Analyze how the presence of the Europeans affected the physical environment in Heart of Darkness.I don't really understand what is being asked, a...

There are several clear examples of European influence on
the face of the Congo territory, found in the first section of Joseph
Conrad's Heart of Darkness. At the Lower Station, Marlow is
confronted with the "graveyard" of machines and parts rusting chaotically throughout the
area. There seems to be no sense or reason to the materials strewn about, or why they
are being given up to the elements.

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I came upon a boiler wallowing in the grass,
then found a path leading up the hill. It turned aside for the boulders, and also for an
undersized railway-truck lying there on its back with its wheels in the air. One was
off. The thing looked as dead as a carcass of some animal. I came upon more cases of
decaying machinery, a stack of rusty
nails.

Then Marlow describes
how the construction crews are demolishing the land on a nearby cliff with dynamite
blasting, but there seems to be no logical purpose—they do not need to pass through a
mountain or build a road. The blasting is a waste: it has no
purpose.

A
horn tooted to the right, and I saw the black people run. A heavy and dull detonation
shook the ground, a puff of smoke came out of the cliff, and that was all. No change
appeared on the face of the rock. They were building a railway. The cliff was not in the
way or anything; but this objectless blasting was all the work going
on.

Finally, the physical
mark of the Europeans is seen on the people of the Congo. They have been enslaved by the
white Europeans—the employees of the Company—as they rob the land of its resources and
the life from its people. It is as if the very souls of these enslaved human beings have
been liberated from their bodies: they are like
zombies.

A
slight clinking behind me made me turn my head. Six black men advanced in a file,
toiling up the path. They walked erect and slow, balancing small baskets full of earth
on their heads, and the clink kept time with their footsteps...I could see every rib,
the joints of their limbs were like knots in a rope; each had an iron collar on his
neck, and all were connected together with a chain...All their meagre breasts panted
together, the violently dilated nostrils quivered, the eyes stared stonily uphill. They
passed me within six inches, without a glance, with that complete, deathlike
indifference...