Early History
By
about 1000 the Bantu had settled most of the Congo, reducing the area
occupied by the Pygmies. By the early 2d millennium the Bantu had
increased considerably in number and were coalescing into states, some
of which governed large areas and had complex administrative structures.
Most of the states were ruled by a monarch, whose authority, although
considerable, was checked by a council of high civil servants and
elders. Notable among the states were the kingdom of Kongo
(founded in the 14th cent.), centered in modern N Angola but including
extreme W Congo and a Luba empire (founded in the early 16th cent.),
centered around lakes Kisale and Upemba in central Katanga.
Also
included among these states were the Lunda kingdom of Mwata Yamo
(founded in the 15th cent.), centered in SW Congo; the Kuba kingdom of
the Shongo people (established in the early 17th cent.), located in the
region of the Kasai and Sankuru rivers in S Congo; and the Lunda kingdom
of Mwata Kazembe (founded in the 18th cent.), located near the Luapula
River (which forms part of the present Congo-Zambia boundary). Through
intermarriage and other contacts the Luba transmitted political ideas to
the Lunda, and numerous small Luba-Lunda states (in addition to those
of Mwata Yamo and Mwata Kazembe) were established in S Congo. The Kuba
kingdom was noted for its sculpture and decorative arts.
European and Arab Contacts
In
1482, Diogo Cão, a Portuguese navigator, became the first European to
visit the Congo when he reached the mouth of the Congo River and sailed a
few miles upstream. Soon thereafter the Portuguese established ties
with the king of Kongo, and in the early 16th cent. they established
themselves on parts of the coast of modern Angola, especially at the
court of the king of Ndongo (a vassal state of Kongo). The Portuguese
had little influence on the Congo until the late 18th cent., when the
African and mulatto traders (called pombeiros), whom they backed, traveled far inland to the kingdom of Mwata Kazembe.
In
the mid-19th cent., Arab, Swahili, and Nyamwezi traders from
present-day Tanzania penetrated into E Congo, where they traded and
raided for slaves and ivory. Some of the traders established states with
considerable power. Msiri (a Nyamwezi) established himself near Mwata
Kazembe in 1856, soon enlarged his holdings (mainly at the expense of
Mwata Kazembe), and was a major force until 1891, when he was killed by
the Belgians. From the 1860s to the early 1890s, Muhammad bin Hamad
(known as Tippu Tib), a Swahili Arab trader from Zanzibar, who was also
part Nyamwezi, ruled a large portion of E Congo NW of Lake Tanganyika.
In the 1870s, on the eve of the scramble for African territory among the
European powers, the territory of the Congo had no overall political
unity.
The Congo Free State
Beginning in the late 1870s the territory was colonized by Leopold II,
king of the Belgians (reigned 1865–1909). Leopold believed that Belgium
needed colonies to ensure its prosperity, and sensing that the Belgians
would not support colonial ventures, he privately set about
establishing a colonial empire. Between 1874 and 1877, Henry M. Stanley
made a journey across central Africa during which he found the course
of the Congo River. Intrigued by Stanley's findings (especially that the
region had considerable economic potential), Leopold engaged him in
1878 to establish the king's authority in the Congo basin. Between 1879
and 1884, Stanley founded a number of stations along the middle Congo
River and signed treaties with several African rulers purportedly giving
the king sovereignty in their areas.
At the Conference of Berlin
(1884–85) the European powers recognized Leopold's claim to the Congo
basin, and in a ceremony (1885) at Banana, the king announced the
establishment of the Congo Free State, headed by himself. The announced
boundaries were roughly the same as those of present-day Congo, but it
was not until the mid-1890s that Leopold's control was established in
most parts of the state. In 1891–92, Katanga was conquered, and between
1892 and 1894, E Congo was wrested from the control of E African Arab
and Swahili traders (including Tippu Tib, who for a time had served as
an administrator of the Congo).
Because he did not
have sufficient funds to develop the Congo, Leopold sought and received
loans from the Belgian parliament in 1889 and 1895, in return for which
Belgium was given the right to annex the Congo in 1901. At the same time
Leopold declared all unoccupied land (including cropland lying fallow)
to be owned by the state, thereby gaining control of the lucrative trade
in rubber and ivory. Much of the land was given to concessionaire
companies, which in return were to build railroads or to occupy a
specified part of the country or merely to give the state a percentage
of their profits. In addition, Leopold maintained a large estate in the
region of Lake Leopold II (NE of Kinshasa).
