King Leopold's Ghost

In the 1880s, as the European powers were carving up Africa, King Leopold II of Belgium seized for himself the vast and mostly unexplored territory surrounding the Congo River. Carrying out a genocidal plundering of the Congo, he looted its rubber, brutalized its people, and ultimately slashed its population by ten million--all the while shrewdly cultivating his reputation as a great humanitarian. Heroic efforts to expose these crimes eventually led to the first great human rights movement of the

the Congo Adam Hochschild’s King Leopold’s Ghost exposes the true purpose of imperialism. His novel allows us to look at the impacts of new imperialism and get a sense of why colonies were of such interest for European countries in terms of economic gain. Like many European countries, King Leopold II of Belgium set his eyes on getting a colony for the sole purpose of keeping up with other countries who gained economic success after owning colonies for years. Despite King Leopard’s conquest of Congo

In the book King Leopold’s Ghost by Adam Hochschild, King Leopold is the King of Belgium. Leopold does not want to be King of Belgium because he believed that “the country he was to inherit seemed too small to hold him.” (King Leopold’s Ghost 36) King Leopold gives up his reign as King of Belgium in search for something better. “For him colonies existed for one purpose: to make him and his country rich.” (Leopold’s Ghost 38) He wants to have a land that is only under his personal control. “His drive

over one hundred years ago, was the death of King Leopold of Belgium the sole owner of the Congo. Even years after he has left this earth and is no longer in the reign, the long-lasting effects he has had on the people and the land has forever changed the Congo. The memories left behind from the atrocities that occurred and the diminished resources due to extreme exploitation has prompted the author Adam Hochschild to write the novel, King Leopold’s Ghost. Using an Afrocentric point of view Hochschild

the book, King Leopold’s Ghost: A story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial America, it shows the true nature of what happened in the Congo from when King Leopold II got involved to present day. In 1865, King Leopold II took the throne of Belgium. One of his primary goals was to find Belgium a colony. He sent Henry Morton Stanley to lead an exploration Africa and during this exploration he was to negotiate treaties with tribal leaders to give him land near the Congo River. King Leopold II

“King Leopold’s Ghost- a story of greer, terror and heroism in colonial africa” written by Adam Hochschild, reveals the hidden horror in the Congo. Hochschild conveys the exploitation of the Congo Free State by King Leopold II of Belgium from 1885 to 1908, as well as the revolting brutality during that period. Hochschild discloses how King Leopold II’s unpleasant and atrocious capacity of maliciousness is shown through mass killings and colonization of Congolese land. The Ghost of King Leopold II

Adam Hochschild, the author of King Leopold’s Ghost recognized that there is a lack of material on one of the darkest parts of African history. Indeed, Hochschild, author of a number of books about human rights, only came across the story of the Congo in reference to a work by Mark Twain. His research led him to the actions of Edmund Dene Morel, the main force behind a movement against the atrocities committed by King Leopold II of Belgium’s autocratic rule in the Congo. Hochschild makes it abundantly

King Leopold’s Ghost tells the narrative of the struggles experienced by those in the Congo following the discovery of rubber and the privatized funds of a King Leopold of Belgium. Recounted by Adam Hochschild, a lecturer at the University of California Berkeley’s School of Journalism, it gives light to the stomach turning truths of imperialism. King Leopold’s Ghost falls to critics in some aspects, as highlighted in a review by Lysle Meyer. Meyer, works for the African Studies and has written a

King Leopold’s Ghost by Adam Hochschild investigates the “exploitation of the Congo Free State by King Leopold II of Belgium between 1885 and 1908”. This book tells the story of how King Leopold II of Belgium took the land around the Congo River and claimed it as his own calling it the Congo Free State. A man named Edmund Dene Morel was “brought face to face with evil” after noticing his company was removing large amount of ivory and rubber and only sending in weaponry with the Congo Free State,

King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa is the informative history book written by Adam Hochschild, telling what seems to be the lost Holocaust of the late 1800s which continued into the early 1900s in Belgium. Under the ruling of King Leopold II, Belgium exploited the Congo and committed horrendous crimes against the native people of the Congo for King Leopold’s own political and economic gain. The driving force that lead to Belgium and King Leopold exploiting