Question

In the text, the author quotes King Leopold, who said that European countries should “open to civilization the only part of our globe which it has not yet penetrated, [and] to pierce the darkness in which entire populations are enveloped.” What did King Leopold most likely mean by the word “civilization”?

Answer 1

King Leopold, by the world "civilization", means European civilization, that is to say, all the economic, social, and political characteristics of the European world at his time.

Things like industry, monarchies, christianity, gunpowder based warfare, are the main characteristics of the European world at the time, and these are the things that King Leopold is referring to by the world "civilization".