Heart of darkness introduction/ what did I learn about colonialism?

What did I learn about European colonialism?:

1. Marxism- going out of style( explanation for colonialism)

Example:
Marxism said that British rule needed to be temporary in order for India to flourish.

P.S.
I have heard the word Marxism and Marxist but I have never known what it truly meant. For a long time, I thought it was a religion.

2. When the Spanish took over, they ins laced the natives and acted superior and told the natives at what they were doing was just because god told them too. Natural law is what people believed was a law that was a law that existed outside of governments.The Spanish and the natives were different and the Spanish thought the differences made the natives savages so, they didn't like them.

3. For and against colonization:

In order to keep culture, you can't put other cultures and mix them in with other cultures or else they will get messed up.

Believed that they can't keep "savages and barbarians" in with "civilized people".

Both of these views are very bigotrice and wrong, yet, these kinds of views are typicall for people of this time period to think. I have always heard that the people of this time period are this way (racist and cruel) but I never had any examples of why they thought this way (atleast not this intricate).

Heart of darkness introduction:

Conrad's relationship with African related things stretches all the way back to when he was still a child. He would look at maps and read stories about Africa. Most stories he heard were of the Europeans taking over and the giant racial divide between " savages" and "civilized people". At age thirty three, Conrad became a merchant sea man, he then sighted a long term contract to work for a Belgian company in the Congo. At this time of course, the Congo was ruled by king Leopold II of Belgium. Conrad was so wanting to go back to Europe came faster than he thought. He suffered the after effects of dysentery and malaria that made him extremely sick and effected him for the remaining entirety of his life. This illness was said by his close friends that it was what changed him "from a sailor to a writer".

Conrad's job, sickness, and the finally his evolution from sailor to writer I found fascinating. Even though these three things are jammed into one small spot in the intro, I thought that it was probably one of the most interesting stories of how someone became who they were destined to be through their whole life. Conrad sounds like a wonderful author and I can hardly wait to start reading the book.

Vocabulary:

Beuracrat: "(A beuracrat and a soldier)"

Dysentery: " plagued with the after- effects of dysentery and malaria"

Vindicatory: " in addition, Kurt's deathbed scene brings with it vindictory suggestion"