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Congo Crisis

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