The northern African countries, the ones that have had the most interaction with Europe (good and bad) like Algeria, Morocco, Libya, Tunisia and Egypt are more economically advanced than their sub-Saharan brethren. Those countries that lie South of the Equator are the ones that we will focus on for most of our imperialism unit in Chapter 24 and revisit before the end of the semester.
The British and the French were the two biggest colonizers of sub-Saharan Africa, but the Belgians, Germans, Dutch and Portuguese also carved up the continent after 1800. This period is known as the "new imperialism" - as if the time period of slavery when up to possibly 20 million Africans were stolen from the continent and shipped over to the Americas was somehow "old" imperialism and this was more "enlightened" because the Euros didn't sell humans and instead sold the resources? Yeah, right.
Some of the worst abuses of Africans were done by the Belgians in the resource-rich Congo. The Belgians extracted tons of rubber (this is where the title of our blog comes from), copper and ivory. Those villages who didn't harvest enough rubber would have children or sometimes women lose a hand. This was when the king himself, Leopold II, owned the Congo, until 1908 when the outrages over such treatment forced him to give it up. To quote a BBC documentary with the same name as our blog, "Until Adolf Hitler arrived on the scene, the European standard cruelty was set by a king."
Link to King Leopold's genocide: http://www.enotes.com/genocide-encyclopedia/king-leopold-ii-congo
A BBC news link that traces the current state of the region to the mess from the 19th Century: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3516965.stm
A BBC news link that traces the current state of the region to the mess from the 19th Century: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3516965.stm
One thing that is included in your history book that was never included in the stuff that I learned was info from the Africans' points of view. The best examples are in Ch. 24, sec. 2, on p. 754-5 and p. 759-761. I had seen a movie about Shaka Zulu but it really was more about the brave whites who had to take on the Zulus in the scary war in southern Africans. I never got to learn the "other side" of the story or the Africans' side of the story unless I watched Roots which came out when I was 9 (in 1977, I think) or read stuff on my own.
As Americans, we can't claim any kind of moral superiority over the Europeans because of the U.S.'s genocidal policies enacted towards our Native Americans between the 1600s - 1800s.
Your questions:
1. Can you think of an instance in history that we have studied where one person has had so much power over so many people and abused it so consistently? Explain.
2. Give at least three examples of abuses that King Leopold's agents forced upon the Congolese people (as mentioned in the people).
3. How were the abuses of King Leopold's Free State exposed in 1904 - 1906? What eventually happened to his ownership of the Congo?
300 words total. Blog due Friday, May 29 by class.
16 comments:
1. There is an instance that we studied in history where one person has had so much power over so many people and abused that power consistently. This person is King Leopold he had consistently abused his power over the Congo. One way he abused his power was by forcing people in the Congo to get rubber and if they did not succeed with the minimal amount they were punished. King Leopold covered it up very well which let him keep his power and continue to control the Congo in a forceful matter.
2. There are many examples of abuses that King Leopold's agents forced upon the Congolese people. One example is they burned down the villages of people who did not produce enough rubber which left many dead and many people without their families. If someone survived the burning they were usually shot. Another example of abuse on the people of the Congo is they cut of the hands of people that wasted bullets or didn’t work hard enough to get the rubber Leopold needed to be rich. Another example is the agents of Leopold had threatened the Congolese men that if they didn’t work harder they would kill their wives and children but they usually ended up killing them anyway.
3. There were many ways the abuses of King Leopold's Free State exposed. One way they were exposed was the missionaries came back from the Congo and told people of the terrible thing that happen to the people of the Congo. Another way the abuses of King Leopold's Free State exposed was a newspaper was created to show what goes on in the Congo and how terrible it is for the people of the Congo. These were many ways the terrible abuses of King Leopold's Free State exposed.
Luuk Schmit
1) No, I can not think of an instance in history that we have learned about where one person has had more power over so many people than King Leopold. He had power over all of the races, the natives, and the whites who worked for him. Making the person with the most power that we have learned about this year.
