History of Democratic Republic of Congo is interesting and will give you a fascinating insight into the land, its rich past, the people and their culture. History of Democratic Republic of Congo has it that Pygmies living in the equatorial forests of the north and northeast were probably the indigenous inhabitants of the Congo region. By the end of the 1st millennium B.C., small numbers of Bantu-speaking people had migrated from the northwest and settled in the savanna regions of the south. By the early 2nd millennium, the Bantu people had increased in number and introduced what can be defined as the first phases of states and they actually had complex administrative structures. Most of the states were ruled by a monarch under a council of high civil servants and elders.
Contacts with European and Arab civilizations played an important role in the History of Democratic Republic of Congo. Diogo Cão, a Portuguese navigator, became the first European in 1482 to arrive at Congo. Soon, the Portuguese established ties with the king of Kongo and established themselves on parts of the coast of modern Angola in the early 16th century. In the mid-19th century, Arab, Swahili and Nyamwezi traders from the present-day Tanzania arrived at East Congo. Some of the traders even established states with considerable power. Msiri established himself in 1856 and soon enlarged his holdings and was a major force until 1891 when he was killed by the Belgians.
The late 1870s witnessed the territory being colonized by Leopold II, king of the Belgians. He privately set about establishing a colonial empire. The personality who had considerable influence on the course of the Democratic Republic of Congo History, was Henry M. Stanley who made a journey across central Africa and found the course of the Congo River. He was engaged by Leopold to establish the authority of the king in the Congo basin. At the Conference of Berlin (1884–85), Leopold's claim to the Congo basin was acknowledged by the European powers. In 1885, the king announced the establishment of the Congo Free State, headed by himself. In 1908, after a series of events, Belgium annexed the Congo.
Under the Belgian rule, Congo was still considered as a field for European investment and there was virtually very little or no role at all for the Africans to play in its government or economy. 1955 onwards, demand for independence were rising throughout Africa and in 1959, serious nationalist riots in Kinshasa led to the gradual lose of control over Congo by the Belgians. June 30, 1960 became the most significant day in the History of Democratic Republic of Congo as on this day, it was decided at a roundtable conference at Brussels that the Belgian Congo would become fully independent.
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