Transcript Imperialism in the Congo

Imperialism in the
Congo
The Dark Side of Empire
In theory,
Imperialism, the principle, spirit, or
system of empire, is driven by ideology,
whereas Colonialism, the principle, spirit,
or system of establishing colonies, is
driven by commerce. In practice, it is
often difficult to distinguish where one
ends and the other begins.
Pre 19Th Century Trade with Africa
****1939
Great
Britai
n
France
Area in Square
Miles
94,000
212,600 11,800
Population
45,500,10 42,000,
0
000
8,300,0
00
Area of Colonies
13,100,00 4,300,0
0
00
940,000 790,000
1,100,000
Population of
Colonies
470,000,0 65,000,
00
000
13,000,
000
13,000,000
Belgiu
m
Netherla
nds
Germany
(1914)
13,200
210,000
8.500,00
0
67,500,000
66,000,0
00
Colonial Africa
What is Colonialism?
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Political Domination
The Establishment of a Government
Large-Scale Religious Conversion
Forced Economic Dependence
The Creation of a Mass Market
The Building of an Infrastructure (roads,
railroads, hospitals, schools, etc.)
Exploration, Imperialism & Racism
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1863: British explorers
Speke & James Augustus
Grant, traveling
downstream, & Sir Samuel
White Baker, working
upstream, locate sources
of Nile
Christian missionaries &
European merchants
come with European
explorers
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View of Africans:
"primitive, pre-literate,
undeveloped” a/c
Eurocentric theories of
evolution of civilized
culture.
Imperialism
The point of divergence
 Imperialism is a system where by foreign states
impose their will - in a political or economic or
cultural sense - on other countries without
necessarily taking over formal control of
their territory.
There is no doubt that Imperialism was the
principle vehicle used to spread European
influence throughout the whole
world. Imperialism had profound impact on:
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The countries subjected to the imperialism
The growing power of the European nations.
The spread of the western model of governance
and the European state system and all its
institutions.
The Second Wave of Imperialism
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“In 1800 Europeans occupied or controlled 35% of the land surface of the
world: in 1878 that proportion rose 67%: by 1914...the European world
occupied or controlled 84% of the habitable land surface of the globe"
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Again motivated by economic and political factors
Major expansion of imperialism during the thirty years 1870-1900
during which the European powers, without the need for a
display of superior military power extended their control over
existing colonies and divided up the rest of the world among
themselves
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3 types of socio-economic system develop
under colonial rule:
1. settler economy
2. Plantations and mines
3. coastal trade based economy
The “White Man’s Burden”
Rudyard Kipling
The White Man's Burden
Rudyard Kipling
Take up the White Man's burden-Send forth the best ye breed-Go, bind your sons to exile
To serve your captives' need;
To wait, in heavy harness,
On fluttered folk and wild-Your new-caught sullen peoples,
Half devil and half child.
Take up the White Man's burden-In patience to abide,
To veil the threat of terror
And check the show of pride;
By open speech and simple,
An hundred times made plain,
To seek another's profit
And work another's gain.
Take up the White Man's burden-The savage wars of peace-Fill full the mouth of Famine,
And bid the sickness cease;
And when your goal is nearest
(The end for others sought)
Watch sloth and heathen folly
Bring all your hope to nought.
Take up the White Man's burden-No iron rule of kings,
But toil of serf and sweeper-The tale of common things.
The ports ye shall not enter,
The roads ye shall not tread,
Go, make them with your living
And mark them with your dead.
The “White Man’s Burden”?
Social Darwinism
1. Where Is Dr. Livingstone?
Doctor
Livingstone,
I Presume?
Dr. David Livingstone
Sir Henry Morton
Stanley
King Leopold II:
(r. 1865 – 1909)
Raw
Source for
Materials
Industrial
Revolution
Markets for
Finished
Goods
European
Nationalism
Missionary
Activity
European
Motives
For Colonization
Military
& Naval
Bases
Social
Darwinism
Places to
Dump
Unwanted/
Excess Popul.
European
Racism
“White
Man’s
Burden”
Humanitarian
Reasons
Soc. & Eco.
Opportunities
Timeline of Colonisation
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Belgian colonisation
1879-87 - Leopold commissions Stanley to establish the king's authority in the
Congo basin.
1884-85 - European powers at the Conference of Berlin recognise Leopold's claim to
the Congo basin.
1885 - Leopold announces the establishment of the Congo Free State, headed by
himself.
1891-92 - Belgians conquer Katanga.
1892-94 - Eastern Congo wrested from the control of East African Arab and Swahilispeaking traders.
1908 - Belgian state annexes Congo amid protests over killings and atrocities carried
out on a mass scale by Leopold's agents. Millions of Congolese are said to have
been killed or worked to death during Leopold's control of the territory.
1955 - Belgian Professor Antoin van Bilsen publishes a "30-Year Plan" for granting
the Congo increased self-government.
1959 - Belgium begins to lose control over events in the Congo following serious
nationalist riots in Leopoldville (now Kinshasa).
World Opinion Turns Against Leopold
http://www.historywiz.com/congo-mm.htm
Pattern of Takeover
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In many cases Europeans managed to
secure colonial acquisitions by making
alliances with local rulers.
Europeans would promise to sustain the
local ruler against his enemies in exchange
for a degree of control and supply of labour
Force Publique
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Serving under European officers was an ethnically-mixed
African soldiery. Many were recruited from warrior tribes in
the Upper Congo. The role required of the Force Publique
was to defend Free State territory and combat Arab slavers.
Under Leopold however a major purpose of the force was to
enforce the rubber quotas, and other forms of forced labor.
Armed with modern weapons and the chicotte — a bull whip
made of hippopotamus hide — soldiers of the FP often took
and mistreated hostages (sometimes women, who were held
captive in order to force their husbands to meet rubber
quotas).
Impact of colonialism on
population: forms of
labour
forced labour
indentured labour
waged labour
petty commodity production
Belgium’s Stranglehold on the Congo
5-8 Million Victims!
(50% of Popul.)
It is blood-curdling to see them (the
soldiers) returning with the hands of
the slain, and to find the hands of
young children amongst the bigger
ones evidencing their bravery...The
rubber from this district has cost
hundreds of lives, and the scenes I
have witnessed, while unable to help
the oppressed, have been almost
enough to make me wish I were
dead... This rubber traffic is steeped
in blood, and if the natives were to
rise and sweep every white person on
the Upper Congo into eternity, there
would still be left a fearful balance to
their credit.
-- Belgian Official
Punishing “Lazy” Workers
Harvesting Rubber
Roger
Casement
The Casement Report of 1903
Was the single most important
factor in exposing the atrocities in
The Congo. He cabled the foreign
office
“ I have returned from the Upper
Congo today with convincing
evidence of
shocking misgovernment and
wholesale oppression “.
Some legacies of colonialism
* Mono-crop economies
* Development of infrastructure but geared mainly to serve
export orientation
* Very limited industrialisation. Dominance of merchant capital,
with much of the profits repatriated
* ethnic divisions re-enforced through indirect rule
* Urbanisation/proletarianisation
A Question of Perspective?
Marlow’s & Conrad’s
1889-90 journey into
“Heart of Darkness”
Joseph Conrad
(1857-1914)