Leopold von Ranke

of the Congo which is located in South Africa. Congo was the third largest country on the continent of Africa. Then we are introduced to the origins of the Congo. The first citizens of the Congo were Portuguese settlers in 1483, but by 1879 King Leopold II of Belgium set up trading concessions and by 1908 The Belgian government officially took possession of the Congo. In the 1950s Congo became more advanced with river systems, railways, and airfields. At the time that was state of the art in…

“Ever fair, ever fair my home; ever fair land so sweet. […] Tyrants and cowards, we fear them no more; behold your power protects us from harm; we live in freedom by sharing all things equally. We live in peace within your loving arms” (Shawl 63). Everyone yearns for a home where they belong, a place where they can be free from persecution and oppression. This is the ideal society. This is Everfair, a small, bold nation tucked inside of the Belgian ruled Congo, a safe haven for people of any…

Since the dawn of civilization, the need for stratification, hierarchy, and superiority has taken on numerous visages to establish the dominance of one group over another. Systems of feudalism, slavery, and colonialism have been employed throughout the world to fill this need, opening a Pandora’s Box of hatred, xenophobia, bigotry, and ignorance. These systems of stratification often benefitted their respective societies, but have posed questions to the value of life and moral concerns. The…

1. I think King Leopold was able to achieve hiding the horrific practices that he put the people of the Congo through by instilling the false perception that he was bettering the lives of the Congolese people. This false perception that occurred through King Leopold's Propaganda helped him hide his vindictive agenda because it prevented people from further investigating “The Congo Free State”. Due to the lack of investigation, King Leopold was able to continue to prosper off rubber and…

The congo is a nation that gained its independence in 1960. But before this there was a lot of back and forth to get to this conclusion. The Cold war started out as a fight between the Soviet Union and the United States. After a while the fighting spread to Congo and other countries. Even before this great tension, there was other things that lead up to the cold war. This being that Belgium was controlling the Congo. Congo later gained independence and held their presidential election in 1960,…

Congo is one of many states what allows other country to push them around. At the beginning of the late 1800’s, Congo would start to go through many changes such as development, modernization, colonization and so on. Not only were European countries making their way into Congo, their own leaders made their small powered economy either a little better or much worse. With these changes happening for the next century, it caused numerous short term and long term effects on this Third World country.…

life of dominance. As the book says “A person starved for love as a child and now filled with an obsessive desire for an emotional substitute.”( 38) This emotional substitute was to be filled with the desire to be powerful and in control . As king Leopold manipulated situations with his” foxlike ways” he began to plot with Stanley where he needed to further explore in order to claim the lands of Africa. It is hard to understand how and why a person could constitute such a tragedy amongst…

King Leopold’s Greedy Fall As King Leopold came to power of the Belgian throne, he had much more in mind than ruling only Belgium. Even though Belgium was already under his restricting rule, he was nowhere near reaching his point of satisfaction. Leopold needed another country to gain personal wealth and power from and intended extracting valuable resources form the Congo Free State. This only begins to explain Leopold’s greed and terror and how he would have to be forcefully removed from power…

the international crusade against Leopold. Another hero of this tale, the Irish patriot Roger Casement, ended his life on a London gallows. Two courageous black Americans, George Washington Williams and William Sheppard, risked much to bring evidence of the Congo atrocities to the outside world. Sailing into the middle of the story was a young Congo River steamboat officer named Joseph Conrad. And looming above them all, the duplicitous billionaire King Leopold II. With great power and…

Another man that describes the European attitude is Wole Soyinka an African man. Soyinka was born towards the end of Imperialism in Nigeria by Great Britain. He describes the attitudes of Europeans toward Africans. Soyinka grew up under Imperialism with the influence of European cultures, such as; religion and education. Soyinka wanted to inform how Imperialism affected Africans. In an interview he states, “I listened to lots of conversations between my father and his intellectual circle, in the…