Aldo Leopold

The Sound of the Selfish Throughout history many powerful figures and their supporters have committed callous deeds to fulfill personal needs and beliefs. For example, Leopold II, the colonial leader of Belgium, was assigned to help improve the lives of the inhabitants, but instead killed over fifteen million Congolese for his own personal gain, committing some of the most atrocious crimes in history with the help of his followers. The boys in William Golding’s novel, Lord of the Flies, suffer…

of unknown parts. Dr. Livingston went MIA in Africa, so months later the British sent Henry Morton Stanley to find him. Stanley ended up finding Livingstone in a small village on the shore of lake tanganyika. Stanley was working directly for King leopold, from Brussels. These two explorers discovered that Africa was rich in minerals such as diamonds and materials such as rubber. They also came to realize that they could use these African people living there, as a way for free labor. In 1885…

Stanley’s path to fame as a hero and King Leopold, having followed Stanley’s career in the newspapers, also strived for this same…

Stanley’s discoveries on Africa had interested Leopold for years. He was exactly the type of explorer Leopold wanted: ambitious, hard-working, and seeking approval of the powerful. Stanley, born into the working class, hoped that Africa would offer him a rise in status. To both Leopold and Stanley, Africa was an opportunity to gain wealth and power. Together, they devised a strategy to for Congo. Stanley would first…

How did Europe become such a major power in the 1800s and 1900s when all it was was a group of various countries with diverse customs and languages? Europe during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries was in what historians call the “Scramble for Africa”. This is where European powers tried to divide and imperialize parts of Africa that they were rewarded because of their power and prestige. Certain parts of the imperialist, European African continent were tamer than others. Other sections were…

This is is an outrage!! Europeans from Belgium are invading my home town in Central Africa. I can’t believe they think they can just come in and seize our territory. This is not fair! Some guy named King Leopold II is the driving force behind all of this colonization. They are beginning to set up Belgin settlements in the Congo. I am so frustrated and sad. I just heard from some friends of mine that they overheard the Europeans talking about how France is taking over the heart of Africa and the…

the instructions and conditions given by his benefactor, Leopold II. Stanley had been placed on a contract so that he could not work for the British government, and Leopold II had promised the government in Paris that he would not ever hire him again. Leopold II ruled over the Congo and had been very interested in the Nile River before news of Emin Pasha had began circulating. Working with his own interests at the base of his plan, Leopold II allowed Stanley to leave his contract and go on the…

wanted to claim a piece of the continent that had vast new economic resources. King Leopold II of Belgium created associations and financed a number of expeditions in Central Africa to explore this land and its resources. At the Berlin Conference of 1884, King Leopold II of Belgium was granted the coveted Congo River basin. This territory was called the Congo Free State while it was under the control of King Leopold from 1885 until 1908. Most African colonies at the time, including the…

that the Force Publique did actually cut off hands and that they are willing to do it to children. Another reason why the legacy of colonization in Congo is negative is because the economy in Congo today was part of the result that happened when Leopold controlled the Congo Free State. Vast majorities of the farm lands and forests were destroyed while looking for resources for trading. The first decree of the new government was issued on July 1, 1885,…

is an American author and journalist. One of his best-selling books, King Leopold’s Ghost is based on the history of brutality carried out by King Leopold in the Congo. Before writing this book, Hochschild remembered reading about the terror in the Congo in Joseph Conrad’s book Heart of Darkness. Hochschild had to do more research on Kind Leopold and his reign of terror in the Congo to find out if it was really fact or fiction. He later found out that the “death toll was of Holocaust…