Preview

Why Was Leopold Considered Unjust

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
218 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Why Was Leopold Considered Unjust
Another way Leopold’s actions were unjust was because of his use of slavery and racism. Leopold thought the Dutch were justified in using forced labor, as it was ‘”the only way to civilize and uplift these indolent and corrupt peoples”. This racial opinion reflected his own thinking about the African people. He once told a reporter: “’In dealing with a race composed of cannibals for thousands of years it is necessary to use methods which will best shake their idleness and make them realize the sanctity of work’. The people of the Congo were seen as “lazy” in his eyes because they didn’t want to be salves to his work. Trying to rebel against being starved to death and doing forced labor was interpreted as the people wasting his time. There was

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    Adam Hochschild's "King Leopold's Ghost" is a lost historical account starting in the late 19th century continuing into the 20th century of the enslavement of an entire country. The book tells the story of King Leopold and his selfish attempt to essentially make Belgium bigger starting with the Congo. This was all done under an elaborate "philanthropic" public relations curtain deceiving many countries along with the United States (the first to sign on in Leopold's claim of the Congo). There were many characters in the book ones that aided in the enslavement of the Congo and others that help bring light to the situation but the most important ones I thought were: King Leopold, a cold calculating, selfish leader, as a child he was crazy about geography and as an adult wasn't satisfied with his small kingdom of Belgium setting his sites on the Congo to expand. Hochschild compares Leopold to a director in a play he even says how brilliant he is in orchestrating the capture of the Congo. Another important character is King Leopold's, as Hochschild puts it, "Stagehand" Henry Morton Stanley. He was a surprisingly cruel person killing many natives of the Congo in his sophomore voyage through the interior of Africa (The first was to find Livingston). Leopold used Stanley to discuss treaties with African leaders granting Leopold control over the Congo. Some of the natives he talked to weren't even in the position to sign the treaties or they didn't know what they were signing. And probably the most influential person in the book, E.D. Morel. Morel, an employee of a Belgian company that handled shipments to the Congo, noticed that the shipments coming to and from the Congo seemed really suspicious.…

    • 591 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    In Adam Hochschild's book, King Leopold's Ghost,he uses his educational and life experiences as historian. Additionally, not only does this book reach from an education of politics but also human rights. Hochschild is questioning: How so many people accept the exploration stories of men filled with greed, charm, and cunning (Hochschild. p.6). Today, you rarely hear stories told from the Africans point-of-view. Hochschild thesis is that if, we had both point-of-views we could make stronger arguments. The author's concept is that after the Atlantic slave trade is responsible for the increase and brutality of slavery, as well as the large number of slaves.…

    • 249 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Soon after the Congress of Berlin in 1885, the Congo Basin was united as the Congo Free State. From the Belgian parliament, Leopold was granted almost absolute control of the area. Under terms of the General Act of the Berlin Conference, Leopold pledged to guarantee free trade within the colony, suppress the East African slave trade, promote humanitarian policies, impose no import taxes for twenty years, and encourage philanthropic and scientific enterprises. Conflicting with his oath, Leopold issued a series of decrees beginning in the mid-1880's that violated these conditions. First, he decreed that Belgium assert rights of proprietorship over all vacant land in the Congo. In three successive decrees, the already few rights of the Congolese were reduced even further. They were only able to lay claim on their native villages and farms. Second, Leopold ordered that merchants limit their commercial operations in the Congo to no more that bartering with natives. By 1890, faced with considerable financial difficulty, Leopold had already directly violated his promises; the Congo basically became a commercial entity and it was found that Leopold had been slowly monopolizing a large amount of the ivory and rubber trade by imposing import and export taxes.…

    • 429 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    I am writing to bring to your attention the unfair trial of Tom Robinson. I think we all knew that the jury would say that he was guilty of the crime, but was he really? I don’t think he was, and I hope you and the readers of The Maycomb Tribune will help me fight this injustice. Good people like Atticus Finch, tried to prove the innocence of Tom Robinson. The real criminals here are Mayella Ewell and Bob Ewell for taking a man’s life simply because he was colored. Remember it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.…

