<Tr> <Td> </Td> <Td> This article needs additional citations for verification . Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . Unsourced material may be challenged and removed . (May 2014) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) </Td> </Tr> <P> The region that is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo was first settled about 80,000 years ago . The Kingdom of Congo remained present in the region between the 14th and the early 19th centuries . Belgian colonization began when King Leopold II founded the Congo Free State, a corporate state run solely by King Leopold . Reports of widespread murder and torture in the rubber plantations led the Belgian government to seize the Congo from Leopold II and establish the Belgian Congo . Under Belgian rule numerous Christian organizations attempted to Westernize the Congolese people . </P> <P> After an uprising by the Congolese people, Belgium surrendered to the independence of the Congo in 1960 . However, the Congo remained unstable because tribal leaders had more power than the central government . Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba tried to restore order with the aid of the Soviet Union as part of the Cold War, causing the United States to support a coup led by Colonel Joseph Mobutu in 1965 . Mobutu quickly seized complete power of the Congo and renamed the country Zaire . He sought to Africanize the country, changing his own name to Mobutu Sese Seko, and demanded that African citizens change their Western names to traditional African names . Mobutu sought to repress any opposition to his rule, in 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 . </P> <P> In the First Congo War, Rwanda invaded Zaire; Mobutu lost his power during this process . Laurent - Desire Kabila took power and renamed the country the Democratic Republic of the Congo . After a disappointing rule under Kabila, the Second Congo War broke out, resulting in a regional war in which different African nations took part . Kabila was assassinated by his bodyguard in 2001, and his son, Joseph, succeeded him and was later elected president by the Congolese government in 2006 . Kabila quickly sought peace . Foreign soldiers remained in the Congo for a few years and a power - sharing government between Kabila and the opposition party was set up . Kabila later resumed complete control over the Congo and was re-elected in a disputed election in 2011 . Today, the Congo remains dangerously unstable . </P>

When did democratic republic of congo become independent