A woman punished by colonizers in the Congo in 1882. Her hands were shackled, her neck was tied to a stake by ropes, and her thigh was brutally pierced with a long arrow.
This uncomfortable photo was taken by a British journalist named Morrell, what kind of social environment was Congo in? Why did this woman suffer so much?
In 1874, British explorer Stanley arrived in the Congo, and Stanley was excited by the vast rubber forests, abundant gold mines, and the ivory of wild elephants, all of which meant endless wealth, and the locals were still in the primitive tribal stage.
Back in England, he proposed a plan to develop the Congo to the British government, but was rejected, but the news spread to the ears of King Leopold II of Belgium, who immediately approached Stanley and asked him about the Congo.
After some negotiation, Leopold reached an agreement with Stanley, who provided development funds to Stanley, who organized a group of outlaws and set out on the road to the Congo.
After five years of "struggle", Stanley used deception and force to force chiefs across the Congo to sign more than 450 "protective" treaties and establish numerous trading posts and strongholds.
Subsequently, Leopold sent people to the Congo and established an organization called the "Congo International Association", which aims to build a civilized society for the Congo, and in fact is the spokesperson for colonizing the Congo and plundering wealth.
Stanley also did his duty to King Leopold, luring the local chiefs and transferring large amounts of land to him on the terms of exploiting local resources and abolishing the slave trade.
When these conditions were ripe, the colonists finally tore off the mask of hypocrisy and established the "Congo Free State", which began to cruelly exploit and enslave the local people, holding women and children hostage, and forcing men to work as coolies to extract resources for them.
The woman in the photo is named Galti, whose entire family has been occupied by the colonists, and losing their home means that they cannot survive, and they have to work on the colonizers' rubber plantations.
Once Galti's husband was unable to work on time due to illness, and the colonists killed his daughter in front of her and ate Galti's mother and sisters as food!
Such heinous cruelty made Galti and her husband live in endless fear all day long, and they finally mustered up the courage to escape from the rubber plantation, even if they starved to death, and did not want to be enslaved by the inhumans.
Without time to plan in detail, Galti and her husband ran out of the rubber plantation while the guards were lax, but their escape was soon discovered, and the colonists chased them all the way and captured them, her husband was hung up for public display, and Galti was tied to a stake and pierced her thigh with a sharp arrow.
And that wasn't the end of it, the unhappy colonists dragged Galty out again, and in front of her husband, took turns whipping her with a leather whip for a full hour, and Galti eventually died in agony.
Such a scene was commonplace under Leopold's colonial rule, and many Congolese would have their hands and feet cut off and tortured until they died if they did the slightest act that did not conform to the wishes of the colonizers, even if they were children, and Leopold's colonization of the Congo became one of the most notorious colonial rules in Western colonial history.
According to statistics, about 3 million Congolese died from the atrocities of the colonists, and Leopold tried his best to hide the situation in the colonies, but the real tragedy of the Congo was recorded and reported through the media, so that the world could understand the crimes that happened in this part of Africa.
Historically, Congo has been colonized by France, Britain, Portugal, Belgium and other countries, the most brutal of which is the rule of Leopold II of Belgium.
Since 1926, the Congolese independence movement has sprung up one after another, especially after the Second World War, the Congolese people, under the leadership of nationalist parties such as the Congolese Progress Party, have carried out a targeted and organized struggle for national independence.
In 1960, Congo finally declared independence, but due to the historical impact of long-term colonial rule, it is difficult to eliminate in a short period of time, there are many contradictions between tribes and regions, and the political situation in the Congo has always been unstable, even today, the Congolese economy is still very backward.
Colonial rule is an extremely dark page in world history, but also many Western countries to grab the first pot of gold, even if it has become history, but does not mean that these crimes have not happened, friends, for colonial rule, what are your thoughts, welcome to leave a message, discuss together.
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