Edited by Gill Burrell, Thursday, 5 May 2022, 13:27
In my last tma English u214 I studied about colonialism which was mostly concerned with British Colonialism.
Today I found notes on Belgium colonialism which I didn't include.
King Leopold 2nd of Belgium ( cousin of our Queen Vicoria) took control of an area of central Africa and created a colony known as the Belgium Congo in 1908.
In Europe colonization had already started with the desire for valuable resources that could be found in Africa such as rubber, minerals and ivory.
Leopold 2nd was eager to establish Belgium as an economic and military power in Europe.
However, he became better known for his cruel atrocities which he had carried out under the guise of civilizing the African natives to make them westernized giving them education, moral training, working programs and suffrage. Which was in fact a big lie because most people were excluded from paricipating in society, in other words it was just slavery!
His despicable practise of enforced labour systems, which led to the cutting off of hands for all those who refused to work.
The lack of rules and regulations led to widespread abuses of power, for keeping the people down, causing poor health, and poverty.King Leopold 2nd rule was responsible for the killing 10 million people in the Congo!
Today with Black lives matter protests, Belgium (along with other countries) is finally having to wake up to its bloody past and is now at last teaching this history in schools.
Colonialism
In my last tma English u214 I studied about colonialism which was mostly concerned with British Colonialism.
Today I found notes on Belgium colonialism which I didn't include.
King Leopold 2nd of Belgium ( cousin of our Queen Vicoria) took control of an area of central Africa and created a colony known as the Belgium Congo in 1908.
In Europe colonization had already started with the desire for valuable resources that could be found in Africa such as rubber, minerals and ivory.
Leopold 2nd was eager to establish Belgium as an economic and military power in Europe.
However, he became better known for his cruel atrocities which he had carried out under the guise of civilizing the African natives to make them westernized giving them education, moral training, working programs and suffrage. Which was in fact a big lie because most people were excluded from paricipating in society, in other words it was just slavery!
His despicable practise of enforced labour systems, which led to the cutting off of hands for all those who refused to work.
The lack of rules and regulations led to widespread abuses of power, for keeping the people down, causing poor health, and poverty.King Leopold 2nd rule was responsible for the killing 10 million people in the Congo!
Today with Black lives matter protests, Belgium (along with other countries) is finally having to wake up to its bloody past and is now at last teaching this history in schools.