this post was submitted on 16 Jul 2024
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It' also way too easy to blame the country as a whole. We're talking 120 years ago, people mostly had to believe what they were told. The availability of most information was non-existent, and lots of people were illiterate. You might think that lots op people live in echo chambers today, but back then the church told you how you should behave and that was it.
.... This was Belgium, not a backwater shithole. It was one of the richest countries in the world, the illiteracy rate was already very low. The enlightenment was two centuries prior and Belgium was very much part of it.
The individual baker who never set foot in the Congo may not be personally responsible, but there definitely is a collective responsibility from the population. Like I said, this was reported on and I am sure that if you go back you will find all the major newspapers reported on it long before the Belgian government took back control. It was just politically convenient for most to ignore Leopold II's exactions.