Encouraged by their knowledge of iron technology and agriculture, the Bantu-speakers moved to the Congo and South Africa by the end of 1st millennium, while they were developing new related languages. From about A.D. 700 Bantu worked in the copper deposits of South Katanga and traded with overseas. By about A.D. 1000 the Bantu had settled in the Congo. By the beginning of 2nd millennium, the Bantu population had increased and were united into states. some of them had large governed areas and complex administrative structures. Most of the states were ruled by a monarch, whose authority, although considerable, was checked by a council of high civil servants and elders. Notable among the states were the kingdom of Kongo, founded in the 14th century (cent.), centered in modern North Angola ,but including extreme West Congo and a Luba empire, founded in the early 16th century, centered around lakes Kisale and Upemba in central Katanga.The Kuba kingdom was famous for its sculpture and decorative arts.
In 1482, Diogo Cão, a Portuguese navigator was the first European to visit the Congo. After that the Portuguese build deep relationships with the king of Kongo. The Portuguese had increased their influence on the Congo in the late 18th cent., when the African and mulatto traders, whom they backed, traveled far inland .By the mid-19th cent., Arab, Swahili, and Nyamwezi traders established themselves into Congo. They traded and raided for slaves and ivory. Msiri, a Nyamwezi established himself near Mwata Kazembe in 1856. He enlarged his holdings in Congo until he was killed by the Belgians in 1891.
Leopold encouraged Henry M. Stanley in 1878 to establish the king’s authority in the Congo basin. By 1884, Stanley signed treaties with sev...
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... 2006, Congo held elections for president. Voting was largely peaceful, but the vote count had irregularities. Kabila won with 58%. Bemba, the opposite candidate rejected the result. The assessment of the election by most observers as free and fair. Kabila's election confirmed.
Later in 2007, fighting broke out between army units in the Congo. There was off-and-on fighting in the second half of 2007. In March, Bemba accused the government of trying to kill him. In May, 2008, Bemba was arrested in Belgium on an International Criminal Court warrant that charged him with war crimes in 2002. He was deported in July to the Netherlands to face trial.
From 2007 to 2008 there were many incidents between the militants and neighboring countries. There was also violence in early 2008 between police forces and a religion-political sect. Later on the sect was banned in March.
The book mainly chronicles the efforts of King Leopold II of Belgium which is to make the Congo into a colonial empire. During the period that the European powers were carving up Africa, King Leopold II of Belgium seized for himself the vast and mostly unexplored territory surrounding the Congo River.
...abor to get what he wanted, ivory and rubber. Leopold was able to colonize and pillage Congo for its resources during the Scramble for Africa through forced labor. The quote that sums up my essay and the book is best described at the end of chapter 15. Massacring huge numbers of natives will eventually frighten the survivors into gathering rubber. This shows the intentions of forced labor by the Force Publique and the reason for the population drop in Congo during Leopold’s rule.
Hochschild concludes that the world must never forget the events of Leopold’s Congo. This event is evidence that it is the result of human greed that led to so much suffering, injustice, and corruption.
Hailing from the African state of Ndongo and born in 1581 during the start of Luandan disagreement with Portuguese settlers (Toler 265), Queen Nzinga of the African Mbundu tribe stood up for her country and reestablished power over her people. Nzinga came in a time period that needed her. She got her country of Matamba (present day Angola) equal, both economically and socially, to the Portuguese. In order to do this, Nzinga took measures to place herself in the right position to eventually seize rule and steer her country in the right direction, even though it prompted a steady flow of opposition from her enemies. These initial enemies included the Imbangala tribes and irritated Portuguese Settlers, both of which she succeeded in turning into allies. Queen Nzinga's rule was well justified by a legal rise to the throne, and her subsequent role as a skilled ruler counteracted her reputation as a thriving slave trader.
When Leopold came to power in 1865, he was incredibly disappointed at Belgium’s lack of power in the imperial world. Every other western European nation by had this time had taken on colonies as part of their empire; and therefore had been acquiring incredible wealth due to their new markets and exploitation of the native peoples they encountered. Belgium, itself, was a small country, and unlike their neighboring nations, they had not yet entered into the colonial scene. This all changed when the famous explorer Henry M. Stanley accepted Leopold’s proposal to return to the Congo acting as an agent of the crown whose mission was to obtain the signatures of all the native chieftains living in the Congo. Using despicable and manipulative tactics, Stanley was able to acquire over 450 treaties which paved the way for the declaration of nearly one million square miles of the Congo River Basin as the property of King Leopold II.
Reilly, "Nzinga Mbemba: Appeal to the King of Portugal." Worlds of History, Volume Two: Since
Leopold researched the continent extensively and followed the news of the white explorers through the region. When he found out that an explorer was low on funds, he quickly offered to contribute to the cause. He found a few explorers who had brought back news of Africa and its current state at the time, when Arab slave traders were seen leading caravans of captives to be sold into the slave trade. This news stirred the many Europeans who were looking to abolish the slave trade. Leopold saw this as a way to get into Africa by setting up faux organizati...
