Jessica Raybe AP European History 3/7/12 AP Euro Extra Credit

In King Leopolds Ghost, it mainly discusses the fact that the European powers are trying to gain more power by carving up Africa because it was the only thing up for grabs. King Leopold II of Belgium seized for himself the territory surrounding the Congo River. While taking over all of this land, he brutalized its people and made them worthless as human beings. He tortured his people and constructed them to fit into his system, not worrying about the hardships that the people were facing, and how it was practically impossible for these people to live. With the population of the land surrounding the Congo River struggling to survive, King Leopold II slashed its population by almost 10 million, cultivating his reputation as a great humanitarian. He wanted to colonize Africa and he conceived himself as ruling by his saying that basically states you should not purchase as much land as you can obtain, but ironically that is the exact opposite of what happened. Kind Leopold II led the African people to believe that they would get great things but they had to do all of this work in return for clothing in which they did not have. Leopold maintained monopoly, or complete control over the resources, economy, trade, and he was very good at getting the people to believe that they would benefit from the whole situation, but they were mistaken. Many people made heroic efforts to expose these crimes, such as Mark Twain and the Archbishop of Canterbury, leading to the first great human rights movement of the twentieth century. According to many people, King Leopolds ghost is the haunting account of monstrous proportions and is also the moving portrait of those brave missionaries, travelers, and young idealists who went to Africa for work and adventures with new experiences but ended up fighting Leopold in a holocaust. Two courageous black Americans, George Washington Williams and William Sheppard, risked their lives to bring the evidence of the Congo atrocities to the

rest of the world. Newspapers picked up Williams accusations to the U.S. Senate. It discussed all of the terrible things that had been done, such as raising an army of orphans, natives being beaten with whips, women and children being held hostage and killed, and some innocent people even had their hands cut off. King Leopolds Ghost was said to brand the tragedy of the Congo onto the conscience of the West. The video was quite realistic and watching the movie I could honestly feel the pain that these people were going through. It gave me a much better understanding of the harsh conditions that these people were living with back then compared to our society now. The video was very thorough and it was extremely descriptive and precise. It showed pictures of the people living there and you could really tell that these people were struggling to hold on to their life. You could see their ribs from not eating enough, you could see the eyes of the children rolling back into their head as they begin to die, and you can see the people not even being able to eat because their body can no longer process anything. The film was similar to the notes that we took about the conditions at this time, but the only thing that really differed between the film and the textbooks was that the film discussed the bad and torturous things that happened at this time, but it never really discussed the benefits that came out of everything, or the things that were able to prosper for King Leopold II from obtaining all of the land. I would say that overall the movie was very good. It was kind of long and at times it got kind of boring because it began to repeat basically the same information over and over again. Besides that, I really enjoyed the video and getting to kind of learn about and experience in my mind the hardships that all of these people were forced to face because King Leopold II wanted more power for Belgium. We have learned a lot about the European powers lately and we have been discussing all of the different things that were done in order to gain for power, so this ties in because it discusses how Belgium was able to acquire more power for themselves.