“King Leopold’s Ghost” by Adam Hochschild tells the story of King Leopold of Belgium and the terrible things he did in the Congo. Many subjects are discussed in the book. I think two important subjects that were discussed were how the new technology available at the time helped Leopold in his conquest of the Congo, and the reasons why the mass killings and atrocities that took place in Congo remain virtually unknown in Europe and the United States today. This book is also very accurate to the time
Adam Hochschild, King Leopold’s Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa (New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1999). Review submitted by: Abigail Wagoner History 103, Sec. 216 January 31, 2014 Adam Hochschild, the author of King Leopold’s Ghost, is a well-known writer whose main job is that of journalism. However, when Hochschild was a college student, he spent time in South Africa which led him to begin writing books about difficult periods in
Hochschild places King Leopold among the great tyrants of history. It is hard to say what the actual death toll under his reign was, both because accurate records were not kept and because Leopold deliberately destroyed many of the existing records shortly before the government of Belgium took the Congo out of his hands. According to Congo historians, Wm. Roger Louis and Jean Stengers, the earliest population and mortality estimates are "wild guesses". In the novel, many subsequent lines of inquiry
WR 122 11 August 2010 King Leopold’s Ghost: Illuminating Congo’s Heart of Darkness King Leopold’s Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa by Adam Hochschild is a sweeping and often revolting account of the atrocities of the Belgian colonization of the Congo and its aftermath. Using a variety of writing techniques, Hochschild creates an engrossing narrative which not only unveils a dark chapter in our global history, but also fosters an empathy in the reader to the victims
Background: King Leopold’s Ghost this book is talking about Belgium’s king Leopold II and tyranny of his African colonies. For this story it happened in the later 19th century to the 20th century, Belgium’s king Leopold II have huge power to control Congo, he want his country become to more powerful and he want became to more rich , than rough use forced labor in his Congo to create wealth for their personal and country used. Two main aggressos The first
King Leopold's Ghost tells a story of the Belgian King Leopold II and his misrule of an African colony, named (at the time) the Congo Free State. It is a wild and unpleasant story of a man's capacity for evil and the peculiar manifestation of it. In telling this story, Hochschild does a wonderful job of giving detailed descriptions, especially of the colorful individuals involved, both good and bad. His analysis of the situation is very solid, starting with the movement when the Congolese hero (Morel)
I have read 3 books on the subject of Leopold and the Congo: Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness; Neal Ascherson's The King Incorporated; A. Hochshild's King Leopold's Ghost. All 3 are well worth reading. I find Hochschild's to be the easiest one to read and the most entertaining and thought-provoking; also the latest; and well documented. Ascherson's goes into more detail and is very thorough and equally well documented, but probably harder work. I didn't particularly enjoy Heart of Darkness; granted
it plausible to understand as to why King Leopold II of Belgium claimed to imperialize Congo. During the years of “scrambled for Africa”, many dominant European nations raced each other to get as many African nations as they possibly could. Hence, who ever had the most colonies would be recognized as the most dominant nation. Countries such as England and France had multitude colonies in Africa, but they were owned by their government. On the other hand, Leopold II owned Congo by himself -- no government
Introduction, prologue, Chapters 1, 2, 3 Questions: 1. How was King Leopold viewed in Europe? King Leopold was viewed in Europe as a splendid man because of his “philanthropic” nature and his “kindness.” Because King Leopold had always welcomed European newspapers, they had always praised him because of his public work, which benefited Africans; because his troops fought and defeated local-slave traders and because he brought Christian missionaries to his new colony. But in reality he only exploited
rendering them as just a few of many historically scarred nations. It is therefore imperative that archives across the globe be protected. ‘I will give them my Congo, but they have no right to know what I did there’, were the famous words of King Leopold II after burning the state archives in Brussels.1Leopold was born in Brussels and succeeded the crown on 17 December 1865.2 He was the first ruler to colonise the Congo Free State and proved to be a brutal ruler. What started off as greed for colonial