Private
companies were also established to exploit the mineral wealth of Katanga
and Kasai; a notable example was Union Minière du Haut-Katanga,
chartered in 1905. The Belgian parliament did not exercise its right to
annex the Congo in 1901, but reports starting in 1904 (particularly by
Roger Casement
and E. D. Morel) about the brutal treatment of Africans there
(especially those forced to collect rubber for concessionaire companies)
led to a popular campaign for Belgium to take over the state from
Leopold. After exhaustive parliamentary debates, in 1908 Belgium annexed
the Congo.
The Belgian Congo
Under Belgian
rule the worst excesses (such as forced labor) of the Free State were
gradually diminished, but the Congo was still regarded almost
exclusively as a field for European investment, and little was done to
give Africans a significant role in its government or economy. Economic
development was furthered by the construction of railroads and other
transportation facilities. European concerns established more large
plantations, and vast mining operations were set up. Africans formed the
labor pool for these operations, and Europeans were the managers. By
the end of the 1920s, mining (especially of copper and diamonds) was the
mainstay of the economy, having far outdistanced agriculture. Some of
the mining companies built towns for their workers, and there was
considerable movement of Africans from the countryside to urban areas,
especially beginning in the 1930s.
Christian
missionaries (the great majority of whom were Roman Catholic) were very
active in the Congo, and they were the chief agents for raising the
educational level of the Africans and for improving medical services.
However, virtually no Africans were educated beyond the primary level
until the mid-1950s, when two universities were opened. A noteworthy
indigenous religious movement was that of Simon Kimbangu, who, educated
by Protestant missionaries, around 1920 established himself as a prophet
and healer. He soon gathered a large following and, although not
explicitly anti-Belgian, was jailed in 1921 by the colonial government,
which feared that his movement would undermine its authority. The
Belgians outlawed Kimbangu's movement, but it continued clandestinely
and became increasingly anti-European.
The Independence Movement
In
1955, when demands for independence were mounting throughout Africa,
Antoine van Bilsen, a Belgian professor, published a “30-Year Plan” for
granting the Congo increased self-government. The plan was accepted
enthusiastically by most Belgians, who assumed that Belgian rule in the
Congo would continue for a long period. Events proved otherwise.
Congolese nationalists, notably Joseph Kasavubu (who headed ABAKO, a party based among the Kongo people) and Patrice Lumumba
(who led the leftist Mouvement National Congolais), became increasingly
strident. They were impressed greatly by the visit in late 1958 of
French president Charles de Gaulle to neighboring Middle Congo (now the
Republic of the Congo), where he offered Africans the opportunity to
vote in a referendum for continued association with France or for full
independence. In Jan., 1959, there were serious nationalist riots in
Kinshasa, and thereafter the Belgians steadily lost control of events in
the Congo. At a roundtable conference (which included Congolese
nationalists) at Brussels in Jan.–Feb., 1960, it was decided that the
Belgian Congo would become fully independent on June 30, 1960.
Independence and Conflict
Following
elections in June, Lumumba became prime minister and Kasavubu head of
state. However, the Republic of the Congo (as the nation was then
called) soon began to be pulled apart by ethnic and personal rivalries,
often encouraged by Belgian interests. On July 4 the Congolese army
mutinied, and on July 11 Moïse Tshombe
declared Katanga, of which he was provisional president, to be
independent. There were attacks on Belgian nationals living in the
Congo, and Belgium sent troops to the country to protect its citizens
and also its mining interests. Most Belgian civil servants left the
country, thus crippling the government.
On July 14,
the UN Security Council voted to send a force to the Congo to help
establish order; the force was not allowed to intervene in internal
affairs, however, and could not act against the Katangan secession.
Therefore, Lumumba turned to the USSR for help against Katanga, but on
Sept. 5 he was dismissed as prime minister by Kasavubu. On Sept. 14,
Col. Joseph Mobutu (later Mobutu Sese Seko),
the head of the army, seized power and dismissed Kasavubu. On Dec. 1,
Lumumba, who probably had the largest national following of any Congo
politician, was arrested by the army; he was murdered while allegedly
trying to escape imprisonment in Katanga in mid-Feb., 1961.
