3. History

Most of Africa history influenced the colonial experience and continue to be a powerful force shaping post colonial Africa.  
Formerly the Belgian Congo, this territory was inhabited by ancient Negrito peoples (Pygmies), who were pushed into the mountains by Bantu and Nilotic invaders. The American correspondent Henry M. Stanley navigated the Congo River in 1877 and opened the interior to exploration. Commissioned by King Leopold II of the Belgians, Stanley made treaties with native chiefs that enabled the king to obtain personal title to the territory at the Berlin Conference of 1885. 
But within weeks of independence, the Katanga Province, led by Moise Tshombe, seceded from the new republic, and another mining province, South Kasai, followed. Belgium sent paratroopers to quell the civil war, and the United Nations flew in a peacekeeping force.

Source : Congo, Democratic Republic of the : History, Geography, Government, and Culture — Infoplease.com http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0198161.html#ixzz1ZAwp2ipw

Since independence, its instability has been a destabilizing influence for its neighbors in Central, Eastern, and Southern Africa. At peace, it could become the hub of an African renaissance.