The Controversy Over Belgium's Natural Resources

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

Opposing the prevailing desire of Belgian parliamentarians to avoid the expense of colonies, he argued, "Belgium doesn't exploit the world... It's a taste we have got to make her learn." (p38)

What is imperialism? According to Britannica, imperialism is a state policy, practice, or advocacy of extending power and dominion, especially by direct territorial acquisition or by gaining political and economic control of other areas. Belgium taking over the Congo is an example of this. The Congo was a peaceful country, located in the heart of Africa, consisting of warm sunny days and beautiful Lake Malebo. The people were free, and happy. This was before the hell started… King Léopold II was the reason for this to happen. Léopold found the Congo and immediately fell in love with all the resources that flourished there. Léopold then went on to colonizing the Congo and taking it in for his own. He colonized the

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

The British took over India for their trading system. An example is from document #2 written by Dadabhai Naoroji in 1871, wrote this for the British to talk about the how they were taxing the Indians but yet didn't have good paying jobs to afford the taxes. He also lived in India and understands the experience of other Indians. This is economically negative because they were being charged for taxes and their low paying jobs couldn’t afford it and were even in poverty. It was bad for the people they probably didn't have enough food or somewhere to live but yet had to pay expensive taxes. King Leopold II took over Congo in the late 1800s for their rubber and other natural resources they had. In document #3 written by George Washington Williams who was an African American politician and historian he wrote this for King Leopold II in United States 1890. As an African American himself George Washington Williams wanted to make a change about how they were being mistreated. The king was not allowing the natives to trade with any person only the government and only for lower prices otherwise the government would seize the goods. This was another negative effect economically because the people wouldn't be able to trade for their own prices and make profit from their own products the British were taking advantage of

The rule of King Leopold II instilled disturbing methods of ruling. He enslaved the people of The democratic republic of Congo (Congolese) to gather him resources that would only benefit him. He was willing to do whatever it took to gain resources, even if it meant enslaving the people. “ King Leopold II nearly enslaved many of the Congolese people in order to gain wealth, and to bring power” (Citation) imperialism had a negative impact on the country, it had a long lasting impacts on the country because he depleted them of their resources which means they don't have much to export as a country now. King Leopold II used the people as slaves to gather their resources due to the danger of the work, which resulted in many casualties and injuries. He wanted to rule the country as he wanted rather than what was right for the people. He lied to the Belgian government in order to gain power of the country, by saying that his

Constitution insisted that governments exist to safeguard the natural rights of the citizen. The French

Why are there resources being taken over. British were ruining India's land and taken over it. They could become farmers and grow cash crops/ crops (Doc.#6). The British were taking all their land. Tearing down forest to use the land to grow food they couldn’t sell or eat (Doc.#6).

The resources were King Leopold's main reason to colonize the Congo. He knew that if he could obtain that rich land, he could receive a large sum of money at the expense of ethics. To achieve this, he sent an explorer named Henry Stanley to make his power known (BBC). Mercenaries executed this plan for Leopold. Imperialism is the way King Leopold II took over the Congo and subdued all the people that lived there. Imperialism is the domination over a society by economic or cultural means (Discovery Education). In some cases, imperialism still exists today. Cultural and economic imperialism exists today. Economic imperialism is imperialism for money. For example, one company buys its resources from Country A for a low amount. Country A then begins to believe that it should be receiving more money for all the work that it does. The company then leaves Country A to buy from Country B for the same price. Country B doesn’t complain and the company doesn’t have to spend any more money. Though, it’s not a win-win for everyone. Country A then begins to beg for the company to come back and buy resources from them. This is because the company took away something Country A

Throughout history people have been conquered or have been suppressed. In the years between 1800 and 2000, Europeans nations such as Belgium colonized Africa. These European powers subjugated the African people for their economic and influence gain. When these nations had these motives, the “Scramble of Africa” started and Africa was conquered. Therefore, the Berlin Conference is formed to decide the property of each European nation in Africa. When this conference took place, Belgium verified that their King Leopold will hold the territory of the Congo, by lobbying other nations. When King Leopold took power, many catastrophes took place, however other events helped the Congo develop. Therefore, colonialism cannot be judged by the Belgians

This implies that there should be equality among nations, according to natural law, and that it was time for the colonies to obtain this equal status (Pleasants 53). The colonists also felt that it was necessary to state their reasons for the movement towards independence. They would do this in the body of the document.

another nation for exploitation. " That is indeed what happened to indigenous nations after the

Over the course of human history, many believe that the “Congo Free State”, which lasted from the 1880s to the early 1900s, was one of the worst colonial states in the age of Imperialism and was one of the worst humanitarian disasters over time. Brutal methods of collecting rubber, which led to the deaths of countless Africans along with Europeans, as well as a lack of concern from the Belgian government aside from the King, combined to create the most potent example of the evils of colonialism in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century’s. The Congo colonial experience, first as the Congo Free State then later as Belgian Congo, was harmful to that region of Africa both then and now because of the lack of Belgian and International

Some natural resources of Ireland are natural gas, petroleum, silver, peat, copper, lead, zinc, silver, barite, gypsum, limestone and dolomite. Also because Ireland recieves rain all year round, one of the main resouces are agricultural and fishing. Ireland generates electricty by using wind turbines. For the past 10 years the wind power generation of Ireland has increased highly from 200 wind farms to 228 wind farms. The natural reources in Canada are nickel, zinc, copper, gold, diamonds, silver, fish, timber, coal, petroleum and natural gas. Canada generates its electricty from hydropower. In Canada 90% of its electricity is produced by hydropower. The similarities between Canada and Ireland is that both of thses countries use renewable resources

One of the many major destructive economic effects of imperialism would be the loss of natural resources. The Congo Free State lost many trees because the trees produced something that was needed to create rubber. Countries have also been banned from trading things they produced because of Imperialism. An example being how India was not allowed to export the woven cotton it produced while it was under British rule. Economic Imperialism has led to the death of many people. A substantial quantity people who lived in the Congo Free State died as a result of starvation and overworking so that Belgium could benefit economically. Imperialism has had a hand in the diminishment of natural resources, the prevention of trade and has taken millions of lives