Response to KLG pgs 115-139

A question that is lingering in my mind after our small group discussion is if King Leopold understood what harm he is doing to the Congo people. Is it a greed for money? Another question is if King Leopold will get caught by anyone for what he has done to the Congo people?

I believe that our small group discussions were good and very effective. We all were involved in the discussion and everyone contributed their opinions. We could have improved by just sticking on topic with the question, but that was a minor problem that could be fixed.

Current Event Article

Source: The title of the article is “Jewish Settlers Warn of Israel Coalition Collapse,” there is no known author, the article comes from BBC news and was published on 13 September 2010.

Summary: The article is discussing that in order for peace between Israel and the Palestinians, Israel have to cease building settlements in the West Bank. This is important because there is a freeze in the building of these settlements, but once this freeze expires on September 26, Israel has to continue cease building these settlements or else, “The Palestinians say they will walk out of the talks if construction resumes.” It also mentions, “Palestinian government spokesman Ghassan Khatib again called on the Israeli government to end all settlement activity, saying it was endangering the peace process. ‘Israel should stop all kinds of settlement activities in order to give a chance for negotiations.’”

Analysis: I agree and disagree with the articles viewpoints and what Israel and the Palestinians are doing. It is important for Israel and the Palestinians to have this peace talk, however, “nice” Palestinians live in Gaza and all around Israel, but there also Palestinian terrorist, such as Hamas. Hamas are terrorists who control Gaza and making peace with the Palestinians will not help because Hamas do not want peace, they want to conquer Israel. What I found most interesting is how bias this article was because it was defending the Palestinians and saying that Israel should stop these settlements, which I think is incorrect because no one can talk peace with terrorists, and a terrorist group controls Gaza.

Was it a good decision for Stanley to explore with men who had no experience as travelers? Why or why not?

The decision of Stanley to explore Africa with an inexperienced crew was a poor decision because the journey through Africa was very treacherous and demanding, and through the extremely dangerous voyage, many travelers that were with Stanley lost their lives due to multiple causes. Stanley’s journey through Africa consisted of them traveling through the “entire African continent, from east to west. But unlike Verney Lovett Cameron, the only European to do this before him, [Stanley] had emerged at the Congo’s mouth. He must therefore have followed the river itself, becoming the first white man to chart its course and to solve the mystery of where it came from” (48). This journey was a difficult journey for anyone to travel, especially if the crewmembers were inexperienced, such as the travelers on Stanley’s brigade. Their difficult journey across Africa consisted of destroying multiple villages and towns, but came at the price of losing many hundreds of his crewmembers (49). With experienced men, Stanley would not have lost as many men while in combat with the other villages because experienced travelers would have known how to fight correctly with the correct weapons. During his journey, his crew also had to travel down rapids that Stanley called the “Stanley Rapids.” This could have led to many more deaths in his crew because the travelers were not experienced enough with canoeing in fast rapids with rocks (54, 55). After they concluded canoeing, many people died from starvation, and one member ran in the woods because he grew insane (56). With experienced canoe travelers, Stanley could have reduced the death toll when he passed through the deadly rapids because the experienced canoe travelers would have known how to correctly handle the fast rapids and maneuver between the deadly rocks. Throughout Stanley’s journey, many of his men died do to “festering wounds, dysentery, smallpox, or typhus” (56). In order to minimize the death toll due to these diseases, Stanley should have brought with him doctors because they would have been able to treat these diseases and could have decreased the death toll. Through the death toll reaching hundreds of deaths in Stanley’s brigade, he should have reconsidered bringing more experienced travelers as they explored Africa because it could have decreased the death toll.

3 quotes

LEOPOLD - " 'Leopold is subtle and sly,'... 'He never takes a chance. The other day... I watched a fox which wanted to cross a stream unobserved: first of all he dipped a paw carefully to see how deep it was, and then, with a thousand precautions, very slowly he made his way across. That is Leopold' " (34).

This quote demonstrates how someone has described Leopold as being very fox-like, which is an interesting trait to have and which, I believe, will be an important characteristic that will be exemplified throughout the rest of the book.

STANLEY – “… for Stanley, continual combat was always part of exploring. He never bothered to count the dead that the expedition left behind it…” (49).

This quote demonstrates how Stanley only looked out for himself and never really cared for other people other than himself. It turned out that he ended up losing hundreds of men during his expedition.

“[Leopold] was an ungainly, haughty young man whom his first cousin Queen Victoria of England thought ‘very odd’ and in the habit of ‘saying disagreeable things to people’” (35).

This quote is confusing because it does not explain thoroughly why the Queen thought Leopold was “odd.” What Hochschild should have done is that he should have given a more detailed explanation for why the Queen thought that of Leopold, rather than just two characteristics.

Introduction/Prologue/Chapter 1 reactions and questions

“One wrote to the king of Portugal that Affonso ‘knows better than us the prophets, the Gospel of our Savior Jesus Christ…He speaks so well and with such assurance that it always seems to me that the Holy Spirit speaks through his mouth. My Lord, he does nothing but study…’” (12). This is a good quote that sets up the rest of the prologue because it discusses how Affonso, the leader of the Kongo, was very knowledgeable. It is important to be knowledgeable because Affonso needed to know the concepts of trade. The concepts of trade are important to understand because Affonso had to trade with Europe. The trade with Europe consisted of trading Slaves to Europe and Europe trading jewelry, cloth, tools, and more to the Kongo. This trade continued throughout Affonso’s rule in the Kongo, but once he died, the power of the Kongo weakened. Affonso’s rule over the Kongo brought new goods to Africa, but payed the price by trading his people.

My two questions for the introduction/prologue/chapter one are:

Did the Portuguese travelers know that when they landed in Brazil that it was not the Congo?

Was slavery different in Africa from Europe?

class thoughts 9/2

Today I learned the elements of SPICER, the difference between and definition of imperialism and colonialism, and that there was a new and old imperialism. The questions that I have are how does all the European influences are seen in the US society. I am curious to learn more about the influence of Europe in other countries.