Mutilated children from the Congo Free State A Congolese man looking at the hand and foot of his daughter Cartoon criticizing Leopold’s rule I’ll give the last word to one of Leopold’s contemporaries. It’s no wonder that Mark Twain wrote, In fourteen years Leopold has deliberately destroyed more lives than have suffered death on all […]
Tag: Great Britain
Malaria and Sugar in the Caribbean
My last blog entry began the story of how sugar, malaria, and the Columbian Exchange resulted in the living hell of slavery flourishing in the Caribbean. I described the economic reasons why this took place. Today we’ll examine some more implications of this development. It involves the combination of malaria and sugar. To read previous […]
The Values of Manifest Destiny, Part 2
In my last post, (click here to read) I laid out the values of Manifest Destiny. Hopefully, I made the case that it was among the most influential doctrines put forward in US history. Today, I’d like to show how the values of Manifest Destiny interacted with some other events in American history. I’ve already […]
Edmund Morel and the Belgian Congo
Today I’d like to introduce everyone to one of my new favorite people in history. His name is Edmund Morel, and he ranks among the most heroic figures in the sordid history of the Belgian Congo. Edmund Morel shouldn’t be a historical figure at all. He was a clerk in a shipping company named Elder […]
Real Pirates of the Caribbean
The Battle of New Orleans, fought in January 1815, remains an important conflict in American history. Interestingly, however, the importance is not in its military consequences, considering that the battle itself occurred about three weeks after the War of 1812 was over. (The peace treaty was signed in Europe, and in 1815, news traveled only […]