History

IMPERIALISM 'S EFFECTS ON THE CONGO

Mark Dummett 's BBC story about ongoing violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo illustrates the lasting effects of imperialism on that nation . A Belgian colony until 1960 , Congo was exploited for its resources and rife with some of the most egregious violence an imperial power ever inflicted on its colonial subjects . That violence and poverty did not end with independence rather , it intensified and the Congolese made the practice their own . As Dummett states , Belgium 's rule has left a cycle of corruption and violence

from which the nation has never recovered

Belgian rule over the Congo region began in 1885 , when King Leopold II was given the region at the Berlin Conference , at which the major European powers divided Africa among themselves for the purpose of colonization and exploiting its vast natural resources . Claiming personal ownership of the huge region , Leopold claimed philanthropic reasons as Dummett says , He claimed he was doing it to protect the `natives ' from Arab slavers , and to open the heart of Africa to Christian missionaries , and Western capitalists (Dummett . Despite this guise , the ambitious Leopold (who thought colonies would enhance his small nation 's international status ) actually made the ironically-named Congo Free State ' his personal plantation , using forced labor to harvest the abundant rubber (and later minerals

While Leopold and other Europeans made vast profits , the native peoples suffered deeply . Between 1885 and 1908 (when the Belgian government began ruling the colony in response to international protests , roughly ten million Congolese -half of the population - died from disease or violence at the hands of their rulers (Dummett , Hochschild 233 Whites ' treatment of the Congolese was generally brutal and arbitrary Belgian soldiers and plantation agents frequently cut off natives ' hands (and gathered them in baskets , as surviving photographs show , burned villages and enslaved the inhabitants , killed workers who failed to gather enough rubber , doled out harsh punishments for minor or even imaginary offenses , and stole virtually anything of value . They also created the Force Publique , a brutal police force /army run by white officers and black enlisted men . They frequently killed and mutilated native Congolese who resisted forced labor (and frequently the innocent as well , establishing a practice of black violence against blacks that persists today . Whatever justice existed was reserved for whites Belgians and other Europeans were never punished for killing or mistreating Africans , while blacks were killed for slight or imagined transgressions

The rest of the world was not unaware of Belgian misdeeds , which amounted to a brutal form of slavery in all but name . In 1890 African-American lawyer and minister George Washington Williams published first an open letter to Leopold , then a detailed report on human-rights violations . Despite its wide distribution and a brief furor over its findings , the Belgian government denied any wrongdoing and Williams died before he could escalate his campaign further (Hochschild 109-114 . In 1904 , British diplomat Roger Casement and businessman Edmund Morel launched a highly visible international campaign to reveal the...