King Leopold's Ghost

King Leopold's Ghost PDF Author: Adam Hochschild
Publisher: Picador
ISBN: 1760785202
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 474

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Book Description
With an introduction by award-winning novelist Barbara Kingsolver In the late nineteenth century, when the great powers in Europe were tearing Africa apart and seizing ownership of land for themselves, King Leopold of Belgium took hold of the vast and mostly unexplored territory surrounding the Congo River. In his devastatingly barbarous colonization of this area, Leopold stole its rubber and ivory, pummelled its people and set up a ruthless regime that would reduce the population by half. . While he did all this, he carefully constructed an image of himself as a deeply feeling humanitarian. Winner of the Duff Cooper Prize in 1999, King Leopold’s Ghost is the true and haunting account of this man’s brutal regime and its lasting effect on a ruined nation. It is also the inspiring and deeply moving account of a handful of missionaries and other idealists who travelled to Africa and unwittingly found themselves in the middle of a gruesome holocaust. Instead of turning away, these brave few chose to stand up against Leopold. Adam Hochschild brings life to this largely untold story and, crucially, casts blame on those responsible for this atrocity.

King Leopold's Ghost

King Leopold's Ghost PDF Author: Adam Hochschild
Publisher: Picador
ISBN: 1760785202
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 474

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Book Description
With an introduction by award-winning novelist Barbara Kingsolver In the late nineteenth century, when the great powers in Europe were tearing Africa apart and seizing ownership of land for themselves, King Leopold of Belgium took hold of the vast and mostly unexplored territory surrounding the Congo River. In his devastatingly barbarous colonization of this area, Leopold stole its rubber and ivory, pummelled its people and set up a ruthless regime that would reduce the population by half. . While he did all this, he carefully constructed an image of himself as a deeply feeling humanitarian. Winner of the Duff Cooper Prize in 1999, King Leopold’s Ghost is the true and haunting account of this man’s brutal regime and its lasting effect on a ruined nation. It is also the inspiring and deeply moving account of a handful of missionaries and other idealists who travelled to Africa and unwittingly found themselves in the middle of a gruesome holocaust. Instead of turning away, these brave few chose to stand up against Leopold. Adam Hochschild brings life to this largely untold story and, crucially, casts blame on those responsible for this atrocity.

Belgium and the Congo, 1885-1980

Belgium and the Congo, 1885-1980 PDF Author: Guy Vanthemsche
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 0521194210
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 301

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Book Description
This book explains how and why Belgium, a small but influential European country, was changed through its colonial activities in the Congo, from the first expeditions in 1880 to the Mobutu regime in the 1980s. Belgian politics, diplomacy, economic activity and culture were influenced by the imperial experience. Belgium and the Congo, 1885-1980 yields a better understanding of the Congo's past and present.

The Lumumba Generation

The Lumumba Generation PDF Author: Daniel Tödt
Publisher: de Gruyter
ISBN: 9783110708691
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
How and why did the African elite turn from loyal intermediaries into opponents of the colonial state? This book wants to help better understand the dramatic political and cultural processes of decolonization in the Belgian Congo. Focusing on the ma

Political Awakening in the Belgian Congo

Political Awakening in the Belgian Congo PDF Author: René Lemarchand
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN:
Category : Congo (Democratic Republic)
Languages : en
Pages : 384

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Book Description


The Ends of European Colonial Empires

The Ends of European Colonial Empires PDF Author: Miguel Bandeira Jerónimo
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 1137394064
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 297

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Book Description
This volume provides a multidimensional assessment of the diverse ends of the European colonial empires, addressing different geographies, taking into account diverse chronologies of decolonization, and evaluating the specificities of each imperial configuration under appreciation (Portuguese, Belgian, French, British, Dutch).

Selling the Congo

Selling the Congo PDF Author: Matthew G. Stanard
Publisher: U of Nebraska Press
ISBN: 0803239882
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 404

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Book Description
Belgium was a small, neutral country without a colonial tradition when King Leopold II ceded the Congo, his personal property, to the state in 1908. For the next half century Belgium not only ruled an African empire but also, through widespread, enduring, and eagerly embraced propaganda, produced an imperialist-minded citizenry. Selling the Congo is a study of European pro-empire propaganda in Belgium, with particular emphasis on the period 1908–60. Matthew G. Stanard questions the nature of Belgian imperialism in the Congo and considers the Belgian case in light of literature on the French, British, and other European overseas empires. Comparing Belgium to other imperial powers, the book finds that pro-empire propaganda was a basic part of European overseas expansion and administration during the modern period. Arguing against the long-held belief that Belgians were merely “reluctant imperialists,” Stanard demonstrates that in fact many Belgians readily embraced imperialistic propaganda. Selling the Congo contributes to our understanding of the effectiveness of twentieth-century propaganda by revealing its successes and failures in the Belgian case. Many readers familiar with more-popular histories of Belgian imperialism will find in this book a deeper examination of European involvement in central Africa during the colonial era.

The Politics of the Developing Areas

The Politics of the Developing Areas PDF Author: Gabriel Abraham Almond
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 1400866979
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 609

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Book Description
A pioneering venture, this book is the first major effort toward a valid comparison of the political systems of Asia, Africa, the Near East, and Latin America. After establishing a theoretical framework based on a functional approach to comparative politics, the authors apply their scheme to Southeast Asia (Lucian W. Pye), South Asia (Myron Weiner), SubSaharan Africa (James S. Coleman), the Near East (Dankwart Rustow), and Latin America (George I. Blanksten). In each area they survey the political background, the nature and function of political, governmental, and authoritative structures, the processes of change and means of political integration. The contributors have performed an extraordinarily difficult feat of classification, description, synthesis, and analysis in what promises to be a book of seminal importance in comparative politics. Originally published in 1960. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Death in the Congo

Death in the Congo PDF Author: Emmanuel Gerard
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674745361
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 293

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Book Description
Death in the Congo is a gripping account of a murder that became one of the defining events in postcolonial African history. It is no less the story of the untimely death of a national dream, a hope-filled vision very different from what the war-ravaged Democratic Republic of the Congo became in the second half of the twentieth century. When Belgium relinquished colonial control in June 1960, a charismatic thirty-five-year-old African nationalist, Patrice Lumumba, became prime minister of the new republic. Yet stability immediately broke down. A mutinous Congolese Army spread havoc, while Katanga Province in southeast Congo seceded altogether. Belgium dispatched its military to protect its citizens, and the United Nations soon intervened with its own peacekeeping troops. Meanwhile, behind the scenes, both the Soviet Union and the United States maneuvered to turn the crisis to their Cold War advantage. A coup in September, secretly aided by the UN, toppled Lumumba’s government. In January 1961, armed men drove Lumumba to a secluded corner of the Katanga bush, stood him up beside a hastily dug grave, and shot him. His rule as Africa’s first democratically elected leader had lasted ten weeks. More than fifty years later, the murky circumstances and tragic symbolism of Lumumba’s assassination still trouble many people around the world. Emmanuel Gerard and Bruce Kuklick pursue events through a web of international politics, revealing a tangled history in which many people—black and white, well-meaning and ruthless, African, European, and American—bear responsibility for this crime.

The Contemporary Review

The Contemporary Review PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Great Britain
Languages : en
Pages : 830

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Book Description


The Political Future of the Independent Nations of Africa

The Political Future of the Independent Nations of Africa PDF Author: Hilton Proctor Goss
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Africa
Languages : en
Pages : 104

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Book Description