England's Imperialism

I have learned much about this topic, both with briefly touching on it here and much more intensely last year in my European History course.  All evidence of the matter points towards selfish almost ridiculous oppression of the Indian people.  The glory of the English empire was placed far in front of the well being of a group of people, meaning, England viewed these people as expendable in their pursuit of distinction.  

Having finished Heart of Darkness I notice many parallels between the two situations and would not hesitate to assume the novella is an allegory for all Imperialism, most especially that of the English empire, being as it was the most prominent of its time.  In both, history and fiction, men who were otherwise considered good and just are corrupted by a search for power, they begin to murder because they are in an environment where that is okay.  They steal and rape because there are not rules forbidding it.

Going along again with what I had mentioned before, regarding England's ignoring the problems of India, I cannot be at all surprised that this happened.  Look at the situation in Ireland, as the film pointed out.  Here there are a huge amount of people, people not far away at all from England, dying in droves because of famine.  What does England do to intervene though?  Of course the answer is nothing at all, England is worried about England, an unforgivable offense.

Thus, as Conrad hopes to show us, are the evils of selfish imperialism.  People, frankly put, die.  They die in absurd numbers under, often times, the watch of a more powerful group of people who, if they honestly cared or tried or if it weren't a loss of profit, would certainly be able to alleviate some of the suffering they had caused.