Europeans in the Congo
The colonization of and intervention in the Congo region by Europeans has been an unnecessary evil in the lives of the Congolese people. Beginning with the Portuguese in the late 1400ıs and continuing with King Leopold II and the Belgians in the 18th and 19th centuries, the greed-stricken nations of Europe have brought such earth-shattering destruction to the region and its people, that the tremors are still being felt today. The arrival of the Portuguese in 1483 signaled the beginning of a new era in the Congo. At first, relations between the existing African kingdoms and the Portuguese were friendly. The Portuguese, for example, acknowledged the leader of the kingdom of Kongo as a ³brother king² to their own ruler1 . But, because the Portuguese had begun overseas colonization and wanted slave labor to work their ³new world² plantations, they became greedy and betrayed the friendship of their African hosts. Their greed begat the slave trade, which was later joined by other European nations, and which continued long after Portugal lost its grip on the African continent. The slave trade devastated the people of the Congo region for more than 300 years2 . Because the European slavers couldnıt run the trade alone, the
Gourevitch, Philip. ³The Vanishing: How the Congo Became Zaire, and Zaire Became the Congo.² The New Yorker. June 2, 1997. pp 50-53. y employed the help of Congolese natives, pitting African against fellow African and forcing tribal leaders to assist in the enslaving of their own people. When the slave trade began, about 2,000 Africans were enslaved every year. By the time it reached its peak in the 1780ıs, the number of African men and women that were sold into slavery yearly had reached almost 80,000. So many Africans were enslaved, in fact, that for a century and a half (from 1650 to 1800 AD) the population of the continent did not increase3 . Because much of the slave trade was based in the Congo region, its population was particularly devastated. Masland, Tom. ³Fighting for Africa.² Newsweek. March 30, 1998. pp 32-34. Hoskins, Catherine, Shirley Williams, M. Crawford Young, James Sabin, Georges Nzongola-Ntalaja. ³Zaire.² Collierıs Encyclopedia. 1997. pp 22481. Once the era of slavery was over, the nightmare of colonization began. At the Berlin Conference of 1885, the European nations divided the continent of Africa amongst themselves4 . The countries they arbitrarily created grouped tribes together that had no connection with each other, while they split other tribes right down the middle. So was the fate of the Congo region. European colonization and intervention in the Congo region has devastated its people for the past 400 years. Now that the region has a new name, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and a new leader, Laurent Kabila, hopes for the future are high. Because the United States and France are still very active in the region, it would be easy for Kabila to become just another foreign puppet. Any such government, however, would be destined to fail, because government must always be for the people and, most importantly, it must be by them. The Belgian government proposed a plan to give the Congo independence gradually, over a 30 year period, but when the the Congolese nationalists demanded immediate independence, in 1960, they were granted it10 . In six months they were on their own.
Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1488
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)
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