The King's actions were inexcusable. King Leopold had no respect for his people or cared for their well being. His actions in every way were genocide. He broke almost every article in the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. All that King Leopold cared about was money and power. In order to obtain this he enslaved his fellow people. He also killed millions of people with no conscious at all. In order to get people to do what he wanted he threatened them with cruel and unusual punishment. The best way to sum up the atrocities going on in Congo under the reign of King Leopold is a quote from Joseph Conrad " The violence, scramble for loot that ever disfigured the history of human conscience."
Congo was an astounding bestseller novel. It was a great fictional novel that took place in the depths of the Congo rainforest. The novel was later made into a movie. Both the novel and the movie were good, however, I prefer the novel. It just seemed like a more entertaining piece than the movie. This movie was based much upon the novel, but had many alternatives and a completely different ending than the novel.
Since the late 1800’s, almost all of Africa had been under European colonial rule, but this changed drastically in 1960. Sixteen African nations gained their independence that year, including the former Belgian Congo, which became the Democratic Republic of the Congo on June 30. One of the key personalities that made this possible was Patrice Lumumba, who experienced widespread support in gaining independence and became the first Prime Minister of the DROC. However, he lost much of this support once he was in office, and lasted fewer than 200 days. Lumumba’s ability to communicate was a key reason for his success and failure.
While Leopold II, the King of Belgium, desperately wanted an overseas colony, The Belgian people did not share his enthusiasm; which created the feelings of neglect and apathy Belgium had towards Congo. The Congo Free State, established “in the margins of the Berlin Conference” in 1885, allowed Leopold to “gain international recognition of his possession” which he had begun to take control of since the 1870s. However, while Leopold was securing control of the Congo, the Belgian people were not interested in controlling colonies, as they believed that colonies “would merely soak up resources that would be better used for social purposes at home.” Thus, the Belgian people decided to solve the problem of having an unwanted colony by separating the Belgian government from...
The Portuguese arrived in Benin, in modern Nigeria, between 1472 and 1486 to find an established and ancient kingdom with remarkable social and ritual complexity, with art that was comparatively naturalistic, and with a political system that was, on the surface, recognizable to the Europeans: monarchy. Even more importantly, they found a land rich in pepper, cloth, ivory, and slaves, and immediately set out to establish trade (Ben-Amos 35-6). Though we often imagine "first contacts" between Europeans and Africans as clashes of epochal proportions, leaving Europeans free to manipulate and coerce the flabbergasted and paralyzed Africans, this misjudges the resilience and indeed, preparedness, of the Benin people. The Benin were able to draw on their cultural, political, and religious traditions to fit the European arrival in an understandable context. Indeed, as the great brass plaques of the Benin palace demonstrate, the arrival was in fact manipulated by the Benin to strengthen, not diminish, indigenous royal power.
One can easily note the physical and sexual violence brought upon the people (black and white) of Congo after independence, but we must locate the other forms of violence in order to bring the entire story of Patrice Lumumba to light. The director’s attempt at bringing the story of Patrice Lumumba to the “silver screen” had political intentions.
Since the migration of tribes to Zambia in the 12th century, the land was unvisited by Europeans for many centuries, except for Portuguese explorers in the late 1700s. A British missionary, David Livingstone was the first European to explore the land in 1851. Four years later, he discovered the waterfalls of the Zambezi River and named them Victoria Falls after Queen Victoria. In 1889, the area was colonized by the British and was known as Northern Rhodesia. “Cecil John Rhodes organized British commercial and political interests in East and Central Africa, where he obtained mineral rights concession from local chiefs. This proved to be the first step towards annexation of the area and the extension of British control over it” (14). Cooper is one of Zambia’s biggest assets and it was discovered in the late 1920s. This finding prompted the movement of European miners and technicians. After a decade, around 4,000 European workers and about 20,000 African laborers worked in the “Copper belt”. Zambia produced 13% of world's copper by 1938 (15). In 1960, Kenneth Kaunda formed the UNIP (United National Independence Party) (13). An articl...
Over a period from 1960-1965, the first Republic of the Congo experienced a period of serious crisis. There was a terrible war for power that displayed senseless violence and the desperation to rule. There were many internal conflicts among the people. The country eventually gained independence from Belgium. For many countries this would be a time for celebration. Unfortunately for the people of the Congo this became a time to forget. Almost immediately after independence and the general elections, the country went into civil war. Major developed cities like Katanga and Kasai wanted to be independent from the Lumumba government. Different factions started to fight the government and Katanga and Kasai tried to secede from the rest of the country out of fear of the mutinous army that was out of control looting and killing.