Tell me more about Katanga, /his/.

Totally messed up situation. Anti-communist partisans (from all over the world) against the UN. Apparently people from Kongo celebrated the death of Dag Hammarskjöld.
Also the beginnning of end for Che Guevara.

Kongo is so rich with resources it's almost not fair. All wasted.

Patrice Lumumba was killed there iirc

File: tshombe.jpg (38KB, 400x527px) Image search: [Google]

38KB, 400x527px

Moise Tshombe did nothing wrong, desu. It could have become as (relatively) prosperous as Botswana, had he won.

If Congo got its shit together would it be the boss nigga of the region?

>>3202088
That's a big fucking if.

>>3201924
thinking about investing in cobalt, hae fucker?

too little too late, gonna get shutdown by amnesty international next year fo shuah

>>3201924
Cant tell you much but if we move down south a bit we can have a conversation all day.

>>3202179
What is there to know about Zambia?

>>3202088
It´s a continental sized country so yeah, it would be a regional power. So you see how smaller but smarter neighbours are interested in desestabilizing Congo. Looking at you, Rwanda.

>>3201924
It is an ethnically distinct region of Congo, which, unlike most of the plains south of Kinshasa, was never part of the Kingdom of Kongo. It has a different set of languages and ethnicities than the rest of Congo, and a totally different history until Belgian conquest in the late 1800s.

Even by Congolese standards, it is phenomenally rich in resources, especially rare earths and copper. This meant that during the Congo Crisis of the 1950s after decolonization, Belgian really really wanted to keep control over businesses in this territory more than any other part of the country.

It declared independence after decolonization, arguing that its different history and ethnic makeup made it a different state (and failing to mention how fucking rich they would get keeping all mineral wealth to themselves). The government was friendly with the Belgians and French, receiving weapons from both, and also deeply anti-communist.

>>3202255
The Katangese republic did not last, as the USSR did not want an anti-communist state with strong ties to France and Belgium, and the USA was pissed that Belgian attempts to preserve a stake in Katangese were causing Cold war tension. Under UN auspices, the rebellion was crushed, President Tshombe fled to France, and Katanga was incorporated into the Democratic Republic of Congo, which also became fiercely anti-communist and an American ally.

For the rest of its history, Katanga has maintained resentment of the central government in Kinshasa, which it views as stealing its resources and polluting its landscape while giving nothing back to the province.

The mines there are usually big enough that the army or private company security forces actually give a shit about guarding them, so it is not as violent as other parts of eastern Congo. The work conditions are really awful though, mostly depending on 'contract labor' where people pay for the right to work in the mines and get to keep a share of what they find.

Mostly today, Katanga still resents the rest of Congo and many people want to separate. The region has also had problems since the 1990s of militias from the Kivu provinces taking over smaller mines in the north of Katanga and generally causing violence.

Kongo is so fucking sad.
tfw no Biafra or Katanga

>>3201955
Moise was a corrupt fraud

>>3202088
It had the resources and population to certainly do so but a great deal of factors go against that happening

>>3202251
Ey nigga everyone was doing it and those diamonds were much better squandered feeding the oiligarky

It still infuriates me how the Irish U.N. peacekeepers were treated after the incident.

>>3202088
Brazil is mostly equatorial jungle and a lot of the population is black, yet it's the regional power of South America. DRC could in theory pull it off.

>>3202437
>mostly equatorial jungle
Yes, but that's not the part that matters. Venezuela could own the Amazon and Brazil would still be the regional power, because the Brazillian highlands, which isn't the largest region of Brazil, is still larger than any other South American country.

>>3201924
Katanga is a happy man.

Do you know why?

>>3202290
What did Biafra have, other than oil?

>>3202437
The blacks and mixed blacks are the minority and underclass in Brazil.