Congo Free State
Essay title: Congo Free State
The Belgians of the Congo Free State in Africa obtained a vast amount of riches; however, much of it was taken out and brought back to Europe. Belgian ruler King Leopold made himself the dictator of the Congo and spent the riches to form what was nearly his own private colony, the Congo Free State. As we look at how Belgium profited from the colonization of Congo, I am going to refer to the books and films we used in class to help explore and define this topic more proficiently.
Belgium discovered many natural materials that were very valuable for the times and could potentially benefit Africa and the western world. These materials, such as rubber and ivory were so valuable that many extremes were taken in order to receive as much as possible. One of the extremes being the cutting off of laborers hands that didnt gather enough rubber. Belgium also received a majority of their money from the taxes they were able to issue when in control of the Congo (Leopolds Ghost, 168). They could tax as much and whatever they wanted, thus producing a profit. But natives paid for Belgiums profits by paying these taxes and doing the necessary labor for obtaining these materials. Much like in the film, The Curse of the Congo, where the Rwanden rebels taxed diamond shop owners in Kisangani large amounts of money to fund their militia.
When Stanly was sent on the expedition to the Congo by King Leopold, he discovered the potential of this area. He found that the river possessed about one sixth of the worlds hydroelectric potential. Also, this river was wide and consisted of interconnected waterways in which steamboats could travel through (King Leopolds
Ghost, 62). While Stanly was exploring the Congo area, he discovered that the villages were small and most did not speak the same language. Therefore, it would be easier to take the area over. Soon after exploring the area, Stanly had treaties written up in which chiefs of the villages had to sign. Stanly, including his assistants, would trick the Africans into signing the treaty by fooling them that whites had supernatural powers (King Leopolds Ghost, 109). Since the chiefs were unaware of the actual agreement that they were signing, Leopold succeeded in taking over the Congo (King Leopolds Ghost, 72). The area he then controlled was bigger than many countries put together and contained many valuable materials.
One of these materials was ivory which was found in elephant tusks. Ivory was used in many products during the nineteenth century some of which include false teeth, combs, fans, piano keys, napkin rings, etc. The Congo possessed elephant tusks that were much bigger than ones found in India, and that is what ivory dealers preferred. The main goal was to send as much ivory as possible because the more you sent, the more you made (King Leopolds Ghost, 137). White officials were allowed to punish their workers as they liked. In the selection, Ota Benga, a man had left his village to hunt for elephant in order to obtain some ivory. When he returned he found his family and village dead. His children lay face down on the ground, his wifes head lay among ashes, and many other corpses as well lie among the ashes (Ota Benga, 104). Ivory was the most appreciated material of the time and that is why natives suffered so much. They were needed to do the labor. If that wasnt hard enough on the natives, along came another material that the Congo possessed that ended up being more valuable than ivory. This
occurred in1890, when Dunlop Company began making tires (King Leopolds Ghost, 158).
The desire for ivory was still present, but rubber became more important during this time. This became the main source of revenue for the Congo because labor was the only requirement needed in order to attain rubber. This was a problem though because they needed people willing to work as rubber gatherers in order to receive the possible profits. Therefore, they resorted to capturing