Claim: The Democratic Republic of the Congo was once a former Belgian colony.

The Belgian Congo -LRB- Congo Belge , Belgisch-Congo -RRB- was a Belgian colony in Central Africa between 1908 and 1960 in what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo -LRB- DRC -RRB- .   Colonial rule in the Congo began in the late 19th century . King Leopold II of the Belgians persuaded the government to support colonial expansion around the then-largely unexplored Congo Basin . Their ambivalence resulted in Leopold 's creating a colony on his own account . With support from a number of Western countries , Leopold achieved international recognition for a personal colony , the Congo Free State , in 1885 . By the turn of the century , however , the violence used by Free State officials against indigenous Congolese and a ruthless system of economic exploitation led to intense diplomatic pressure on Belgium to take official control of the country , which it did by creating the Belgian Congo in 1908 .   Belgian rule in the Congo was based on the `` colonial trinity '' -LRB- trinité coloniale -RRB- of state , missionary and private company interests . The privileging of Belgian commercial interests meant that large amounts of capital flowed into the Congo and that individual regions became specialised . On many occasions , the interests of the government and private enterprise became closely tied , and the state helped companies break strikes and remove other barriers raised by the indigenous population . The country was split into nesting , hierarchically organised administrative subdivisions , and run uniformly according to a set `` native policy '' -LRB- politique indigène -RRB- . This was in contrast to the British and the French , who generally favoured the system of indirect rule whereby traditional leaders were retained in positions of authority under colonial oversight . The Congo had a high degree of racial segregation . The large numbers of white immigrants who moved to the Congo after the end of World War II came from across the social spectrum , but were always treated as superior to black people .   During the 1940s and 1950s , the Congo had extensive urbanisation , and the colonial administration began various development programmes aimed at making the territory into a `` model colony '' . One of the results was the development of a new middle class of Europeanised African '' évolués '' in the cities . By the 1950s the Congo had a wage labour force twice as large as that in any other African colony .   In 1960 , as the result of a widespread and increasingly radical pro-independence movement , the Congo achieved independence , becoming the Republic of Congo-Léopoldville under Patrice Lumumba and Joseph Kasa-Vubu . Poor relations between factions within the Congo , the continued involvement of Belgium in Congolese affairs , and intervention by major parties of the Cold War led to a five-year-long period of war and political instability , known as the Congo Crisis , from 1960 to 1965 . This ended with the seizure of power by Joseph-Désiré Mobutu .