Humanities Core Course
(Nation and Empire)
Professor Haynes
Week
III: Lecture II
The
Costs and the Consequences of the Making of the Congo Free State
A.
Partition of Africa and Leopold’s “Place in the Sun”
1.
secured international recognition for territories in Central Africa at Berlin
Conference, 1884-1885:
a)
culmination of two and half decades of plotting
b)
established in 1876 International Association for the exploration and
Civilization of Central Africa (AIA) to enhance credibility as international
humanitarian and later established International Congo Association to prospect
for natural resources in 1882
2.
European powers understood Leopold’s ulterior motives but recognized Congo Free
State and Leopold as Sovereign Ruler for practical reasons
a)
guaranteed free trade in Congo and movement on River system
b)
weak state better than conflict over territory
B. The Congo Free State: Neither Free Nor A State for
Africans
1.
organized state apparatus to extract wealth from local populations:
a)
domaine system destroyed traditional economy
b)
forced to work only for the state or concessionaries (businesses)
c)
violence used to extract “taxes” in the form of quotas for labor, natural
recourses and/or food (Slides of
chicotte in use, amputated hands and women hostages)
II.
Mapping the Greed of Leopold’s Free State in Heart of Darkness
A. Heart of Darkness as a Critique of
European Imperialism
1.
relentless appropriation, from natural resources to human bodies:
a)
violence principal method of appropriation
2.
signs of transformation of the landscape:
a)
sights and sounds of explosions, crater, excavations for rail way, endless
networks of trails;
b)
landscape assumes quasi human characteristics (menace, monster, etc.) which
paradoxically justify violence of appropriation
3.
harnessing labor to extract wealth:
a)
porters function as human transportation system as well as excavation machines
(compared to mules)
b)
screams and depopulated villages form part of the landscape.
III.
Consequences for Leopold and Belgium in Wake of Congo Scandal
A. The
Congo Scandal and Crusade
1.
contrast between promise and reality made the conditions in the Congo an
international scandal by turn to the twentieth century:
a)
1890 George Washington Williams published Open
Letter to His Serene Majesty Leopold II, King of the Belgians and Sovereign of
the Independent State of Congo
2. Leopold
blunted criticism of Williams and missionaries through formation of Commission
for the Protection of Natives (1895) and stature as crown head long associated
with humanitarian causes
B.
Congo Reform Association: E. D. Morel and Roger Casement
1.
white men in positions to know about the Congo:
a)
accountant for a shipping concern that contracted with the Congo Free State and
a career foreign service officer
b)
resisted bribes or other forms of influence and conducted their own
investigations
2.
Congo Reform Association (1904) modeled on other movements, including
abolition:
a)
deployed knowledge, observers with local experience and photographs, to legitimacy
accusations of exploitation
b)
lobbied elites with humanitarian credibility as well as established national
network of branches
c)
used the press as well as internal publications to discredit Leopold (Slides of
Leopold Cartoons)
3.
Leopold snatcked victory from defeat:
a) transferred
Congo to Belgium in 1908 but at a cost:
b)
assumed debts and compensated Leopold, including
multi-million
grant “as a mark of gratitude for his great sacrifices made for the Congo”
c)
Belgian obtains an empire while Africans remain under European rule.