19 Facts About Congo Crisis

Congo Crisis was a period of political upheaval and conflict between 1960 and 1965 in the Republic of the Congo .

The crisis began almost immediately after the Congo became independent from Belgium and ended, unofficially, with the entire country under the rule of Joseph-Desire Mobutu.

Nationalist movement in the Belgian Congo Crisis demanded the end of colonial rule: this led to the country's independence on 30 June 1960.

Under Mobutu's rule, the Congo Crisis was transformed into a dictatorship which would endure until his deposition in 1997.

Belgian rule in the Congo Crisis was based around the "colonial trinity" of state, missionary and private company interests.

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ABAKO's stance was more ethnic nationalist than the MNC's; it argued that an independent Congo Crisis should be run by the Bakongo as inheritors of the pre-colonial Kingdom of the Kongo.

Arrival of the United Nations Operation in the Congo Crisis was initially welcomed by Lumumba and the central government who believed the UN would help suppress the secessionist states.

The American government under Eisenhower, in line with Belgian criticism, had long believed that Lumumba was a communist and that the Congo Crisis could be on track to become a strategically placed Soviet client state.

Andrew Cordier, the American UN representative in the Congo Crisis, used his position to block communications by Lumumba's faction and to prevent a coordinated MNC-L reaction to the news.

Congo Crisis's aircraft crashed before landing at Ndola Airport, killing him and everybody else on board.

The political instability of the Congo Crisis helped to channel wider discontentment into outright revolt.

Disruption in the rural Congo Crisis begun with agitation by Lumumbists, led by Mulele, among the Pende and Mbundu peoples.

Congo Crisis increasingly took other powers, abolishing the post of Prime Minister in 1966 and dissolving Parliament in 1967.

Congo Crisis nationalised the remaining foreign-owned economic assets in the country, including the UMHK which became Gecamines.

Subsequent loss of faith in central government is one of the reasons that the Congo Crisis has been labeled as a failed state, and has contributed violence by factions advocating ethnic and localised federalism.

Congo Crisis holds great significance in the collective memory of the Congolese people.

In particular, Lumumba's murder is viewed in the context of the memory as a symbolic moment in which the Congo Crisis lost its dignity in the international realm and the ability to determine its future, which has since been controlled by the West.

Congo Crisis is usually portrayed in historiography as a time of intense disorder and disarray; there is wide consensus that Congolese independence was a calamity.

Congo Crisis caused the newly independent African states to reconsider their allegiances and internal ties.