Savage Stanley of the Cruel Congo, Hero or zero?

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Stanley’s African adventures can really only be appreciated if one looked at maps he had to rely on to survive. If you looked up Andriveau-Goujon’s ‘Carte générale de l’Afrique’ (1856) as an example, you will see a different Africa one with vast empty spaces. To be sure, it was a marked improvement to sixteenth century maps who used cyclops and giant elephants to hide their lack of knowledge, but yet you can still find fictional gigantic lakes and mountain ranges such as Lake Tanganyika and the Mountains of the Moon. Then, imagine you are tasked to find a single person in one of these entirely blank regions, while you also need to convince over a hundred strangers with you that this endeavor will be an undoubtedly dazzling success. Learn how Stanley even reached such an opportunity, having been born in Wales and disowned by his parents, to soon globetrotting and travel writing with his pockets continuously filled by the wealthiest of patrons.
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Credit:
Created by Daniel Turner (B.A. (Hons) in History, University College London)
Narrator:
Chris Kane
vocalforge.com/
Bibliography
Baumeister, Roy F. and John Tierney. “Henry Morton Stanley’s Unbreakable Will.” Accessed July 12, 2022. Smithsonian Magazine.
Jeal, Tim. The Impossible Life of Africa’s Greatest Explorer. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2007.
Middleton, Dorothy, Adam Augustyn, Aakanksha Gaur, Gloria Lotha, Deepti Mahajan, Amy McKenna, Chelsey Parrott-Sheffer, and Shiveta Singh. “Henry Morton Stanley.” Last modified May 06, 2022. Britannica.com.
Newman, James L. Imperial Footprints: Henry Mortan Stanley’s African Adventure. Dulles, Virginia: Potomac Books, 2004.
Stanley, Henry Morton. How I Found Livingstone. London: Marston & Company, 1871.
Stanley, Henry Morton. Through The Dark Continent. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1878.

[@schizoidboy]

For me this sounds fairer than most recent biographies I've heard about Stanley. Rather than demonizing him as a colonizer he's more a pawn who's work was used against the people Stanley met and made treaties with. The real villain is King Leopold who had his own agenda and essentially became the Hitler of Africa. I'm reminded of hearing about this anthropologist from early Soviet Russia during the time of Stalin who studied the people who lived in Siberia. Siberia had many native tribes that were cut off from the modern world and when Stalin asked what should be done with these tribes the anthropologist simply felt they should be left alone. Instead Stalin imposed his will upon those tribes bringing them under tighter Soviet control.

[@TheStapleGunKid]

One of the most interesting things about Stanley was his time in the Civil War. Stanley was probably the only person in the entire war to serve Confederate Army, US Army, and US Navy.

[@Captain23rdGaming]

i dont think stanely is evil but more like he was used a scape goat for others who had been much crueler

[@theradtaco6547]

He seems like he had good intentions but got caught up with those who didn't

[@luisemoralesfalcon4716]

An important character molded by the times he lived on, as we all are.

[@shadowshots9393]

A hero is not quiet right but certainly not a zero. He is an adventurer and explorer through and true

[@iang257]

The animation team has improved so much. Congrats to them.

[@homeaccount7977]

Umm yeah, gonna go with hero on this one. A European exploring that far into Africa is the equivalent of an African exploring Siberia. Pretty amazing stuff

[@NiskaMagnusson]

it's a shame we didn't get to hear more personal stories about those Africans who traveled with Livingstone and endured a lot of the suffering with him

[@justsomeonetardigrade1077]

Leopold is the true villain all along anyways

[@dogemining8837]

It’s not his fault his men gone rouge and started atrocities while away from him

[@flintson2268]

Truly a rollercoaster of a story

[@badfoody]

bit of a mistake here

[@peterianfinnigan636]

Stanley was born about 5 miles from where i live he was brought up in a poor house wich is still there and he carried the cruelty he suffered there all his life he was definitely a self made man who took on the whole Victorian system.

[@Thomas-rl9xd]

Please do a video on the battle of Delville wood. As a South African it would be truly amazing to see our troops remembered on this channel.

[@skyden24195]

Good video. I'm always interested in the intersecting stories of Livingston and Stanley. Here's a couple of bits of extra trivia: 1. According to the few witnesses of Stanley's first meeting with Dr. Livingston, Stanley was described as excitedly nervous to finally make contact with Dr. Livingston, the result: a somewhat awkward greeting by Stanley who stated, (now famously/infamously) "Dr. Livingston, I presume." Which even Stanley would later admit to being unintentional, but it was what came out of his mouth at the time. 2. In the 1949, Abbott & Costello film, "Africa Screams," Lou Costello plays department-store bookseller, turned unwilling, inexperienced, African expedition guide, "Stanley Livington" (the "s" dropped from Livingston likely for legal reasons.)

[@pokefan-ix7sh]

Sir Henry Morton Stanley GCB was a Welsh-American explorer, journalist, soldier, colonial administrator, author and politician who was famous for his exploration of Central Africa and his search for missionary and explorer David Livingstone, whom he later claimed to have greeted with the now-famous line: "Dr Livingstone, I presume?". Besides his discovery of Livingstone, he is mainly known for his search for the sources of the Nile and Congo rivers, the work he undertook as an agent of King Leopold II of the Belgians which enabled the occupation of the Congo Basin region, and his command of the Emin Pasha Relief Expedition. He was knighted in 1897 and served in Parliament as a Liberal Unionist member for Lambeth North from 1895 to 1900.

[@zacharyknight3012]

He's kind of a anakin type figure manipulated into atrocities but in the end he revived his good reputation he's a good man lead into something he didn't want or that he didn't know the true intentions

[@warpartyattheoutpost4987]

"Hero or zero"?

[@PugglesH1]

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