Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
The Congo Free State, also known as the Independent State of the Congo (French: État indépendant du Congo), was a large state and absolute monarchy in Central Africa from 1885 to 1908. It was privately owned by King Leopold II, the constitutional monarch of the Kingdom of Belgium. In legal terms, the two separate countries were in a personal ...
Prior to the creation of the Congo Free State, the International Association of the Congo (IAC) had signed treaties with over 300 native Congolese chiefs and in effect exercised sovereignty over a large area of the Congo Basin. The IAC was headquartered in Belgium and run by a committee under the presidency of Maximilien Strauch.
The earliest known human settlements in what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo have been dated back to the Middle Stone Age, approximately 90,000 years ago. The first real states, such as the Kongo, the Lunda, the Luba and Kuba, appeared south of the equatorial forest on the savannah from the 14th century onwards.
The Belgian Congo (French: Congo belge, pronounced [kɔ̃ɡo bɛlʒ]; Dutch: Belgisch-Congo[a]) was a Belgian colony in Central Africa from 1908 until independence in 1960 and became the Republic of the Congo (Léopoldville). The former colony adopted its present name, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), in 1964.
The capital of the AEF was Brazzaville, for Middle Congo the capital was Pointe Noire. The Federation quickly became centered on Middle Congo due to the presence of the Governor-General in Brazzaville, so while each colony was theoretically fairly autonomous the centralization of powers meant that the Governor-General gave preferential ...
The current territory of the Democratic Republic of Congo was occupied by humans in the Paleolithic at least 80,000 years ago. Waves of Bantu migrations from 2000 BC to 500 AD moved into the basin from the northwest and covered the precolonial states absorbed or overthrown by the colonial powers. The Bantu migrations added to and displaced the ...
King Leopold II, whose rule of the Congo Free State was marked by severe atrocities, violence and major population decline.. Even before his accession to the throne of Belgium in 1865, the future king Leopold II began lobbying leading Belgian politicians to create a colonial empire in the Far East or in Africa, which would expand and enhance Belgian prestige. [2]
Democratic Union for the Defence of African Interests. Abbé Fulbert Youlou (19 July 1917 – 6 May 1972) was a laicized Brazzaville - Congolese Roman Catholic priest, nationalist leader and politician, who became the first President of the Republic of the Congo on its independence. In August 1960, he led his country into independence.