Introduction | Barbarism
Holocaust and apartheid | Revolution
Liberation | Did you know? | Find out more

Barbarism

At the start of the century, imperialism was a major exemplar of how rich European nations oppressed poorer and less well-developed countries, mainly in Africa, Asia and Central and South America. Often, this resulted in barbaric practices.

One of the most horrifying examples of colonial rule occurred in the Belgian Congo in the first decade of the 20th century. In 1881-85, the Belgian king Leopold II had initiated the colonisation of the Congo (Zaïre), his agents signing treaties with more than 400 local chiefs. The king subsequently treated the region as his personal property.

Leopold insisted that the cost of exploiting the country's mineral wealth should be borne by the colony itself. European companies, invited to avail themselves of the area's natural resources, were allowed to force the local population to work for them. Anyone who resisted was horribly mutilated – photographs show local people with their hands and feet cut off. When this became known in Europe, a huge public outcry forced the Belgian parliament to take control of the region, which was renamed Belgian Congo, in 1908.

The national liberation struggles of colonised peoples all over the world – a process known as decolonisation – forms an important strand in the history of the 20th century.

Top