The Colonization of Africa_Belgium by Makena Tingle https://padlet.com/mtingle2024_2/a3d9qogspdl3r0kf By Makena and Maya en-us 2023-05-19 18:45:03 UTC 2025-10-23 12:52:39 UTC hello@padlet.com Natural Resources (Maya) mgregor20241_1 https://padlet.com/mtingle2024_2/a3d9qogspdl3r0kf/wish/2598874020
- "In the interest of the natives all over Africa, we have to teach them to work."(Casement report. 4) ]]> 2023-05-21 15:19:50 UTC https://padlet.com/mtingle2024_2/a3d9qogspdl3r0kf/wish/2598874020 Ethnicity and its Borders (Maya) mgregor20241_1 https://padlet.com/mtingle2024_2/a3d9qogspdl3r0kf/wish/2598874245 - Each district was under the control of a commissioner that was paid by the Belgian army
- Some districts had harsher punishments than others and people often fled those districts
- The Equator Province was known to be the cruelest district
- They had the saying "Rubber is death"  
- Where the Belgian officers were staying was completely separate from the native populations]]> 2023-05-21 15:20:14 UTC https://padlet.com/mtingle2024_2/a3d9qogspdl3r0kf/wish/2598874245 Native Language mtingle2024_2 https://padlet.com/mtingle2024_2/a3d9qogspdl3r0kf/wish/2598874448 "The language of the Blacks is, radically, the agglutinative* speech of the Bantu peoples, i.e., it forms its words without fusion or alteration. It is divided into over forty very different dialects."
A description of the native language of the Congo before colonization, written in 1908.
*agglutination, a grammatical process in which words are composed of a sequence of morphemes (meaningful word elements), each of which represents not more than a single grammatical category.]]> 2023-05-21 15:20:40 UTC https://padlet.com/mtingle2024_2/a3d9qogspdl3r0kf/wish/2598874448 Religion mtingle2024_2 https://padlet.com/mtingle2024_2/a3d9qogspdl3r0kf/wish/2598874612
The establishment of the Catholic Church occurred under Leopold II. Charles George Gordon, a British general famous for his heroism in defending Khartoum, Sudan, urged Leopold II to acquire Catholic missions. ]]> 2023-05-21 15:20:56 UTC https://padlet.com/mtingle2024_2/a3d9qogspdl3r0kf/wish/2598874612 Sources mgregor20241_1 https://padlet.com/mtingle2024_2/a3d9qogspdl3r0kf/wish/2598909016                                          Bibliography

"Belgian Congo (Documentary)." Video. Youtube. Posted by TDC - World History Documentaries, January 3, 2019. Accessed May 24, 2023. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z4TPwGfnpc4.

Britannica, T. Editors of Encyclopaedia. "Congo Free State." Encyclopedia Britannica, January 26, 2023. https://www.britannica.com/place/Congo-Free-State.

Casement, Roger. Casement Report. 1904. Accessed May 24, 2023. https://archive.org/details/CasementReport/page/n28/mode/1up.

Harford, Tim. "The Horrific Consequences of Rubber's Toxic Past." BBC. Last modified July 24, 2019. Accessed May 24, 2023. https://www.bbc.com/news/business-48533964.

Harris, Alice Seeley. Alice Seeley Harris Archive. http://antislavery.nottingham.ac.uk/ solr-search?facet=collection%3A%22Alice+Seeley+Harris+Archive%22.

Hochschild, Adam. "Leopold II." Britannica. Last modified May 22, 2023. Accessed May 24, 2023. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Leopold-II-king-of-Belgium.

Sen Nag, Oishimaya. "The Leading Natural Rubber Producing Countries in the World." World Atlas. Last modified April 25, 2017. Accessed May 24, 2023. https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/the-leading-natural-rubber-producing-countries-in-the-world.html.

Barthel, Diane. "Women's Educational Experience under Colonialism: Toward a Diachronic Model." Signs 11, no. 1 (1985): 137–54. http://www.jstor.org/stable/3174291.

Britannica, T. Editors of Encyclopaedia. "agglutination." Encyclopedia Britannica, February 10, 2009. https://www.britannica.com/topic/agglutination-grammar.

