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1.
Brazzaville
2. Pointe-Noire
3.
Dolisie
4.
Nkayi
5.
Kindamba
6.
Impfondo
7.
Ouésso
8.
Madingou
9.
Owando
10.
Sibiti
Music :
Alright,
Silent Partner; YouTube
Audio Library
The Republic of the Congo (
French:
République du Congo), also known as
Congo Republic or Congo-Brazzaville, is a country located in
Central Africa. It is bordered by
Gabon,
Cameroon, the
Central African Republic, the
Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Angolan exclave of
Cabinda.
The region was dominated by Bantu-speaking tribes, who built trade links leading into the
Congo River basin. Congo-Brazzaville was formerly part of the
French colony of
Equatorial Africa. Upon independence in 1960, the former colony of
French Congo became the
Republic of the Congo.
The People's Republic of the
Congo was a
Marxist–Leninist single-party state from
1970 to
1991.
Multi-party elections have been held since
1992, although a democratically elected government was ousted in the
1997 Republic of the Congo
Civil War.
Bantu-speaking peoples who founded tribes during the
Bantu expansions largely displaced and absorbed the earliest inhabitants of the region, the
Pygmy people, about 1500 BC. The
Bakongo, a Bantu ethnicity that also occupied parts of present-day
Angola, Gabon and Democratic Republic of the Congo, formed the basis for ethnic affinities and rivalries among those countries. Several Bantu kingdoms—notably those of the
Kongo, the Loango, and the Teke—built trade links leading into the Congo River basin.
The
Portuguese explorer Diogo Cão reached the mouth of the Congo in 1484.
Commercial relationships quickly grew up between the inland Bantu kingdoms and
European merchants who traded various commodities, manufactured goods, and slaves captured from the hinterlands. For centuries the
Congo river delta served as a major commercial hub for transatlantic trade. However, direct
European colonization of the area began in the late
19th century and eroded the power of the Bantu societies in the region.
The area north of the
Congo River came under French sovereignty in
1880 as a result of
Pierre de Brazza's treaty with
Makoko of the
Bateke. This Congo
Colony became known first as French Congo, then as
Middle Congo in 1903. In
1908,
France organized
French Equatorial Africa (
AEF), comprising Middle Congo, Gabon,
Chad, and Oubangui-Chari (the modern Central African Republic).
The French designated Brazzaville as the federal capital.
Economic development during the first 50 years of colonial rule in Congo centered on natural-resource extraction. The methods were often brutal: establishment of the
Congo–Ocean Railroad following
World War I has been estimated to have cost at least 14,
000 lives.
During the
Nazi occupation of France during
World War II, Brazzaville functioned as the symbolic capital of
Free France between
1940 and 1943. The
Brazzaville Conference of 1944 heralded a period of major reform in
French colonial policy. Congo benefited from the postwar expansion of colonial administrative and infrastructure spending as a result of its central geographic location within AEF and the federal capital at Brazzaville. It also received a local legislature after the adoption of the 1946 constitution that established the
Fourth Republic.
Following the revision of the
French constitution that established the
Fifth Republic in
1958, the AEF dissolved into its constituent parts, each of which became an autonomous colony within the
French Community. During these reforms, Middle Congo became known as the Republic of the Congo in 1958[9] and published its first constitution in
1959. Antagonism between the pro-Opangault Mbochis and the pro-Youlou Balalis resulted in a series of riots in Brazzaville in
February 1959, which the
French Army subdued.
The Republic of the Congo received full independence from France on
August 15, 1960.
Fulbert Youlou ruled as the country's first president until labour elements and rival political parties instigated a three-day uprising that ousted him. The Congolese military took charge of the country briefly and installed a civilian provisional government headed by
Alphonse Massamba-Débat.
Under the
1963 constitution, Massamba-Débat was elected
President for a five-year term. During Massamba-Débat's term in office the regime adopted "scientific socialism" as the country's constitutional ideology. In
1965, Congo established relations with the
Soviet Union, the
People's Republic of China,
North Korea and
North Vietnam. Massamba-Débat was unable to reconcile various institutional and ideological factions and his regime ended abruptly with a bloodless coup d'état in August
1968.
Source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_of_the_Congo
- published: 02 Dec 2014
- views: 863