History

Early Congolese History

A wave of advance of Neolithic peoples is identified in the Northern and North-Western parts of Central Africa during the second millennium BC. They were food producing (pearl millet), with some domestic stock, and developed a kind of arboriculture mainly based on the oil palm.

In the fifth century, a society began to develop in a region that initially encompassed the 200 km (125 mi) area along the banks of the Lualaba River in the modern day Katanga Province. This culture, known as the Upemba, would eventually evolve into the more significant Luba kingdom. The civilisation began to develop and implement iron and copper technology, in addition to trading in ivory and other goods. The Luba established a strong commercial demand for their metal technologies and were able to institute a long-range commercial net (the business connections extended over 1,500 kilometres (930 mi), all the way to the Indian Ocean). By the 1500s, the kingdom had an established strong central government based on chieftainship.

The Congo Free State (1870-1908)

European exploration and administration took place from the 1870s until the 1920s -first by Sir Henry Morton Stanley who undertook his explorations mainly under the sponsorship of King Leopold II of Belgium, who desired what was to become the Congo as a colony. In a succession of negotiations, Leopold, professing humanitarian objectives in his capacity as chairman of the Association Internationale Africaine, played one European rival against the other.

The Congo territory was acquired formally by Leopold at the Conference of Berlin in 1885. He made the land his private property and named it the Congo Free State. Leopold's regime began undertaking various development projects, such as the railway that ran from the coast to Leopoldville (now Kinshasa) which took years to complete. Nearly all these projects were aimed at increasing the capital Leopold and his cohorts could extract from the colony, leading to exploitation of Africans. In the Free State, the local population was brutalised in exchange for rubber, a growing market with the development of rubber tires. The selling of the rubber made a fortune for Leopold, who built several buildings in Brussels and Ostend to honour himself and his country.

During the period between 1885 and 1908, approximately ten million Congolese died as a consequence of exploitation and diseases. A government commission later concluded that the population of the Congo had been reduced by half during this brutal period. To enforce the rubber quotas, the Force Publique (FP) army was called in, cutting off the limbs of the natives as a means of enforcing rubber quotas a matter of policy. There were international protests, spearheaded mainly by E. D. Morel and British diplomat/Irish patriot Roger Casement, whose 1904 report on the Congo condemned the practice, as well as famous writers such as Mark Twain.

In 1908, the Belgian parliament, which was at first reluctant, bowed to international pressure (especially from Great Britain) by taking over the Free State from the king as a Belgian colony. From then on, it became the Belgian Congo.

The Belgian Administration: Belgian Congo (1908-1960)

As soon as the Belgian Government took over the Congolese Administration from King Leopold II, the situation in the Congo slightly improved. Economic and social changes transformed the Congo into a model colony. Even select Bantu languages were taught in primary schools, a rare occurrence in colonial education. Doctors and medics achieved success against African trypanosomiasis, commonly known as sleeping sickness.

The Administration continued with the economic reforms with the construction of railways, ports, roads, mines, plantations, industrial areas and so on. The Congolese, however, lacked political power and lived in an apartheid-like society in many cities. Everything was decided in Leopoldville and Brussels. The Belgian Colony-secretary and the Governor-general (the leader of the colony) had absolute power, whilst the people had none. Among the Congolese people, the resistance against this lack of democracy grew. In 1955, the upper class in the Congolese civilisation, the so-called 'évolués', initiated a campaign to end the inequality.

Congo Crisis (1960-1965)

In May 1960, the MNC (Mouvement National Congolais) party, led by Patrice Lumumba, won the parliamentary elections, and Lumumba was appointed Prime Minister. Joseph Kasavubu, of the ABAKO (Alliance des Bakongo) party, was elected President by the parliament. Other parties that emerged included the Parti Solidaire Africain (PSA), led by Antoine Gizenga) and the Parti National du Peuple (PNP) led by Albert Delvaux and Laurent Mbariko.

The Belgian Congo achieved independence on June 30, 1960 under the name Republic of Congo or Republic of the Congo (République du Congo). As the French colony of Middle Congo (Moyen Congo) also chose the name Republic of Congo upon receiving its independence, the two countries were more commonly known as Congo-Léopoldville and Congo-Brazzaville, after their capital cities. Shortly after independence, the provinces of Katanga (with Moise Tshombe) and South Kasai engaged in secessionist struggles against the new leadership.

On September 5, 1960, President Kasavubu dismissed Prime Minister Lumumba from office. Lumumba declared Kasavubu's action "unconstitutional" and a crisis between the two leaders developed.

Lumumba had previously appointed Joseph Mobutu chief of staff of the new Congo army, Armee Nationale Congolaise (ANC). Taking advantage of the leadership crisis between Kasavubu and Lumumba, Mobutu garnered enough support within the army to create sentiment sufficient to inspire mutinous action. With financial support from the United States and Belgium, Mobutu made payments to his soldiers in order to generate their loyalty. The aversion of Western powers towards communism and leftist ideology in general influenced their decision to finance Mobutu's quest to maintain "order" in the new state by neutralizing Kasavubu and Lumumba in a coup by proxy.

On January 17, 1961, Katangan forces, supported by the Belgian government's desire to retain rights to mine for copper and diamonds in Katanga and South Kasai and the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency's desire to remove any leftist sympathisers in the region, assassinated Patrice Lumumba. Amidst widespread confusion and chaos, a temporary government led by technicians (College des Commissaires) with Evariste Kimba, and several short governments Joseph Ileo, Cyrille Adoula, Moise Tshombe took over in quick succession.

Mobutu (1965-1997)

Following five years of extreme instability and civil unrest, Joseph-Désiré Mobutu, now Lieutenant General, overthrew Kasavubu in a 1965 Central Intelligence Agency-backed coup. He had the support of the US due to his staunch opposition to Communism, which would presumably make him a roadblock to Communist schemes in Africa. A one-party system was established, and Mobutu declared himself head of state. He would occasionally hold elections in which he was the only candidate.

Although relative peace and stability was achieved,, Mobutu's government was accused of human rights violations, repression, a cult of personality (every Congolese bank note displayed his image, his portrait was displayed in all public buildings, most businesses, and on billboards, and it was common for ordinary people to wear his likeness on their clothing), and excessive corruption.

In an effort to spread African national awareness, Mobutu renamed the nation's cities: Léopoldville became Kinshasa, Stanleyville became Kisangani, and Elisabethville became Lubumbashi. This city-renaming campaign was completed in the 1970s. In 1971, he renamed the country the Republic of Zaire, and the Congo River became the Zaire River. In 1972, Mobutu renamed himself Mobutu Sese Seko Nkuku Ngbendu Wa Za Banga.

Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, U.S. relations with Kinshasa cooled, as Mobutu was no longer deemed a necessary Cold War ally, and his opponents within Zaire stepped up demands for reform. This atmosphere contributed to Mobutu's declaring the Third Republic in 1990, whose constitution was supposed to pave the way for democratic reform. The reforms turned out to be largely cosmetic, and Mobutu's rule continued until conflict forced him to flee Zaire in 1997.

Conflict and Transition (1996?Present)

The government of Mobutu Sese Seko was toppled by a rebellion led by Laurent-Désiré Kabila in May 1997, and the country was renamed the Democratic Republic of The Congo. However, his former allies soon turned against him, and his regime was challenged by a Rwandan and Ugandan-backed rebellion in August 1998. Troops from Zimbabwe, Angola, Namibia, Chad and Sudan intervened to support the new regime in Kinshasa.

Although a cease-fire was signed on July 10, 1999, fighting continued apace especially in the eastern part of the country, financed by revenues from the illegal extraction of minerals such as coltan, cassiterite and diamonds. Désiré Kabila was assassinated in January 2001 and his son Joseph Kabila was named head of state. The new president quickly began overtures to end the war and an accord was signed in South Africa in 2002. By late 2003, a fragile peace prevailed as the Transitional Government was formed. Kabila appointed four vice presidents, two of whom had been fighting to oust him until July 2003. Much of the east of the country remains insecure, primarily due to the Ituri conflict and the continued activity of the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda in the Kivus.

On July 30, 2006, the Congo held its first multi-party elections since independence in 1960. Joseph Kabila took 45% of the votes and his main opponent Jean-Pierre Bemba took 20%. That was the origin of a two-day fight between the two factions from August 20, 2006 in the streets of the capital, Kinshasa. Sixteen people died before police and the UN mission, MONUC, took control of the city.

A second round of elections between the two leading candidates, Kabila and Bemba, was held on 29 October, 2006. Rioters destroyed polling stations in Congo's east and electoral officials organised a revolt over burned ballots in the north. Despite that, the presidential vote was called a success. Both Kabila and Bemba assured that they would respect the result, but Bemba's militants have begun riots in opposition of the decision by the Supreme Court that will legitimise Kabila's 58%-42% winning result on the run-off. Bemba has argued for his supporters to stop fighting the government and vowed to take his seat as an official opposition leader.