Congo, Democratic Republic of the

The Colonial Era

After Charles Stanley explored the Congo River Basin, Europeans, including French, Belgians, and Dutch, reached the interior lands. At the Berlin Conference of 1884–85, Europe regulated colonization and trade networks in Africa. King Leopold II of Belgium acquired the DRC, known then as Congo Free State. In 1908, the Congo Free State became a Belgian colony and was renamed Belgian Congo. Belgians ruled the central government and assigned local government oversight to indigenous leaders.

Christian religious institutions developed networks of missions, schools, and hospitals. The Roman Catholic Church, aligned with the Belgians, was quite powerful. Protestant denominations like Baptists and Presbyterians arose as well, establishing their own networks of missions and churches.

Transaltantic slavery, Belgian rule, European settlers, Arab traders, and churches had a profound effect on indigenous tribes. These influences changed and subjugated traditional political, social, cultural, and economic networks.

Independence and Mobutu Era

In 1960, Belgian Congo gained independence from Belgium, forming a democracy. The majority of Europeans left, but their influence remained. Joseph Mobutu (aka Mobutu Sese Seko) seized power in 1965, renaming the Belgian Congo to Zaire. It became a U.S. ally, serving as a strategic outpost in Africa during the Cold War and elevating Mobutu's government internationally.

The Roman Catholic Church experienced backlash under Mobutu's Africanization policy. However, the Church was resilient, being a national institution with tremendous reach and strong social networking ties to the population. The Church also was no longer the face of Europeans, but millions of Congolese. Eventually, Mobutu eased pressure on the Church. Overall, the Protestants were left untouched.

A migrant social network of students, diplomats, and civil servants emerged in Brussels, Belgium. This network became a satellite for the power networks in Kinshasa. The transnational business networks included foreign firms allowed to mine in Zaire without much regulation.

Post-Mobuto Era

In the 1990s, Rwanda's conflict between Hutus and Tutsis spilled over into Zaire, which provided the impetus for the overthrow of Mobutu in 1997 and the renaming of Zaire to the DRC. The foreign armies of Rwanda [Page 163]and Uganda, as well as Mobutu's political opposition, formed a coalition led by Laurent Kabila. Some military and political networks morphed into hybrid military, trade, and political networks, leading to the Second Congo War and the continuing instability today. The key driver is the exploitation of the DRC's mineral wealth.

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