Conquering the Congo

            The colonization of the Democratic Republic of Congo all started with a discovery. A discovery made by journalist Henry Stanley in 1871. He found the claimed to be “lost” David Livingstone, after Stanley became the first man to chart the main stream, the Congo River, in 1867. Once these European men realized that the deep, dark Congo was indeed navigable, they utilized it to become a main route to Central Africa. After this, King Leopold II of Belgium hired Stanley to create inland communications to establish roads and railways, European profitable of course. In the midst of the “Scramble for Africa,” the French hoped to prevent Belgian expansion. To do so, they sent Pierre de Brazza in 1880, to modern-day Republic of Congo, which at the time was called Congo-Brazzaville. Then, during the Berlin Conference in 1884 and 1885, the European Nations gave the Congo Free State to King Leopold of Belgium. As a result, King Leopold treated the Congo like a piece of private property, seeking only profits (1). While there were minor improvements evident in the Belgian conquest (or at least in comparison to other European colonies in Africa), the living conditions were mainly harsh. While the construction of schools, railways, roads, mines, airports and plantations were imposing at the time, they are now beneficial. However, the cruel living conditions completely outweighed these minor long-term improvements (2).

            Every village was required to provide four men a year to “work” as full-time slaves. These unpaid workers brought back rubber latex. The growing of rubber latex greatly upset the Congolese people on account of the fact that, in addition to being subjected to long working hours, they were then unable to grow food to provide for their family. In order to ensure that these men continued to work diligently, King Leopold held their wives and children hostage, and cut off the hands of men who refused to work (3).

            In a word, “Leopold robbed the wealth of the land and put it into his own bank account.” The Christian missionaries present were thoroughly horrified with the actions of Leopold, and the living reports embarrassed Belgium. As a result, the Congo became the Belgian Congo in 1908 instead of King Leopold’s Congo.  Albert Schweitzer related the relationship between the Belgian Congo and Belgium as thus: “I am your brother, it is true, but your elder brother” (4).