1. Belgium Imperialism
The Vibes

2. Characteristics of Belgium’s Government
The political system of Belgium is based on a federal parliamentary democracy under a constitutional monarchy, with King Albert II as head of state.
Under the political system of Belgium, the government is divided into the federal government, the regional governments and the community councils.
In addition to this, there are three regional government areas in Belgium- Dutch speaking Flanders, French-speaking Wallonia and the bilingual capital, Brussels.
Executive: the executive powers are held by King Albert II, the constitutional head, in collaboration with the Prime Minister, head of Government and his Cabinet.
Legislature: the federal parliament in Belgium consist of two chambers- the House of Representatives and the Senate or the upper house.
Judiciary: under the judicial system of Belgium, which is based on civil law, the Court of Cassation is the highest court in the country.

3. Governmental system imposed by Belgium on a foreign nation
In the last decades of the 19th century there was a wave of European imperialist expansion in Africa. One of the lands invaded was the Congo free state that was invaded by King Leopold II of Belgium. There wasn´t really a form of government but if any, it was imperialism. The characteristics of this period was kidnapping, mutilation, robbery, and murder for the congoleses.

4. Characteristics of Imperial Rule on and in foreign country
The official Belgian attitude was paternalism: Africans were to be cared for and trained as if they were children, they had no role in legislation, but traditional rulers were used as agents to collect taxes and recruit labour; uncooperative rulers were deposed.
Large plantations, farms and livestock farms were developed.
Africans worked the mines and plantations as indentured labourers on four- to seven-year contracts, in accordance with a law passed in Belgium in 1922.
The Congo Free State as it existed under Leopold II is largely known to history for its brutal exploitation of the native Congolese population and the mass death that resulted. Under Leopold II there were virtually no laws or restrictions protecting the native Congolese and their lands.
Europeans were free to adopt brutal policies of kidnapping, mutilation, robbery, and murder to extract desired labor and resources from the local population.
A common tactic used in the Congo Free State was to demand a certain quota of rubber from each village. Missing a quota was punished violently.

5. Justifications Europeans had for maintaining & expanding their Empires
African nations were described as unstable
Rivalries between countries.
Countries were losing money and Africa had many raw goods.
Cheap African labor.
Markets in Africa could produce more commerce for Europeans.
Moral issues.
They wanted to implement the three c's: commerce, Christianity and civilization.

6. How imperialism relates to today’s monopoly capitalism
There are some things that monopoly capitalism and imperialism have in common. First, monopoly capitalism is the term used to name the stage of capitalism from the last quarter of the ninetheenth century. And imperialism is
“the policy of extending the rule or authority of an empire or nationover foreign countries, or of  acquiring and holding colonies and dependencies” (imperialism, n.d.)
These two concepts are related beacuse of: them both look for the control and power of a minority or just a few people, but in different ways, like imperialism wants a one single person to rule a state and with an absolute power, and also monopoly capitalism stablish just a few people to control the whole market of a specific territory or in this case, of an imperium. This relation started a long time ago, when imperialism was still an existing thing. Europe controled the majority of latin america with small or big imperiums. While this happened, Europe used it's territories to mantain themselves and i’ts own economie, without worring about the colonies benefits and rights over them resources. This repercuted so hard in the continent that also, nowdays, we are still being affected by this imperialist-monopoly sistem created a long time ago, even it seemed to desappear, beacuse the world is highly divided and with no balance between countries beacuse of what we know as "1st world countries" and "3rd world countries". The world stayed divided since then.

7. References
“Political system of Belgium” 2015 retrieved from consulted October 7th 2016
Achberger, J. (s.f.). Belgian colonial education policy: a poor foundation for stability. The ultimate history project. Retrieved from congo.html consulted October 7th 2016
Reasons for the colonization of Africa. (February, 2010). Reasons for the colonization of Africa. Reasons for colonizing Africa. Retrieved from africa.html?m=1 consulted October 7th 2016
Belgian Congo (s.f.) retrieved from consulted October 7th 2016
History of the Belgian Congo: Imperialism, Genocide & Atrocities (s.f.) retrieved from atrocities.html consulted October 7th 2016
Sweezy, P. (2004). Monopoly Capitalism. Retrieved from
Imperialism. (N.D) Dictionary.com. Retrieved from

8. Blog