"The Crime of the Congo" is a book written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in 1909, exposing the human rights abuses in the Congo Free State, a private state controlled by the King of the Belgians, Leopold II. The book highlights the brutal exploitation and torture of indigenous people in the region, particularly in the lucrative rubber trade. Conan Doyle intended to bring the terrible story of the Congo Free State to the people, as he believed that public opinion had not been sensitive enough to the situation. He was dismissive of the annexation of the state by Belgium, as slavery and ivory poaching continued to occur after annexation. The book was praised as the most powerful indictment yet launched against the Belgian rulers of the colony. Conan Doyle's activism, including his authorship of "The Crime of the Congo," has been noted by many academics who have analyzed his life. In 2009, Cambridge Scholars Publishing released a reprint of the work in Collected Works of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The book is available at Project Gutenberg and the Internet Archive.
Discover a new way to read classics with Quick Read.
This Quick Read edition includes both the full text and a summary for each chapter.
- Reading time of the complete text: about 5 hours
- Reading time of the summarized text: 13 minutes