Independent Digital News and Media. (2020, July 1). Women taken from their mothers in Congo by Belgium now want Justice. The Independent. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/congo-belgium-women-mothers-children-religious-mission-a9595631.html#comments-area

Rountree, Kathryn. "Catholic Missionaries in Africa: The White Fathers in the Belgian Congo 1950-1955." Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College. Last modified 2009. Accessed May 1, 2009. https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=4277&context=gradschool_theses#:~:text=The%20Belgian%20state%20relied%20heavily,a%20native%20Church%20in%20Africa.&text=better%20understand%20the%20Society%20as,its%20role%20in%20imperial%20Africa.

Vermeersch, A. "Congo." New Advent. Last modified 1908. Accessed May 24, 2023. https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04228a.htm.




]]> 2023-05-21 16:25:42 UTC https://padlet.com/mtingle2024_2/a3d9qogspdl3r0kf/wish/2598909016 Map of the Belgian Congo mgregor20241_1 https://padlet.com/mtingle2024_2/a3d9qogspdl3r0kf/wish/2600413678 https://www.britannica.com/place/Belgian-Congo]]> 2023-05-22 17:46:22 UTC https://padlet.com/mtingle2024_2/a3d9qogspdl3r0kf/wish/2600413678 Map of Districts in the Belgian Congo (from 1910) mgregor20241_1 https://padlet.com/mtingle2024_2/a3d9qogspdl3r0kf/wish/2600464631 https://www.raremaps.com/gallery/detail/50853/carte-du-congo-belge-lebegue-cie]]> 2023-05-22 18:29:01 UTC https://padlet.com/mtingle2024_2/a3d9qogspdl3r0kf/wish/2600464631 Map of original tribes in the Congo mgregor20241_1 https://padlet.com/mtingle2024_2/a3d9qogspdl3r0kf/wish/2602107632 https://www.dlwaldron.com/CongoTribesmap.html]]> 2023-05-23 18:28:51 UTC https://padlet.com/mtingle2024_2/a3d9qogspdl3r0kf/wish/2602107632 Redrawing lines mgregor20241_1 https://padlet.com/mtingle2024_2/a3d9qogspdl3r0kf/wish/2603841322 The new districts were drawn without consideration of the original tribal divisions ]]> 2023-05-24 22:21:03 UTC https://padlet.com/mtingle2024_2/a3d9qogspdl3r0kf/wish/2603841322 Raw materials and demand mgregor20241_1 https://padlet.com/mtingle2024_2/a3d9qogspdl3r0kf/wish/2603843272 The main materials that were abundant in the Congo were palm oil, ivory, and rubber. Leopold II was originally focused on Ivory that was used to make material goods. After the invention of the tire, rubber was in high demand internationally. 

The Congo rainforest had copious amount of natural rubber that was a specific species of rubber tree that could not be grown well in cultivation. Leopold II saw the opportunity to have a monopoly over the rubber market and make a fortune. ]]> 2023-05-24 22:25:25 UTC https://padlet.com/mtingle2024_2/a3d9qogspdl3r0kf/wish/2603843272 Working conditions mgregor20241_1 https://padlet.com/mtingle2024_2/a3d9qogspdl3r0kf/wish/2603843381 Leopold II enslaved millions of Congolese people to make them gather impossible monthly quotas of rubber. If they didn't collect enough rubber they were tortured or executed. The soldiers even kidnapped the wives and children of the slaves and held them as hostages who would be killed if the slaves did not collect enough rubber. 

At the time, guns and ammunition were expensive and the officers wanted to make sure the soldiers were only using the bullets to execute slaves, so they were required to cut off the hand of the person they executed as proof that their bullet was not wasted. If they used bullets for other purposes they would cut off the hands of living people to make up the numbers or else the officer would kill the soldier. Amputation was also used as punishment for not collecting enough rubber. 

In the 40 year span of the Congo Free State, 10 million people died. That is 1/2 of the original population before Leopold II ruled. 

