Death and daily life became one. “Less than twenty years after the landing of the first Belgian settlers on the coast of the Congo, an African population which initially amounted to between twenty and thirty million individuals was reduced to eight million individuals” (Boahen and Josephy 1971, p 422). The land and the people who had lived there peacefully for centuries had succumbed to foreign forces in less than two decades. Congo has always been nicknamed the green heart of Africa, symbolizing the beauty of the country's landscapes and the abundant resources that grow among the dense forests and fields that dot the region. Yet today, Congo is commonly referred to as Africa's heart of darkness, a land that had potential but was corrupted by outside forces. From its earliest colonial developments to its rule and eventual fall, the Belgian Congo left a legacy of human atrocities and exploitative domination. Before King Leopold II settled Congo, the land was a lush, untouched region dominated by many different ethnicities and tribes. groups. Before foreign exploration, the Congo was a vast wilderness, rich in resources and inhabited by more than 250 ethnic groups and tribes (Edgerton 2002). The country was covered in permanent swamps with dense rainforests that literally covered the country in darkness (Edgerton 2002). Although unknown to European powers of the time, the Congo was located on a forested plateau where abundant resources were ready to be extracted. The main products of the Congo were palm oil, ivory, mineral deposits, and rubber, and the local tribes who lived in the Congo harvested a small amount of natural resources to satisfy their personal needs (Gunther 1955). Each tribe governed autonomously and...... middle of paper...... New York: American Heritage Pub. Co. Cutter, CH (2002). Africa, 2002. Harpers Ferry: Stryker Post Publications. Edgerton, R.B. (2002). The Troubled Heart of Africa: A History of the Congo. New York: St. Martin’s Press. Fage, J.D. (1978). A History of Africa. New York: Knopf; Gunther, J. (1955). Inside Africa ([1st ed.]). New York: Harper. Hochschild, A. (1998). The Ghost of King Leopold: A Story of Greed, Terror and Heroism in Colonial Africa. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, July, R.W. (1970). A history of the African people. New York: Scribner. Kucich, J. (2007). Imperial masochism British fiction, fantasy and social class. Princeton: Princeton University Press. Ntalaja, G. (2002). The Congo from Leopold to Kabila: a history of the people. London: Zed Books: .Spiro, H.J. (1962). Politics in Africa: perspectives south of the Sahara. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice Hall.