Which country colonized congo

One group that played a big role in the rebellion was the Tutsi of Zaire, because of being denied rights under Mobuto. One individual jockeying for power was Laurent Kabila. Kabila had been a youth leader for a group allied to Lumumba and his movement. When Lumumba was murdered, Kabila fled to the bush, from where he later became the leader of a guerrilla band. The famous Cuban revolutionary Che Guevara briefly joined Kabila in the Congolese jungle battle before declaring "Nothing leads me to believe he is the man of the hour".

The change in power in this Central African region affected other African countries in the area. Many hoped that the end of Mobuto would have as much effect on African peace and security as the end of apartheid. Unfortunately this was unfounded. Other political parties were all banned and the promised elections were never held. Kabila was filled with paranoia and fears of conspiracy. This led to the murder of many suspected Mobuto supporters.

Kabila failed to form new links with the West as had been hoped, and even refused to work together with the UN while they were busy with investigations into the murder of thousands of Rwandan Hutus. This was for fear of being implicated in the killings on his side of the border and his part in them being exposed.

In a rebellion broke out against Kabila, and his former allies Rwanda and Uganda turned against him. He was however still given the protection of other African countries, and Zimbabwe, Namibia and Angola all sent troops to aid him. They managed to push back the rebels, largely in order to protect their own economic and political interests.

The fighting continued in the Congo until , and although the rebel forces were kept outside the capital, they did still hold almost half the country. In a peace agreement was reached, but the fighting did not stop. In January rebels managed to enter the capital and a gun battle took place near the Presidential Palace. After this battle there were various stories surrounding the event and what happened to Kabila.

Some reports said he had been assassinated and others claimed that he was still alive. When it became known that Kabila had been assassinated, his son, Joseph Kabila took over his position as leader of the DRC.

He inherited a country that was at war, and realized that the most important thing to do was stop the war and unite the DRC. However, after more than two years in power, Joseph Kabila has not been able to bring complete peace to the DRC. Press and other democratic freedoms are still broken and the DRC has not yet achieved what was hoped for after the fall of Mobuto. Various peace settlements have been negotiated and signed, but each time deal-breaking problems have arisen.

In December an agreement was reached, but it led only to further conflict in other parts of the country. An explanation for the endemic violence is that some power-blocs actually benefit from the continuation of war, and they cause problems each time an agreement is about to be reached.

Over time, there have been over armed groups, over 80 humanitarian missions, over 20, peacekeepers, hundreds of foreign firms, thousands of profiteers and a bewildering array of covert agents. There are heroes in all this, though. The day will come when history will speak. Africa will write its own history and in both north and south, it will be a history of glory and dignity.

Courageous and beloved by the people of Goma, Mamadou was killed in a mortar attack on his vehicle on 2 January A Congolese Army colonel and a rebel commander were later sentenced to death for the murder. Another is Nobel laureate Dr. Denis Mukwege, renowned for his work with survivors of sexual assault. Dr Mukwege, outspoken over on the killings and war crimes in the Congo, now lives under UN protection after threats were made on his life.

Here are some ideas from Congolese leaders, businesspeople and activists, including Dr Mukwege. This marked the first peaceful transfer of power to the opposition. We believe that Africa is poorly represented, and badly under-estimated. Beyond the vast opportunity manifest in African markets, we highlight people who make a difference; leaders turning the tide, youth driving change, and an indefatigable business community. That is what we believe will change the continent, and that is what we report on.

With hard-hitting investigations, innovative analysis and deep dives into countries and sectors, The Africa Report delivers the insight you need. Angolan troops also side with Mr Kabila. The rebels take control of much of the east of DR Congo. Joseph Kabila succeeds his father. Later, a UN panel says the warring parties are deliberately prolonging the conflict to plunder gold, diamonds, timber and coltan, used in the making of mobile phones.

Under the deal rebels and opposition members are to be given portfolios in an interim government. Leaders of main former rebel groups are sworn in as vice-presidents in July. He is accused of forcing children into active combat. The poll has the general approval of international monitors. Rubber sales made a fortune for Leopold, who built several buildings in Brussels and Ostend to honor himself and his country. To enforce the rubber quotas, the army, the Force Publique , cut off the limbs of the natives as a matter of policy.

To monopolize the resources of the entire Congo Free State, Leopold issued three decrees in and that reduced the native population to serfs. The Congo rubber genus Landolphia came from wild vines in the jungle, which cannot be cultivated, unlike the rubber from Brazil Hevea brasiliensis , which was tapped from trees and could be cultivated.

The intense drive to collect latex from these wild plants was responsible for many of the atrocities committed under the Congo Free State. To extract the rubber, instead of tapping the vines, the Congolese workers slashed them and lathered their bodies with the ensuing latex.

When the latex hardened, it was painfully scraped off the skin, taking the hair with it. Leopold ran up high debts with his Congo investments before the beginning of the worldwide rubber boom in the s. Prices increased throughout the decade as industries discovered new uses for rubber in tires, hoses, tubing, insulation for telegraph and telephone cables, and wiring.

By the lates, wild rubber had far surpassed ivory as the main source of revenue from the Congo Free State. The peak year was , with rubber fetching the highest price and concessionary companies raking in the highest profits. However, the boom sparked efforts to find lower-cost producers.

Congolese concessionary companies faced competition from rubber cultivation in Southeast Asia and Latin America. As plantations were started in other tropical areas—mostly under the ownership of the rival British firms—world rubber prices started to dip. Competition heightened the drive to exploit forced labor in the Congo to lower production costs. Meanwhile, the cost of enforcement and the increasingly unsustainable harvesting methods ate away at profit margins.

A cartoon depicting Leopold II as a rubber vine entangling a Congolese rubber collector. The company was founded with British and Belgian capital and was based in Belgium. The company was granted a large concession in the north of the country and the rights to tax the inhabitants. This tax was taken in the form of rubber obtained from a relatively rare rubber vine. The collection system revolved around a series of trade posts along the two main rivers in the concession.

Each post was commanded by a European agent and manned with armed sentries to enforce taxation and punish any rebels. Abir enjoyed a boom through the late s, by selling a kilogram of rubber in Europe that cost them just 1. These events typically resulted in Abir dispatching an armed force to restore order.