MORPHOLOGY
The country largely corresponds to the Congo River basin, one of the largest waterways on Earth. More specifically, the Congolese territory is centered on the vast tectonic depression – perhaps the most marked in the flat, uniform structure of Africa – which stretches between the Atlantic marginal reliefs to the W (in fact the country has a very small outlet on the ocean as well as morphologically rather closed), the high African plateaus delimiting the Nile basin to the E, the Central African ridge demarcating the Lake Chad basin to the N and the highlands of Angola delimiting the Zambezi basina S. The subsidence was formed following the slow, progressive lowering of a crustal area which was gradually covered by continental and maritime sediments. From the Palaeozoic to the beginning of the Cenozoic era, in fact, the sea occupied the depression on various occasions and left several sedimentary layers superimposed on the archaeozoic soils of the continental base. During the Cenozoic, the depression was defined in its current forms through tectonic episodes that led to a new lowering of the Congolese area (the bottom of the basin is located about 400 m above sea level) and the settlement of the mountainous belt that delimits all around. The peripheral ridges and the belt of plateaus bordering the depression consist of crystalline and schistose rocks of the ancient basement remained extraneous to the sedimentations that occurred in the internal part of the basin; however, these archaeozoic formations were not free from vertical tectonic movements: compact blocks of granite and gneiss emerged, which in some cases take on the appearance of real mountains. A mighty Horst is Ruwenzori (5109 m), the highest peak in the country and second in Africa, included in the grandiose series of reliefs that borders the East African pit (Rift Valley) and which includes, in Congolese territory, imposing volcanic buildings such as the Karisimbi (4507 m). The other main mountainous area of the Democratic Republic of Congo corresponds to the south-eastern section, where the Shaba plateaus extend, with a predominantly tabular structure; they are superimposed on the paleozoic masses that form the Mitumba chain (1718 m), developed from Lake Tanganyika to the SW for over 600 km. The western, Atlantic border is also made up of archaeozoic plateaus; it lowers significantly in the corridor in which the Congo River has channeled, starting from the Cenozoic, to reach the coast; the river has markedly engraved these reliefs, giving rise to a series of rapids and waterfalls named after Livingstone. Finally, the northern arc of the country lacks unitary morphology; broken by large valley furrows, it shows a succession of hilly undulations between depressed areas crossed by rivers.
HISTORY
The geographical area of today’s Democratic Republic of Congo had been the seat, even before the Portuguese reached the mouth of the Congo in 1482, of numerous indigenous kingdoms of considerable size and prestige such as that of Congoor such as Kuba, Luba, Lunda. Near the end of the century. XVIII and during the century. XIX, with the beginning of the great explorations and therefore with the heightening of Europe’s interest in the African hinterland, the Congo basin began to be crossed by the Portuguese Lacerdo and Monteiro and then by Tuchey, by Livingstone and above all by Stanley, from Brazza, by Wissmann and Grenfell. Just as Stanley was making the extraordinary African crossing from the Indian Ocean to the Atlantic (1874-77), Leopold II of Belgium founded the Association Internationale Africaine for the study and enhancement of the Congo basin. The convocation in 1876 of an International Geographic Conference in Brussels was followed by the sending of a first expedition led by Belgian officers, which went from the east coast of Africa to Lake Tanganyika.
Later, Leopold II secured the services of Stanleyhe gave birth to a Comité d’études du Haut-Congo and sent Stanley himself to the Congo in 1879, flanked by thirteen Belgian officers. The Comité d’études, later transformed into Association Internationale du Congo, acquired the characteristics of a real governing body, arousing the reactions of France (which through Savorgnan di Brazza hastened to establish its influence on the right bank of the Congo), England, Portugal, Germany and Holland. To define the future structure of the immense and delicate area of equatorial Africa, Leopoldo II himself sponsored the convocation of a Conference, which from 15 November 1884 to 26 February 1885 brought together the major powers of the time in Berlin. The Conference recognized the rights of Association Internationale du Congo and therefore the creation of the independent state of Congo, of which Leopoldo II proclaimed himself sovereign in a personal capacity. In 1908 the Congo came under the direct administration of the Belgian government which issued a “Colonial Charter” and sent a governor general there. During World Wars I and II, the Congolese army fought alongside the Allies in Africa.
According to remzfamily, the first instances for a political evolution of the colony manifested themselves in the Congo starting from 1955-56 and were accentuated in 1959 through the action of During World Wars I and II, the Congolese army fought alongside the Allies in Africa. The first instances for a political evolution of the colony manifested themselves in the Congo starting from 1955-56 and were accentuated in 1959 through the action of During World Wars I and II, the Congolese army fought alongside the Allies in Africa. The first instances for a political evolution of the colony manifested themselves in the Congo starting from 1955-56 and were accentuated in 1959 through the action of PE Lumumba, leader of the Mouvement National Congolais, and J. Kasavubu, leader of the Abako. In the round table conference of January-February 1960, Belgium set the date of Congo’s independence as June 30, 1960. But immediately after this event, the country plunged into a dramatic civil war, which culminated in the killing of Lumumba (1961). in the secession of Katanga by Tshombe and in the rebellion of some provinces. On 1 August 1964 the Republic of Congo gave itself its first Constitution, but in the autumn of 1965, General Mobutu Sese Seko, of the Mouvement Populair de la Révolution (MPR), exonerated President Kasavubu and took over the reins of the country.
