learntoquestion ltq discussions

Originally posted by hotchocolate on February 07, 2022 21:51

Leopold used his authority to make revenue so it could be seen as utilizing this land and these people to make more production and a profit, which would otherwise be left “un-industrialized”. Colonizers have used the idea of civilizing and spreading Catholicism to make the “savage” people into more respectable ones. Maybe in some cases, a certain country is war torn and in need of a central ruler to unify or create peace and colonization is the only answer (the only justification is really the way the colonizers see their actions). Or colonial control could be said that it’s a way to involve everyone in serving the benefit of the people at large and everyone will have a role that is overseen by a higher authority. This way, the economy and relations will be facilitated more easily? I feel like there are definitely economical benefits sometimes but their culture is taken away and the people are exploited by force, which can never be justified unless it’s choosing between colonization or death in an extreme case. From what I remember, the Columbian Exchange was the exchange of goods, diseases, and animals so it encouraged the spread of new ideas and things to change people’s lifestyles and diets. Obviously the native people suffered mass death from being overworked and disease ridden, but maybe a benefit was not being so isolated anymore and making worldly connections. With connections, there are alliances to be made and countries can support each other which a place might not have without colonization.

In King Leopold’s Ghost, there are violent actions like the case of Father Achte where colonization causes more conflict because of the clear inhumane treatment of rebels at the hands of the Belgium officers who shot them easily. Sheppard reported that the people of the Congo would get their hands cut off if they refused to submit their rubber to Leopold’s system, and were often paid with cheap objects otherwise. He exploited the rubber tree resource as a way to pay back investments and he saw competition as a way to personally gain. These naive young men would basically come to the Congo seeking adventure and not pay notice to how their arrival impacted the lives of the native people and they would parade around like Rom saying that they created peace when they really had the power to write their own history. I think the colonizers seek out colonization for a sense of accomplishment because they measure it in how much territory they can acquire and how much they can spend while exploiting other people for cheap labor. There was freedom to be found where they ignored morals and the critiques of society but were even able to gain more status and glory. For colonizers, I think it gives many lost men the opportunity to explore an unfamiliar culture and find independence and grow their status. In one section, Kibalanga, an honored officer, came to the village. People gave hard earned offerings of food to avoid violence and they could tolerate thievery as long as it wasn’t violence. This is really sad that they had to fear for their lives and were the target of trickery, thievery, and violence that the white officers would inflict to feel secure and powerful.

After such a long time of mistreatment, people begin to internalize it and believe that they did something to deserve it. These events of our ancestors cause generational trauma and it’s not like this fear dies out when the people who experienced it do. The colonization of Africa definitely increased an interconnected economic system in terms of African colonies producing raw materials. I read in another article that today, any corruption in African states can be traced back to the effects of colonization. “The work concludes and recommends that for African states to overcome their present social, economic, political, health, education woes, etc., there is the urgent need for the people and the leadership to create their own indigenous identity, culture, technology, economy, education, religion, craft, etc. that would be interwoven in good governance.” There was and is so much lost culture and identity that it does create anger and hopelessness. I feel like the responsibility colonizing nations would have is to make sure to tell the truth and spread the truth because we know that in areas where they have wronged, it can easily be covered up and this continues the line of misinformation. Maybe there could be ways to acknowledge the interactions and colonization of the past and swear it won’t happen again as well as find a way to come together and be friendly. I’m not sure what the relationships are currently between the colonizers and colonized states, but just listening to what the African states need to feel supported is important.

Q: Have you ever suffered from loss of identity and how did you work through it?

Yes. I think growing up in a predominantly white town, I have felt slightly different from my friends. Being half Latina, I have always been more curvy and haven't had the same physical features, such as freckles, as my friends growing up. This left me feeling that I had to conform and identify as only Irish. I worked through it and have established stronger family relationships with my cousins from the Latina side of my family. Coming to BLS, the school has opened me up to a larger world that makes me feel more comfortable embracing every part of me.

