Research Paper on "King Leopold's Ghost"

Research Paper 6 pages (1718 words) Sources: 1 Style: MLA

[EXCERPT] . . . .

King Leopold's Ghost is an amazing though disturbing account of one man's ruthless ambition and carnage that resulted in mass murder, subjugation, horrifying cruelty and severe exploitation. King Leopold II of Belgium wanted a piece of land that he could call his own, to colonize and to rule as he pleased. However he learned "from his many attempts to buy a colony that none was for sale; he would have to conquer it. Doing this openly however was certain to upset both the Belgian people and the major powers of Europe. If he was to seize anything in Africa, he could do so only if he convinced everyone that his interest was purely altruistic." (Hochschild, p. 46)

King Leopold was an imperialist who believed that Africa was the land for him. He wanted to exploit the treasures of some unchartered territory and Congo appeared to be the most suitable place on earth. Imperialism was not dead then, it was very much a reality in Europe. But still Leopold needed some kind of guise to work with. He couldn't openly occupy Congo and claim it as his own and thus thee guise he was looking for came in the form of International African Association. Leopold realized that if he could pretend to be involved in humanitarian work in Africa, he would be allowed unlimited access to Congo which he could later explore, exploit and colonize. And he did all under the guise of humanitarian work: "In this aim, thanks to the International African Association, he succeeded brilliantly. Viscount de Lesseps, for one declared Leopold's plans "the greatest humanitarian work of this time." (Hochschild, p. 46)

The plan was ready and it was cunningly simple: sign treaties with various Congolese parties to promote trade and gain unlimited deep access into the country. Once the access was available, subjugate the people by force and take over the country because the locals were mostly uneducated simpletons who had no idea what they were signing. For the execution of his conniving plan, Leopold hired famous journalist Henry Morton Stanley who was known for his familiarity with the area since he had tracked down David Livingstone. Leopold told one of his ministers: "I'm sure if I quite openly charged Stanley with the task of taking possession in my name of some part of Africa, the English will stop me... So I think I'll just give Stanley some job of exploration which would offend no one, and will give us the bases and headquarters which we can take over later on." (p.58)

The plan was executed with much ease as innocent people of Congo signed trade treaties without any skepticism. They believed that these were friendly agreements for trade cooperation and did not really understand what they said. They had no idea how imperialists worked and how they had always used the same ploy in every colony of the world including India where they had entered as traders of East India Company. The same plan was now being used by Leopold but unfortunately Congolese people were too unfamiliar with imperialist cunning ways to actually fathom what was going on.

Once the treaties were signed however, they were quickly discarded because they meant nothing. Leopold had run a brilliant PR campaign that focused on alleged Arab brutalities in Congo and how he planned to eradicate slavery from this African country. He declared that he wanted to open Congo: "to civilization the only part of our globe which it has not yet penetrated, to pierce the darkness which hangs over entire peoples, is, I dare say, a crusade worthy of this century of progress...." (p. 44). In order to prove that his plans were legitimate, he sought approval of major powers around the world and it is extremely unfortunate that United States was the first country that eagerly accepted Leopold's presence in Congo. In 1884, United States recognized Leopold's claim over Congo and soon other powers followed suit. Belgium in its haste to rid itself of any debts that might arise from this venture allowed Leopold the sole "custody" of this colony and this is exactly what Leopold had always wanted. The plan thus worked brilliantly and everything went according to Leopold's wishes.

But Leopold had no desire to bring civilization to the area as he had claimed. He was more interested in exploitation and this meant even further subjugation. Instead of liberating the country from slave traders, Leopold turned it into a virtual slave land where each tribe was forced to work for Leopold under sub-human conditions. With the use of brute force, Leopold made every tribe work on his rubber plantations and no one was allowed to refuse because if they did, the consequences could be horrifying:

"If a village refused to submit to the rubber regime, state or company troops or their allies sometime shot everyone in sight, so that nearby villages would get the message. But on such occasions, some European officers were mistrustful. For each cartridge issued to their soldiers they demanded proof that the bullet had been used to kill someone, not "wasted" on hunting or worse yet, saved for a possible mutiny. The standard proof was the right hand from a corpse." (Hochschild, p. 165)

And how did Leopold justify such extraordinary level of brutality and forced labor? He said that was "the only way to civilize and uplift these indolent and corrupt peoples of the Far East." (p37) and further added that, "Belgium doesn't exploit the world... it's a taste we have got to make her learn." (p38)

Opposing the prevailing desire of Belgian parliamentarians to avoid the expense of colonies, he argued, "Belgium doesn't exploit the world... it's a taste we have got to make her learn." (p38)

Such brutal practices continued for years and the world at large was completely unaware of what was actually happening inside Congo. They assumed that Leopold was engaged in humanitarian work and the reason they believed this was because Leopold successfully altered or manipulated all the information that went out of Congo. And secondly, people in imperial world wanted to believe that uplift work was the main reason colonies had been established. The control of information was stronger reason for Leopold's unbridled exploitation of Congo. What is even more disturbing is that during all these atrocities, Leopold never set afoot in Congo. He ruled from a distance- more precisely from the comforts of his Brussels palace: "...unlike other great predators of history, from Genghis Khan to the Spanish conquistadors, King Leopold II never saw a drop of blood spilt in anger. He never set foot in the Congo. There is something very modern about that, too, as there is about the bomber pilot in the stratosphere, above the clouds, who never hears screams or sees shattered homes or torn flesh." (p4)

However not everyone was completely blind. In 1890s, a shipping clerk, Morel noticed that something did not look quite right about Leopold's activities. He noticed that instead of educational supplies and other material needed for humanitarian work, most of the things that were being shipped to Congo included bullets, chains and guns. This was a disturbing observation. And he joined forces with others who had doubts about Leopold's activities. Together they started what Hochschild calls the first human rights campaign of the modern era.

Morel gave up his job as shipping officer in 1901 to start the human rights campaign that later involved other influential people like Mark Twain and these enlightened souls along with some missionaries helped unmask Leopold's megalomaniac activities in Congo. The atrocities were further exposed by Roger Casement's report on the subject in 1902. This led to serious worldwide outcry that forced Belgium to annex Congo from Leopold's territory. Even though annexation had occurred and some brutalities were removed, there were still colonial rule norms operating in this severely exploited country and they continued for many more years. During Leopold's rule in Congo, the population of this resource-rich nation reduced to half of what it was at the beginning. This means at least 8-10 million people lost their lives during this horrible episode.

It is hard to imagine that the so-called enlightened people of Europe and the U.S. allowed such atrocities to continue for so many years. It is impossible to digest that they were completely unaware of Leopold's activities, it is however more plausible that they turned a blind eye because they considered Africans less than human and hence not worthy of their attention or interest: "To Europeans, Africans were inferior beings: lazy, uncivilized, little better than animals. In fact, the most common way they were put to work was, like animals, as beasts of burden. In any system of terror, the functionaries must first see the victims as less than human, and Victorian ideas about race provided such a foundation." (p. 121).

Did Morel and Casement's work actually helped Congo? Yes and No. Hochschild writes that while their efforts resulted in annexation of Congo from Leopold's… READ MORE

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