The Democratic Republic of the Congo

The Democratic Republic of Congo is the size of Denmark, The Netherlands, Belgium, France, Germany, Switzerland and Austria combined. It's population is only 60 million though
which is the same as France's population. The Congo is probably the African country most written about. That is because its history is exemplary of a lot of African countries.
Although first contacts with Portugese explorers in the 15th century were peaceful and based on mutual respect and exchange of courtesies, soon after, domination of Whites over Blacks began.
Slaves were traded form the Congo basin to the rest of Africa and the World by Whites, and in the East Arab slavers enslaved entire villages at a time.
Famous explorers like Livingstone and most notably Stanley mapped the Dark Heart of Africa, triggering interest of the Belgian King Leopold II and others.
But it was the Belgian King that managed to claim this vast country as his personal property. After fighting the Arabs, the Belgians installed a reign of terror to force Congolese to harvest rubber and
dig out copper. They used a "divide and rule" tactic amongst the many Congolese tribes and used cannibalistic tribes as allies, promising them the meat of their victims.
Although certainly some good intentions were involved, and parts of the country were developed, everything evolved around exploiting natural richness.
When the Congolese fought for their independance, acquiered now exactly 50 years ago, Belgians kept trying to secure their access to natural resources. They assasinated Patrice
Lumumba and installed Mobutu Sese Seko as president of the Congo. Mobutu turned out to be one of the worst African rulers.
Unfortunately the atrocities, misgovernment, corruption, civil wars, poverty and other horrors found in Congo's recent history are found in other African countries. Many claim
that the ideas behind these terrible things occured first in the Congo, and were then taken over by other countries