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The Case for Colonialism: A Response to My Critics

Book by Bruce Gilley · 2 quotes · Congo, Leopold Ii, Belgisch Congo

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The Case for Colonialism: A Response to My Critics Quotes

“King Leopold’s private fiefdom in the Congo was precisely the counterfactual to colonial rule and the best argument for colonialism. His inability to control his native rubber agents who continued their pre-colonial business of slave-trading and coercive rubber harvesting showed the problems that would arise if European freelancers allied with native warlords and slave-traders to establish regimes with no outside scrutiny.”

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Book:The Case for Colonialism: A Response to My Critics
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“The report quotes an earlier report on the Belgian Congo of 1919 which claimed that the population “has been reduced one-half.” It quotes this claim in order to state that it is almost certainly false. That is because population estimates for the Belgian Congo varied widely and remained pure guesswork. They were of “little value in drawing any precise conclusions.” The only firm conclusion it reached was that population was not increasing. The causes were multiple, including sleeping sickness, inter-tribal warfare, poor nutrition, female trafficking, polygamy, and the working conditions for men in European industrial and commercial enterprises.”

GenocideColonialismLeopold IiBelgian Colonialism
Book:The Case for Colonialism: A Response to My Critics
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