King Leopold s Ghost Response Paper
Abel Habte
HIS 323.001
Prof. Chakravartty
4/16/15
King Leopold’s Ghost Response Paper With an estimated death toll of ten million people, King Leopold’s conquest of the Congo is recognized as one of the bloodiest holocausts in human history. The sheer brutality of this gruesome process triggered the world’s first international human rights movement. However, unlike the holocaust of Jews committed by the Nazi regime in mid-twentieth century Germany, the Belgian extermination of the Congolese has gone largely forgotten. In King Leopold’s Ghost, Adam Hochschild seeks to revive the fervor and vehemence with which the world remembers this tragedy. Prior to reading this book, my own understanding of the genocide in the Congo was that of just another awful tragedy in the long process of colonial imperialism. However, after reading the extremely detailed King Leopold’s Ghost, I was able to take note of Leopold’s careful deliberation in his methodical approach to expanding his empire revealing the little regard he had for Congo natives who he saw simply as impediments in his plans. In his well-researched work King Leopold’s Ghost, Hochschild was able to reconstruct the Belgian takeover of the Congo from an almost omniscient point of view. Through his narration, the reader is able to see all of the involved agents of the story (King Leopold, Henry Morton Stanley, William Sheppard) acting in motion and how the actions of one affected the plans and behaviors of others. Hochschild’s reconstruction reveals King Leopold’s meticulous manipulation of key individuals and entire governments throughout his expansionist scheme and the lengths a power hungry ruler would go to in order to get his share of the African cake. Although emphasizing the exceptional brutality displayed by Belgian forces in the Congo, Hochschild is also able to present this particular display of imperialism as representative of the colonial ventures of several other European nations such as Germany’s takeover
HIS 323.001
Prof. Chakravartty
4/16/15
King Leopold’s Ghost Response Paper With an estimated death toll of ten million people, King Leopold’s conquest of the Congo is recognized as one of the bloodiest holocausts in human history. The sheer brutality of this gruesome process triggered the world’s first international human rights movement. However, unlike the holocaust of Jews committed by the Nazi regime in mid-twentieth century Germany, the Belgian extermination of the Congolese has gone largely forgotten. In King Leopold’s Ghost, Adam Hochschild seeks to revive the fervor and vehemence with which the world remembers this tragedy. Prior to reading this book, my own understanding of the genocide in the Congo was that of just another awful tragedy in the long process of colonial imperialism. However, after reading the extremely detailed King Leopold’s Ghost, I was able to take note of Leopold’s careful deliberation in his methodical approach to expanding his empire revealing the little regard he had for Congo natives who he saw simply as impediments in his plans. In his well-researched work King Leopold’s Ghost, Hochschild was able to reconstruct the Belgian takeover of the Congo from an almost omniscient point of view. Through his narration, the reader is able to see all of the involved agents of the story (King Leopold, Henry Morton Stanley, William Sheppard) acting in motion and how the actions of one affected the plans and behaviors of others. Hochschild’s reconstruction reveals King Leopold’s meticulous manipulation of key individuals and entire governments throughout his expansionist scheme and the lengths a power hungry ruler would go to in order to get his share of the African cake. Although emphasizing the exceptional brutality displayed by Belgian forces in the Congo, Hochschild is also able to present this particular display of imperialism as representative of the colonial ventures of several other European nations such as Germany’s takeover