    • 277 Words
    • 2 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

    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

    More than five years ago, a Mississippi court featured a case with a biased and racially bigoted jury (Washington). The defendant, Curtis Flowers, could not receive a fair trial as long as whites outnumbered African Americans on the jury. Aside from the fact that Curtis Flowers’ verdict was guilty, the case reveals the abundance of racism evident in courts. Throughout the second part of To Kill a Mockingbird, racism overshadows equality in the Tom Robinson Case. Many changes come about in Part Two including the following: Aunt Alexandra comes to live with the Finch family, and more importantly, the trial begins. Jem, Scout, and Dill learn the prejudiced and discriminating ways of Maycomb.Throughout the duration of the trial, various citizens of Maycomb testify including Heck Tate, Bob Ewell and his daughter Mayella,…

    • 744 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Throughout his reign as the King of the Belgians, Leopold II both followed and went against some of the ideas Niccolo Machiavelli lists in “The Prince”. One of the first things Leopold II did when he came into power in 1865 was pulling Belgium into neutrality in Europe due to recent shifts in the European balance of power. This goes against what Niccolo Machiavelli says in “The Prince” about what a prince must do to be esteemed. “A prince can also win prestige by declaring himself an ally of one side of a conflict. Neutrality alienates both the victor and the loser” (Machiavelli). He tells us in this quote that a prince should choose a side when making allies instead of staying neutral. He claims that the victor will see the nation as a “doubtful friend” while the loser will see them as a coward. Since Belgium was seen as a powerless country in Europe at the time, it probably would have been wise of him to choose a side with either France or Germany since they bordered Belgium and could have taken over at any time. In an instance where Leopold II did follow Machiavelli’s ideas, he lied in the Brussel’s Conference in 1876 by saying that by expanding into the Congo Free State, he was only “promoting scientific exploration of Africa for the advancement of knowledge and for the economic benefit of all humanity” (Blumberg, 161). Machiavelli states that “a prince who honors his word is generally praised by others”, but at the same time, he should be a master of deception by learning “how to fight both with laws and with force” (Machiavelli). Therefore, the best of all princes is one that keeps his promises, but knows when it’s the right time to lie. In this case, Leopold lied at the conference so that he could receive the Congo for his own benefit. Since Belgium was a Constitutional Monarchy in which the king had very little power over domestic affairs, he really didn't do much that would have affected the lives of his people directly. Therefore, by getting the Congo to…

    • 596 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Kingsolver builds this particular character in his image, rather than the image he sees himself to draw direct attention to Leopold. Price’s lust for power in conjunction with his monotheist ideals make him fit the mold Belgium created(Salvatore 159). Prices is unable to accept that “The laws of these people are part of what defines their culture, and by replacing their laws with Christian based laws, these people could lose what makes them who they are”(Wind 2). Price attempts to force the Congolese into his way of life, without fearing the cultural genocide he planned to complete. Price could not comprehend the truth; that the native Congolese saw no benefit in acquiring his help.…

    • 947 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Supporting Evidence #1: “However, he licensed companies that brutally exploited Africans by forcing them to collect sap from rubber plants. At least 10 million Congolese died due to the abuses inflicted during Leopold's rule.”World history: Patterns of interactions. (2009). p#774…

    • 678 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory 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

    There were many men and women associated with the beginning of Leopold’s reign, during Leopold’s reign and after Leopold’s reign. But, some played more effective roles than others. … Leopold’s reign raised an insurmountable amount of madness, no one in there right mind approved of his methods. Many activist stood against Leopold…

    • 716 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Unjust Laws

    • 1053 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The United States is homeland for millions of immigrants who risk their lives for a better existence. In Jefferson’s words, it is a nation in which “All men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights that among them are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” Our nation is a country in which equal opportunity if provided for those in search of a better life and our law is meant to apply evenly to citizens and non-citizens alike. However, throughout history and even in our present day, Congress has undermined this utopian goal by passing laws which some may consider unjust.…

    • 1053 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Unjust Laws

    • 1740 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Are we morally obliged to obey even unjust laws? Think about what this means. This means that laws, regardless of how unfair, unjust, or immoral they may be, must be followed with no better reason that they are the law. To the thesis that we are obliged to obey even unjust laws, I will argue that the standard objections to Civil Disobedience, given by Singer, are incorrect…

    • 1740 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays