The Congo Civil War, or Congo Crisis, was a complex political tumult that began just days following Belgium’s granting of Congolese independence in 1960. Lasting four years, the associated violence claimed an estimated 100,000 lives including the nation’s first Prime Minister, Patrice Lumumba, and UN Secretary Dag Hammarskjöld, who was killed in a plane crash as he attempted to mediate the crisis. Escalating with the secession of the southernmost province of Katanga, the conflict concluded five years later with a united Congo emerging under the dictatorship of Joseph-Désiré Mobutu.
On June 30, 1960, Belgium negotiated post-colonial mining rights in declaring an independent Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Yet within days, soldiers of the Congolese army mutinied, demanding increased pay and the removal of white officers from their ranks. When Belgium intervened militarily, more soldiers rebelled. Many of these soldiers gravitated toward the radical nationalist Prime Minister Patrice Emery Lumumba.
Then, dominated by Belgian business interests, the mineral-rich Katanga province under the leadership of Moïse Kapenda Tshombe seceded from the DRC with Belgian support. Congolese President Joseph Kasavubu and Prime Minister Lumumba asked and received a peacekeeping force from the United Nations (UN).
The conflict also became the site of a dangerous Cold War “proxy” contest between western powers led by the United States and the Soviet Union-led Communist bloc. Under pressure from western nations and in exchange for UN support, President Kasavubu purged his government of radical elements including Prime Minister Lumumba. The ultra-nationalist Lumumba, though supported by the Congolese, was viewed by Western business leaders as an obstacle to their continued investments in Congolese diamond mines. Fearing Lumumba was secretly a Communist, the United States was particularly adamant about his removal from power.
Lumumba responded by firing Kasavubu as both leaders claimed control over the country, and Army Chief of Staff Joseph Mobutu in turn orchestrated a military coup d’état which ousted the two leaders. Mobutu’s government was supported by western governments. The Soviet Union and other Communist nations supported Lumumba who ultimately was killed by Katangan rebels.
With his chief rival removed, Mobutu pledged nominal support to President Kasavubu and the two led the successful effort to end the Katanga secession. UN forces eventually recaptured all of Katanga province. In 1964, a new rebellion began in the Eastern Congo when armed fighters (“Simbas”) began to spread across the region. Ironically, Moïse Tshombe, who had led the secessionist Katanga province, was made prime minister with the mandate to defeat these rebels and end other regional revolts. The Simbas were defeated in November 1964.
One year later, Mobutu seized power from President Kasavubu after having persuaded Western leaders that he was the most effective leader in the fight against communism. Kasavubu and Tshombe were exiled as Mobutu set up a one-party dictatorship, controlling the nation until 1997. Nonetheless, for the first time since independence, all of the country was ruled by one government.
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Democrats in 2020, sowing their power to force Biden’s shambling corpse onto the ticket: haha, yes, haha, fuck yes
Democrats in 2024, reaping their powerlessness to remove Biden’s shambling corpse off the ticket: oh shit oh fuck please make him step down oh god oh fuck
reddit has upheld my ban appeal for “sexualizing someone without their consent” and as far as I can tell it’s because I told some dipshit superlib who posted personals soliciting cuckoldry and then posted about how “one U.S. aircraft carrier could wipe Yemen off the face of the earth” TEN DAYS AGO SO WELL AFTER THE U.S. FUCKED AROUND AND FOUND OUT that I would “give his wife all the dick she needs if I could stand their shitty fucking politics”
the man and his fucking wife were posting SOLICITING CUCKOLDRY I am pretty sure that is consent to sexualization
I’m a villaincel, I’m plotmaxxing, I’m evil-pilled, heroes getting cucked cause AHALT, they might as well be NPCs, go ahead and take the loot you orbiters, you’re still gonna get loot mogged
This megathread is so old no one will see that my will to live has been rapidly eroding over the past few weeks. Tomorrow is a year since I lost my job. Had an interview last week and should be hearing back about it this week, but if I don’t get it something might break in me. I’m just so tired.
Saw a pretty solid self own
Biden is a committed Zionist and has been for like 50 years. I don’t know why people think it’s gonna be possible to do anything about his position on Israel-Palestine. What about the last 8 months makes people think 4 more years of Biden (if he lives that long lol) is gonna be to the benefit of Palestinians like at all.
I’m trying to understand. There’s plenty of fake pro Palestine/pro peace people out there who’ll be happy to say how pro Palestine they are but dontcha know Trump will be worse (how.) - but for the people who actually do feel that what is happening to the people of Palestine is truly bad and that something should be done to help them, whether that’s aid, a stop to the killing, BDS… like how do you reconcile this very recent history and Biden’s long long history of Zionism with wanting good things to happen to Palestine.
Hearing the piano notes from some part of the Celeste OST in my head
Ahhhhh i can’t just watch my gf play Alan wake she wants me to tell her things I liked about it!! I don’t know!! It’s easier for me to criticize
all the enemies are annoying! tedious combat that just delays the plot while, again, being tedious! and the plot is okay but all ib can think of is “lol Alan just like decided ‘this is how it works these are rthe rules’ about writing but like he’s just assuming that??” like all the stuff about how the plot has to be balanced and etc. My guy it’s magic and just because Zane fucked it up doesn’t mean you’ve figured out some solid Rules By Which It Works!
I would have absolutely at least tried to write “and then the darkness died, my wife came back, and we had a good lol” at least once, ya know? Like don’t just assume there’s no easy out just cause some guy who failed 🙄 told you so.
on that note, who would click a magical artifact that has story magic imbued powers to banish monsters and the darkness, see that things are happy and daylight outside, and then NOT try to click it again once things turn back to shit? like not even try it?? Once???
p.s. don’t @ me about me being dumb about the plot because I probably am, she skipped reading the manuscript pages!
at 1:40am I just realized that hollandaise needs a double boiler and temperature control to make because using egg yolk to thicken it means too high a temp will cook the egg and fuck it up
also I wish I could have like made a bearnaise sauce to go with tonight’s food but instead I wasted time on these dang bean cakes
Breathlessly snapping from being anti-communist to describing the ills of capitalism without second thought. Ah being at a family gathering with the conservative part of my family.
Oh now were only on Earth to reproduce and gender ideology is just around to limit populations. Its all the greatest hits all at once
Eugenics and men are rational and women are irrational, holy shit I want out of here
when we make mashed potatoes at work we basically never save the leftovers for anything
seems kinda wasteful and I kinda want to use some to make pommes dauphinois (mashed potatoes mixed with choux pastry and then deep fried) because they sound decadent BUT I do NOT want to do that for the number of people I have to feed like lol fuck that lmao
This just in: plum wine is pretty fucking tasty
lol I missed the lemmee shitlibs wander into our threads and just getting owned
If the average hoi4 players had time travel machine they would try to help hitler only to make nazis lose at 1939 because they told hitler to snake to moscow with 1 truck division and drop paratroopers to london.
