Horror in the Congo: The Nightmare Begins (TRIH ep 538, part 1)
1874 · Resource
This episode examines the real history behind Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, focusing on the Congo Free State under King Leopold II (1885–1908). Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook outline Leopold’s personal ambition for an empire, his creation of front organisations, and his recruitment of Henry Morton Stanley to establish stations, build transport around rapids, and sign treaties with local chiefs.
On these timelines: The Rest Is History (podcast), Resources: Combined
Around 1874
- Anglo-Zulu War (1879)
- Meiji Restoration (1868)
- Wars of German Unification (1864)
- Scramble for Africa (1881)
- German unification (1871)
- Albert Einstein (1879)
- Joseph Stalin (1878)
- Vladimir Lenin (1870)
- Bismarck's chancellorship (1871)
- Founding of the German Empire (1871)