What we support and defend

[Fuchs]

So your telling me that going to the effort to consult with local leaders indicates lack of involvement? That makes no sense to me.

In some other places, they took the chieftain's land (usually the most fertile around), required everyone to pay taxes and made sure the only way to get cash was to work at low wages on the new plantation.
People who didn't cooperate were beaten, people who resisted were shot.


Yeah, to discuss with traditional elites means a relative lack of involvement.

[ganulv]

In some other places, they took the chieftain's land (usually the most fertile around), required everyone to pay taxes and made sure the only way to get cash was to work at low wages on the new plantation.
People who didn't cooperate were beaten, people who resisted were shot.

Yes, in some places at some times there was a simple oppressor/oppressed relationship. But not everywhere always was the Belgian Congo. I’m not trying to be an apologist for colonialism, I’m trying to point out that things weren’t as simple as Whiggish and post-colonial partisans would have us believe.

Yeah, to discuss with traditional elites means a relative lack of involvement.

It sounds like more work over the long haul than lining people up against a wall, but I’ll take your word for it.