Hafiz Zakariya, IIUM 1

 Many Europeans after 1894 believed that they lived

an era of material & human progress
 Not for everybody, women have yet to earn
suffrage. Women’s suffrage movement.
 A period of great tension-imperial rivalries, cultural
uncertainties
 The development of alliance systems- Triple
Alliance and Triple Entente, preserved peace for a
time, but made it easier for allies to be drawn into a
world war

Hafiz Zakariya, IIUM 2

 Cultural life- mass-education produced
more well-informed citizens.
 Euro thinkers artists were creating
modern cultural expressions that
questioned traditional ideas & values
 Many intellectuals felt unease about
direction its society was heading
accompanied by a feeling of imminent
catastrophe
 Freud, Modernism in Arts, Women Rights
Hafiz Zakariya, IIUM 3
Hafiz Zakariya, IIUM 4
Hafiz Zakariya, IIUM 5
Hafiz Zakariya, IIUM 6
Hafiz Zakariya, IIUM 7
Hafiz Zakariya, IIUM 8
Hafiz Zakariya, IIUM 9
Hafiz Zakariya, IIUM 10
Hafiz Zakariya, IIUM 11
 The early concern of nationalism-national
independence and unification. Now, a
new stage—national prestige.
 In this regard, nationalism played an
important role in pushing nations to
involve in colonial project for national
glory (though it may not be profitable
economically)

Hafiz Zakariya, IIUM 12

Hafiz Zakariya, IIUM 13
Hafiz Zakariya, IIUM 14
Hafiz Zakariya, IIUM 15
Hafiz Zakariya, IIUM 16
Hafiz Zakariya, IIUM 17
Hafiz Zakariya, IIUM 18
Hafiz Zakariya, IIUM 19
Hafiz Zakariya, IIUM 20
Hafiz Zakariya, IIUM 21
Hafiz Zakariya, IIUM 22
 After a number of unsuccessful schemes
for colonies in Africa or Asia
 in 1876 he organized a private holding
company disguised as an international
scientific and philanthropic association,
which he called the International African
Society.

Hafiz Zakariya, IIUM 23

 Hochschild describes Léopold as a man of greed who,
obsessed by the desire for a colony, hides his real
intentions under "philanthropic" purposes.

 he wins the assistance of one of the greatest explorers of

the time, Henry Morton Stanley, as well as that of public
opinion and of powerful states.
 Through the Berlin Conference and other diplomatic
efforts, he finally obtains international recognition for his
colony.
 He then establishes a system of forced labour that keeps
the people of the Congo basin in a condition of virtual
slavery.

Hafiz Zakariya, IIUM 24

 The extraction of rubber and ivory in the Congo relied on
forced labour and resulted in the deaths of millions of
Congolese.
 He ran the Congo as his personal fiefdom; for him it was a
business venture.
 The abuses were particularly bad in the rubber industry,
including enslavement and mutilation of the native
population.
 Reports of outrageous exploitation and widespread
human rights abuses led to an international protest
movement in the early 1900s.
 The campaign to report on Leopold's "secret society of
murderers," led by British diplomat Roger Casement, and
former shipping clerk E. D. Morel, became the first mass
human rights movement

Hafiz Zakariya, IIUM 25

 Leopold's rubber gatherers were tortured,
maimed and slaughtered until the turn of
the century, when the conscience of the
Western world forced Brussels to call a
halt

Hafiz Zakariya, IIUM 26

 Became an unexpected bestseller.
 By 2005, some 400,000 copies were in
print in a dozen languages.
 King Léopold takes his place with the
great tyrants, having reduced the
population of the Congo Free State—
which Hochschild describes as being his
private fiefdom—from 20 million people
to 10 million in 40 years.

Hafiz Zakariya, IIUM 27

 The heroes of the book (as much as a
book of non-fiction can be said to have
heroes) are Léopold's enemies, those
who made the world aware of the reality
of the Congo Free State. These include:
 George Washington Williams, an African
American politician and historian, the first
ever to report the atrocities in the Congo.
 William Henry Sheppard, another African
American, a Presbyterian missionary who
furnished direct testimony of the
atrocities.

Hafiz Zakariya, IIUM 28

 The European conquest of the Africa is
full of atrocities.
 King Leopold of Belgium, who inflicted a
reign of terror on the people of Congo.
 Under his rule, enslavement and
especially mutilation were endemic.
 Children who displeased their Belgian
masters had their hands cut off.

Hafiz Zakariya, IIUM 29