"The Tragedy of Liberation: A History of the Chinese Revolution 1945-1957" (Frank Dikötter)

Comments · 34

• PO

  @Polynoe · 6 years ago

  You know you’re bad news when Stalin is telling you to pump the breaks on collectivization. Thank you for making this event possible and for sharing the video with the web! Frank Dikötter is a great historian.

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• TI

  @Time4View · 9 years ago (edited)

  Great work. Thank you🙏

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• PR

  @PRIYASUHASCHITNIS · 1 year ago

  Completely agree .

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• SC

  @ScottOstr · 12 years ago

  While watching China Rising on Hulu and I was blown away that the Americans supported the Communist Chinese during WW2 supposedly because they were more organized. This explains the rest of that story. Thank you.

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• RU

  @ruslilim4101 · 3 months ago

  Here’s the translation into English, following your text exactly:<br><br><i>Fighting Historical Amnesia</i> <br><br><i>VOL.6</i> <br><br>BELGIA<br><br>Cruelty, Forced Labor, Torture, Slavery, Divide and Conquer, Murder, Amputated Hands, Plunder of Natural Resources by Belgian King Leopold II and the Belgian State in Africa and China.<br><br>The cunning of the Belgian Parliament shifting responsibility to their King<br>While the Belgian people as soldiers.<br><br>Casualties according to history around 10 million people died including Amputated Hand Cutting.<br><br><i>1. Belgian Colonization: &quot;Free Congo&quot; → &quot;Belgian Congo&quot; 1885-1960</i><br>Belgium only became a country in 1830. Its king, Leopold II, was ambitious to have colonies like Britain/France. <br><br><i>1885-1908: Congo Free State</i> <br>This was not a Belgian colony, but the &quot;private property&quot; of King Leopold II. It was 76x the size of Belgium. <br><br>Official purpose: &quot;bring civilization + abolish Arab slavery&quot;. <br>Reality: became a giant rubber + ivory company.<br><br><i>1908-1960: Belgian Congo</i> <br>Because of international pressure about the cruelty, Belgium officially took over from Leopold II. The name changed to Belgian Congo. This colony was released on 30 June 1960 to become the Republic of Congo/Zaire.<br><br>Belgium also had other small colonies: Rwanda-Burundi 1916-1962, plus concessions in Tianjin, China.<br><br><i>2. Forms of cruelty &amp; system used</i><br>Historians call the 1885-1908 period the most brutal. Sources from missionary reports, photos, and the Belgian Commission of Inquiry 1904:<br><br><i>Forced labor &amp; rubber quotas</i><br>Every village was required to hand over raw rubber to the company. There were quotas. If the quota was not met → hands were cut off, villages burned, hostages taken. This &quot;amputated hands&quot; system is the most famous. <br><br><i>Torture &amp; violence</i><br>The private army Force Publique enforced quotas with the chicotte whip, prisons, executions. Villages that resisted were punished collectively. <br><br><i>Modern-style slavery</i><br>Even though &quot;slavery was abolished&quot;, the forced labor system + taking wives/children as hostages meant people couldn’t refuse. Children were separated from parents to work at mission stations.<br><br><i>Divide and Conquer / Divide et Impera</i><br>Belgium used the identity system &quot;Hutu vs Tutsi&quot; in Rwanda-Burundi. ID cards were stamped with ethnicity, certain groups were given more education + positions. This left wounds of conflict up to the 1994 Rwanda genocide.<br><br><i>Plunder of natural resources</i><br>Rubber, elephant ivory, copper, diamonds, gold from Congo were taken to Belgium. Profits went to Leopold II’s treasury first, then the Belgian state treasury. Infrastructure was built, but the focus was railways + ports to transport natural resources, not schools/hospitals for local people.<br><br><i>3. Impact on number of victims</i><br>This is still debated by historians because census data doesn’t exist. <br>Adam Hochschild in the book <i>King Leopold&apos;s Ghost</i> 1998 estimated 10 million people died from violence, famine, disease during the Congo Free State. <br>Other historians say the exact number cannot be calculated, but a &quot;large population decline&quot; was acknowledged by the Belgian Commission itself in 1919. Sleeping sickness + smallpox also spread because of forced labor.<br><br><i>4. Belgium’s stance now</i><br>1. _2002_: PM Guy Verhoftadt apologized for Belgium’s role in the murder of Congo PM Patrice Lumumba in 1961.<br>2. _2020_: King Philippe sent a letter to the Congo President, &quot;regretting wounds of the past&quot; but did not use the words &quot;official apology&quot;.<br>3. _2022_: Many statues of Leopold II were taken down in Belgium. The Africa Museum in Tervuren was renovated so the narrative is more critical.<br>4. _Return of artifacts_: Belgium began returning Congolese cultural objects.<br><br>Bottom line: the 1885-1908 phase under Leopold II was the most brutal because the motive was purely private economic gain without oversight. The 1908-1960 phase was more &quot;classic colonialism&quot; like France/Britain: still exploitative but mass violence decreased because there was international oversight.<br><br>Do you want me to explain any part in more detail? For example how the rubber work system worked, or its impact on Rwanda-Burundi?<br><br><i>1. How long was Congo colonized by Belgium after the parliament took over?</i><br><br><i>1908 - 30 June 1960 = 52 years</i> <br>That was the era called &quot;Belgian Congo / Belgisch Congo&quot;. <br><br>30 June 1960 Congo became independent as the Republic of Congo, its first PM was Patrice Lumumba. <br><br><i>Other territories:</i><br>1. _Rwanda-Burundi_: 1916 - 1 July 1962 = 46 years. Originally a German colony, seized by Belgium during WW1, then given a mandate by the League of Nations in 1923. Became independent as 2 countries: Rwanda + Burundi.<br>2. _Tianjin, China_: 1902 - 1931 = 29 years. A small concession for trade, not a full colony.<br><br>So total &quot;African territory under Belgium&quot; = 1908-1962 = 54 years.<br><br><i>2. &quot;Plunder of natural resources&quot; since when &amp; when did it end?</i><br><br>Plunder occurred throughout the colonial period, only the pattern differed:<br><br><i>Phase 1: 1885-1908 Leopold II Era - &quot;Brutal plunder&quot;</i><br>Main commodities: <i>Rubber + Elephant ivory</i> <br>System: Forced labor + quotas + amputated hands. 100% of profits went to Leopold II’s personal treasury. The Belgian state got nothing.<br><br><i>Phase 2: 1908-1960 Belgian Congo Era - &quot;Systemic/economic plunder&quot;</i><br>Main commodities: <i>Copper, Diamonds, Gold, Zinc, Cobalt, Palm oil, Cotton</i> <br>System: Forced labor was abolished by law, replaced with &quot;contract work + taxes&quot;. But wages were very low, the best land was taken by Belgian companies like Union Minière du Haut Katanga. <br>Profit: Went to Belgian companies + Belgian state treasury via taxes.<br><br><i>When did it end?</i> <br><br>Officially ended 30 June 1960 when Congo became independent. But... Belgian mining companies like Union Minière still controlled Katanga mines until 1967. So &quot;plunder&quot; in economic style continued several years after independence through unfair contracts.<br><br><i>3. In short:</i><br><br>Period Region Who Took the Profits Main Commodities Ended<br>1885-1908 Congo Free State King Leopold II personally Rubber, Ivory 1908 taken over by parliament<br>1908-1960 Belgian Congo Belgian State + Belgian Companies Copper, Diamonds, Cobalt 30 June 1960 independence<br>1916-1962 Rwanda-Burundi Belgian State Coffee, Tea, Labor 1 July 1962 independence<br><br><i>Important note:</i> <br>Mass physical cruelty like amputated hands peaked 1890-1905. After 1908 when the state took over, mass violence decreased due to international pressure + missionaries. <br><br>But the economic system remained: natural resources were shipped to Belgium, Congolese people were only cheap labor + not allowed higher education.<br><br>That’s why when independence came in 1960, Congo only had 16 university graduates. Even though the population was 13 million. That’s the long-term impact.<br><i><b>*</b></i><b></b>**<i>**</i>*<br><br><i>Massacre in Rwanda 1994</i> <br><br>Belgium used the identity system &quot;Hutu vs Tutsi&quot; in Rwanda-Burundi. ID cards were stamped with ethnicity, certain groups were given education + positions more to the Hutu ethnic group.<br><br>Bloody conflict around 800 thousand - 1 million people died up to the genocide in Rwanda 1994. The largest victims came from the Tutsi ethnic group including mixed marriages of both ethnic groups.<br>Hutus who refused to join in killing were also slaughtered.

