An Outpost of Progress Infobox
Notes for the Teachers
One Language – Many Voices
Joseph Conrad: An Outpost of Progress
INfO-BOx
Cultural and historical background
The colonization of Central Africa did not set in until the very end of the 19th century, when ‘the scramble for Africa’ – the race of European powers to divide the continent among themselves – got under way: In 1870 European countries owned only 10% of Africa, by 1900 it was 90%. For a long time access to the huge territories in the Congo River basin was considered impossible due to the impenetrable forests and the impassable rapids of the river itself, which served as a barrier to European exploitation. The adventurer and journalist Henry Morton
Stanley gained the interest and support of the Belgian King
Leopold II for his expeditions into the Congo basin ‘to prove that the Congo natives were susceptible of civilization and that the Congo basin was rich enough to repay exploitation’. In the name of Leopold II he appropriated land and labour for the king’s newly founded ‘Association Internationale du Congo’.
Leopold’s claim to the Congo was recognized at the International
Africa Conference in Berlin in 1884–1885, presided over by
Bismarck. The Congo Free State, as it was ironically called, was confirmed as the private property of King Leopold II in return for guarantees of neutrality, free trade and opposition to slavery. The Congo Free State, 1900
next to nothing, apart from small amounts of cloth, beads or brass rods.
The rubber boom started in the mid-1890s due to the increasing industrial demand from Europe. While the rubber trade made a fortune for Leopold II, it led to the extreme brutalization of the local population. Under Leopold’s ownership approximately 10 million Congolese died as a consequence of exploitation and disease. To enforce the rubber quotas, the
Force Publique (FP) was called in. The FP was an army, but its aim was not to defend the country, but to terrorize the
One Language – Many Voices
Joseph Conrad: An Outpost of Progress
INfO-BOx
Cultural and historical background
The colonization of Central Africa did not set in until the very end of the 19th century, when ‘the scramble for Africa’ – the race of European powers to divide the continent among themselves – got under way: In 1870 European countries owned only 10% of Africa, by 1900 it was 90%. For a long time access to the huge territories in the Congo River basin was considered impossible due to the impenetrable forests and the impassable rapids of the river itself, which served as a barrier to European exploitation. The adventurer and journalist Henry Morton
Stanley gained the interest and support of the Belgian King
Leopold II for his expeditions into the Congo basin ‘to prove that the Congo natives were susceptible of civilization and that the Congo basin was rich enough to repay exploitation’. In the name of Leopold II he appropriated land and labour for the king’s newly founded ‘Association Internationale du Congo’.
Leopold’s claim to the Congo was recognized at the International
Africa Conference in Berlin in 1884–1885, presided over by
Bismarck. The Congo Free State, as it was ironically called, was confirmed as the private property of King Leopold II in return for guarantees of neutrality, free trade and opposition to slavery. The Congo Free State, 1900
next to nothing, apart from small amounts of cloth, beads or brass rods.
The rubber boom started in the mid-1890s due to the increasing industrial demand from Europe. While the rubber trade made a fortune for Leopold II, it led to the extreme brutalization of the local population. Under Leopold’s ownership approximately 10 million Congolese died as a consequence of exploitation and disease. To enforce the rubber quotas, the
Force Publique (FP) was called in. The FP was an army, but its aim was not to defend the country, but to terrorize the