KING LEOPOLD

The Untold Atrocities of King Leopold 's African Campaign

Plans for the relief expedition took shape , and donations poured in The food merchants Fortnum and Mason contributed cases of delicacies the inventor Hiram Mixam sent the very latest model of his machine gun also destined for Emin was a new dress uniform . And to lead the Emin Pasha Relief Expedition , who was a more suitable choice than Henry Morton Stanley ? The explorer eagerly accepted the invitation . He was particularly delighted by the Maxim gun , which he tried out at its maker 's

home , satisfying himself that it really could shoot the advertised six hundred rounds per minute . The new gun , Stanley said would be "of valuable service in helping civilization to overcome barbarism

- from King Leopold 's Ghost , by Adam Hochschild

In the name of helping civilization to overcome barbarism ' King Leopold of Belgium was doing exactly the opposite . He helped us see what hideous depths of barbarity and inhumanity that we human beings are capable of sinking into , even in our modern times . Our selfishness and greed are of monstrous proportions , ever insatiable our civilization is but a veneer . Hochschild 's book is not just a story of King Leopold and his lackeys , such as the African explorer Henry Morton Stanley , and their ghastly misadventures . This book is an indictment against humanity . We would all like to identify with the greatness of human spirit , with an Edmund Hillary or a Neil Armstrong , for example . But by the same token , when we learn about people such Henry Morton Stanley , we must perforce acknowledge that there is an appalling degree of evil cruelty and darkness in human heart , to which perhaps we are all susceptible too

Evil can come in two ways : pure and simple , such as Hitler , or covert and disguised , such as King Leopold . The king tried to make himself a hero , but was nothing but an abject and abominable villain . Historian Adam Hochschild 's book King Leopold 's Ghost : A story of Greed , Terror and Heroism in Africa is an examination of the extreme depravity that human nature is capable of harboring . It is a stunning expose of the murderous crusade carried out by the megalomaniac King Leopold of Belgium around the turn of the twentieth century . Leopold , with the help of his henchmen , managed to utterly devastate the African country of Congo in a span of quarter century

Hochschild details the terror and genocide suffered in Congo in the brutal campaign waged by King Leopold II of Belgium . Leopold was a cunning and conniving king who managed to cultivate an image of himself as an international humanitarian and an advocate for equal rights . In reality , the evil , hypocritical King Leopold was out on a macabre mission of establishing a rule of terror that would result in the agonizing deaths of up to 10 million native people . It is strange how such massive atrocities were allowed to happen in the modern times , and that too in the...