Message:

<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Cachecoins, post: 8093335, member: 111237&quot;]The quotes should be around the Belgian Congo. It was the Congo Free State. The Belgian government didn&#039;t buy in to his project until they were forced by international pressure to relieve him of it. Most of those countries also profited from the colony.</p><p><br /></p><p>Also, there is no way of knowing how many people died during that time in the Congo. There was no census taken until after the Belgian government took control thus there was no way of knowing how many people lived and died there. To make a statement like &quot;20 million perished&quot; during those years is highly misleading mainly because it is based on pure conjecture. Not only is there no way of knowing how many people died there during that time, there was many ways to die in the Congo then and now and Europeans only had effective control of a small portion of that land.</p><p><br /></p><p>I could just as easily say that &quot;30 million people perished during the Obama presidency&quot; and leave it at that. Difference is we have records to back that up and we know how most of them died.</p><p><br /></p><p>Don&#039;t get me wrong, I am not an apologist for Leopold. Whatever happened there rests at his feet and there is no doubt that serious crimes against humanity happened there....that phrase was derived by by George Washington Williams&nbsp; just to describe what he saw there.</p><p><br /></p><p>I simply think it is important that history is not distorted. Most people who have studied and researched the Congo Free State have concluded the same thing...numbers are just a wild guess. Maybe some day we will have a better idea. But what we DO know is damning enough.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

Your name or email address:

Do you already have an account?

• No, create an account now.
• Yes, my password is:
• Forgot your password?

Stay logged in