section_path: Baroque, Enlightenment and revolutions/Africa
section_name: Africa
paragraph_text: Africa
  
  At the end of the 19th century, Catholic missionaries followed colonial governments into Africa and built schools, hospitals, monasteries and churches. They enthusiastically supported the colonial administration of the French Congo, which forced the native populations of both territories to engage in large-scale forced labour, enforced through summary execution and mutilation. Catholic missionaries in the French Congo tried to prevent the French central government from stopping these atrocities