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Zaire, [c] officially the Republic of Zaire, [d] was the name of the Democratic Republic of the Congo from 1971 to 18 May 1997. Located in Central Africa , it was, by area, the third-largest country in Africa after Sudan and Algeria , and the 11th-largest country in the world from 1965 to 1997.
The Congo River, [a] formerly also known as the Zaire River, is the second-longest river in Africa, shorter only than the Nile, as well as the third-largest river in the world by discharge volume, following the Amazon and Ganges rivers. It is the world's deepest recorded river, with measured depths of around 220 m (720 ft). [10]
Map of the Belgian Congo, 1914. This is a list of place names of towns and cities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo which were subsequently changed after the end of Belgian colonial rule. Place names of the colonial era tended to have two versions, one in French and one in Dutch, reflecting the two main languages of Belgium. Many of these ...
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.
Roughly 98% of Belgium's overseas territory was just one colony (about 76 times larger than Belgium itself) – known as the Belgian Congo. The colony was founded in 1908 following the transfer of sovereignty from the Congo Free State , which was the personal property of Belgium's king, Leopold II .
When Belgium annexed the Belgian Congo as a colony in November 1908, it was initially organised into 22 districts. Ten western districts were administered directly by the main colonial government, while the eastern part of the colony was administered under two vice-governments: eight northeastern districts formed Orientale Province, and four southeastern districts formed Katanga.
South America: Rio de Janeiro was the capital until 1960. See also: Capitals of Brazil. Bratislava Slovakia: Europe: Brazzaville Congo: Africa: Bridgetown Barbados: North America: Brussels Belgium: Europe Brussels also serves as de facto capital of the European Union. [1] European Union (de facto) Bucharest Romania: Budapest Hungary
From 1885, Portuguese Angola included the District of Congo, which was split in 1919 into the districts of Cabinda and Zaire, respectively north and south of the Congo/Zaire River. [ 10 ] During the 1961–1974 Angolan War of Independence , a large fraction of the Bakongo fled to the Republic of Zaire .