the envelope of its time due to an oppositional stance on the forced imperialism of primitive and/or impoverished countries. The protagonist of this story is the self-proclaimed explorer, Marlow, who decides to leave the heart of light and purity (Europe) and take a job as a steamboat captain in the dark jungles of the Congo Free State in Africa. Upon his arrival, Marlow begins to see the impact of Belgium’s intrusion on the Congo by means of implementing slavery, commandeering ivory (a valuable resource), and presenting a negative attitude toward the primitive population. Marlow eventually becomes obsessed with an ivory

When Louis XVI became King of France in 1774, he was only 20 years old. As the years

Overall though, the Scramble for Africa was an event happened because superior European advances in technology and medicine, economic prosperity and the motivation to look good, and to help others to be as good as themselves. Putting down societies through indirect and direct control help submit dominance over the natives with almost no say in their

'My ivory.' Oh, yes, I heard him. 'My Intended, my ivory, my station, my river, my-' everything belonged to him” (Conrad, 89). The “Heart of Darkness” is a novella that is based in the Congo where the narrator shares his journey with three men. We are later introduced to one of the main characters Kurtz, who is described as full of appetite for his ivory and makes it very clear that everything belongs to him and his obsessive desire for ivory. Joseph Conrad is able to help the reader see Kurtz as a greedy man and is a very complicated character to understand. Throughout the novella, Kurtz is presented with a cloudy personality and we do not get a full picture of who he really is until the ending before it is too late. Once arriving to the Congo, we see two

Heart of Darkness In the book, Heart of Darkness, by James Conrad, there is a company that is trying to imperialize and collect ivory from Africa. One ivory hunter, Mr. Kurtz, is looked up to the entire book for his ability to get ivory. But when Kurtz is actually revealed, we see that he is using the native culture to get them to look up to him and do whatever he wants. Conrad uses the unique and uninformed African culture to show the ingenuine and unmoralistic traits of Mr.Kurtz.

Greed can push both ruthless and innocent people to hurt others. In the 18th and 19th centuries, Europeans wanted to imperialize many countries in Africa for land and resources such as gold and cash crops. They also desired economic, social, and political control along with the success of converting Africans to European politics and religion. Europeans sought to have an economic and political dominance over African Americans. The cruelty that the Africans faced is displayed in Joseph Conrad’s, Heart of Darkness. Raising questions about both racism and imperialism, the novel includes Kurtz, a character with greed for the valuable resource, ivory. Conrad comments on the horrific corruptibility of humanity through the narrator, Charles

Joseph Conrad Heart of Darkness is a very famous book which has been considered by my many a key reading into the insight of colonialism. Heart of Darkness is a novel that focuses on colonialism of Africans specifically the Congo and the effect that has on the indigenous people who inhabit it as well the European colonists. The book focuses on a trip that the main character Marlow takes and what he sees and how it changes him. The book is based off the author Conrad real-life experience when he traveled to the Congo and captained a ship that sailed down the Congo River. He would later become ill during his travel and returned home. He then returned home and wrote the Heart of Darkness. Heart of Darkness is a novel that looks at the true darkness of men in their quest for power and wealth. In my paper, I will give a summary of Heart Darkness its relation to colonialism and some of its major themes.