The Republic of the Congo (French: République du Congo) is a country in Central Africa. It is not to be confused by its much larger (and much more unstable) neighbor, the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The two are often disambiguated in international press by the name of their capital cities, Brazzaville and Kinshasa (formerly Leopoldville), respectively, which sit on the opposite sides of the Congo River. Another way to disambiguate them is to recall that the Republic was a French colony, while the Democratic Republic was a Belgian colony.
Formerly inhabited by the pygmies, then the Bantus before the Europeans moved in as an Outside-Context Problem to both of them. The prominent Bantu group who live in the country is (you guessed it) the Kongos, complemented by the Sanghas and the Tekes. The French began to expand their colony into the interior in the 19th century, eventually subsuming the Bantu kingdoms under their rule. It was part of French Equatorial Africa, alongside Gabon, Chad, and Oubangui-Chari (the present-day Central African Republic). The capital of the mega colony was Brazzaville.
During World War II, French Congo was designated by the Free French government-in-exile as the center of the Resistance, with Brazzaville as the capital of the French Colonial Empire after the fall of Paris (although London was de jure the capital). The government-in-exile eventually moved to Algiers, but Brazzaville remained important as the site of the Brazzaville Declaration, which made significant reforms to the administration of the French colonies to be implemented after the war (in response to France's notorious implementation of hard labor on the Congolese people in the followup to World War I).
The country became independent in 1960 with Fulbert Youlou as the first president, but he was ousted by Alphonse Massamba-Débat, who was fiercely left-leaning and established "scientific socialism" as the country's principal ideology. Massamba-Débat himself was deposed in a coup in 1968, to be succeeded by Marien Ngouabi, who renamed the country into the "People's Republic of the Congo". Ngouabi was eventually assassinated, but his successors continued the left-leaning ideology, including the country's current president, Denis Sassou Nguesso, who first took power in 1979.
After end of the cold War, Nguesso had to allow opposition to finally stand in party elections. Pascal Lissouba became the first democratically-elected president in the 1992 general election, but Nguesso continued a rivalry with him until it degenerated into a civil war in 1997 that claimed thousands of deaths. The war only ended when Nguesso took the helm again...to the present day.
Like its neighbors, it has large reserves of oil and mineral, which the country has generously tapped on, making it one of Africa's wealthiest countries, though not as many people have received this incentive as expected. Its relative stability has allowed it grow on, though, avoiding the pitfall of its eastern neighbor.
Relevant works:
The Congolese Flag
The Congolese national anthem
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Government
- Unitary dominant-party semi-presidential republic
- President: Denis Sassou Nguesso
- Prime Minister: Anatole Collinet Makosso
Miscellaneous
- Capital and largest city: Brazzaville
- Population: 5,244,359
- Area: 342,000 km² (132,000 sq mi) (64th)
- Currency: Central African CFA franc (FCFA) (XAF)
- ISO-3166-1 Code: CG
- Country calling code: 242
- Highest point: Mont Nabemba (1020 m/3,346 ft) (159th)
- Lowest point: Atlantic Ocean (3,646 m/11,962 ft) (-)
