Chapter 20- Colonial Encounters

I hope everyone in class.... do their blog tonight or tomorrow, I wouldn't like to take a quiz just because someone didn't do the blog. Before reading the chapter, I skim through it, I remember from looking at a picture two young boys with chopped off from hand from one arm only. Not without looking at the title of picture or section, I knew it was something that was taking place in the Congo area. I was surprise I remember something from my high school history class, to be honest I didn't really pay to much attention. I don't understand how people can harm someone without any feeling of regret, pain, or guilt. In the caption is given an explanation "These young boys with severed hands were among the victims of a brutal regime of forced labor and undertaken in the Congo during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Such mutilation was punishment for their villages' inability to supply the required amount of wild rubber." (Strayer,p.600).

The section that got my attention is about economies = forced labor and the power of the state. Taking over a colony just not for the better of THEIR SOCIETY but the for the conqueror, that just looks bad for that particular country. Many might think the British were the invader of Africa when it was also, other European countries. One of the survivor from Congo, describing the scary life living in Congo under the Belgium. The testimony is a little bit long, the end of the testimony for me is the most important, "When we failed and our rubber was short, the soldiers came to our towns and killed us. Many were shot, some had their ears cut off; others were tied up with ropes round their necks and taken away." (Strayer,p.599). This goes back with the picture I saw before even reading the chapter, it proofs that this wasn't a lie a African man was saying to make the white men look bad, it was a reality and I do believe the people in the Congo never thought that a white men can be a good person. Since, the white men represent themselves through their actions of violence.

In my opinion the colonial invasion was a form of slavery. European countries going to their homeland, demanding, harming and controlling over the people. Forcing them to do labor without any pay or rights, I understand some of the material goods aren't available in Europe. There are more positive ways of solving that issue, for sure not going around and committing violent acts to other human beings. Making agreements and talking in peace can solve the problem, plus positive outcomes could had happen for both countries.