By
the end of 1960 the Congo was divided into four quasi-independent
parts: Mobutu held the west, including Kinshasa (then called
Léopoldville); Antoine Gizenga, the self-styled successor to Lumumba,
controlled the east from Kisangani (then called Stanleyville); Albert
Kalonji controlled S Kasai; and Tshombe headed Katanga, aided by Belgian
and other foreign soldiers. The secession of Katanga, with its great
mineral resources, particularly weakened the national government. In
Apr., 1961, Tshombe was arrested by the central government (Kasavubu was
back as head of state), but he was freed in June after agreeing to end
the Katanga secession. By July, however, Tshombe was again proclaiming
the independence of Katanga.
In August the UN forces
began disarming Katangese soldiers, and in December UN and Katangese
forces became engaged in battle. Throughout 1962, Tshombe maintained his
independent position and in Dec., 1962, renewed UN-Katanga fighting
broke out. Tshombe quickly was forced to give in, and in Jan., 1963,
agreed to end Katanga's secession. However, the national scene remained
confused, and there was considerable agitation by the followers of
Lumumba.
At the end of June, 1964, the last UN troops
were withdrawn from the country. In desperation, Kasavubu appointed
Tshombe prime minister in July, 1964, but this move resulted in
large-scale rebellions. With the help of U.S. arms, Belgian troops, and
white mercenaries, the central government gradually regained control of
the country. Nonetheless, national politics remained turbulent and were
highlighted by a clash between Kasavubu and Tshombe. In mid-1965,
Kasavubu appointed Evariste Kimba prime minister. In Nov., 1965, Mobutu
again intervened, dismissing Kasavubu and proclaiming himself president;
Tshombe fled to Spain. (In 1967, Tshombe was kidnapped and taken to
Algeria; he died in 1969.) In 1966 and 1967 there were several
short-lived rebellions (notably in Kisangani and Bukavu), and in 1966 an
attempted coup by Kimba was defeated.
The Mobutu Regime
In
late 1966, Mobutu abolished the office of prime minister, establishing a
presidential form of government. Léopoldville, Stanleyville, and
Elisabethville were given African names (Kinshasa, Kisangani, and
Lubumbashi, respectively), thus in effect beginning the campaign for
“African authenticity” that became a major policy of Mobutu in the early
1970s. (In 1971 the country was renamed Zaïre, as was the Congo River;
in 1972, Katanga was renamed Shaba—largely in an attempt to destroy the
region's past association with secession—and Mobutu dropped his
Christian names and called himself Mobutu Sese Seko, while advising
other Zaïreans to follow suit.) By the end of the 1960s, the country
enjoyed political stability, although there was intermittent student
unrest.
The government was firmly guided by Mobutu,
who headed the sole (from 1970) political party, the Popular Movement of
the Revolution (MPR). In 1970, Mobutu, the sole candidate, was elected
to a seven-year term as president. In the early 1970s he centralized the
administration of the nation, encouraged the participation of foreign
firms in the economic development of the country, improved relations
with neighboring independent countries, and maintained good relations
with the West while establishing (1972) full diplomatic relations with
China. In 1973, Mobutu nationalized many foreign-owned firms in the
attempt to reduce unemployment; however, the nation remained dependent
on volatile world copper prices. Mobutu forced European investors out of
the country in 1974 but invited them back (unsuccessfully) in 1977.
In
addition to economic decline in the 1970s, the government had to
contend with increasingly active political opposition. Mobutu's policy
of giving members of his own ethnic group (the Ngbanda) jurisdiction
over security matters led to ethnic conflicts and a succession of coup
attempts between 1975 and 1978. Opposition parties grew in number and in
size; one of these, the Front Libération Nationale du Congo (FNLC),
organized Katangese refugees forced out of the country by Mobutu. The
FNLC, working from its base in Angola, launched a rebellion in the
Katanga region but was repulsed after the intervention of French,
Belgian, and Moroccan troops.
Promising political
reforms, the government made superficial changes to satisfy foreign aid
donors, but the detention of dissidents and violent clashes between
soldiers and students continued. In the early 1980s opposition groups
were organized in exile and formed alliances in the hopes of
overthrowing Mobutu. In 1989 the country defaulted on a loan from
Belgium, resulting in the cancellation of development programs and
increased deterioration of the economy. In 1990, Mobutu announced an end
to single-party rule and appointed a transitional government. However,
he reserved for himself the position of head of state “above all
political parties” and kept substantial power in his own hands.
