![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2020\/02\/Congo-on-the-Globe-300x279.png\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>The region was dominated by Bantu-speaking tribes<\/a> at least 3,000 years ago, who built trade links leading into the Congo River basin. Congo was formerly part of the French colony of Equatorial Africa<\/a>. The Republic of the Congo was established on the 28th of November 1958 but gained independence from France in 1960. The sovereign state has had multi-party elections since 1992, although a democratically elected government was ousted in the 1997 Republic of the Congo Civil War<\/a>, and President Denis Sassou Nguesso<\/a>, who first came to power in 1979, has ruled for 35 of the past 40 years.<\/p>\n The Republic of the Congo has become the fourth-largest oil producer in the Gulf of Guinea<\/a>, providing the country with a degree of prosperity despite political and economic instability in some areas and unequal distribution of oil revenue nationwide. Congo’s economy is heavily dependent on the oil sector, and economic growth has slowed considerably since the post-2015 drop in oil prices.<\/a><\/p>\n Bantu-speaking peoples who founded tribes during the Bantu expansions<\/a> largely displaced and absorbed the earliest inhabitants of the region, the Pygmy<\/a> people, about 1500 BC. The Bakongo<\/a>, a Bantu ethnic group that also occupied parts of present-day Angola, Gabon, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, formed the basis for ethnic affinities and rivalries among those countries. Several Bantu kingdoms\u2014notably those of the Kongo<\/a>, the Loango<\/a>, and the Teke<\/a>\u2014built trade links leading into the Congo River basin.<\/p>\n The Portuguese explorer Diogo C\u00e3o<\/a> reached the mouth of the Congo in 1484. Commercial relationships quickly grew between the inland Bantu kingdoms and European merchants who traded various commodities, manufactured goods, and people captured from the hinterlands. After centuries as a major hub for transatlantic trade, direct European colonization of the Congo river delta began in the late 19th century, subsequently eroding the power of the Bantu societies in the region.<\/p>\n The area north of the Congo River came under French sovereignty in 1880 as a result of Pierre de Brazza’<\/a>s treaty with King Makoko of the Bateke<\/a>. This Congo Colony became known first as French Congo<\/a>, then as Middle Congo in 1903. In 1908, France organized French Equatorial Africa (AEF), comprising Middle Congo, Gabon, Chad<\/a>, and Oubangui-Chari<\/a> (the modern Central African Republic<\/a>). The French designated Brazzaville<\/a> 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: construction of the Congo\u2013Ocean Railroad<\/a> following World War I<\/a> has been estimated to have cost at least 14,000 lives.<\/p>\n During the Nazi occupation of France<\/a> during World War II, Brazzaville functioned as the symbolic capital of Free Franc<\/a>e between 1940 and 1943. The Brazzaville Conference of 1944<\/a> 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<\/a>.<\/p>\n Following the revision of the French constitution<\/a> that established the Fifth Republic in 1958<\/a>, 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 and published its first constitution in 1959. Antagonism between the Mbochis<\/a> (who favored Jacques Opangault<\/a>) and the Laris<\/a> and Kongos (who favored Fulbert Youlou<\/a>, the first black mayor elected in French Equatorial Africa) resulted in a series of riots in Brazzaville in February 1959, which the French Army<\/a> subdued.<\/p>\n New elections took place in April 1959. By the time the Congo became independent in August 1960, Opangault, the former opponent of Youlou, agreed to serve under him. Youlou became the first President of the Republic of the Congo. Since the political tension was so high in Pointe-Noire, Youlou moved the capital to Brazzaville.<\/p>\n The Republic of the Congo received full independence from France on 15 August 1960. Youlou ruled as the country’s first president until labour elements and rival political parties instigated a three-day uprising<\/a> that ousted him. The Congolese military briefly took charge of the country, and installed a civilian provisional government headed by Alphonse Massamba-D\u00e9bat<\/a>.<\/p>\n Under the 1963 constitution, Massamba-D\u00e9bat was elected President for a five-year term.<\/p>\n During Massamba-D\u00e9bat’s term in office the regime adopted “scientific socialism”<\/a> as the country’s constitutional ideology. In 1965, Congo established relations with the Soviet Union<\/a>, the People’s Republic of China<\/a>, North Korea<\/a> and North Vietnam<\/a>. Massamba-D\u00e9bat’s regime also invited several hundred Cuban army troops into the country to train his party’s militia units and these troops helped his government survive a coup d’\u00e9tat in 1966<\/a> led by paratroopers loyal to future President Marien Ngouabi<\/a>. Nevertheless, Massamba-D\u00e9bat was unable to reconcile various institutional, tribal and ideological factions within the country and his regime ended abruptly with a bloodless coup in September 1968.