Congo Free State

“reign” of the Congo, the reign that Belgium had to forcibly end after 23 years of empowerment. He was a tyrant who committed a mass genocide even larger than Adolf Hitler’s control of Germany in 1934,enslaving an entire country and hiding it by stating that the transactions he was making were “scientific”. He wanted to increase his personal wealth, and he’d do anything to do it. His greed was tremendous and was only cut off when his life was threatened after killing 10 million Congo citizens. …

for years to come, and leave debilitating effects on the continent that still last to today. The time before 1884, European powers colonized only 10% of the African continent. However, this all changed after King Leopold II of Belgium annexed the Congo as his own estate. This led to the European powers of Britain, France, Portugal, Germany, Belgium, Italy, and Spain scrambling for territory in the continent. To prevent the powers from fighting, German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck organized the…

Michael Lackey, a professor of English and author of African American Atheists and Political Liberation: A Study of the Socio-Cultural Dynamics of Faith, published the article “The Moral Conditions for Genocide in Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness” in the Winter 2005 edition of College Literature. He has focused his studies on the subject of religion, atheism, and politics — all of which he uses within this article as a method to deconstruct the novella by Joseph Conrad. His various…

In The Heart of Darkness Joseph Conrad depicts and partially denounces European imperialism in the Congo region of Africa. The Company, an ominously named Belgian ivory trading firm, inflicts a variety of racist cruelties upon native peoples in the area. The mistreatment and slavery are driven by prejudice and xenophobia but are carefully concealed under a guise of aid, with deceptive claims that their presence and practices are helping to civilize the savages. In truth they are the result of…

parallel between Marlow 's commitment to his journey to find the infamous Kurtz and the journey to the heart of imperialism. Marlow 's journey has begun aboard “The Nellie” when his idea of imperialism is one of efficiency. As Marlow journeys down the Congo in search of the notorious Kurtz, he is astonished of the inhumane practices and the falsities that the idea of imperialism entails. Conrad shows that the idea of imperialism brings false power and purpose to people who believe in the horrid…

Darkness, a novel by Joseph Conrad, is about Marlow, a European going to the Congo to work for an ivory company to find one man, Kurtz; he has been out of sight for a while when the reader first hears about him. This book expresses views on both imperialism and racism. Although there is not a lot of substance to the book does not mean it is not worth anything. Heart of Darkness shows the reader events and facts about the Congo one should know to really understand it. Shows how bad the Africans…

The jungle in Heart of Darkness represents the imperialistic nature of The Company, and Mr. Kurtz represents the native people of the Congo. The reason for imperialism is to enlighten those who needed enlightenment, or those who were deemed lesser in development by the outside world. The imperialists, in this case The Company, see themselves as stronger, and more dominate over the natives. On page 15, the description of the jungle in contrast to “a tin shed and a flag-pole lost in it [the…

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 this is exactly what happened during the Berlin Conference, when world powers such as Germany, Britain, Spain, France and Austria-hungary split up Africa into different colonies. These European powers believed, That it is…

Herbert Spencer was an English sociologist who lived during the age of a new form of imperialism that swept throughout Europe. Although Spencer himself was not directly nor physically involved in these new imperialistic ways, he did author the most standout narrative for legitimizing these European imperialists: ‘Social Darwinism’. The European upper class in the 1870’s sought to extend both its economic and political power beyond their shores; and they employed this ‘Social Darwinism’–the…

was an opportunity to gain wealth and power. Together, they devised a strategy to for Congo. Stanley would first set up base at the river’s mouth and then build a single road around the rapids as a guide for a railway. Over this road, porters would carry steamboats in pieces up to the rapids, which Stanley would later construct and use to travel upstream, building a chain of trading stations along the entire Congo River. Stanley’s motives were clear to the public, while Leopold reached “new…