The word imperialism conjures many images and thoughts while pondering the word in the context of history. A formal definition of imperialism is that it is a “term associated with the expansion of European powers and their conquest and colonization of African and Asian societies”1. In the context of Heart of Darkness, written by Joseph Conrad the definition of imperialism can be refined to a “process of extending one state’s control over another”2 along the Congo River region or can also be called new imperialism. The main character, Marlow’s, experiences with the Trading Company, fellow Europeans and Kurtz (another character) provides an indictment and successful criticism of late 19th century and early 20th century European imperialism in Africa.
One of the criticisms expressed in Heart of Darkness is the behavior of the trading company described by Marlow as “a Continental concern, that Trading society”3. The source of Marlow’s opinions about the company and country can be explained by Joseph Conrad’s (the author) personal experiences with a “Belgian [trading] company in the Congo Free State.”4 The Congo River basin was producing excess riches for the Trading concerns along with enriching King Leopold II. In other words, Europeans were consumed in a mad pursuit of riches regardless to the outcome on the indigenous people and regions. The description by Marlow about the physical structure of the home offices and the city in general can be construed as a metaphor to imply excess riches. Marlow says: “I arrived in a city that always makes me think of a whited sepulchre… I had no difficulty in finding the Company’s offices. It was the biggest thing in the town, and everybody I met was full of it. They were going to run an over-sea empire, and make no end of coin by trade.”5
An additional example in the story is when Marlow meets the chief executive (modern term) and ponders to himself: “the great man himself…and had his grip on the handle-end of ever so many millions.”6 The afterward notes suggest that when Conrad was writing about the “great man” he was recalling his interview with the head of the Societe Anonyme du Haut-Congo who report to the King of Belgium.”7
A third example of Conrad’s criticism on the company behavior is found near the conclusion of Marlow’s journey and his conversation with a company man. Upon Marlow’s return to Belgium due to illness he contracted in Africa, he describes a visit by a representative from the company who anxious to get Mr. Kurtz’s documents. Marlow describes him as “a clean-shaved man, with an official manner…at first circuitous, afterwards suavely pressing, about what he was pleased to denominate certain documents.”8 In other words, an officious representative from the trading company visited Marlow at his aunt’s claiming to be interested in his recovery and experiences but really all wanted was to get Kurtz’s paper.
Marlow’s interactions with fellow Europeans in Africa provide more evidence or criticism of European imperialism by Conrad. After Marlow had arrived in Africa and made his way to the central station, he had observations about the type of men at the Central Station. Marlow shows his distaste in the following comments saying: “They beguiled the time by backbiting and intriguing against each other in a foolish kind of way. There was an air of plotting about that station, but nothing came of it, of course. It was unreal as everything else—as the philanthropic pretence of the concern, as their talk, as their government, appointed to a trading-post where ivory was found, so that they could earn percentages. They intrigued and slandered and hated each other only on that account—but as to effectually lifting a little finger”9 In other words, Marlow felt that the men at the station were not good for much and seem to signify many of the type of Europeans he had run into.
The talk and whispering about Kurtz which Marlow had heard, “he [Kurtz] had collected, bartered, swindled, or stolen more ivory than all other agents together.”10 The thought behind the statement is mind bending, not the fact he was more successful than any other agent but rather the implication of normal business operation procedures was to collect, barter, swindle and steal. As Marlow continues to shares his tale, he talks of how he heard Kurtz say near the end of his life as he was passing away on the boat, “My ivory. Oh yes, I heard him. My intended, my ivory, my station, my river, my— everything belonged to him.”11
Kurtz’s writings on behalf of the “International Society for the Suppression of Savage Customs”12 were a representation by Conrad to give a critique of agencies founded by King Leopold. End note 21 shares that the King of Belgium, Leopold “devised a number of similarly high-sounding organizations to keep up the fiction that Belgium’s interest in the Congo was philanthropic or scientific.”13 Marlow shares what he read on the documents. The material provides further evidence of how the story is a criticism of European imperialism. It says: “ He [Kurtz] began with the argument that we whites, from the point of development we had arrived at, ‘must necessarily seem to them [savages] in the nature of supernatural beings—we approach them with the might as of a deity,’ and so on, and so on. ‘By the simple exercise of our will we can exert a power for good practically unbounded,’ etc., etc.”14
Kurtz words are shocking when considered with 21st century values. Such comments and beliefs would be considered racist by 21st century values but as a history student they need to be judged based on Conrad’s values and the time period he lived. It was not racist but rather an indictment of Europe’s imperialist attitudes and behavior.
At the beginning of the essay definitions were provided for the world imperialism to introduce the conversation about how Marlow’s experiences make a case against European “new” imperialism. So in conclusion it can be stated that Marlow’s story of his travels first to Belgium to Africa up the Congo River and eventually back to Belgium give a critical window view into the imperialist activities of the period. Heart of Darkness specifically documents via a fiction story the Belgian form of imperialism but a discerning person can understand how Great Britain and India, France and Indochina, Spain and Cuba, and United States and the Philippines all probably had their own version of companies and Kurtz’s to the detriment of the indigenous populations.
1 Jerry H Bentley, Traditions & Encounters A Brief Global History (Boston: McGraw Hill), p. G-6.
2 Judith G Coffin, Western Civilizations (New York: W.W. Norton), p. 588.
3 Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness (London: Penguin Classics), p. 9.
4 Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness Introduction (London: Penguin Classics), p. xiv.
5 Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness (London: Penguin Classics), p. 11.
6 Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness (London: Penguin Classics), p. 12.
7 Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness (London: Penguin Classics), p. 121.
8 Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness (London: Penguin Classics), p. 89.
9 Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness (London: Penguin Classics), p. 29.
10 Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness (London: Penguin Classics), p. 58.
11 Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness (London: Penguin Classics), p. 60.
12 Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness (London: Penguin Classics), p. 61.
13 Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness (London: Penguin Classics), p. 128.
14 Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness (London: Penguin Classics), p. 61.
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