<\/a><\/p>\n Marien Ngouabi changed the country’s name to the People’s Republic of the Congo, declaring it to be Africa’s first Marxist\u2013Leninist state. He was assassinated in 1977. Sassou Nguesso aligned the country with the Eastern Bloc<\/a> and signed a twenty-year friendship pact with the Soviet Union. Over the years, Sassou had to rely more on political repression and less on patronage to maintain his dictatorship.<\/p>\n Pascal Lissouba,<\/a> who became Congo’s first elected president (1992\u20131997) during the period of multi-party democracy, attempted to implement economic reforms with IMF backing to liberalize the economy. In June 1996, the IMF approved a three-year SDR69.5m (US$100m) enhanced structural adjustment facility (ESAF) and was on the verge of announcing a renewed annual agreement when civil war broke out in Congo in mid-1997<\/a>.<\/p>\n Congo’s democratic progress was derailed in 1997, when Lissouba and Sassou started to fight for power in the civil war. As presidential elections scheduled for July 1997 approached, tensions between the Lissouba and Sassou camps mounted. On 5 June, President Lissouba’s government forces surrounded Sassou’s compound in Brazzaville and Sassou ordered members of his private militia (known as “Cobras”) to resist. Thus began a four-month conflict that destroyed or damaged much of Brazzaville and caused tens of thousands of civilian deaths. In early October, the Angolan r\u00e9gime began an invasion of Congo to install Sassou in power. In mid-October, the Lissouba government fell. Soon thereafter, Sassou declared himself president.<\/p>\n In the controversial elections in 2002<\/a>, Sassou won with almost 90% of the vote cast. His two main rivals, Lissouba and Bernard Kolelas, were prevented from competing and the only remaining credible rival, Andr\u00e9 Milongo<\/a>, advised his supporters to boycott the elections and then withdrew from the race. A new constitution, agreed upon by referendum in January 2002<\/a>, granted the president new powers, extended his term to seven years, and introduced a new bicameral assembly. International observers took issue with the organization of the presidential election and the constitutional referendum, both of which were reminiscent in their organization of Congo’s era of the one-party state. Following the presidential elections, fighting restarted in the Pool region<\/a> between government forces and rebels led by Pastor Ntumi<\/a>; a peace treaty to end the conflict was signed in April 2003.<\/p>\n Sassou also won the following presidential election in July 2009<\/a>. According to the Congolese Observatory of Human Rights, a non-governmental organization, the election was marked by “very low” turnout and “fraud and irregularities”. In March 2015 Sassou announced that he wanted to run for yet another term in office and a constitutional referendum in October<\/a> resulted in a changed constitution which allowed him to run during the 2016 presidential election<\/a>. He won the election believed by many to be fraudulent. After violent protests in the capital, Sassou attacked the Pool region, where the Ninja rebels of the civil war used to be based, in what was believed to be a distraction. This led to a revival of the Ninja rebels<\/a> who launched attacks against the army in April 2016, leading 80,000 people to flee their homes. A ceasefire deal was signed in December 2017.<\/p>\n Congo is located in the central-western part of sub-Saharan Africa<\/a>, along the Equator<\/a>, lying between latitudes 4\u00b0N and 5\u00b0S, and longitudes 11\u00b0 and 19\u00b0E. To the south and east of it is the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It is also bounded by Gabon to the west, Cameroon and the Central African Republic to the north, and Cabinda (Angola) to the southwest. It has a short coast on the Atlantic Ocean.<\/p>\n The capital, Brazzaville, is located on the Congo River, in the south of the country, immediately across from Kinshasa<\/a>, the capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.<\/p>\n The southwest of the country is a coastal plain for which the primary drainage is the Kouilou-Niari River<\/a>; the interior of the country consists of a central plateau between two basins to the south and north. Forests are under increasing exploitation pressure.<\/p>\n The economy is a mixture of village agriculture and handicrafts, an industrial sector based largely on petroleum, support services, and a government characterized by budget problems and overstaffing. Petroleum extraction has supplanted forestry as the mainstay of the economy. In 2008, oil sector accounted for 65% of the GDP, 85% of government revenue, and 92% of exports. The country also has large untapped mineral wealth.