LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Congo: Middle Congo
built 636 days ago
Upon independence in 1960, the former French region of Middle Congo became the Republic of the Congo. A quarter century of experimentation with Marxism was abandoned in 1990 and a democratically elected government took office in 1992. A brief civil war in 1997 restored former Marxist President Denis SASSOU-NGUESSO, and ushered in a period of ethnic and political unrest. Southern-based rebel groups agreed to a final peace accord in March 2003, but the calm is tenuous and refugees continue to present a humanitarian crisis. The Republic of Congo was once one of Africa's largest petroleum producers, but with declining production it will need to hope for new offshore oil finds to sustain its oil earnings over the long term.
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The early history of the Congo was focused on three ancient kingdoms-the Kongo, the Loango, and the Teke. The Kongo Kingdom was established in the 14th century A.D. and developed a close commercial relationship with the Portuguese, the first Europeans to explore the area. With the development of the slave trade, the Portuguese turned their attention from the Kongo Kingdom to the Loango. When the slave trade was prohibited by European powers in the 1800s, the Loango kingdom was broken up into small regional centers of power. The Teke Kingdom lost its independence in 1883, when the King concluded a treaty with Pierre Savorgnan de Brazza, placing Teke lands and people under French protection. The area occupied by the Teke was known as Middle Congo.
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The third political tributary were the Cercles, urban associations that sprang up in the cities of the Congo, which were designed to foster solidarity amongst the évolués (the educated, westernized middle class). In the words of Patrice Lumumba, the head of the Cercles of Stanleyville (now Kisangani), the Cercles were created to "improve intellectual, social, moral and physical formation" of the évolués.
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