The earliest known human settlements in what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo date back to the Middle Stone Age, approximately 90,000 years ago. The first 'states', such as the Kongo, the Lunda, the Luba and Kuba, appeared south of the equatorial forest on the savannah, from the 14th century. The Kingdom of Kongo controlled much of western and central Africa, including what is now the west of the DR Congo, between the 14th and early 19th centuries. At its peak it had 500,000 people, and its capital was M'banza-Kongo. In the late 15th century, Portuguese sailors arrived in the Kongo, and this led to prosperity and consolidation, with the king's power based on Portuguese trade. King Afonso I (1506–43) had raids carried out on neighboring districts, in response to Portuguese requests for slaves. After his death, the kingdom underwent a crisis. The Atlantic slave trade occurred from approximately 1500 to 1850, with the west coast of Africa targeted, and the region around the mouth of the Congo River suffered the most intensive enslavement. Along a strip of coast about 400 kilometres (250 mi) long, about 4 million people were enslaved and sent across the Atlantic to sugar plantations in Brazil, the US and Caribbean. From 1780, there was a higher demand for slaves in the US which led to more people being enslaved. By 1780, more than 15,000 people were shipped annually from the Loango Coast. In 1870, Henry Morton Stanley explored what is now the DR Congo. Belgian colonization began in 1879 when King Leopold II sent out agents to establish posts along the Congo River, from its mouth upstream to the north, enabling him to claim sovereignty over what would become the Congo Free State in 1885. Many outposts were built to extend the power of the state over such a vast territory. In 1885, the Force Publique was set up, a colonial army with white officers and black soldiers. In the late 19th century, Christian missionaries arrived intending to convert the population. A railway between Matadi and Stanley Pool was built in the 1890s. Reports of widespread murder, torture, and other abuses in the rubber plantations led to international outrage and the Belgian government transferred control from Leopold II and established the Belgian Congo in 1908. Following unrest, Belgium granted Congo independence in 1960. However, the Congo remained unstable, leading to the Congo Crisis, where the regional governments of Katanga and South Kasai attempted to gain independence with Belgian support. Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba tried to suppress secession with the aid of the Soviet Union as part of the Cold War, causing the US to support a coup led by Colonel Joseph Mobutu. Lumumba was handed over to the Katangan government and executed in 1961. The secessionist movements were defeated by the Congolese government as were the Soviet-backed Simba rebels. Following the end of the Congo Crisis in 1965, Joseph Kasa-Vubu was deposed and Mobutu seized power and renamed the country Zaire. He sought to Africanize the country, changing his name to Mobutu Sese Seko, and demanded citizens change their Western names to traditional African ones. Mobutu sought to repress any opposition, which he successfully did throughout the 1980s. However, with his regime weakened in the 1990s, Mobutu was forced to agree to a power-sharing government with the opposition party. Mobutu remained the head of state and promised elections within the next two years, that never took place. During the First Congo War, Rwanda invaded Zaire, and Mobutu lost power. In 1997, Laurent-Désiré Kabila took power and renamed the country: the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The Second Congo War began, resulting in a regional war in which different African nations took part and in which millions were killed or displaced. Laurent was assassinated by his bodyguard in 2001, and his son, Joseph, succeeded and was elected president by the Congolese government in 2006. Joseph sought peace. Foreign soldiers remained for a few years and a power-sharing government between Joseph and the opposition party was set up. Joseph resumed sole control and was re-elected in a disputed election in 2011. In 2018, Félix Tshisekedi was elected president; in the first peaceful transfer of power since independence. Source: Wikipedia (en)