Heart of Darkness, a book written by Joseph Conrad, is one of the best books dealing with imperialism and the expeditions that empires made to expand in territory and influence by diplomacy or militarism. In a certain way this book recounts Joseph Conrad's journey across the Congo River which is located in the Belgian Congo, a territory that belonged to the Belgian Empire and where ivory and all sorts of materials were trafficked and then commercialized. Joseph Conrad tells his story through a character called Marlow who wanted to travel as a child to the Congo River. Also in the book I was able to read how the sailors saw the jungle and the river with fear and ignorance. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay At the beginning of the book we could see Marlow telling his story to his partners who were with him on the boat. As a child he wanted to go to the Belgian Congo and when he grew up he transferred all his contacts to become captain of a steamship. Later he arrived at the Congo River but knew nothing about Africa, nevertheless he wanted to continue his journey. One day, while he was in a settlement, he saw a group of slaves carrying materials to build a railway, those railways were very important in Congo due to the immense benefit of the Belgian and French colony, but to build the railways the natives the slaves they had to work every hour without a break and they finished after many months. If a slave was injured while working the soldiers who commanded him had to kill him because he was useless to them and the only way he would become useful was to try to find his tribe again but he would not succeed. This is a clear example of brutality and violence against Africans and I think those treatments were unacceptable because indigenous people were also human beings and should have rights. “They died slowly… That was clear. They were not enemies, they were not criminals, they were nothing earthly, only black shadows of sickness and weariness, lying confusedly in the greenish darkness” (Conrad, J., 27) Marlow, the main character, said that when he found around at the river many malnourished blacks abandoned by their owners because they were useless to them. They died slowly because there was nothing to eat and some of them were not born in his tribe and then raised with the Europeans, so none of them knew how to use any kind of weapon to hunt. According to Conrad's words he felt a sort of empathy, compassion and pity for the Africans because they did not know what freedom was, the slaves spent their whole lives living with strangers and doing what they ordered but they were not to blame, being mistreated was fate and a greater cause. It should be noted that in 1899 there were laws that “protected” indentured slaves, those laws said that every month the owners had to deliver 4 kilograms of rubber to his slaves. The population must act peacefully and accept the rubber, but if someone tried to act violently the owners could also use violence and their weapons. In 1865 Leopold II said that all uncivilized regions should be forced to work. Someone asked “why?” and stated two points: the first said that the people had to valorise work and security by paying taxes to the conquerors; the second said that the natives should enhance the habit of work so that in this way the owners can be rewarded for their work. In short those statements said that the natives or indigenous people were only destined to work for the conquerors and provide them with all the luxuries they desired. As I said before the Belgian Empire traffics a lot of ivory and is involved in this activity.