2) 3 examples of King Leopold's abuse were cutting off hands/feet of natives, the wives were taken as prisoners and/or raped and killed if their husbands did not work hard enough, and would burn their villages and kill their crops without any reason except for profit on selling rubber.
3) The abuses of King Leopold's free state were exposed in 1904-1906 though a new paper written my Murrie. He wrote about the tragedies and unfair treatment of the Africans in the Congos. King Leopold, after hearing this burned all of the evidence of his wrongdoings. The Congo was then turned in to a Belgium colony and some of his power was taken away. He died shortly after this and was booed at his funeral.
1. One of the first instances in history that comes to mind about someone who had too much power and abused it frequently is the Holocaust. Adolf Hitler caused the Holocaust. He decided that it was the Jewish people’s fault that bad things were happening and got everyone else to believe the same thing. His ideas spread and, soon, everybody was thinking of Hitler as their “ruler”. They believed everything he said and did as he told out of both fear for their lives and his authority. His thinking led to the death of millions of innocent people just as millions died in Africa.
2. Three of the biggest abuses that I heard during the video were the cutting off of people’s hands, taking the wives of the workers until they got enough rubber, and the burning villages and killing of innocent people. Throughout the video, they made many remarks about how the Congolese would get their hands cut off as a punishment for not working hard enough. They also had to cut off the hands of the people they killed to show that they didn’t waste any ammunition. The wives of the Congolese men were taken and held hostage until they turned in whatever the amount of rubber the king wanted per person. If they did not meet the requirement, they or their wives could be killed or hey kept the wife for a longer amount of time. Lastly, many of the King’s men would go around village to village burning them down and killing people along the way just because they could. Some of the higher up men would pay the soldiers money if they brought back heads of the men they killed.
3. King Leopold’s abuses were exposed through newspapers and testimonies of the Congolese. Edmund Morel started to write the events happening in the Congo anonymously. These events were based on facts, not speculation. A little while later, he had his own newspaper called the West African Mail. After people started to spread what was happening in the Congo, the King sent some of his men down to the Congo (thinking they would help him by ruling against the accusations). They did not agree with the King and eventually, Belgian took the Congo away. Until 1998, the Congo was ruled by a dictator and is now in a civil war.
Annabelle H.
1) You can find many instances of people abusing their power in many of the old European monarchies. Some examples are King Louis from France because they put their country in a bunch of debt and when America overthrew King George and England because of all the taxes.
2) Three examples that the agents abused on the Congo people were that the agents could take the workers wives, they could also chop off a hand of a foot if someone shot a bullet, and basically burn hang, or do any other kind of punishment to kill them. They did this to put fear into the citizens so they could get the maximum amount of rubber which would lead to a big profit for the agents, the king, and the country. Also, if they found that some of the locals were not working hard enough, they would assembly a team so they could burn down the villages during the night. All of the abuses that they did to the Congolese killed 10 million people, half of their population.
3) The abuses of King Leopold’s Free State were finally exposed in 1904-1906 because of multiple eye witnesses that published books and magazines all about what was going on in the Congo. He did his best to put an end to all of the books but it didn’t do any good. They finally saw what his whole scheme was with the Congo and started to criticize him. International outrage forced Leopold to turn over his personal colony to the Belgian Government. It also became the Belgian Congo in 1908. The worst of the abuses were ended but the Belgians regarded the Congo as a possession to be exploited. Africans were given little or no role in the government and the wealth of the mines went out of the country to Europe.
