Countries / Sub-Saharan Africa
7 notable historical events in DR Congo, in chronological order.
Bantu-speaking peoples from west-central Africa gradually spread across eastern and southern Africa over millennia, bringing agriculture and ironworking.
King Nzinga a Nkuwu of the Kingdom of Kongo was baptized as João I, beginning Kongo's long relationship with Portugal and the Catholic Church.
King Leopold II of Belgium ruled the Congo as a personal possession; its forced-labour rubber regime caused mass deaths until Belgium annexed the territory in 1908.
In 1960, seventeen African countries gained independence, most of them former French colonies along with Nigeria, Somalia and the Congo.
Immediately after independence from Belgium, the Congo descended into secession, foreign intervention and civil war, ending when Mobutu Sese Seko seized power in 1965.
Patrice Lumumba, the first prime minister of independent Congo, was deposed, captured and executed in Katanga, with the involvement of Katangan secessionist authorities and Belgian officials.
War in the Democratic Republic of the Congo drew in the armies of numerous African states; the fighting and associated famine and disease caused millions of deaths.