• BA

  @basscataz · 12 years ago

  ?<br> &nbsp; What do you mean?<br>

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• GR

  @GrimrDirge · 12 years ago

  Okay, you&apos;re serious. How does your assertion explain Mao&apos;s denunciation of the &quot;Four Olds&quot;?

• SC

  @ScottOstr · 12 years ago

  Interesting. I&apos;ve never looked into how much the US spend to help out the Nationalist regime. That&apos;s correct. The support was to help fight against Japan at the time. I&apos;m not sure squandered is the correct word but I understand what you mean. Ironically, China leadership is the richest in the world. Eventually that will change.

• GR

  @GrimrDirge · 12 years ago

  State education, protectionism, and state worship are all part and parcel of statist regimes of any stripe. As such I don&apos;t think we can use those programs to delineate &quot;conservatism&quot;, per se. &nbsp;<br><br>The nationalists built the welfare state and social reforms for the same reason Bismarck and others had done before; to undermine popular support for socialist movements. <br><br>None of the nationalists supported total land and property redistribution as Mao did, nor Marxism outright. &nbsp;

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• GR

  @GrimrDirge · 12 years ago

  Can&apos;t tell if trolling or using different definition of conservative...

• ER

  @ericm3089 · 1 year ago

  You know it’s worse news when America’s recent leftist move towards an assassination culture sounds spookily familiar when I start listening to the early years of the CCP under the Maoists..<br><br><br>Blood pack anyone? Keep telling yourselves that’s not what our universities have been indoctrinating young people into believing.

• GR

  @GrimrDirge · 12 years ago

  Your response doesn&apos;t seem to connect to mine. Don&apos;t get me wrong, I don&apos;t identify with conservatism; I just don&apos;t understand how you are justifying your claim.