Challenge: Colonial equalisation

Well yes, but you can't blame a country for something just because it's being done by some of their nationals without their backing or full knowledge of the extent or scope.

I'd also add that people from multiple nationalities worked in the Congo as slavers and such.

I'd argue it's slightly different since Leopold was Head of State. The actions of regular citizens outside of a state's control aren't the state's fault, I don't know about government officials.
 
I'd argue it's slightly different since Leopold was Head of State. The actions of regular citizens outside of a state's control aren't the state's fault, I don't know about government officials.

I was meaning the people working there, not Leopold himself, though of course in cases where someone is Monarch of multiple places it's not really fair to blame all of them, I mean you could'nt blame the Kingdom of Hanover for something Britain did just because they shared the same Monarch.
 
The Belgians did'nt; the Congo was originally a legally independent polity with the King of Belgium as its absolute Monarch and said King is the one responsible for the atrocities in the Congo, not the Belgian state, which for its part immediately passed laws stripping the King of his power and annexing the Congo to try and stop it when the full scope of what was going on became known to Europe.
While the Belgian Congo was less horrific than it had been under the Congo Free State, the Belgians remained terrible colonial overlords, even given the competition. The Belgian approach to colonialism and decolonization were both hideously exploitative and unrealistic ("Wait, we have to plan for independence? Can't we just continue ruling you forever? Fine, we'll give you independence in the 1980s...wait that's too long? Fine, you're independent now. Too bad no one in the country has any education at all!"

There's a reason most of the former British or French colonies have turned out like Kenya or Senegal (poor, prone to occasional violence, not shining examples of democracy, but not complete and total disaster areas) while the former Belgian colonies have all become the poster-children for post-colonial Africa's worse problems. When the most successful of them is best remembered for having had a notorious genocide less than 20 years ago...
 
While the Belgian Congo was less horrific than it had been under the Congo Free State, the Belgians remained terrible colonial overlords, even given the competition. The Belgian approach to colonialism and decolonization were both hideously exploitative and unrealistic ("Wait, we have to plan for independence? Can't we just continue ruling you forever? Fine, we'll give you independence in the 1980s...wait that's too long? Fine, you're independent now. Too bad no one in the country has any education at all!"

Yes, and that's what all the European powers thoght until the 60's, it was'nt unique to Belgium, also the stuff in Congo right after independence was not just of Belgian origin, the Portuguese and British played a major role in that.


There's a reason most of the former British or French colonies have turned out like Kenya or Senegal (poor, prone to occasional violence, not shining examples of democracy, but not complete and total disaster areas)

Senegal is'nt prone to violence and it's been a democracy for decades, and evenback when it was'nt it still had elections and those in power actually id have the countries interests at heart, on the other hand Kenya does have periods of ethnic and political violence (though they tend to be very short) and did'nt start to democratize until the later 90's; you really can't compare the two.



while the former Belgian colonies have all become the poster-children for post-colonial Africa's worse problems. When the most successful of them is best remembered for having had a notorious genocide less than 20 years ago...

Rwanda and Burundi's problems started far before they were part of Belgium, which they did'nt even become part of until 1924 (though under military occupation from 1916) and were treated differently from Congo.
 
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