<\/p>\n In the early 1980s, rapidly rising oil revenues enabled the government to finance large-scale development projects with GDP growth averaging 5% annually, one of the highest rates in Africa. The government has mortgaged a substantial portion of its petroleum earnings, contributing to a shortage of revenues. 12 January 1994 devaluation of Franc Zone<\/a> currencies by 50% resulted in inflation of 46% in 1994, but inflation has subsided since.<\/p>\n Economic reform efforts continued with the support of international organizations, notably the World Bank<\/a> and the International Monetary Fund<\/a>. The reform program came to a halt in June 1997 when civil war erupted. When Sassou Nguesso returned to power at the end of the war in October 1997, he publicly expressed interest in moving forward on economic reforms and privatization and in renewing cooperation with international financial institutions. However, economic progress was badly hurt by slumping oil prices and the resumption of armed conflict in December 1998, which worsened the republic’s budget deficit.<\/p>\n The current administration presides over an uneasy internal peace and faces difficult economic problems of stimulating recovery and reducing poverty, despite record-high oil prices since 2003. Natural gas and diamonds are also recent major Congolese exports, although Congo was excluded from the Kimberley Process<\/a> in 2004 amid allegations that most of its diamond exports were in fact being smuggled out of the neighboring Democratic Republic of the Congo; it was re-admitted to the group in 2007.<\/p>\n The Republic of the Congo also has large untapped base metal, gold, iron and phosphate deposits. The country is a member of the Organization for the Harmonization of Business Law in Africa (OHADA).<\/a> The Congolese government signed an agreement in 2009 to lease 200,000 hectares of land to South African farmers<\/a> to reduce its dependence on imports.<\/p>\n The GDP of the Republic of the Congo grew by 6% in 2014 and is expected to have grown by 7.5% in 2015.<\/p>\n In 2018, the Republic of the Congo joined the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.<\/p>\n Transport in the Republic of the Congo includes land, air and water transportation. The country’s rail system was built by forced laborers during the 1930s and largely remains in operation. There are also over 1000 km of paved roads and two major international airports (Maya-Maya Airport<\/a> and Pointe-Noire Airport<\/a>) which have flights to destinations in Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. The country also has a large port on the Atlantic Ocean at Pointe-Noire<\/a> and others along the Congo River<\/a> at Brazzaville<\/a> and Impfondo.<\/p>\n The national flag of the Republic of the Congo consists of a yellow diagonal band divided diagonally from the lower hoist-side corner, with a green upper triangle and red lower triangle. Adopted in 1959 to replace the French Tricolour, it was the flag of the Republic of the Congo until 1970, when the People’s Republic of the Congo<\/a> was established. The new regime changed the flag to a red field with the coat of arms of the People’s Republic in the canton. This version was utilized until the regime collapsed in 1991. The new government promptly restored the original pre-1970 flag.<\/p>\n Under French colonial rule<\/a> over French Congo<\/a>, the authorities forbade the colony from utilizing its own distinctive colonial flag. This was because they were worried that this could increase nationalistic sentiment and lead to calls for independence. However, with the rise of the decolonization movement<\/a> in Africa, the French were obliged to grant limited autonomy to the Congo as a self-governing republic within the French Community<\/a>. This was granted on November 28, 1958, after a referendum was held and nine months later, the Legislative Assembly<\/a> began deliberating over a national flag.<\/p>\n The new flag was officially adopted on September 15, 1959 and remained unchanged when the French Congo became an independent state less than a year later on August 15, 1960. It was hoisted on top of the building that formerly housed the French high commission to mark the proclamation of independence. In 1968, a coup d’\u00e9tat took place in the country, with the new government proclaiming the People’s Republic of the Congo a year later. By doing so, it became the first Marxist\u2013Leninist<\/a> country in Africa. In order to symbolize the revolutionary change, the regime instituted a new national anthem<\/a> and chose a new flag. This featured a red field charged with the country’s new coat of arms\u2014a gold star with an overlapping hammer and hoe encircled by a wreath\u2014in the top-left canton. The design was inspired by that of the Soviet Union’s flag.