The Chronicles of Colonization: How the Congo Was Never Poor—Just Pillaged

The Chronicles of Colonization: How the Congo Was Never Poor—Just Pillaged

Welcome back to The Chronicles of Colonization, where the syllabus is soaked in blood and the textbooks are written in stolen resources.

Today’s lesson: The Congo Crisis (1960–1965)—or as it should be called, The Global Race to Exploit the Congo… Again.

Let’s rewind. Before Belgium even colonized it, King Leopold II personally owned the Congo—yes, like a murderous landlord with a crown. Between 1885 and 1908, he turned it into a rubber-and-ivory extraction hellscape, killing an estimated 10 million people. Mutilation, beatings, hostage-taking—this wasn’t just colonization; it was corporate genocide.

When Belgium finally took over in 1908, the “official” colony was born. But nothing changed. Just more European looting with a nicer font. By independence in 1960, there were fewer than 20 college-educated Congolese. Belgium had built roads—not for people, but to get the diamonds out faster.

Then came independence—sort of. Patrice Lumumba, Congo’s first Prime Minister, wanted actual sovereignty. But Belgium stayed behind to keep “helping” (read: controlling). The army revolted. Chaos erupted. Lumumba asked the UN for help, got ghosted, and turned to the USSR.

Enter America screaming “COMMUNISM!” and Belgium crying “protect the white people!”

So what happened?

A CIA-backed coup.

Lumumba was ousted, captured, and eventually executed in secret—with Belgian and American fingerprints all over it.

The man who wanted freedom got silenced so the West could protect... copper contracts.

Then came Joseph Mobutu, the military guy turned dictator, backed by the US and Belgium for being a “good capitalist.” He renamed the country Zaire, looted it for decades, and starved the people while living like a king. The West kept cutting checks because hey—at least he hated communists.

Fast forward to today:

Congo has new wars, same old problems.

Over 70% of the world's cobalt—used in phones, laptops, and electric cars—comes from the DRC.

Much of it is dug up by hand, by children, without safety, wages, or rights.

So yeah. Your iPhone? Your Tesla? Your tech convenience?

They’re powered by a legacy of colonialism, corporate greed, and Cold War chaos

The Congo was never poor.

It was plundered.

And the world is still profiting off that theft.

Class dismissed—but history’s not over.