Originally posted by Stuart_05 on February 07, 2022 22:21

1)There is no possible justification. All free nations should be able to govern themselves. Based on the history of the U.S. and around the world, colonization has led to the death of the indigenous population, internal fighting and rivalries among the colonized people, and political instability.

2)The only benefits to colonialism are the economic benefits gained by the colonialist \nation. This includes economic gains by exploiting the natural resources of a country. In the case of Africa, King Leopold confiscated and sold the ivory and rubber. The benefits also gained is free labor, by forcing the indigenous population, including children, to work in inhumane conditions. The colonialist nation essentially controls the economy, political systems and religious institutions. The colonized nation suffers from illnesses, death, loss of identity, and economic dependency.

3)Adam Hochschild’s King Leopold’s Ghost is indicative of the norms of colonialism. At the root of colonialism is racism, the belief that the European race (white) is dominant of the African race (black). In the reading Africans are described as “a race composed of cannibals.” Africans were viewed as essentially as animals that needed to be controlled and christianized. This control also extended to economic control in the form of forced labor. King Leopold essentially claimed most of the land of the Congo and therefore justified his imperialist control by forcing the Africans to work the plantations, kill elephants for ivory, enforce rubber production quotas, and mandating military in the Force Publique. King Leopold also exerted his colonial control by pitting different tribes against one another. This resulted in the deaths of millions of men, women and children by the chicotte whip.

4)The 40 years of colonial rule of the Congo has had a devastating long-term impact. In the short term, millions of people died as a result of illness, beatings, and forced labor. Raw materials such as ivory and rubber were extracted for economic gain. In addition, ethnic rivalries among the African tribes were exploited by King Leopold to secure his political dominance in the Congo. The long term impact has been devastating to the Congo. Presently, it is one of the poorest countries in the world. Millions have died of starvation and thousands have fled to neighboring countries resulting in both economic and political instability. It is also a country with extreme violence and humanitarian abuses. To help address these issues, colonizing nations should help support democratic processes in the Congo and provide economic and humanitarian assistance.

Question: Would you categorize King Leopold as evil as Adolf Hitler?

I think King Leopold is certainly as evil as Adolf Hitler. Like Hitler, King Leopold harmed countless people due to their race. The atrocities he caused to the Congo people led to as many as 10 million people.

What is something that you learned while reading some pages of King Leopold's Ghost?

I learned King Leopold was in debt until the rubber boom, which was very interesting because I remember learning it as he was already rich but this made him immensely more. Also the resistance to Belgian rule, I am sure it is difficult to find old information about that is not through the white supremist lens.

Originally posted by YellowPencil on February 08, 2022 00:02

Question: As we move forward, how can we better support underdeveloped nations that were victims to colonization?

I think a really important way to support these nations is through education. Teaching this history more in the classroom is really important for understanding the effects and addressing the situation and not turning a blind eye is necessary. We should also help the infrastructure and economy of the nations through reparations and other aid as well as support restitution efforts to reconnect with the culture they lost like revitalizing languages lost.

There are simply no possible justifications for colonial control in any part of the world, over any people, ever. Colonization is all about complete control, and extraction from the colony to benefit the people from the colonizer's country, at the expense of those who actually own and work the land and have it ripped from them. This type of strict control and dominance also takes away people’s right to govern themselves and make their own decisions, and instead puts power in the hands of ignorant and self motivated people, people who, when European nations finally relinquished SOME of their overseas colonies, hastily drew borders that continue to cause conflicts to this day.