<\/p>\n The red flag remained in place until 1991, when economic problems and the weakening of the Soviet Union’s power due to the Revolutions of 1989<\/a> culminated in democratic elections and ultimately, the collapse of the People’s Republic of the Congo. The National Conference, which oversaw the transition to a democratic government, reinstated the original flag from 1959 on June 10, 1991. The colours and shapes on the flag are mentioned in Article 5 of the constitution of the Republic of the Congo.<\/p>\n The colours of the flag carry cultural, political, and regional meanings. The green symbolizes the agriculture and forests of the Congo, while the yellow represents the “friendship and nobility” of the Congolese people. However, the symbolism behind the red was left unexplained. From a continental viewpoint, the green, yellow and red are the colours of the Pan-Africanist movement; it is the only Pan-Africanist flag to utilize a diagonal pattern in its design. They are also the same colours utilized in the flag of Ethiopia<\/a>, the oldest independent country in Africa and the only nation other than Liberia<\/a> to remain independent during the Scramble for Africa<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The colours of the flag carry cultural, political, and regional meanings. The green symbolizes the agriculture and forests of the Congo, while the yellow represents the “friendship and nobility” of the Congolese people. However, the symbolism behind the red was left unexplained. From a continental viewpoint, the green, yellow and red are the colours of the Pan-Africanist movement; it is the only Pan-Africanist flag to utilize a diagonal pattern in its design. They are also the same colours utilized in the flag of Ethiopia, the oldest independent country in Africa and the only nation other than Liberia to remain independent during the Scramble for Africa.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4465,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[19,66,26,5,11,6,7,18],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4232"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4232"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4232\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4465"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4232"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4232"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4232"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}History:<\/h2>\n
Pre-Colonial:<\/h3>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2020\/02\/Court-of-Loango-300x203.png\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>French Colonial Era:<\/h3>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2020\/02\/Sewing-Classes-300x181.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>Post-Independence Era:<\/h3>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2020\/02\/Alphonse-Massamba-D\u00e9bat.png\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>
\nNgouabi, who had participated in the coup, assumed the presidency on 31 December 1968. One year later, President Ngouabi proclaimed Congo Africa’s first “people’s republic”, the People’s Republic of the Congo, and announced the decision of the National Revolutionary Movement to change its name to the Congolese Labour Party (PCT)<\/a>. He survived an attempted coup in 1972<\/a> but was assassinated on 16 March 1977. An 11-member Military Committee of the Party (CMP) was then named to head an interim government, with Joachim Yhombi-Opango<\/a> to serve as President of the Republic. Two years later, Yhombi-Opango was forced from power and Denis Sassou Nguesso<\/a> become the new president.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2020\/02\/Marien-Ngouabi-243x300.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2020\/02\/Denis-Sassou-Nguesso-203x300.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2020\/02\/Political-Rally-2015-300x169.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>Geography:<\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2020\/02\/12-Departments-of-Congo-238x300.png\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>Economy:<\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2020\/02\/Cassava-Plant-232x300.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>Transportation:<\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2020\/02\/Maya-Maya-Airport-300x150.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>Flag of the Republic of the Congo:<\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2020\/02\/Flag-of-the-Republic-of-Congo-300x200.png\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2020\/02\/Flag-of-the-Peoples-Republic-of-Congo-300x200.png\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>