Unitary semi-presidential republic under an authoritarian dictatorship
Status in OTL:
Active
The Democratic Republic of the Congo also often referred to as DR Congo, DRC, RDC, East Congo or formerly (during the period of Belgian colonial rule) as Congo Free State, Belgian Congo, The Congo, Congo-Leopoldville, Congo-Kinshasa, and then from 1971-1997 as Zaïre, is the second largest country by area on the African continent, bordering the Republic of the Congo, the Central African Republic, South Sudan, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania, Zambia, and Angola. The country's western corridor has a small Atlantic coast.
The name Democratic Republic of the Congo was adopted in 1997. The land was formerly, in chronological order, the Congo Free State, Belgian Congo, Congo-Léopoldville, Congo-Kinshasa, and Zaire.
In most of Harry Turtledove's alternate timelines, the Belgian Congo still exists, but has mininal relevance to the plot.
The Belgian Congo was Belgium's only colony prior to the Great War. Following the conquest of Belgium by Germany, the Congo became another one of Germany's African colonies. Though the Belgians had treated the native Congolese horribly, the Germans treated them worse.[2]
