Colonial Era

1885

• Leopold II claims personal colony of Congo Free State

1908

• Belgium takes over due to abuses of Leopold’s administration

• renamed the Belgian Congo

1940s-1950s

• Belgium makes the Congo a “model colony”

• development of the “Evolues”

1950s

• Nationalist Movements form

Congo Crisis, 1960-1964

Causes

• Prime Minister Patrice Emery Lumumba

  • leader of Mouvement National Congolais (MNC)

  • Pan-Africanist

  • Non-aligned

    • between Warsaw Pact and NATO

  • Appointed PM after his party won the first election after independence in May 1960

  • “positive neutralism”

• leader of Mouvement National Congolais (MNC)

• July 5, 1960

  • Congolese enlistees begin mutinying against Belgian officers claiming nothing will change in military despite independence

  • mutinies spread and only quielled when

• Katanga, resource-rich province, delcares its independence under Moise Tschombe on July 11

• Supported by Belgian companies

• Lumumba requests UN peacekeeping forces

• Withdraw Belgian forces

• Suppress Katanga rebellion

Independence

January 4, 1959

• Leopoldville Riots

• nationalist influence spreads

• whites radicalize and plan a coup

January 1960

• Belgo-Congolese Round Table Conference

• June 30, 1960 was set as independence date

June 30, 1960

• Independence Day

• Lumumba gives an unscheduled speech following King Badouin

Crisis Begins

July 5, 1960

Force Publique Mutiny

• Several units protest against Lt.-Gen, EMile Janssens “before independence = after independence” at Camp Hardy

July 6, 1960

• Lumumba dismisses Jansses and promotes all black soldiers at leat one grade

• mutinies continue to spread

July 9, 1960

• Belgian paratroopers deploy ostensibly to protect white civilians

• Lumumba and Kasa-Vubu split on the invasion

July 11, 1960

• Belgian ships bombard Matadi, inciting more violence against whites

• Belgian civil servants flee, leaving the administration in disarray

Secessions and UN Intervention

July 10, 1960

• Lumumba and Kasa-Vubu request UN aid

July 11, 1960

• Moise Tshombe declares independence for the Katanga province

• Belgium supported this

• they had the uranium

Cold War Expansion

July 27, 1960

• Lumumba requests military from the US Secretary of State and is rebuffed

• Lumumba requests aid from the Soviet Union and 1,000 military advisors arrive

August 8, 1960

• President Albert Kalonji declares independence ofor South Kasai

• August 1960 CIA agents in Congo reported to their agency that Congo is the “classic communist…takeover” as in Cuba

Course

• July 14, 1960 - send of Operation des Nations Unies au Congo (ONUC)

• immediate removal of Belgian troops

• Lumumba speaks to US Secretary of State Christian Herter who says US will help as part of the UN

• Lumumba contacts Khrushchev for aid

• causes a split between between Lumumba and Kasa-Vubu

• US is ceding power to the UN which legitimizes the UN

• August 9, 1960 - South Kasai declares secession

• Mobutu leads Congolese troops and puts down rebellion

• devolves into ethnic violence

• Catholic Church and Kasa-Vubu criticize and turn on Lumumba

• Kasa-Vubu is scared Lumumba will carry out a coup

• Lumumba declares Kasa-Vubu deposed

• Lumumba keeps is position but the Parliament does not ratify Kasa-Vubu’s deposing

• Colonel Mobutu orchestrates his own coup and captures Lumumba

• Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjold insists Lumumba be treated to due process

Lumumba’s Fall

September 5, 1960

• Kasa-Vubu dismises Lumumba

• Both order Mobutu to arrest each other

• September 14, 1960

• Mobutu launches a bloodless coup deposing both

• later Kasa-Vubu is reinstated in February

• UN Security Council called into session to address Soviet demands

• Lumumba reinstated

• Mobutu disarmed

• Hammarskjoled dies in a plane crash in Rhodisia while on hiw way to Congo

Fouga CM,170 Magister

• 50s era Belgian jet trainer

• Katangese purchased 9 and got 3

• armed with machine guns and locally made bombs

• used against Irish ONUC forces in September 1961 at the Siege of Jadotville and destryed a DC-3 and 2 DC-4s

• alleged to be involved in the crash of the DC-6 carrying Hammarskjold

Post Lumumba

September 1961

• Operation Morthor and Siege of Jadotville

• September 18. 1961

• Hammarskjold’s plane crash in Rhodesia

• U Thant Succeeds him

Significance

The UN

• had the power to use force if requested by the legitimate government

• Secretary General empowered to make policy

• UN humanitarian aid proved to be critical

The US

• Eisenhower and the CIA considered Lumumba a communist despote the fact that Lumumba approached teh United States 1st

• Dulles ordered Lumumba’s assassination

• supported UN troops Belgain troops

• Increased trust in the peacekeeping ability of the UN

• Supported Mobutu despite his “shortcomings”

The USSR

• arms and supplies given to Lumummba

• Ghana wins out when US outbribes the Soviets

• troika idea for UN is shot down

• Hammarskjold isn’t going anywhere until he dies