Congo Free State Part 1: Prelude to Catastrophe

In the mid-19th century, new technological advances and the emergence of large industrial economies usher in the age of ‘New Imperialism.’ As the world’s ‘great powers’ search for new territories to conquer, their eyes turn towards a region previously thought to be uninhabitable: Sub-Saharan Africa. 

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Bibliography

Ascherson, Neal. The King Incorporated: Leopold the Second and the Congo. Granta Books, 1963. 

O’Siochain, Seamas and O’Sullivan, Michael. The Eyes of Another Race: Roger Casement’s Congo Report and 1903 Diary. University College Dublin Press, 2003.

Conrad, Joseph. Heart of Darkness. Penguin Books, 2007. 

Hochschild, Adam. King Leopold’s Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa. Mariner Books, 2020. 

Pakenham, Thomas. The Scramble for Africa: White Man’s Conquest of the Dark Continent from 1876 to 1912. Perennial, 2003.

Rutz, Michael. King Leopold’s Congo and the ‘Scramble for Africa:’ a Short History with Documents. Hackett Publishing Co. Inc, 2018

Cover Image: Satirical cartoon appearing in a November 1906 edition of the British magazine "Punch" depicting Leopold II as a snake attacking a Congolese man.

Opening Theme: Symphony No. 9 in E minor, "From the New World", Op. 95, B. 178 by Antonín Dvořák

Closing Theme: Central African tribal chant, date of recording unknown.