The spirit of King Leopold

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King Leopold's Ghost - a book by American journalist Adam Hochschild of 1999 about one of the greatest genocides in history that took place at the turn of the century XIX and XX in the Free State of Congo. The book was given to Mark Lynton History Prize and Duff Cooper Prize and became the basis for the 2006 documentary, directed by Pippy Scott. The Spirit ... is the most important, next to Joseph Conrad's Darkness, a book that deals with these events.

The hero of the book is Leopold II, the king of Belgium, whose reign was the actual colonization of Congo and whose Free Congo state was private property. As a result of the brutality of the colonists, more than 10 million people died. The story of greed, terror and heroism in colonial Africa: greed - because the cause of colonization was the desire to win ivory and rubber, the terror of colonists and the heroism of brave people who could stand up to tyranny, led by British Edmund Dene Morel, He founded one of the first human rights defenses.

Polish edition, translated by Piotr Tarczyński, pt. The spirit of King Leopold. The story of greed, terror and heroism in colonial Africa (ISBN 978-83-7799-498-6) was published in 2012 by the publisher of World Books in the Sphere series.

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