Nicholas Ringler 2nd hour
An instance in history that we have studied where one person has so much power over so many people and consistently abuses their power was King Louis XVI that ruled before and during the French Revolution. It was thanks to this incompetent king that France began its famously violent and lengthy revolution. Louis XVI consistently abused his power by not feeding his people, spending tons of money on his court and living a lavish and opulent lifestyle, and spending money unwisely. When France’s people was starving and suffering, and bread was too expensive, Louis XVI decided it would be a good idea to send a large sum of money to America to help them in their own revolution against the country’s long time enemy, Britain. Some examples of how the King Leopold II’s agents committed similar, yet even more atrocious acts show how King Leopold II abused his own power over the Congolese people. One example is that when the village’s people didn’t have enough rubber by the time it was to be collected, the king’s agents would cut their hands off. King Leopold II’s idea of motivation came through violence and torture. Another example is that if the agents were unsatisfied with the ‘workers’ then they had the power to either rape, torture, or kill the men’s wives and/or children. Many a times their hands were cut off or kept as prisoners. As well, the Congolese people were violently beaten on a daily basis, like when a girl carrying a basket of cut off hands worried about how she’d be beaten when the king’s agents found out that she had lost a severed hand.
Eventually, the King Leopold II was outed and exposed for his crimes from around the time of 1904-1906 through a newspaper called the Western African Mail run by a man named E.D. Morel. His newspaper spread the atrocities occurring to the Congolese people by the king and his agents. It also revealed the deceit and trickery in his words when King Leopold II said that he only wished to civilize and convert the Congolese people. Along with this newspaper, many missionaries went to go check out the country for themselves, and returned to court with horror filled stories that managed to remove the Belgian king’s clutches on the Congolese people and its resources.
Rebecca Levitt!
In my opinion I do think there was a time in history where a leader took advantage of powers. The person who took advantage of power was Hitler during the time of the Holocaust. He convinced people that he was the leader and decided that the Jews were the problems and should be blamed. Civilians only believed him because they were afraid they would be killed or tortured from siding with the Jews. Because of this advantage of power a countless number of people were tortured and or killed during his time of reign.
Three examples of abuse showed in the Congo were when the women of the Congo were kidnapped. They would not be given back until they got the supply of rubber that they demanded. Also there was a time where the whites would cut of the Congolese’s hands and sometimes feet. The only reason they did this was to put fear in the people so they wouldn’t want to rebel. There was no actual reason for doing this. Lastly they would burn villages and crops.
They way King Leopold’s abuses were exposed were through a newspaper. This spread the news and truth about Leopold and how he had be deceiving showing two different personalities. Some men did not agree with Leopold’s ways and some time later Belgium took over.
The time of Leopold was extremely devastating considering how many Congolese were killed or got their hands or feet cut off. It was also sad that Leopold was deceiving everyone with his contradictions.
Rebecca Gonska
Blog #34 – Africa
1. Napoleon Bonaparte, while considered a great military leader, controlled France completely. Napoleon came to power by deceiving other politicians and eventually crowned himself (with his own hands) Emperor of France. As Emperor, he controlled all of France and many conquered countries. He controlled the people so completely he was able to hide failures from them. His expedition to Egypt in 1798 proved to become a disaster. However, he managed to hide all the facts about the failure of the expedition and the lives lost. Napoleon was greedy for land and conquering other countries no matter the cost. Leopold was greedy for wealth. Both Napoleon and Leopold were ultimately responsible for hundreds of thousands (if not millions of lives) lost. Napoleon thru the wars he waged and the countries he conquered and Leopold thru his conquest and abuse of the Congo.
2. Three examples of abuses by King Leopold’s agents were:
• The agents would cut off limbs as a punishment if the people did not harvest enough rubber. It was also a warning sign to work harder.
• The agents kept women and children hostage and then would kill them if the men did not work hard enough.
• Any who revolted would be hung, shot, or burned in public.
• Men, who failed to collect enough rubber for the soldiers, were killed in the town in front of everyone.
3. Many writers and authors started writing about the abuses in the Congo. The international community started hearing about the cruelty through journals, books, newspapers, letters, etc. People started to question King Leopold and began an outburst of revolts against him. This forced the Belgian Government to take away King Leopold’s rights to controlling the colony of Congo. When the Belgium Government took over the Congo became a colony of Belgium and the worse abuses were stopped.
