AMERICAN IMPERIALISM 1890 1919
END OF WWI
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Question
[CLICK ON ANY CHOICE TO KNOW THE RIGHT ANSWER]
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They were immediately killed
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They were made into slaves
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Their hand was cut off
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Their children were taken
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Detailed explanation-1: -Several survivors later said that they had lived through a massacre by acting dead, not moving even when their hands were severed, and waiting till the soldiers left before seeking help.
Detailed explanation-2: -In the Congo Free State, Congolese hands were sys-tematically amputated when enslaved Africans failed to meet quotas for extract-ing rubber. Belgian colonists collected and smoked these severed hands to preserve them for later counting and recording.
Detailed explanation-3: -Leopold’s reign over the Congo Free State, however, has become infamous for its brutality. The people of the Congo were forced to labor for valued resources, including rubber and ivory, to personally enrich Leopold. Estimates vary, but about half the Congolese population died from punishment and malnutrition.
Detailed explanation-4: -Finally, indignation among people in Britain and other parts of Europe grew so great that Leopold was forced to transfer his authority in the Congo to the Belgian government. In 1908 the Congo Free State was abolished and replaced by the Belgian Congo, a colony controlled by the Belgian parliament.