Political Ecology
Displaced citizens in the Congo. Photo credit: Njtoday.net Explaining the relationship between the political climate of the Congo and its environmental issues can be examined from a political ecology perspective. The Congo has dealt with a long history of corruption that dates back to when European exploration first began in the 19th century. For the intents of discussing the abuses against the Congo's rural inhabitants, it is essential to discuss the claiming of the region by King Leopold II of Belgium throughout the late 1800s and early 1900s. Though the king never visited the Congo himself, he was the head of an industrial operation meant to gain wealth with no intention of repayment, leading to two decades of enslavement and bloodshed (Hochschild 1998, 4-5). Leopold's representatives forced countless Congolese to collect resources such as ivory and rubber; if they did not oblige, they risked being tortured, raped, or killed, among other atrocities. Village chiefs, who...
