Preview

Similarities Between Indochina And The Congo

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
612 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Similarities Between Indochina And The Congo
Imperialism in Indochina and the Congo

Throughout the 1890’s – 1910’s the imperialists ideas remained similar around the globe. Many European countries such as the Netherlands, France, Germany, and the United States proposed similar ideals regarding the importance of imperialism through acquiring of raw materials and territory. Specifically, regarding the conquests of and King Leopold II of Belgium, and Napoleon III it is evident that the root cause of European imperialists was to discover foreign territory in hopes to find raw materials that could potentially reap economic benefits.
After taking the throne in 1865, King Leopold’s motives were centered around annexing Congolese territory to profit from the ivory enterprise. King Leopold,

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    In 1876, King Leopold II of Belgium began plans for international benevolent committees for the people of the Congo region. Though originally accepted as multi-national, scientific, and humanitarian propositions, they have of late become anything but. Soon after their conception, Leopold used these organizations to establish a sphere of influence and eventually Belgian sovereignty in the Congo Basin. The region is rich in ivory and rubber, and Leopold made use of those resources and others in expanding trade. Now, rubber is the colony's most profitable industry. However, the Congolese people benefit little from this.…

    • 429 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    King Leopold II was born into a family of royalty and was certain of his future as the King of Belgium. As the eldest son, he was determined to expand Belgium to its greatest potential. His royal status and reign over Belgium would never be enough to satisfy him. When Leopold discovered that no colonies were available for purchase, he turned to colonizing land that had not been previously established. The joining of Leopold and Henry Morton Stanley would create a plan for successful domination over the Congo. Stanley’s ability to survive the rough terrain of the Congo and also to be the first to do so made him the perfect candidate to join Leopold in colonizing the land. To disguise his intentions for invading the newly discovered land, Leopold presented the ideas of bringing Christianity and abolishing the slave trade to many great European leaders. Leopold…

    • 1498 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    “A little more than a quarter of a century ago, a great genius for evil, having achieved in rapid succession a series of diplomatic master strokes, stretched out to reach the scepter which was to give him power over life and death of over 20 million human beings.” This great genius for evil, King Leopold II, was commonly known for the atrocities he committed in the Congo Free State. Leopold’s ability to gain control over the lives of the Congolese was due to the deceit and use of persuasion over head powers for a lucrative business. Specifically, in the Congo Free State, King Leopold II’s approach to governing, in an effort to gain the most profit, lead to violent atrocities and the deaths of many natives.…

    • 1015 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    King Leopold II of Belgium was a manipulative ruler who created injustices in the Congo Free State. Many missionaries and young idealists traveled to Africa for adventure but unexpectedly found themselves amidst a holocaust. Despite the many African rebel leaders’ attempts to stop King Leopold, over ten million Congolese people were killed.…

    • 689 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    colony of Belgium; trading stations established in 1879, and Leopold II was given control of the Congo; the Belgian rulers savagely treated the indigenous peoples in their quest for rubber and ivory; Leopold's incursion into Congo basin raised the question of the political fate of black Africa (south of the Sahara); as did Britain's conquest of Egypt…

    • 1304 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    He called his own slaves volunteers, but they were in chains. Leopold’s army would hold women, children and chiefs as hostages until the men met the quota of the amount of rubber. This clearly shows that King Leopold was lying to everyone that he wanted to ban slave trade and he would have the media cover up the…

    • 1193 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    What occurred in the Congro, Hochschild writes, is “no worse than what happened in neighboring colonies” (Hochschild 280). The shocking realization that the reader is left with is that King Leopold’s Ghost was not a story about one evil man, but a single instance of the perils of colonialism that were all to common during this time. By allowing the reader to observe and understand the what happened in the Congo at a granular level, Hochschild underscores the importance of the historical context in which these events were occurring…

    • 779 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Belgian Congo Imperialism

    • 637 Words
    • 3 Pages

    In some ways Imperialism made the life of the native people better by building and maintaining new infrastructure that the natives didn’t have before. With the new infrastructure the natives were able to lead longer and happier lives with more amenities provided by things like libraries and hospitals.In India the railroad system put in place by the British is still running and useful today as are many of the roads and hospitals. These services and India’s huge population has led to India being one of the premier economies in the world today. However in the Belgian Congo these improvements were more temporary with very few being serviceable today, and even the ones that are serviceable do not offer much of a service to the natives because of the enormous limits on where they can go and what they can do. This is…

    • 637 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Conflict In Indochina

    • 573 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Assess the impact of the conflict in Indochina for the citizens of Vietnam and Cambodia…

    • 573 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    How Were Concepts Of Race