Rohna Battle- Woodger
World History: 2nd hour
05/28/15
1)The one I can think of as an instance in history that we have studies where one person had so much power over so many people and abused it so consistently is Napoleon Bonaparte. He’s the closet person I can think of to King Leopold II. They both seen as powerful and had or have invaded a country/ies. Another person, that we’ve have not studied is Adolf Hitler who is really who I think of as one person that had so much power over so many people and abused it consistently in the Holocaust. Both King Leopold and Adolf Hitler killed many innocent people and rule or ran their countries.
2)King Leopold II left Belgium to “colonize” the Congo, but little did the Belgians know all the money their country was receive was from the natives, Congolese people being forced to obtain rubber that was sold for need of tires in bikes and cars. The Congolese people got their right hands and sometimes feet cut off if they didn’t obtain the amount of rubber King Leopold II wanted them to have. Congolese women were also kept held captive from their husbands if enough rubber wasn’t obtained, rather they had children, were pregnant or not. King Leopold II wasn’t seen as the cruel man he really was outside of Belgium.
3)The abuses of King Leopold’s Free State were exposed in 1904 -1906 by what some people saw what was happening to the Congolese people and writing it in reports and sending them to Europe. One person, Edmund Morel sent a letter to England from the Congo. He later created his own newspaper, the West Africa Mail. Once Europe began talking about King Leopold II work in the Congo he burned all the evidence he hand printed about his work and sent in government officials from Belgium to try and turn around what they found out. They knew what he was doing now and they took matters into their own hands, Belgium took over the Congo as their colony.
In history there are many times when people with extreme power over a large number of people is abusive f their authority. However, because we just learned quite a bit about King Leopold's rule, I believe that out of all the rulers we have studied, he has been the one with the most amount of power and the worst cases of abusing such power. To be specific, he himself ruled and owned over 40,000,000 slaves in the Congo land. These slaves were completely under his will, and he used them to glorify himself with self prosperity and wealth. His abuses to this control of such a vast country and population include severe torture of innocent lives and the murders of over half the population. These abuses, forced upon the native Congo people, where nothing short of gruesome and horrifying, giving him the cruelty reputation until Hitler's rule. These tortures include acts of cutting off hands of feet of slaves as punishments for not working hard enough and not producing enough rubber. Leopold also forced his missionaries to light entire villages on fire as fear factors to push harder labor and greater results. Wives and children of rubber extractors were kept hostage as incentive for their husbands to work harder; if the men didn't deliver an acceptable about of rubber their wives would be raped. tortured, and/or murdered. Crops for villages were blazed to starve the natives and many that didn't starve were blatantly shot for the missionaries' amusement. These tortures are only some of the horrible things endured by the natives of Congo, and the longer these acts continued to be practiced the worse they became. The king, managing to keep his hidden harshness secret for a very long time, was finally revealed through newspapers published that contained eye witness stories. These stories came from explorers, travelers, and mainly missionaries that could no longer keep the torturous acts to themselves. As more news articles and books were published to reveal the horrors of slave treatment in the Congo, the Congo land was eventually taken from King Leopold and became an official Belgium colony.
Wallie Hechler
im sorry I kinda just wrote it in a paragraph and didn't number the answers. they do go in order of questions though, so one is answered first in the paragraph and then two and then three.
1) Out of the revolutions and wars that we have studied in history, I think King Leopold showed the strongest absolute power where he would mishandle it and use it against the people in the most violent ways. He had control of everyone, which he used to force people into Congo. He was a very strict man, who would severely punish the people if they did not succeed. Unfortunately King Leopold’s actions were misread by those who weren’t involved in the Congo since it was considered secret. King Leopold got away with such cruelty for a long time.
