Violence and exploitation mar colonial history as empirical powers justified their use as an inherent aspect of colonization. Foreign powers used brute force as a means to maintain and expand control over their realm. King Leopold II of Belgium wanted to expand his own power and secure resources by having Belgium become an empire nation like other European countries. To recognize this goal Leopold created the Congo Free State (CFS) in what is presently the Democratic Republic of the Congo. While all colonial empires did exercise violence against native populations, the case of the CFS reveals a more sinister insight into the mass violence and inhumane atrocities committed against the Congolese. In fact, historians often categorize the violence
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In the case of the CFS this argument is valid, to a point. The legal system enacted in the CFS not only took away the rights of the Congolese it also subjected them to cruel and inhumane conditions. As an example of the legalized cruelty, forced labour was considered as a form of currency to pay taxes. A body of white officials operated as bureaucrats, who also handed their own orders down the chain of command. As a matter of fact King Leopold II himself condoned the use of violence or terror. Adam Hochschild alludes to this when he notes that Leopold and other officials ordered the archives to be destroyed so no one would know what happened. The legal framework and edicts by Leopold allowed for an increase in both the viciousness and regularity of …show more content…
Local officials already had the sanction, both of Leopold and the courts, to use violence without regard. Officials became tyrants because of the amount power they wielded. Each official became an autocratic governor whose word was considered law. Military officers acted with absolute impunity. This is evidenced by the fact that even after Leopold’s death and the Belgian government put in restraints on the level of force officials could use, officials still continued to perpetrate brutal acts of violence. The acts ranged from rape to murder and extreme mutilation of both the living and the dead. For example, Leon Rom, a Belgian who became and a notoriously vicious military officer and judge, used the impaled heads of his victims as garden ornamentation. The power granted to white officials and officers gave them the freedom to do as they pleased without
In the case of the CFS this argument is valid, to a point. The legal system enacted in the CFS not only took away the rights of the Congolese it also subjected them to cruel and inhumane conditions. As an example of the legalized cruelty, forced labour was considered as a form of currency to pay taxes. A body of white officials operated as bureaucrats, who also handed their own orders down the chain of command. As a matter of fact King Leopold II himself condoned the use of violence or terror. Adam Hochschild alludes to this when he notes that Leopold and other officials ordered the archives to be destroyed so no one would know what happened. The legal framework and edicts by Leopold allowed for an increase in both the viciousness and regularity of …show more content…
Local officials already had the sanction, both of Leopold and the courts, to use violence without regard. Officials became tyrants because of the amount power they wielded. Each official became an autocratic governor whose word was considered law. Military officers acted with absolute impunity. This is evidenced by the fact that even after Leopold’s death and the Belgian government put in restraints on the level of force officials could use, officials still continued to perpetrate brutal acts of violence. The acts ranged from rape to murder and extreme mutilation of both the living and the dead. For example, Leon Rom, a Belgian who became and a notoriously vicious military officer and judge, used the impaled heads of his victims as garden ornamentation. The power granted to white officials and officers gave them the freedom to do as they pleased without