    • 1368 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Beginning around the 1700s, under the development of technology in many aspects, the Europeans started their expedition to explore the world. After the discover of many unknown lands, they soon developed a policy to extend their power and influence through colonies, with violence and blood. The policy was known as “imperialism”. In Africa, European imperialists ruled, killed, enslaved, and traded millions of native Africans like merchandise while also robbing all the approachable natural resources. Imperialists apparently brought a catastrophe into Africa while they even caused a lot of leftover problems to the modern Africa. However, back to the 1800s, imperialists did not think imperialism was a fault. With better-developed technology, Europeans started to believe that they enjoyed superiority in all aspects, including economics, culture and race. They made up many justifications to defend their crimes that related to these three aspects. Most of the justification could be categorized into two camps: the “internal camp” and the “external camp”. In the “internal camp”, imperialists justified themselves by connecting “nationalism” and “imperialism”, which they believed ruling an “inferior race” was an efficient way to enrich their home countries. One of the related theories was “Social Darwinism”. The “external camp” believed the intention of imperialism was to help and benefit the “barbaric” natives. One of the popular theories was the “duty theory”. However, activist Roger Casement heavily criticized imperialism by using the same concepts. He disproved both camps by pointing that imperialism neither necessarily enriched nations nor brought any benefit to the natives. With his documentary report on the Congo Free State, which was privately controlled by King Leopold II of Belgium, we could observe the…

    • 1368 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Congo Free State, later named the Democratic Republic of Congo, drastically changed in 1876 when it was first colonized by King Leopold of Belgium. The colony of the Congo Free State was ruled solely by King Leopold, who used it for his own personal advancement. He took advantage of the country's well-known sources such as rubber. King Leopold of Belgium took all profits made off of the resources for himself and left the native people with nothing. In addition, King Leopold enslaved these natives and treated them poorly. They were forced to do hard and dangerous labor and if they did not meet the King’s standards, they could be killed. While the inhabitants of the Congo Free State could not do much to retaliate against the King, other countries…

    • 1007 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Belgium saw them as an easy target with big profits and imperialized. Belgium, as a western nation, also agreed to the ideas of Social Darwinism, the belief that the white European was better than the rest of the people in the world, chiefly based on their physical features. Simply put, they were racist. Most Europeans fell into this belief, but the Belgian people took this to an extreme. They enslaved the native people of Congo in their own country and forced work upon them. Quotas and taxes were created to ensure certain amounts of raw materials were gathered and harsh punishments were put into action for those who didn’t complete or meet their requirements. According to Mark Twain, “The amount of rubber needed to meet the tax requires the men to work for up 25 days each month harvesting the wild rubber vines in the Congo forest” [3]. According to this that would leave only 5 days a month for “regular” life for the Congolese people. They did not have the time or resources to educate themselves, make money, or to develop. In 1908 the Belgian government gave the natives better treatment, by taking away the direct ownership of the nation from Leopold and they made it an official colony of the Belgian government [4]. This decision came through by putting humanitarian pressure put on King Leopold. Conditions improved, schools, hospitals, and roads were built, but the cruelty and racism was still their because of the history they had of it. Also, the punishment, crimes, and cruelty was all that the people understood because they were forced to live in it their entire lives, and it was a hard to shift back. Even in today’s world, this industrialization and these policies have left a scar on the Congos. In both the Republic of Congo and the Democratic Republic Of Congo there is still political unrest and constant violence. On December 17, there were 22…

    • 1768 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Imperialism is the ideology that drives the Europeans in the “Heart of Darkness” towards the Congo for its ivory. In the Congo, the only things worth paying attention towards are those that provide monetary benefits, and this can be seen when Conrad states “Some, I heard, got drowned in the surf; but whether they did or not, nobody seemed particularly to care.…

    • 871 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    As the 20th century approached, more and more countries wanted more and more power. At the end of the 19th century, the Belgian King Leopold sent emissaries to the African Congo to establish trade. This single act caused France, Belgium, Great Britain, Germany, Spain, Italy and Portugal to go over to Africa and do the same. However, the European countries did not just establish trade, they invaded the African territory and took control over it. This became known as the Imperialist Scramble for Africa.1…

    • 1301 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Whether it was for tires or waterproofing clothes, all Leopold knew was that there was a demand, and Leopold could provide it. Unlike other African and Asian countries that were attempting to catch up with the rubber boom, the Congo already had matured rubber trees, so Leopold wanted to stay ahead of the game while he still could (Hochschild 159). While in the past workers could be chained together and whipped to make them obey, rubber trees were scattered across the forest and vines were located in spots that required careful scaling of trees, so a new strategy had to be used (Hochschild 160). Making rubber was a difficult, painful process involving travelling deep into the forest in a desperate search for vines, cutting them open and waiting for the vines to tap, and then spreading the rubber syrup across one’s body to make the rubber dry; and the Congolese eventually realized this long, difficult process really wasn’t worth their effort. Europeans disagreed, knowing the potential profit, and established a forced labor system in the Congo (Hochschild 161). European soldiers would arrive in a village and then take the wives and children of the villages as hostage, refusing to give them back until the men met a rubber quota. Once enough rubber was collected to satisfy them, the soldiers would sell the women back for a few goats or other small…

    • 1705 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays