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Feb 20, 1483
Prior to Imperialism
The First explorer’s arrived from Portugal. They were impressed with the structure of Congo. Their government was very centralized. The top of the government sat the kings overlooking everybody. The Portuguese provided a lot of support with their military power. They also brought artisans and priest to Congo. The early kings converted to Roman Catholicism, which the Portuguese liked, in return the Catholic Church offered strong support. -
Feb 24, 1483
Decline of Congo
The greatest ruler was Afonso who ruled for 27 years and had Catholicism as their main religion. Shortly things started going bad between them because of the slave trade. The Portuguese provided military support for copper, ivory and slaves. Congo didn't started to disagree with the slave trade. The Portuguese started to from alliances, which led to several wars between them. -
Congo sparks intrest
During the 1860s a missionary from Scotland named David Livingstone traveled deep into Africa to spread Christianity. Several years passed and nobody heard of him an American newspaper hired Henry Stanley to search for him. He found him at Lake Tanganyika. Stanley started to explore Africa himself following the Congo River. King Leopold II of Belgium became interested and asked Stanley to help get land in Congo. During 1879 and 1882 they signed treaties with local chiefs of the Congo River. -
Congo Sparks Intrest
and aquired Congo. -
Leopold's Rule
Leopold wanted to abolish slavery and promote Christianity. He licensed companies that were involved in the slave trade and forced them to collect sap from rubber plants. At least 10 million people died because of the abuse they received during his rule. As a result people around the world wanted change. In 1908 the Belgian government took control of colony away from Leopold. The Belgian Congo was 80 times bigger than Belgium. Soon other countries tried to claim land in Africa. -
Independence
After numerous rebellions, in 1959 by the ABAKO, a rebel group who promoted the Congo’s independence, a conference was held in Brussels where the Belgian government decided to grant the colony its freedom. However the colony was not prepared to be independent because it was still largely in debt and it had no government set up, which led to chaos in the country for many years, even after the country’s independence in on June 30, 1960. -
A Second Independence Movement
Belgium started to lose their interest in keeping Congo as their colony. The only people that were interested were the people from the head of the states. They tried to delay their independence until 1960 when Congo became an independent state. -
Congo Crisis
Shortly after claiming their independence a civil war occurred. Congolese army demanded increased pay and to remove all of the white officers from their army. When Belgium intervened militarily, more soldiers rebelled. Many of these soldiers started to rebel toward the Prime Minister Patrice Emery Lumumba. More than 100,000 people died in this incident -
Genocide
When the genocide in Rwanda ended most people fled to Congo. The people over threw the dictator, Mobutu Sese Seko. Laurant Desire Kabila led the rebellion to overthrow Mobutu, and became President. Congo declared war on Rwanda, which brought in many neighboring countries from 1998-2002. This war was known as Africa’s World War.
