King Leopold's Ghost Is An Research Paper

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Other imperialist powers continued to exploit immensely naturally rich country and still made use of Force Publique, the army of mercenaries that Leopold had employed for his sinister objectives. They also used the tactics employed by Leopold to extract rubber in their own colonies. With the outbreak of First World War, the world largely forgot about Congo and its horrifying past. Instead of showing outrage against Belgium for allowing such brutalities in one of their colonies, the Allies actually started the war against Germany on the pretext that it was trying to protect Belgium. It had taken just a few years for them to forget that "only a decade or two earlier, it was the King of the Belgians whose men in Africa had cut off hands." (p296) "King Leopold's Ghost" confirms what Joseph Conrad...

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However what is really unfortunate is the politics of forgetfulness that prevails today. It is so much easier to forget about serious holocausts that involved innocent, voiceless people like Africans and so difficult to adopt the same attitude towards rich people like Jews because the latter wouldn't let the world forget.
Work Cited:

Adam Hochschild. King Leopold's Ghost. A story of greed, terror and heroism in colonial Africa. Macmillan, 1998,

Sources Used in Documents:

Work Cited:

Adam Hochschild. King Leopold's Ghost. A story of greed, terror and heroism in colonial Africa. Macmillan, 1998,


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