Rebellion and Civil War
A
loss of confidence in Zaïre's government and riots by unpaid soldiers
in Kinshasa led Mobutu to agree to a coalition government with
opposition leaders in 1991. He retained control of a far-reaching
security apparatus and important government ministries, however, and
engaged in a power struggle with opposition leaders. Economic collapse
continued unabated, with the national infrastructure seriously
deteriorating and civil servants, often unpaid for long periods, making
money through bribery and theft of government property.
The
nation's problems were compounded by an influx of hundreds of thousands
of Hutu refugees from Rwanda and a spillover of ethnic fighting between
Hutus and Tutsis into Zaïre. In mid-1994, Kengo Wa Dondo, an advocate
of austerity and free-market reform, was chosen prime minister by
parliament, but he was dismissed in Mar., 1997. In 1996 and 1997, while
Mobutu was in Europe being treated for cancer, rebels dependent on
support from Rwandan and Ugandan forces captured much of E Zaïre. The
insurgents, who also received aid from Zambia and Angola, met little
resistance from the ragged Zaïrean army and entered Kinshasa on May 17,
1997. Rebel leader Laurent Kabila was sworn in as president on May 29
and changed the name of the country to the Democratic Republic of the
Congo. Mobutu died in Morocco on Sept. 7, 1997.
Although
Kabila promised that elections would be held in 1999, he banned all
political opposition, and his regime soon became repressive. His failure
to revive the economy and to prevent the attacks upon thousands of
Congolese Tutsis by their Hutu neighbors in the mid-1990s, as well as
the revelation that his forces had probably massacred thousands of
Rwandan Hutu refugees during their march across the country in 1996–97,
led to a fading of both internal and foreign support for his government.
The eastern part of the country remained unstable, and in Aug., 1998, a
group of ethnic Tutsi Congolese forces supported by Rwanda mutinied
against Kabila's rule and began advancing toward Kinshasa. Although they
were repulsed, the movement grew, attracting opposition politicians,
former Mobutu supporters, and disaffected military leaders formerly
allied with Kabila. It also threatened to widen into a regional
conflict, as Zimbabwe, Angola, and Namibia sent troops to aid Kabila's
government, while Rwanda and Uganda backed the rebels.
In
July, 1999, following a peace conference in Lusaka, Zambia, the heads
of the six governments involved signed a cease-fire agreement; the
leaders of the two main Congolese rebel groups also subsequently signed
the pact. Kabila and his allies controlled most of the east and south of
the Congo, and the rebels and their supporters controlled much of the
north and west. By the end of the year, however, implementation of the
accord was stalled, due in part to intransigence on the part of Kabila's
government, and the much-violated cease-fire was in the process of
collapsing.
The United Nations approved a force to
monitor the accord in Feb., 2000, but the situation in the Congo proved
too unstable to permit the force to move in. Fighting erupted between
Ugandan and Rwandan forces in Kisangani (as it had the year before), and
Kabila's government launched an offensive in Équateur (NW Congo) and
continued to resist cooperating with the United Nations and with African
peace negotiators. A new agreement calling for the pullback of all
forces was signed (without the participation of one of the rebel groups)
in Dec., 2000.
In Jan., 2001, Kabila was
assassinated, reportedly by a bodyguard, and his son, Maj. Gen. Joseph
Kabila, was named his successor. Joseph Kabila's government resumed
cooperating on peace negotiations, and ended the ban on political
parties. Beginning in March the forces of foreign nations began pulling
back from the front lines and, in some cases, pulling out from the
Congo. Fighting largely ceased, although banditry by militias and
fighting between tribal groups persisted in E Congo. Peace talks began
tentatively in Oct., 2001, and in 2002 agreements were signed
successively with one of the rebel groups, Rwanda, and Uganda, although
no agreement was reached with the largest rebel force, the
Rwandan-backed Congolese Rally for Democracy–Goma. By the end of Oct.,
2002, most foreign troops had been withdrawn from the Congo.
The
government and both main rebel groups reached an accord in Apr., 2003,
when they signed a peace agreement that called for a power-sharing
government led by President Kabila, and an interim parliament. Despite
the peace deal, fighting continued in parts of the Congo, especially
between tribal groups in the east, and in June, 2003, the United Nations
dispatched French-led peacekeepers to E Congo in an effort to restore
order. In the same month the government and rebels agreed on the
composition of the new government, which was formally established.
