|RNature and climate:|N The mainpart is the Zaïre River basin. Surrounded by the Ubangi-Uele-plateau in the north, a branch of the Angolan highland in the south, the Kundelunga Mountains in southeast and a branch of the Great Rift Valley, with the lakes of Mobutu Sese Seko, Aurin, Kivu and Tanganyika in the east. In these eastern parts of the nation lies several mighty mountainchains. The highest peak is Margherita Peak reaching 5109 m.a.s.l.
In the north the area is covered with tree-savannah and in the south grass-savannah. In the middle an often swampy rainforest.
Average temperature between 21°C and 27°C in the whole nation throughout the year.
Percipitation between 1000 and 2100 mm.
|RPeople:|N 80% are Bantupeople of more than 200 different tribes. In the rainforests some pygmys.
|REconomy:|N 75% of the population is occupied in agriculture. Most important crops are coffee, rice, sugarcane, bananas, maniok, mango, tea, cacao and palmoil.
Vast resources of forests, natural rubber and ivory.
Zaïre have rich resources of minerals, but extraction is difficult due to poorly developed transportation system.
Here are cobalt (60% of the worlds known resources), copper, cadmium, gold, silver, diamonds, tin, germanium, zink, iron, manganese, uranium, radium and oil.
The copper accounts for 70% of total export value, but decreasing world prices have deteriorated the economy.
Extensive development of the heavy industry to refine the raw materials before export have been started.
|RHistory:|N The area was probably first populated by pygmys, that were forced away by different Bantutribes. It was a part of the vast Banturealm Bakongo, when the first Portuguese explorers visited the area in the 15th century.
In the 19th century it was investigated by Henry M Stanley, that convinced king Leopold II of Belgium to explore the rich country.
1876 an international company was founded by Leopold for this purpose. At the Berlin congress 1884 to 1885 the free nation of Congo was created with Leopold as king and main owner.
The native people were exploited so hard that Leopold in 1908 was forced to cede his private colony to the Belgian nation (against a compensation of 95 million francs).
But the exploitation of the natives continued at large and led to hatred against all whites. The black "liberationparty" MNC with the leader Patrice Lumumba succeeded to negotiate a treaty of independence after riots in 1959.
On June 30th 1960 the independent nation Congo was proclaimed.
After independence clashing continued between different groups and Moise Tshombe proclaimed an independent nation of the Katanga-province (now called the Shaba-province).
Many whites that had stayed in Congo were massacred and UN sent a contingent in an attempt to separate the fighting groups. Here the UN secretary general Dag Hammarskjöld died in an airplanecrash in 1961.
Under the general Mobutu the nation was united and Katanga forced into the nation and from 1969 Mobutus own party, the MPR, was the only party allowed to work.
1971 the name was changed from Congo to Zaïre and citizens with European influenced names had to change to African names.
At the beginning of the 1980:ies Zaïre suffered from severe economic hardship and an economic help program was launched by the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.
In 1990 political parties were allowed to work again.
