Belgian Congo

State · 1890–1962 CE · at its largest around 1922 CE

King Leopold II's Congo forced people to gather rubber under threat of mutilation and death, a scandal that made Belgium take over in 1908. Belgian rule brought mines, missions and railways but almost no higher education, leaving the country unprepared at independence.

On its lands while it lasted

Kingdom of Kongo (c. 1390–1914 CE): Central African kingdom with its capital at Mbanza Kongo; after Portuguese contact in 1483 its rulers adopted Christianity, and it later became deeply entangled in the Atlantic slave trade.
Scramble for Africa (1881–1914 CE): Invasion, occupation and partition of almost all of Africa by European powers between the 1880s and 1914, formalised in part at the Berlin Conference of 1884–85.
Congo Free State (1885–1908 CE): Colony privately ruled by King Leopold II of Belgium, where forced labour for rubber collection caused mass deaths; international outcry led Belgium to annex it in 1908.
Kigali (1907 CE): Capital of Republic of Rwanda (1963–today).
Boma (c. 1908 CE): Capital of Belgian Congo (1908–1960).
Gitega (1912 CE): Capital of Republic of Burundi (2019–today).
HIV/AIDS pandemic (c. 1920 CE): Genetic studies trace the pandemic strain of HIV-1 to Kinshasa around the 1920s; AIDS was identified in 1981 and has killed tens of millions of people, with sub-Saharan Africa most affected.
Patrice Lumumba (1925 CE – 1961 CE): First prime minister of the independent Congo, deposed months after independence and executed in Katanga in January 1961.
Congo Crisis (1960–1965 CE): Period of civil war, secession and foreign intervention in the newly independent Congo, including the killing of Patrice Lumumba, ending with Mobutu's seizure of power.
Portuguese Colonial War (1961–1974 CE): Wars of independence fought by nationalist movements in Angola, Guinea-Bissau and Mozambique against Portugal, ending after the 1974 Carnation Revolution.