Democratic elections were scheduled for 2005. By the time of the
government's establishment it was estimated that 3.3 million people had
died, directly or indirectly, as a result of the fighting that began in
1998.
The French-led peacekeepers were replaced by
10,000 UN soldiers beginning in Sept., 2003; the force was subsequently
increased to 16,000. In the first half of 2004 there were two attempted
coups in the country, and progress toward real peace continued to be
slow during the year. By the end of 2004 rebel forces and the former
Congolese army had been integrated into a unified force in name only. An
uprising involving former rebels occurred in June at Bukavu in E Congo,
although the rebels soon dispersed, and in December there was fighting
in Nord-Kivu between former army and former rebel forces. The army
forces had been sent into the area in response to threats by Rwanda to
invade the region in order to attack Rwandan Hutu rebels based there.
Congo accused Rwandan forces of invading and aiding the former Congolese
rebels, a charge Rwanda denied, but a UN panel had accused (July, 2004)
Rwanda and Uganda of maintaining armed units in E Congo and UN
peacekeepers said that forces had entered Congo following Rwanda's
threat to invade. The latter charge was called false, however, by a
former UN employee in early 2005.
Fighting between
militias and UN peacekeepers occurred in NE Congo during 2005, as the
area remained unpacified and some of the militias resisted disarming.
Militia forces in Katanga prov. also refused to disarm, leading to
fighting there in late 2005 between them and the Congolese army. Because
of the fighting and tensions within the government and logistical
issues (a new constitution was not approved by the interim parliament
until May, 2005) the elections scheduled to be held by June, 2005, were
postponed into 2006. In Dec., 2005, however, voters approved the
constitution, paving the way for electing a new government. The same
month the International Court of Justice ruled that Congo was entitled
to compensation from Uganda for looting by Ugandan forces during the
recent civil war. The fighting in NE and E Congo continued off and on
throughout 2006. The Ugandan army launched (Apr., 2006) a campaign
against Ugandan rebels based in Congo and clashed with Congo's forces,
prompting a protest from Congo.
At the end of July,
2006, Congo held elections for president and the national and provincial
legislatures. Voting was largely peaceful, but the vote count was slow
and marred by irregularities. Joseph Kabila won 44% of the presidential
vote with a strong showing in E Congo, but failed to win the required
majority; his party won 111 (out of 500) National Assembly seats and was
able to form a governing coalition. The inconclusive presidential
results sparked violence between Kabila's partisans and those of
Jean-Pierre Bemba Gombo, the former rebel and interim vice president who
was the runner-up (with 20% of the vote) and did well in W Congo, and
violence subsequently marred campaign leading up to the October runoff.
The vote count was not completed until mid-November, but Kabila was
elected, with 58% of the ballots, and again he ran strongly in E Congo.
Bemba rejected the result and contested it in court, despite the
assessment of the election by most observers as free and fair; Bemba's
challenge was rejected, and Kabila's election confirmed.
Progess
was made in disbanding a number of militias in E Congo in early 2007,
but later in the year fighting broke out between army units that
included former Tutsi militias and Rwandan Hutu militias based in the
Congo. Subsequent the Congolese army moved against the renegade Tutsi
units, and North Kivu was torn by off-and-on fighting in the second half
of 2007. Meanwhile, in March deadly fighting erupted in Kinshasa
between the army and Bemba's remaining forces, who had resisted
disbanding. Bemba was accused of treason, while he accused the
government of trying to kill him; he sought refuge in the South African
embassy. In April, Bemba was allowed to leave the country for Portugal,
in order to seek medical treatment. (In May, 2008, Bemba was arrested in
Belgium on an International Criminal Court warrant that charged him
with war crimes arising from the actions of his forces in 2002 in the
Central African Republic, where they were aiding President Ange-Félix
Patassé. He was extradited in July to the Netherlands to face trial.)
In
Aug., 2007, a border clash between Congolese and Ugandan forces
occurred near the disputed Rukwanzi Island in Lake Albert; in September
the nations agreed to demilitarize the island. A cease-fire agreement
was signed by some of the groups in E Congo in Jan., 2008, but conflicts
between some of the many armed militias there continued. There was also
violence in early 2008 between police forces and a religio-political
sect (Bundu dia Kongo) in Bas-Congo prov.; the sect was banned in March.
Source: www.factmonster.com
Source: www.factmonster.com
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