]]> 2023-05-24 22:25:39 UTC https://padlet.com/mtingle2024_2/a3d9qogspdl3r0kf/wish/2603843381 Who was Leopold II? mgregor20241_1 https://padlet.com/mtingle2024_2/a3d9qogspdl3r0kf/wish/2603852718 As the second king of Belgium, Leopold II was determined to have a big colony to establish his country as a global power. 

Leopold II was able to convince the rest of the European powers to give him control of the Congo because he presented himself as a philanthropist and would bring to the Congo "civilization" and "Christianity" and that he would protect the right to free trade in his new colony. Because the Congo was not a coastal country, it was not as desirable to the rest of Europe. This gave Leopold II the perfect opportunity sweep in and privately own a colony that was 8 times the size of Belgium. 

Leopold II and other Belgian officials and commanders in the Congo were secretive about how horribly they were treating the Congolese people. The truth wasn't known to anyone in Europe until the Casement Report was published and presented to parliament detailing the atrocities Roger Casement witnessed and heard about in the Congo Free State. 

]]> 2023-05-24 22:46:35 UTC https://padlet.com/mtingle2024_2/a3d9qogspdl3r0kf/wish/2603852718 Alice Seeley Harris Link mtingle2024_2 https://padlet.com/mtingle2024_2/a3d9qogspdl3r0kf/wish/2603854496 2023-05-24 22:49:56 UTC https://padlet.com/mtingle2024_2/a3d9qogspdl3r0kf/wish/2603854496 mgregor20241_1 https://padlet.com/mtingle2024_2/a3d9qogspdl3r0kf/wish/2603878704 Violence and fear were key factors that allowed the colonizers to control millions of people and rip them away from their normals lives to serve a man and a country they had no connection to ]]> 2023-05-24 23:33:12 UTC https://padlet.com/mtingle2024_2/a3d9qogspdl3r0kf/wish/2603878704 mgregor20241_1 https://padlet.com/mtingle2024_2/a3d9qogspdl3r0kf/wish/2603883927 The forced labor also effected the agriculture leading to famine and starvation because all the able-bodied men were used to collect rubber and the women were often held as hostages.]]> 2023-05-24 23:40:07 UTC https://padlet.com/mtingle2024_2/a3d9qogspdl3r0kf/wish/2603883927 mgregor20241_1 https://padlet.com/mtingle2024_2/a3d9qogspdl3r0kf/wish/2603891002 Leopold II had something to prove. The money and status was more important to him than the treatment of the Congolese people.]]> 2023-05-24 23:49:31 UTC https://padlet.com/mtingle2024_2/a3d9qogspdl3r0kf/wish/2603891002 mtingle2024_2 https://padlet.com/mtingle2024_2/a3d9qogspdl3r0kf/wish/2603936876 In 1885, the Holy See* reserved Catholic evangelization in the Congo Free State for Belgian missionaries. The White Fathers Cardinal Lavigerie** initially served the region until a Belgian branch was was founded. The Missionaries of the Sacred Heart of Mary and Belgian Jesuits also joined the missions. Many Sisters from various religious institutions devoted their lives to the moral education of Congolese women.
* the universal government of the Catholic Church
** an international missionary society of priests and brothers founded in 1868

]]> 2023-05-25 00:33:22 UTC https://padlet.com/mtingle2024_2/a3d9qogspdl3r0kf/wish/2603936876 Quote from the Casement Report mgregor20241_1 https://padlet.com/mtingle2024_2/a3d9qogspdl3r0kf/wish/2604041225 "Out village got cloth and a little salt, but not the people who did the work. Our chiefs eat up the cloth; the workers got nothing. The pay was a fathom of cloth and a little salt for every big basketful, but it was given to the chief, never to them men. It used to take ten days to get the twenty baskets of rubber - we were always in the forest and then when we were late we were killed. We had to go further and further into the forest to find the rubber vines, to go without food, and our women had to give up cultivating the fields and gardens. Then we starved. Wild beasts - the leopards - killed some of us when we were working away in the forest, and others got lost or died from exposure and starvation, and we begged the white men to leave us alone, saying we could get no more rubber, but the white men and their soldiers said: 'Go! You are only beasts yourselves, you are nyama (meat),' We tried, always going further into the forest, and when we failed and our rubber was short, the soldiers came to our towns and killed us. Many were shot, some had their ears cut off; others were tied up with ropes around their necks and bodies taken away. The white men sometimes at the posts did not know of the bad things the soldiers did to us, but it was the white men who sent the soldiers to punish us for not bringing in enough rubber"(60-61).]]> 2023-05-25 01:52:46 UTC https://padlet.com/mtingle2024_2/a3d9qogspdl3r0kf/wish/2604041225 Activity! mtingle2024_2 https://padlet.com/mtingle2024_2/a3d9qogspdl3r0kf/wish/2604121500 Many mixed raced children (Metis) were kidnapped from their guardians and sent to live at missionaries. Marriage between a white and Black person was forbidden and their children were seen as burdens.