2) King Leopold did many cruel things to those who didn’t fit his priorities, such as cut off limbs, threated loved ones and even burn a whole community down. People would be punished if they didn’t work hard enough. Many right hands were cut off when not providing the required amount of rubber. They would also cut hands off the people who they killed to show that they didn’t misuse ammunition. They threatened loved ones when they would take a man’s wife away until they provided the right amount of rubber. The King also allowed his people to burn down villages and kill as many people they wanted.
3) King Leopold was finally exposed through newspapers and missionaries themselves in 1904-1906 through the tragedies and horrid stories they unfortunately experienced. Of course King Leopold tried to deny his actions and tried to ban the books, but the truth came out too fast and strong for even the King to overcome and hide. The Belgian Government then made the King himself step down and give up his power, the Government now took control. King Leopold died three years later in 1909. In 1998 the Congo was handed over to a dictatorship which then lead to a civil war.
-Caroline Chalifoux
I can think of an instance that a man held so much power and abuse. That one man is King Leopold the second of Belgium who took advantage of the Congolese people, ruining the areas future as a producer of natural resources such as rubber. The oppression of king Leopold the 2nd reeked havoc on the way Congo is seen as an economy and country today.
Three examples of how king Leopold forced the Congolese people to abuse themselves by forcing the African people to cut off the hands for refusal to pay, he also had them burn down villages, and the over working of the men, he did this to have him and his men not able to be blamed for any of the awful things that occurred in the Congo.
The abuses of king Leopold were exposed by missionaries who were sick of what Leopold was doing in the Congo. The missionaries wrote in the newspaper what Leopold was doing and how he was abusing the Congolese. Belgium's government took over the Congo and Kind Leopold lost power.
Thanks,
Bear
-Callie Barnas-
The first instance in history I was able to think of was not of specifically one person but more of an organization; the Catholic Church. Such abuses come to light especially in the Renaissance era. They had a huge influence on people and when people began thinking differently they were either executed or exiled. The executions where not only decided before a biased court but done by means of torture, like the rack, which slowly pulls apart arms and legs. Along with this some members of the Church made up and sold the idea of indulgences to people who were taught through Christianity that paying for such was the only way to make it to heaven. King Leopold expressed his abusive power over the Congolese people in multiple ways. To ensure that bullets had not been wasted in combat, Leopold required the severed right hand of each man shot down. If the Congolese people failed to do so for each and every bullet it was considered a waste and Leopold’s agents would cut of the man’s own hand as payment. Another example of the kings cruel power was how he inflicted fear upon he people as encouragement to collect as much rubber as possible. He would do so by burning down entire villages and his agents shot down anyone who attempted to flee. Along with his, to make sure he was getting enough rubber from his forced empire, Leopold would take the wives of his male captives and tie them together in captivity until the men brought him back enough rubber. If the rubber amount was not satisfactory, the women were either killed or tortured. One accounted instance of such murderous cruelty was when a missionary witnessed one of Leopold’s agents stabbed a long stick through her womb, only to shoot her when she didn’t die from that. These horrendous acts of genocide finally began reach public ears in 1904-1906 when a man by the name of Edmund Dene Morel, along with the help of other missionary and witnesses, began printing stories from the Congo in a newspaper called the West African Mail. More and more people began speaking out against the king and he became the most hated man in Europe to those who hadn’t become blind and believed the lies Leopold told as a cover-up to his rubber empire built on fear and murder. Eventually Brazil colonized the Congo and Leopold received money as thanks.
1.) One instance of a ruler who abused power constantly was napoleon of France. He showed no mercy in silencing critics and opponents of this regime. He also placed his brothers on multiple thrones in Europe.
