CongoTimeLine
Category: Other
Updated: 12 Nov 2017
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Created byCole Bleichfeld
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Events
78000 BCE
First people arrive.2000 BCE
Bantu arrive, displace pygmies. Brought iron working and agriculture1200
Rise of Kongo empire, centred in modern northern Angola and
including extreme western Congo and territories round lakes Kisale
and Upemba in central Katanga1482
Portuguese navigator Diogo Cao becomes the first European to visit the Congo;
establishes ties with king of Kongo.1870
Belgian King Leopold II sets up a private venture
to colonise Kongo.1879
Leopold commissions Stanley to establish
the king's authority in the Congo basin.1884
European powers at the Conference of Berlin
recognize Leopold’s claim to the Congo.1885
King Leopold announces creation of The Free Congo State,
under his control of course.1891
Conquest of Katanga begins by the Belgians.1908
Congo annexed by Belgian state amid protests over the killings
and atrocities carried out under King Leopold's command.1955
Belgian Professor Antoin van Bilsen publishes
a "30-Year Plan" for granting the Congo increased
self-government.1960
Congo becomes independent with
Patrice Lumumba as prime minister and
Joseph Kasavubu as president.1960
Lumumba removed as prime minister and
arrested.1965
Kasavubu ousted in a coup led
by Joseph Mobutu.1989
Zaire defaults on loans from Belgium,
resulting in a cancellation of development programs
and increased deterioration of the economy.1997
Tutsi and other anti-Mobutu rebels, aided
principally by Rwanda, capture the capital,
Kinshasa; Zaire is renamed the Democratic
Republic of Congo; Laurent-Desire Kabila
installed as president.1998
Rebels backed by Rwanda and Uganda rise up
against Kabila and advance on Kinshasa.
Zimbabwe, Namibia send troops to repel them.
Angolan troops also side with Kabila. The rebels
take control of much of the east of DR Congo.1999
Rifts emerge between Congolese Liberation
Movement (MLC) rebels supported by Uganda
and Rally for Congolese Democracy (RCD) rebels
backed by Rwanda.1999
The six African countries involved in the war sign
a ceasefire accord in Lusaka. The following month
the MLC and RCD rebel groups sign the accord.Periods
1600’s
British, Dutch, Portuguese and French merchants engage in
slave trade through Kongo intermediaries.
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