Africa was a very large continent back then and everyone was spread apart. Also, everyone worked for their selves and didn’t have to be told what to do. No one was expecting hardships or forced labor until the British and many other countries came into play. The British were not happy until they found the “Free State” of the Congo. They were led to investigate by a man named Roger Casement.
In the first reading, The Congo and King Leopold, the group of people that lived in the Congo were known as the Congolese and were later well known in this reading. King Leopold did not feel happy with just owning Belgium so he went off to the Congo. Meanwhile, Casement’s report caused debates and in the reading it states, “Millions of Africans were being killed or dismembered while harvesting rubber from the forest of Central Africa . . . for cheap rubber and to satisfy King Leopold’s quest for wealth.” The causes and effects were seriously deadly because Leopold enslaved Africans that he owned when he took over Africa. Having said that, once the Industrial Revolution gained more momentum Europeans wanted to find land and build their new and safer lives in Africa. The author states “.. people there realized that if they wanted to surpass neighboring countries economically, they would need access to more raw materials to fuel their factories and more people to purchase the products those factories made.” Europeans that didn’t want to stay came over to Africa and took their land. They
Independence could either be the uprising of a new and better maintained country or the uprising of a very deadly war. Kenya and Congo were very alike in terms of how they got to become independent, but how they handled it was the difference. Just like Congo and Kenya many other countries have their differences and similarities. For example, Congo had a much more violent approach to the situation unlike Kenya. Congo took everything very offensive, which is why the there was much tension between the colonies and the African countries. Kenya tried to fix their problem by not ignoring the important things and realizing that things can be fixed.
Africans were being treated badly. Africa were slaves in their own country. The continent of Africa was separated by Belgium. Africans were very unhappy and disappointed because they did not give Belgium permission to separate their continent. Africa worked in brutal and dangerous conditions.
Why is genocide something that people use to exploit, cheat, and damage people or groups? The Congo Genocide was no exception to this question. In this case it all started from the desire to grow, control, and gain wealth with horrible techniques that were kept under covers for far too long.
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.
Morel was one of the bigger people that helped end King Leopold's reign over the Congo. He was employed by Elder Dumpster to supervise the arrival and departure of ships coming to or from the Congo. Just like Sheppard and Williams he saw the atrocities that Leopold was doing to the territory. He did dabble with freelance writing which he then used to write about what he saw. Elder Dempster did try keep him quiet, but Morel decided to devote his life to exposing Leopold’s plans.
Africa was once a thriving and wonderful continent filled with luxurious and wealthy kingdoms, but that had all changed when a new and appalling type of slavery was introduced. Around the 18th century, Africa became an ideal place for Europeans to trade and buy slaves from. The slave trade in Africa seemed to be manageable and somewhat peaceful before the Europeans brought in a new type of slavery. When the Europeans bought slaves from Africans, they kept them as slaves for life which were very different from how long slaves were kept in Africa. Europeans kept slaves in extremely poor conditions and treated them as if they were less than human. These actions caused a great spike in the slave trade all over the world and many
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
“To Europeans, Africans were inferior beings: Lazy, uncivilized, little better than animals... In any system of terror, the functionaries must first of all see the victims as less than human, and Victorian ideals about race provided such a foundation” (Hochschild 121). The society in which King Leopold II lived shaped his view that the people of Africa were inferior, that their lives were significant, and this idea began to spread to most of Europe. This allowed the Belgian king to focus on his main purpose of colonizing the Congo: money. Despite his portrayal that his main motivation for colonizing the Congo was not profit, King Leopold was definitely motivated by money, and and because of this motivation he turned a blind eye to what was happening in
In the course of 1870, only ten percent of Africa was under European control. Over the next twenty years, King Leopold’s managers began to kill through forced labor, mistreatment, and the introduction of disease (about 10 million people). Malaria was the biggest killer during this time. At the conference, all of the European nations except Switzerland showed up to divide Africa by claim, and by the “rule of occupation”. At Berlin, they also agreed upon certain standards in relation to colonization in which consisted of free trade, the elimination of slavery, respect for each other's national property, and improving the “moral and material well-being.”
John Steinbeck went into writing about the Dust Bowl migration feeling that he had the responsibility to convey the problem correctly. The Grapes of Wrath not only works as a call to action in favor of the masses of migrant workers that were forced to live in poverty, but also expresses several other messages about mankind itself. Steinbeck uses powerful imagery, unique and suspenseful structure, dramatic tone, and compelling symbolism to effectively squeeze a mountain of an issue into pages of text.
