Mr. Beat, Jul 31, 2020
Republic of the Congo vs. Democratic Republic of the Congo (Zaire)
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"On May 17, 1997, the African country of Zaire became known as the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
In 1971 the country and even the huge Congo River were renamed Zaire by former President Sese Seko Mobutu. In 1997 General Laurent Kabila took control of Zaire country and returned it to the name the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which it held prior to 1971. A new flag of the Democratic Republic of the Congo was also introduced to the world.
The Democratic Republic of the Congo, the setting for Joseph Conrad's "Heart of Darkness," was called "Africa's most unstable country" in 1993. The country is about half Catholic and has 250 different ethnic groups within its borders.
There is inherent geographical confusion in this change due to the fact that the Democratic Republic of the Congo's western neighbor is known as the Republic of the Congo, a name which it has held since 1991.
The Republic of the Congo Vs. The Democratic Republic of the Congo
Major differences exist between the two equatorial Congo neighbors. The Democratic Republic of the Congo is much larger in both population and area. The population of the Democratic Republic of the Congo is about 69 million, but the Republic of the Congo has a mere 4 million. The area of the Democratic Republic of the Congo is over 905,000 square miles (2.3 million square kilometers) but the Republic of the Congo has 132,000 square miles (342,000 square kilometers). The Democratic Republic of the Congo holds 65 percent of the world's cobalt reserves and both countries rely on oil, sugar, and other natural resources. The official language of both Congos is French.
These two timelines of Congolese history might help sort out the history of their names:
The Democratic Republic of the Congo (formerly Zaire)
- 1877 - Henry Stanley explores the region for Belgium
- 1908 - Becomes Belgian Congo
- June 30, 1960 - Independence for the Republic of the Congo
- 1964 - Becomes People's Republic of the Congo
- 1966 - Mobutu takes control and the country becomes the Democratic Republic of the Congo
- October 27, 1971 - Becomes Republic of Zaire
- 1996 - Mobutu is in Europe with prostate cancer so rebels, led by General Laurent Kabila attacked the Zairian army
- March 1997 - Mobutu returns from Europe
- May 17, 1997 - Kabila and his troops take the capital, Kinshasa and Mobutu go into exile. Zaire becomes the Democratic Republic of the Congo. There is worldwide confusion about the change
- September 7, 1997 - Mobutu died in Morocco
Republic of the Congo
- 1885 - Becomes the French territory Middle Congo
- 1910 - The territory of French Equatorial Africa is created, Middle Congo is a district
- 1960 - Independence for the Republic of the Congo
- 1970 - Becomes the People's Republic of the Congo
- 1991 - Name returns to the Republic of the Congo"
****AN EXCERPT FROM THE WIKIPEDIA ARTICLE ABOUT THE DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratic_Republic_of_the_Congo(retrieved on October 30, 2024) "DR Congo, officially the Democratic Republic of the Congo,[b] also known as the DRC, Congo-Kinshasa or simply Congo, is a country in Central Africa. By land area the Congo is the second-largest country in Africa and the 11th-largest in the world. With a population of around 109 million, the Democratic Republic of the Congo is the most populous Francophone country in the world. The national capital and largest city is Kinshasa, which is also the economic center. The country is bordered by the Republic of the Congo, Central African Republic, South Sudan, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania (across Lake Tanganyika), Zambia, Angola, the Cabinda exclave of Angola, and the South Atlantic Ocean.Visitor comments are welcome.Centered on the Congo Basin, the territory of the Congo was first inhabited by Central African foragers around 90,000 years ago and was settled in the Bantu expansion about 3000 to 2000 years ago.[7] In the west, the Kingdom of Kongo ruled around the mouth of the Congo River from the 14th to 19th centuries. In the center and east, the empires of Mwene Muji, Luba, and Lunda ruled from the 15th, 16th, and 17th centuries to the late 19th and early 20th centuries. King Leopold II of Belgium formally acquired rights to the Congo territory from the colonial nations of Europe in 1885 and declared the land his private property, naming it the Congo Free State. From 1885 to 1908, his colonial military forced the local population to produce rubber and committed widespread atrocities. In 1908, Leopold ceded the territory, which thus became a Belgian colony.
