What were the causes of the Congo Unrest and what past historical root relate to the Congo Unrest?

The root of the problem was the historical expansionism of the Prussian Military Class, and the territorial ambitions of the French. This resulted in a German conviction that it was their destiny to control all of Europe from the Atlantic to the Baltic, and an equally strong French ambition personified in Napoleon.

At the end of the Napoleonic Wars, the victorious powers (Britain, Austria, Prussia, Russia) created a 'buffer country' out of what is now the Netherlands and Belgium. This was intended to stop or slow down any further French invasions of Germany.

The new country had Protestants in the North, and Catholics in the South. They did not get on, and in 1830 the South split off, and declared independence as Belgium. The other European countries did not want either of two things to happen:

1) They didn't want the French to grab the new country

2) They didn't want it becoming a Republic, (maybe a 'rogue state'!)

So: They set about giving it a constitution. In fact, they gave it a King. Leopold of Saxe-Coburg had been a General in the Russian army, and was quite good as 'King Leopold I'. He defeated the Netherlands when they tried to invade, he built a railway, and he was concerned about the labour conditions of women and children, But:

In 1880 he had been dead for a while, and his son Leopold II was in charge.

* * * Now Read On! * * *

Leopold II had an interest in Africa, and had sponsored expeditions there. European interest in Africa was accelerating as the European powers looked to block off each others military advancements. A conference was held to divide up Africa into what would now be called 'spheres of influence' - in other words, to agree to leave each others operations there alone. Leopold had a place at this 'Conference of Berlin' because of his interests and investments in Africa, and because he was head of a European state.

Leopold did something which nobody else had done before, he managed to gain international permission to control and develop an area of Africa as his personal project. In effect, the country which became the Congo was given not to the Belgian state, but to one man - to do with as he saw fit.

Leopold II treated the Congo in the very opposite manner to which he had promised the signatories at the Berlin Conference. He saw it as a place to plunder for his personal enrichment. He imported rubber plants from the far East, and sent supervisors into the jungles to uproot the natives and set them to planting and collecting rubber for export. Others were tasked with obtaining ivory for the same purpose. The labour force was enslaved, and those who failed to fulfil work quotas were brutally punished. The communications and transport systems were poor, and all contact with the country was in the hands of Leopold and his overseers. As a result, this reign of terror was able to continue in almost absolute secrecy from the rest of the world.

A country had therefore been formed in which all tradtional tribal or national order had been destroyed, and which was completely devoid of any form of education or development, and whose population knew nothing but enslavement and brutality.

This was not revealed until one day a shipping clerk in a London dock started looking at his ledgers, and began to wonder how it was that ships were coming from the Congo full of expensive cargoes, but no goods to trade seemed to be going in the opposite direction - only such things as guns....

As a result of the enquiries started by this man and the Irish politician Roger Casement, the scandal became known internationally. Catholic missionaries confirmed the rumours about conditions, and an international parliamentary commission was convened. Ownership of the country was transferred to the Belgian state, and it became known as the Belgian Congo. Money (a large amount of money) was put into trying to develop the area, and to provide education to the inhabitants, but the size of the territory was enormous, and two world wars intervened. Also, too much remained of the old systems and attitudes.

When the Belgians left the Congo and gave it independence there were only 4 doctors in the whole country. It had enormous mineral wealth, which quickly became the target for greedy warlords both within the Congo and in neighbouring newly independent states. Chaos has continued ever since.