At the beginning of the story, Marlow's aunt praises Marlow for traveling to Africa and "weaning those ignorant millions from their horrible ways" (Conrad, 7 ). The official purpose of imperialism was to bring light and civilization to other parts of the world. However, Marlow considers his aunt's ideas ignorant, suggesting that he recognizes that this is not the true goal of imperialism (Bellal, 1). Far from its noble claims, the imperialism described by Marlow is selfish and greedy. This is especially evident in how Europeans view ivory. “The word 'ivory' rang in the air, it was whispered, it was sighed. You would think they were praying to him” (Conrad, 27). Marlow goes so far as to describe Europeans as pilgrims due to their obsession with ivory which borders on mindless worship. It is also essential to note that the novella focuses specifically on a Belgian expedition. The then Belgian king, King Leopold, treated the Congo as his private treasure, and the Belgians had a reputation for being by far the cruelest and most rapacious of the colonial powers. The Belgians acted as if they wanted to use imperialism to civilize other countries, but Belgian imperialism was itself far from civilized (SparkNotes Editors,