The difference between the financial situation in Congo and Belgium

The width represents years while the height represents thousands of dollars. (“GDP per Capita (Current US$) - Congo, Dem. Rep., Belgium”)

This chart shows the different economic situations between Congo and Belgium. Belgium had invaded Congo and extracted labor from 1908 to 1960 by justifying that it was a civilizing mission. At first, Leopold II performed the project of invasion to obtain natural resources such as gold, rubber, diamonds, and cobalt. Notably, the rubber trade is well known for its atrocity because the Belgian soldiers cut Congolese’s hands if they could not meet a quota. After the Congo’s independence, the situation of two different countries was very different. The first chart, the economic situation in the Democratic Republic of Congo, fluctuates widely and it could be readily recognized its varies. However, in the second chart, the blue line, which shows in the first chart, seems like a straight line, and the green line, the GDP of Belgium, widely fluctuated. This is why these results are shown in the chart because of the inextricable gap. In other words, this invasion cannot be recognized as a civilizing mission and it also shows that the colonization significantly had a bad influence upon the Congo (“Belgian Congo”).