Throughout this novel we see Leopold’s secrecy as he convinces hundreds of people of his pure intentions to create an area of free trade and prosperity of the African people. He did this by holding conferences such as the Geographical Conference. There he explained his fictitious aspiration for the abolishment of the slave trade and for peace in Africa. This colonial
The play Prince of Egypt directed by Scott Schwartz an American child actor who participated in Toy Story and now a director has shown his vision of the marvelous play in the Silicon Valley TheatreWorks. Additionally, the play itself is dramatic and musical. To sum the play, an orphan Hebrew was found near the river and was brought into one of the most prestigious family in Egypt. A huge amount of time has passed seeing Moses (Hebrew child) and Ramses (Son of the Pharaoh) growing up together into adults. However, a war caused the sickness or death of the Pharaoh, which leads Ramses to be the new leader. Moses and Ramses has a strong bond between each other, until Moses finds out his true identity; which is being born as a Hebrew. Eventually finding out his true self, his goals were to free the Hebrews being captive by the Pharaoh, which in this case it is now Ramses. With hard work and determination, Moses has fulfilled his duty to free his people. In the ending of the play, I was amazed and enjoyed the play. Therefore, I wished for another seeing of this beautiful work just by how the themes, plot, creative staging, and the passion of the director is put out there to everyone else.
Gun control in today's society has affected many aspects in the world; whether it be political aspects, social aspects, media aspects, or physiological aspects. Research has been conducted and it was found that individuals who agree to the use of guns often develop negative attitudes towards many aspects of life, such as the availability to discover something for themselves by absorbing what goes on in the world and the use of internet which shows gun control as a potential reducer of violent behavior. As for the other side of this argument, the opponents who agree with gun control often are independents who see firearms as a part of their social and cultural identities which they do not wish to back down. Gun control has been a huge topic that Americans have debated on. One side of the debate thinks it is necessary to have stricter control on guns while the other side feels that there should not be any changes in the use of gun control. The side that wants stricter guns believes it is a safer idea due to the fact of school shootings and terrorism. Another aspect of this debate is the fact that Americans have easy access to guns. Some people believe that this easy access allows individuals who psychological state is not at its best to purchase firearms and potentially carry out violence with the possession of such a weapon. Individuals on either side of the debate have their own supportive reasons for taking a stance on this issue. The
He uses different perspectives to convey the different moments throughout the book, albeit some are biased toward the European imperialism (opposing Hochschild’s thesis). The diverse reference points throughout the story make for an effective support for Hochschild’s argument because he cross-applies these sources and justifies why one may be more reliable to use. Hochschild even uses the evidence which appears to controvert his thesis to give an explanation for why the imperialism occurred in the first place. He quotes Leopold when the Belgian king was still looking to receive the Congo, reciting “We… wishing to secure for Our beloved fatherland the fruits of the work which, for many long years… have been pursuing on the African continent… declare by these presents, to bequeath and transmit… all Our sovereign rights over [the Congo Free State]” (Hochschild 95). Hochschild then writes, “There was one added twist. When the king made public his will, it was backdated, so that his bequest looked like an act of generosity instead of part of a financial bargain” (Hochschild 95). By exposing Leopold’s actions, Hochschild convincingly allows the reader to understand the moral flaws in Leopold’s imperialism. Additionally, Hochschild backs up these claims with eyewitness accounts of the Congolese peoples who had suffered. One report explains the natives hatred for one general,
The European’s took the natives land away from them by force, by burning their towns, stole property and enslaving them. By raping their women and killing the men, the Europeans managed to break the natives down enough to exploit their skills and resources to create an ivory trading market. This technique passed down from generation to generation was used before by the Europeans during the slavery era and later by the Nazis in Europe. Just like the factions expressed above the Europeans home saw the collection of ivory as respectable English business. Conrad made it so that Marlow was oblivious but, the reader would see right into the corruption of the ivory trade. In the story one could tell that the Europeans had evil intentions before they got to the Congo, as Marlow reached the first station he saw tools that are used to help the land and cultivate laying waste on the ground outside. Conrad made a journal of his trip to the Belgian Congo. In that journal he writes of how there were Christian missions set up throughout, yet he states that since the natives had no free will it did not matter whether or not it was in the book.