Sunday, May 07, 2006
Antwerp and history
Saturday we made a day trip to Antwerp. Its a 40 min., 13Euro (round trip for 2) ride that ends up at the second largest port in Europe on the river Scheldt. Once you leave the train you (and a thousand other people) walk up Rue Meir to the old city. This is a very long shopping street. Among the other main attractions to Antwerp are the Cathedral of Our Lady (built 14th - 16th century), one of the world's oldest zoos at Antwerp Zoo, and its history as a global trade center for centuries (a long time ago). Antwerp has switched hands many times over the years, as has much of Belgium. It was a tax grab for the Dutch as merchants were using this port to enter Europe and one of Napoleon's prized possessions as a strong hold against Britain in the 18th century, calling it "a rifle pointed at Britain". The city's main source of wealth and power over the years has been its control over the European diamond market.
Because are internet is currently under sanctions (we exceeded our traffic limit last month) I will not be posting images of our day in Antwerp until Thursday. (Thursday I may also have some news on a famous visitor we will have in our office this week.) So in place of pictures I will give an introduction to a darker side to Belgium's history. Though the country has been controlled by the French, Dutch, English, Germans,... over and over again, it has had control over other countries of its own:
King Leopold II (April 9, 1835 - December 17, 1909) helped make Belgium a rich country in the late 1800's on the backs of the rubber factory he built out of the country of the Congo. The people and governmement of Belgium were not interested in acquiring external property so in 1876 he organized a private holding company disguised as an international scientific and philanthropic association. The Congo Free State was King Leopold II's personal property from 1885 until its annexation by Belgium in 1908. Average estimates of the death toll are 8.5million people, or half the countries population. (The range is 5 to 15million)
The situation in the congo was brought to public light in works by Mark Twain, Arthur Conan Doyle, and "Heart of Darkness" by Joseph Conrad, etc. The most famous factual story (with some embellishment) is the book King Leopold's Ghost by Adam Hochschild. There are some recent works produced by BBC and others.
Vachel Lindsay wrote, based on the tradition of cutting off a hand of the people in entire villages:
"Listen to the yell of Leopold's ghost
Burning in Hell for his hand-maimed host
Hear how the demons chuckle and yell
Cutting his hands off, down in Hell."
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Because are internet is currently under sanctions (we exceeded our traffic limit last month) I will not be posting images of our day in Antwerp until Thursday. (Thursday I may also have some news on a famous visitor we will have in our office this week.) So in place of pictures I will give an introduction to a darker side to Belgium's history. Though the country has been controlled by the French, Dutch, English, Germans,... over and over again, it has had control over other countries of its own:
King Leopold II (April 9, 1835 - December 17, 1909) helped make Belgium a rich country in the late 1800's on the backs of the rubber factory he built out of the country of the Congo. The people and governmement of Belgium were not interested in acquiring external property so in 1876 he organized a private holding company disguised as an international scientific and philanthropic association. The Congo Free State was King Leopold II's personal property from 1885 until its annexation by Belgium in 1908. Average estimates of the death toll are 8.5million people, or half the countries population. (The range is 5 to 15million)
The situation in the congo was brought to public light in works by Mark Twain, Arthur Conan Doyle, and "Heart of Darkness" by Joseph Conrad, etc. The most famous factual story (with some embellishment) is the book King Leopold's Ghost by Adam Hochschild. There are some recent works produced by BBC and others.
Vachel Lindsay wrote, based on the tradition of cutting off a hand of the people in entire villages:
"Listen to the yell of Leopold's ghost
Burning in Hell for his hand-maimed host
Hear how the demons chuckle and yell
Cutting his hands off, down in Hell."
# posted by Us : 4:08 p.m.
Hangman