After reading, discuss with the person next to you if you think mix-raced Congolese people and their descent should be given reparations and what might that look like?]]> 2023-05-25 02:46:22 UTC https://padlet.com/mtingle2024_2/a3d9qogspdl3r0kf/wish/2604121500 mgregor20241_1 https://padlet.com/mtingle2024_2/a3d9qogspdl3r0kf/wish/2604157995 2023-05-25 03:12:59 UTC https://padlet.com/mtingle2024_2/a3d9qogspdl3r0kf/wish/2604157995 Education mtingle2024_2 https://padlet.com/mtingle2024_2/a3d9qogspdl3r0kf/wish/2604166682 The Africans were considered to be lazy, slow and “slaves to their passion”. These inaccurate theories were a driving objective for the Belgian who believed it was their duty to educate and civilize the people of Congo. Unlike France, education was left up to the Catholic Church. ]]> 2023-05-25 03:19:34 UTC https://padlet.com/mtingle2024_2/a3d9qogspdl3r0kf/wish/2604166682 mtingle2024_2 https://padlet.com/mtingle2024_2/a3d9qogspdl3r0kf/wish/2604169878 In 1906, the amount of missionary elementary schools were increasing. This is when they began to teach European languages (Dutch and French) in schools unlike in various other territories being colonized by other European countries like the German. French became the official language of the Congo during Leopold II reign but because Leopolds people did not fully support his need to obtain resources and power in the Congo, Belgians never made up more than 60 percent of the population. The strong push of the French language was just not practical.]]> 2023-05-25 03:22:06 UTC https://padlet.com/mtingle2024_2/a3d9qogspdl3r0kf/wish/2604169878 mtingle2024_2 https://padlet.com/mtingle2024_2/a3d9qogspdl3r0kf/wish/2604958484 The missionaries put an emphasis on early education, but the first missionaries in the Congo educated the working class. Another job of the missionaries that were sent to the Congo was to assist in hospitals.]]> 2023-05-25 14:37:09 UTC https://padlet.com/mtingle2024_2/a3d9qogspdl3r0kf/wish/2604958484 mtingle2024_2 https://padlet.com/mtingle2024_2/a3d9qogspdl3r0kf/wish/2605051808
The Catholic missionaries used their power to convert the masses to their religion by making children go to school where they would push Catholicism or during catechumenate which is the preparation for baptism. The missions operated an extensive system of elementary schools while also actively promoting initiatives to establish secondary and college education. Their endeavors in education occasionally collided with colonial administrators' who feared the emergence of an enlightened indigenous population.]]> 2023-05-25 15:54:40 UTC https://padlet.com/mtingle2024_2/a3d9qogspdl3r0kf/wish/2605051808 mtingle2024_2 https://padlet.com/mtingle2024_2/a3d9qogspdl3r0kf/wish/2605128933 The establishment of schools aimed to educate young individuals for entry-level administrative roles within the colonial administrations. The White Father mission schools were overseen by the missionaries, who fulfilled the dual role of supervisors and educators. In the Upper Congo, the objective within the mission schools was to impart religious education and conduct moral monitoring. The schools served as a safeguard against perceived negative influences of African life.]]> 2023-05-25 17:09:18 UTC https://padlet.com/mtingle2024_2/a3d9qogspdl3r0kf/wish/2605128933