Leopold II Quotes
I’m sure if I quite openly charged Stanley with the task of taking possession in my name of some parts of Africa, the English will stop me. If I ask their advice they will stop me just the same. So I think I’ll just give Stanley some job of exploration which would offend no one, and will give us the bases and headquarters we can take over later.
Leopold II, 1835-1909, King of Belgium, Letter to Ambassador his ambassador to England, Solvyns, November 17, 1877
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
The human rights abuses in the Belgian Congo were horrible. Natives who refused to work for the low wages were murdered or had their hands chopped off. The indigenous population was markedly reduced. Word of the atrocities started leaking out to Europe. It is not known whether the King really wanted any reform or just sent the instructions to cover himself. The instructions were not followed; the atrocities continued, and Leopold never took any steps to discipline his agents and minions. The Belgian Congo had the worst atrocities in the world until WWII.
Americans who had emigrated to California—a Mexican territory—were agitating to break away from Mexico and become an independent state or join the United States. In the confusion and turmoil in California, the situation was ripe for England, who controlled Canada to get involved and establish their own presence in California. Buchanan was then Secretary of State and this letter was so secret that the courier had to memorize the letter and destroy it as he was to go through Mexico to get to California and if something happened to him, it would be devastating for the ontents to b made puplic as th Unitd states was in the process of wresting Californai away from Mexico which violated major norms of international relations and could be considered and act of war against Mexico.
Hobson, like Mark Twain in America, was a major critic of imperialism.
Grey’s statement which had been made without any coordination with the Prime Minister, came to be called the “Grey Declaration,” and was the talk of diplomatic Europe. Grey claimed to be only talking about a hypothetical possibility, but the French actually had designs on the “other side” of Africa. They perceived that Grey was threatening war and referred to the declaration as the “fameuse manifestation.” The French sought and obtained a rapprochement and left the Niger valley to the British.
Stanley was angered because Leopold had revoked what he thought had been a promise.
This is a common rejoinder of third world country leaders to accusations of Western democracies about corruption. And doubtless it is true. However temptation has never been a good defense of improper behavior.
Corruption was rife in the Congo before the French or Belgians ever arrived there. However, it is the case that French business and diplomatic culture is much more tolerant of third world corruption than most other industrial democracies and actively engage in bribery efforts to a degree that other nations do not.
The king knew the whites had designs on his kingdom. See Mwanga.
He was contrasting the English efforts in the New World and the French. New France was the term for the early French North American areas much of which was in Canada. This classic view argues for the superiority of a capitalistic and individualistic development model over a planned one organized from the top down,
Nantucket was the center of the New England whaling fleet which at the time plied the Earth’s oceans and influenced non Western People the world over. It was a type of cultural imperialism although the whalers sized or claimed anyone’s land or controlled any nation’s trade.
