DRC Timeline -- Part 1: Prehistory to Prehistory to Beginning of Belgian Administration
A Chronology of Key Events in DRC
By Alistair Boddy-Evans, About.com
| c.3000 BCE | Ancient Egyptians have knowledge of hunter-gatherer groups in the rainforest of central Africa. |
| 1000 BCE | Bantu speaking peoples begin a series of migrations southwards from central-western regions, to the north of the Ubangi-Congo Rivers (now Nigeria and its neighbors), into the center of the continent. |
| 100 CE | First arrival of Bantu speakers in the Congo Basin. |
| Introduction of cattle herding and cereal cultivation. | |
| 300 | First evidence of iron working in Congo Basin |
| c.800CE | Bantu speakers have colonized the Congo Basin |
| Katanga culture develops, rule by local chiefs. | |
| 1000 CE | Bantu speaking people have colonized most of what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo. |
| 13th Century | Development of large, politically centralized kingdoms and chiefdoms in the southern savannah of the Congo. |
| 14th Century | Bakongo people found the Kongo kingdom having crossed the river Congo from the north. At its peak, the kingdom of Kongo covered parts of present day Republic of the Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Angola. |
| 15th Century | Establishment of the Luba Empire -- a patrilineal society based on agriculture, ruled by a king. |
| Late 15th Century | Loango kingdom formed by the Vili people along the Congo River towards the coast (mostly in what is now the Republic of Congo) but extends inland as afar as the Malebo Pool by the end of the century |
| 1483 | Diogo Cão first European to discover the mouth of the Congo River. He makes contact with Nzinga a Nkuwu, the Manikongo of the Kongo kingdom. |
| c.1500 | Zande people arrived in northern Congo migrating from Central Africa. Kingdoms based on agriculture are founded. Territory extends through what is now northern Democratic Republic of the Cong, Central African Republic and South Sudan. |
| 1509 | Mvemba a Nzinga assumes the crown (manikongo) of the Kongo. He is baptized a Christian and takes the Christian name of Afonso I. |
| 16th Century | Luba kingdom expands greatly, in what is now the southern parts of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, by the Kongolo and Songye people. |
| The Lunda kingdom develops as an independent state founded on salt and copper resources. | |
| Europeans make contact with African chiefs prepared to extend the slave trade. | |
| 17th Century | Lunda empire develops in what is now the south-west of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and north-east of Angola. |
| 1630 | Kuba kingdom established in north-east of territory between Kasai and Lulua rivers. It develops over the next century as an agricultural state heavily involved in trading |
| 18th Century | Lunda develops as an empire of centralized states |
| Kuba kingdoms reaches its zenith in central Congo. | |
| Rapid development of slave trade both with Europeans and with Arabs to the east. Incursion of Zanzibari Arab traders allows local chiefs to usurp the rule of regional kings. | |
| c.1740 | Lunda people expand down into what is now Zambia |
| Kazembe kingdom begins to develop independently based on rich resources of salt pans and copper mines of what is now the Shaba province. | |
| 1808 | Slave trade abolished by the British Empire. Slave trade in the Congo suppressed, whilst the Arab slave trade continues to flourish. |
| 1839 | Arrival of French traders along coast. (Louis Édouard Bouët-Willaumez makes a treaty with the king of Gabon to the north.) |
| 1840-72 | David Livingstone, the British explorer and missionary, travels through the Congo Basin. |
| 1874-77 | Henry Morton Stanley, commissioned by the New York Herald and The Daily Telegraph, to continue the trail of exploration of David Livingstone, and complete the decent along the course of the Congo River to the Atlantic Ocean. |
| 1875-78 | Italian born, French explorer Pierre Savorgnan de Brazza explores the Congo |
| 1878 | Henry Morton Stanley hired by King Léopold II of Belgium to investigate the Congo's potential as a new colony. Léopold II founds the Association Internationale du Congo (AIC, International Congo Society) to further the exploration of the region, and prepare for colonization. The finance comes from international banks. Stanley establishes trading posts along the Congo River and makes trading agreements with more than 450 local chiefs. |
| 1879-82 | Pierre Savorgnan de Brazza makes a treaty with King Makoko of the Teke and Tio preventing Henry Morton Stanley acquiring territory to the north of the Congo River for King Léopold II. |
| 1880s | Lunda empire begin to break apart. |
| Kazembe, part of the Lunda kingdoms, gains control of trade routes to the south-east (now Katanga province and neighboring Zambia). | |
| France begins to explore (and claim) region to the north of Congo River. | |
| November 1884 | At the Berlin Conference on Africa, organized by the German Chancellor Otto von Bismark, King Léopold II is recognized as the sovereign of the Congo Free State, as administered by the Association Internationale du Congo (AIC, International Congo Society). French claims to Gabon and Portuguese claims to Angola are also recognized. |
| 1885 | King Léopold II establishes the Congo Free State with himself as an individual, and not Belgium, as head. |
| 1890s | Forced labor is employed by administration of the Congo Free State, building infrastructure, working on rubber plantations, and hunting for ivory. |
| Belgian forces conquer Katanga, the mineral rich region in the south of the Congo Free State. | |
| 1894 | A military campaign against Arab slave traders ends the African-Arab trade in slaves. |
| 1899 | Part of Kazembe kingdom conquered by the British (now part of Zambia). |
| 1904 | Congo Reform Association (CRA) founded by protestant missionaries. It campaigns against the use of forced labor by King Léopold II's administration. |
| 1908 | The government of Belgium assumes the administration of the Congo Free State (which becomes the Belgian Congo) by colonial charter. Despite the annexation by the Belgian government, King Léopold II still retains a level of constitutional rule. |
More on the History of Democratic Republic of the Congo
• Part 2: Beginning of Belgian Administration to End of Katanga Secession
• Part 3: End of Katanga Secession to Rebellion in Shaba
• Part 4: Rebellion in Shaba to Genocide in Neighboring Rwanda
• Part 5: Genocide in Neighboring Rwanda to Assassination of Laurent-Désiré Kabila
• Part 6: Assassination of Laurent-Désiré Kabila to Present Day
