First Reading

"Statistics about mass murder are often hard to prove. but if this number turned out to be even half as high, I thought, the Congo would have been one of the major killing grounds of modern times"(3).

This quote sets up what we will read in the rest of the book. It will discuss how the European countries came into the Congo, nearly causing a genocide. It is set up to show the harsh and cruel ways of imperialism. Africans were not being helped by imperialism but were only being abused according to Hochschild. Many Africans lost their live due to the selfishness of imperialist leaders.

Will this book discuss any good that came out of imperialism for Africans? Was there any good?

Is this book to solely demonstrate the negatives and immorality of European imperialists in the Congo?

Michael Kissell