2.) One instance of the agents’ abuses was the practice of placing cut of genitals on fences in view of the public. They also gave enough cruel and unusual punishment to made don Rumsfeld cringe. Third was the systematic slaughter of the natives, forget the Armenian and ongoing Native American genocides over half of the Congolese population were killed and in some areas over 60%. Some died from attacks on the villages others died from their torture but some died just to see them bleed. But the real crime is the pillage of the congo land. The belgens became wealthy from the tons of gold, rubber, copper, diamonds, coffee and pretty much anything of value that can be dug out of the ground so what did the Congolese get nothing.
3.) These abuses were exposed just like any other atrocities people just don’t stay quiet. Reports from missionaries circulated all throughout Europe and America and the truth was no longer quiet. With everyone pissed at the king he was dug in like a tick. Finally when he lost the belgen government took his possessions in the Congo which it stay in for another 50 years until they left then the ruthless dictator mobutu was in power for another thirty years but the series of wars with Rwanda and Uganda then a hutu overthrow of his government it is all better if by better you mean still crippled by the wounds of civil war and Leopold. So were the crimes exposed yes did they end no, all the goverments since leopold be it the belgens, mobutu or the militia leaders ether openly abused the African people or just did not care.
liam mulligan
1. Can you think of an instance in history that we have studied where one person has had so much power over so many people and abused it so consistently? Explain.
2. Give at least three examples of abuses that King Leopold's agents forced upon the Congolese people (as mentioned in the people).
3. How were the abuses of King Leopold's Free State exposed in 1904 - 1906? What eventually happened to his ownership of the Congo?
When King Louis VI ruled he was very powerful. He wasn’t being fair to the women because he made the declaration of rights of man and that involved men. The people got him to the guillotine and eventually Marie Antoinette was there too to get the heads chopped off. They weren’t really good rulers. Robespierre was also a good/bad ruler cause he made the people really made which eventually he met the guillotine. He wasn’t really bad like King Louis VI was but to think of it Robespierre had lots of people meet the guillotine. The three examples of abuses were that he took the workers wives and chop of their right hands or a foot if someone shot a bullet. They did this because they wanted the most amount of rubber they can have. Also if they found out that people weren’t hard enough they’ll burn down their villages. Lastly, Congo's wives were taken away because they wanted more rubber. It was exposed by many authors and writers were writing about the abuse. People found out by newspapers, books, journals, letters, and etc. When the Belgium government found out they took King Leopards rights away to rule their colony. When the Belgium Government took over there were no more abuses going to the Congo's. They felt better when he stopped so they don’t have to worry about getting their wives taken away or anything else.
Michelle Lis
Truman Levitt
1.) It is not one person but the Catholic church did that, they guilted people into buying those papers that would let them get into heaven and said if they didn't get on that they would go to hell.
2.) The first example is that if they didn't harvest enough rubber he would cut off the hand of the woman or child in the family. Another thing he caused all of them to spend most of the time working. The last example is that many people died while working for him.
3.) People came to stop him and the peopel also revolted. His rule of Congo was overthrown, and he no longe ruled it.
1) Can you think of an instance in history that we have studied where one person has had so much power over so many people and abused it so consistently? Explain.
The Catholic Church and the Pope. Though The Catholic Church’s abuse isn’t as direct as King Leopold’s it wasn’t any less powerful, The Church housed its followers beliefs and gave them a sense of belonging and protection but it also censored scientists, and was corrupt (indulgences), and killed many (The Spanish Inquisition). Furthermore the people couldn’t stand up to The Church because they feared execution or alienation.
2) Give at least three examples of abuses that King Leopold's agents forced upon the Congolese people (as mentioned in the people).
King Leopold forced the Congolese to work in horrible conditions, threatened to kill/torture the workers families if they didn’t complete their work, burned the Congolese’s villages (Killing many in the process)
3) How were the abuses of King Leopold's Free State exposed in 1904 - 1906? What eventually happened to his ownership of the Congo?
The reports of the horrible conditions and killing made by missionaries and journalists visiting the Congo began to spread. The Belgium took ownership of the Congo after King Leopold but the King had already made his money and killed far too many.
Frances Van Wordragen
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