The “strong humanitarian veneer” (Hochschild 42) that Leopold used as the false justification for the harsh methods employed to control the Congo. This veneer contained a myriad of reasons that gave Leopold, and other Europeans the ability to move freely throughout the undeveloped world, destroying the land and its people along their way with limited resistance. …show more content…
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