King Leopold’s Ghost summary

Central Africa Profit Potential

King Leopold's Ghost by Adam Hochschild Adam Hochschild chronicles the horrific exploitation and mass murder in the Congo Free State under the personal rule of King Leopold II. How could one man secretly enslave an entire nation and plunder its wealth under the guise of philanthropy? Imagine a king who established a massive private colony in the heart of Africa, claiming to bring civilization and Christianity, while actually committing unspeakable atrocities that wiped out half of the population. In King Leopold's Ghost, Adam Hochschild reveals the horrific history of King Leopold, the second's reign of terror in the Congo, and the courageous international human rights movement that eventually exposed him.

Stanley Brutal Colonization

From first contact, Europeans valued Central Africa mainly for its profit-making potential. In 1482, Portuguese naval captain Diogo São was watching the North Star disappear over the horizon. His ship was passing the equator and was much farther south than any European had ever been before. Suddenly, he saw the ocean had turned brownish-yellow.

It was freshwater. São had stumbled upon the mouth of a massive, silty river, larger than anything he'd ever seen. He went ashore and erected a limestone pillar and cross, marking it as discovered for Portugal. But Sugao hadn't ventured on this dangerous journey just for the sake of discovery.

He was in search of treasure. The Great River, later known as the Congo, lay at the northern end of a wealthy African kingdom. A federation of two to three million people spread over 300 ,000 square miles. Nine years later, Portuguese monks located its capital and set up an embassy.

It was one of the first official interactions between Europeans and a black African kingdom. The Manikongo, or king, was enthusiastic about the Portuguese's fire-spouting weapons guns, as we'd call them, and the effect they might have on a potential provincial rebellion. For their part, the Portuguese were largely dismissive of Congo culture, and they were scandalized by the nudity they saw. They admitted, though, that the kingdom was sophisticated, the most advanced on the west coast of Central Africa.

Arts and agriculture flourished, and there was an intricate political system that also involved enslavement. This was crucial. The pre-existence of a form of slavery there meant that, when Europeans showed up and offered to buy human beings, the kingdom's chiefs were open to selling. European development of the Americas had created a nearly insatiable market for African slave labor.

Slaving fever gripped the Portuguese in the Congo, who generated vast profits by shuffling convoys of chained Africans onto ships. Enslaved peoples were marched to the coast, deprived of sufficient food and clean water on their miserable journey. The trails linking the ocean to the interior were soon littered with bleaching bones. Europeans were also seized by the urge to explore.

But the treacherous terrain meant that several centuries worth of visitors never made it up the great Congo River. Many expeditions set out and never returned. The source of the river remained a mystery. The only thing that Europeans could be sure of was that Africa supplied valuable raw materials, elephant tusks, and human bodies.