Democratic Republic of the Congo Located in the heart of the continent of Africa, the Democratic Republic of the Congo is a diverse nation with rich, intricate history. Despite political, economic, and social struggles, the large African country has continued to endure and develop against adversity. The Democratic Republic of the Congo is abundant in natural resources and is home to many different cultural and ethnic groups of people. The geographic, demographic, economic, and governmental history and conditions have helped shape the territory into the developing state it is today.
I. GEOGRAPHY The geography of the Democratic Republic of the Congo shapes many aspects of the state’s past, current, and future affairs. As the second largest country in
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Of this large area, 2,267,048 square kilometers consists of land while 77,810 square kilometers is covered by water. It shares its long border with many other African states including Angola, Burundi, the Central African Republic, the Republic of Congo, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia. (CIA World Factbook) The unique topography is characterized the Congo region’s large central basin surrounding by an array of low-lying plateaus, mountains, and volcanoes. The Congo River is the area’s largest traveling water body with many other subsidiary rivers crossing the territory. The land’s vast tropical rainforest occupies over half of the state’s total area. (Southern African Development Community) The Democratic Republic of the Congo preserves areas of its lush territory through national parks such as Garamba, Kahuzi-Biéga, Salonga, Virunga, and the Okapi Faunal Reserve. The mountainous eastern border of the state known as the Great Riff Valley experiences frequent earthquakes and is home to several active volcanoes. The Democratic Republic of the Congo’s Pic
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.
...n Congo, specifically. It is extremely detailed in content, yet covers a variety of issues including imperialism, disease, climate, and indigenous tribes of the African Congo.
...trage about violence in the Congo, Belgian administrators took a census in 1924, as they were concerned about the shortage of available workers. The same year, the official committee of the National Colonial Congress of Belgium declared: “We run the risk of someday seeing our native population collapse and disappear,” that the Congo state would be nothing more than a desert without the native population.
...erpetrators. This sort of weakness in their government is what ruins attempts to prevent atrocities and protect civilians. With this much to fix on their plate, they need to start getting help from other countries and providing help of their own in order to fix the state it’s gotten into and help its people. Because they mistreated the M23 rebels and did not stick to the promises that they made in the peace treaty, they caused them to rebel again and intern damned their people. With a suffering army and government state they are useless in stopping the rebels. The Congolese government needs to get help with from neighboring countries in order to fix some of their piling problems. They need to start assisting the groups that are helping their civilians dealing with the violence and charging those perpetrators responsible for the heinous acts against the population.
The history of the Belgian Congo is one of terrible sadness and seldom-noted human devastation. From 1885 to 1908 the Congo was ruled by one man as his sole, personal colony; a ruler ironically noted at the time for his philanthropy, King Leopold II of Belgium. Seeking his own colony, he founded the Congo Free State, a massive territory in the African interior that was larger than seventy-six times the size of his own country (Hochschild, 87). A “sober, respectable businessman” by the name of Edmund Dene Morel made a note of something about this colony that blew the cover of one of the largest collections of atrocities in human memory (Hochschild, 1). Working in Antwerp on business at the docks, he noticed that only soldiers were going towards the Congo while goods were being imported, a clear sign that no true legitimate trading was going on; he rightly deduced this to mean slavery (Hochschild, 2).
Over the course of human history, many believe that the “Congo Free State”, which lasted from the 1880s to the early 1900s, was one of the worst colonial states in the age of Imperialism and was one of the worst humanitarian disasters over time. Brutal methods of collecting rubber, which led to the deaths of countless Africans along with Europeans, as well as a lack of concern from the Belgian government aside from the King, combined to create the most potent example of the evils of colonialism in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century’s. The Congo colonial experience, first as the Congo Free State then later as Belgian Congo, was harmful to that region of Africa both then and now because of the lack of Belgian and International attention on the colony except for short times, the widespread economic exploitation of the rubber resources of the region, and the brutal mistreatment and near-genocide of the Congolese by those in charge of rubber collecting.
Christopher Mullins offers a history of every major power to be in control of the Congo in his article “Gold, diamonds and blood: International state-corporate crime in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.” Colonized by the Belgians in towards the end of the nineteenth century, the explorer Henry Stanley was ordered to create a base that claims the land under Belgian rule. Africa was ripe with unused resources, such as trees, and multiple minerals. This area of Africa was subject to being dominated by whites looking to mine the resources for good money. After World War 2, Belgian began to lose p...
This author discusses the impact of King Leopold on the Congo. King Leopold, king of the Belgians, went to the Congo for “philanthropic” reasons. King Leopold fooled everyone that he was in the Congo for the right reasons. People believed the King because of his Catholic faith. In the Congo, King Leopold established Socialism and made many laws that turned into horrible circumstances. For example, he issued a order that all the rubber and ivory was to be property of the State. Every village was required to collect a certain amount of rubber. If the men were unsuccessful in bringing all the rubber, the King would take the women and hold them hostage. Leopold also sent cannibals into the village to frighten the inhabitants. To stop the waste
When Congo gained its independence from Belgium it struggled to develop and remained a weak state. There were many factors that led to Congo being unable to progress and create strong institutions within its countries borders. “Political divisions along the ethnic lines were prevalent, though this fact could be misleading. Ethnicity became the primary source of political mobilization i...
1 “Quick Guide: DR Congo,” BBC News. Updated Mar. 07 2005. BBC News, Accessed 06 March 2005,
This Paper explores the cultural, historic, geographic and economic state of modern day Mali. The focus of this paper will be Mali’s political volatility as the nation has been under support of the United Nations. Other areas of importance will be placed on the current economic state of Mali, social class breakdown and geographical challenges the country faces.
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.
to be a kingdom before Germany started to occupy the region. Both of the Kingdom
Almost 5.5 million people killed. Many more millions forced out of their homes. Over 15,000 filed rapes per year. If these number are not yet concerning, then IDont say I must have forgotten to mention that all of this has happened in the Democratic Republic of the Congo over the past 20 years due to wars and violence that have plagued the country. Widespread violence has overtaken the country, because ofits rich natural resources. Basic human rights and liberties are taken away, and citizens are raped, abused, and even killed while the government has no power to protect them.
...line were ruined. Transportation costs are very high which seriously hampers small producers’ access to markets. At the height of the conflict, about one third of the country's people were displaced. The chronic financial crisis became severe and the economy was close to collapsing. Poverty became deeper in the rural areas of the Congo where poor people are now powerless, vulnerable and isolated. This is a big contributor to the poverty Congo is experiencing today because little has improved and won’t improve until these problems are fixed.