Congo achieved independence from Belgium on 30 June 1960 and was immediately confronted by a series of secessionist movements, the assassination of Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba, and the seizure of power by Mobutu Sese Seko in a 1965 coup d'état. Mobutu renamed the country Zaire in 1971 and imposed a harsh personalist dictatorship until his overthrow in 1997 by the First Congo War.[2] The country then had its name changed back and was confronted by the Second Congo War from 1998 to 2003, which resulted in the deaths of 5.4 million people and the assassination of President Laurent-Désiré Kabila.[8][9][10][11] The war ended under President Joseph Kabila, who governed the country from 2001 to 2019 and under whom human rights in the country remained poor and included frequent abuses such as forced disappearances, torture, arbitrary imprisonment and restrictions on civil liberties.[12]
Following the 2018 general election, in the country's first peaceful transition of power since independence, Kabila was succeeded as president in a highly contentious election won by Félix Tshisekedi, who has served as president since.[13] Since 2015, eastern Congo has been the site of an ongoing military conflict.
The Democratic Republic of the Congo is extremely rich in natural resources but has suffered from political instability, a lack of infrastructure, corruption, and centuries of both commercial and colonial extraction and exploitation, followed by more than 60 years of independence, with little widespread development.[14] Besides the capital Kinshasa, the two next largest cities, Lubumbashi and Mbuji-Mayi, are both mining communities. The DRC's largest export is raw minerals, with China accepting over 50% of its exports in 2019.[2] In 2021, DR Congo's level of human development was ranked 179th out of 191 countries by the Human Development Index[15] and is classed as a least developed country by the UN. As of 2018, following two decades of various civil wars and continued internal conflicts, around 600,000 Congolese refugees were still living in neighbouring countries.[16] Two million children risk starvation, and the fighting has displaced 4.5 million people.[17] The country is a member of the United Nations, Non-Aligned Movement, African Union, COMESA, Southern African Development Community, Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie, and Economic Community of Central African States."
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AN EXCERPT FROM THE WIKIPEDIA ARTICLE ABOUT THE REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_of_the_Congo
(Retrieved October 30, 2024)
"Congo, officially the Republic of the Congo or Congo Republic,[a] also known as Congo-Brazzaville, is a country located on the western coast of Central Africa to the west of the Congo River. It is bordered to the west by Gabon, to the northwest by Cameroon, to the northeast by the Central African Republic, to the southeast by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to the south by the Angolan exclave of Cabinda, and to the southwest by the Atlantic Ocean.The region was dominated by Bantu-speaking tribes at least 3,000 years ago, who built trade links leading into the Congo River basin. From the 13th century the present day territory was dominated by a confederation led by Vungu which included Kakongo and Ngoyo. Loango emerged in the 16th century. In the late 19th century France colonised the region and incorporated it into French Equatorial Africa.[3] The Republic of the Congo was established on 28 November 1958 and gained independence from France in 1960. It was a Marxist–Leninist state from 1969 to 1992, under the name People's Republic of the Congo (PRC). The country has had multi-party elections since 1992, but a democratically elected government was ousted in the 1997 Republic of the Congo Civil War. President Denis Sassou Nguesso, who first came to power in 1979, ruled until 1992 and then again since after his reinstatement.
The Republic of the Congo is a member of the African Union, the United Nations, La Francophonie, the Economic Community of Central African States, and the Non-Aligned Movement. It has become the 4th-largest oil producer in the Gulf of Guinea, providing the country with a degree of prosperity, with political and economic instability in some areas, and unequal distribution of oil revenue nationwide. Its economy is dependent on the oil sector.[13] and economic growth has slowed since the post-2015 drop in oil prices. Christianity is the most widely professed faith in the country."....
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