For some there are benefits to colonialism. The people that benefit, however, are incredibly small in number, and their wealth and power comes at the expense of the much larger population within the colonized country of people that are severely taken advantage of. The largest benefactor, obviously, is the colonizing nation. European nations, over the span of a few hundred years, decided it was their right and “divine duty,” somehow, to claim large swaths of the world in their own name, and subjugate the people that lived there. Something we touched on in US History was the “three Gs” of God, Gold, and Glory. These nations decided that it was their duty to spread Christianity across the world, saving all the other “savage” people who they deemed inferior. People like Joseph Conrad perpetuated this idea that the white, northern European race was the superior of all others, giving justification to extreme brutality across the world and influencing racial hierarchies that affected the world long after the death of Colonialism (at least the death of explicit colonialism). In the process, these nations became fabulously wealthy, while over-exploiting the people and resources of their colonies. This structure was true, not just in Africa, but in the colonies they made around the world. Remember from class the many monuments and elaborate train stations in Belgium that were built directly from the money and resources extracted from the Congo, and the statues of Leopold that continue to occupy public space.

It was not just nations that benefited. Individuals and companies became immensely rich from Colonization, a trend that would attract King Leopold to seek a personal fortune from conquering his own swath of land right in the middle of the African continent. Lastly, a very small few from the conquered nation benefited by having good relationships with the colonizers, taking advantage of these situations to take power over political rivals, rivalries like the splitting of the Congo in the 1600s. These benefactors were themselves, however, exploited, and led to believe that European nations were on their side, when in reality they really only used these allies to gain control and then cast them aside. They were given, Adam Hochschild, “King Leopold’s Ghost,” metals for their degree of loyalty and service that amounted to absolutely nothing.

The brutality of King Leopold’s reign over the Congo, outlined in Adam Hochschild’s King Leopold’s Ghost, is unfortunately indicative of the norms of colonialism. Every colonial empire has had slavery under a different name, from sharecroppers to casta system workers, to slaves, to the “euphemisms” used in the Congo, terms like “volunteers” in chains that were froced to to labor without pay (aka ENSLAVED PEOPLE) that were described in the book. This, however, is no excuse for the horrific conditions of the subjugation of the people of the Congo. Llanga’s powerful firsthand account gives some understanding of what it was like to live through such a brutal colonial rule. He describes army men coming to his village, initially tricking them into thinking they were just passing through, and then rounding them all up and tying them—men, women, children and all—and marching them to slavery. One interesting fact was that Leopold heavily supported Cathlolic priests that would become wealthy and support him in his conquest. They took kids into their Orphanages, even though in the society in the Congo, there was really no such thing as an orphan at all because the community raised the child, a pattern of tearing children away from their families that is similar to the removal of Native American Children from their parents using the foster care system.

The Colonization of Africa was obviously a seismic event, one that by any measure, continued to affect the continent and its people long after the European colonizers “officially” withdrew their forces. Such brutal exploitation of a country’s land and people left many nations without a clear path forward, and left ripe ground for corrupt rulers to take the reins of production where the Europeans left off. In an economy that is largely based off of one resource, like resource mining, oil drilling, etc., it is much easier for a small group of people to control the means of production, and therefore wield all the power. With all other natural resources exploited, many African nations have gone down a similar road, all struggling with the impacts of such heavy exploitation. Meanwhile, with the money made from colonization, the European nations industrialized further, becoming richer at an even faster rate, and then dominating these same countries economically instead of militarily. These countries, to this day, are still culpable, and some form of reparations must be instituted.

Do you think reparations are the right answer?

Originally posted by curioushuman on March 04, 2022 18:16

My question is: How do rulers treat the people of other countries with such oppressive rule and cruelty and how do they perceive the benefits they get to be greater than the people being so severely mistreated?

I think rulers become so motivated and capitvated by greed, money, and power, that they search for ways to justify mistreating populations of other people. This shows up as racial theories of inferiority.

Originally posted by niall5 on April 13, 2022 23:35

Do you think reparations are the right answer?

Yes, I do believe representations are the right answer because the colonization of Africa and the violence that came along with it caused major set backs in the progression of African nations and their ability to have and create a stable government, new technology, and trading opportunities. Recreations, as we know, are not a way to fix the past traumas that were inflicted by other notions, or people, but it is a great way to give back the advantage that was taken away from them.