Tim Xie
Mrs. Jack
Honors English 11
May 16, 2007
The Congo’s Collapse and
The United States’ Involvement Throughout the late 1950s, the Congo was struggling to gain its independence from Belgium; however, when it finally achieved its independence in June of 1960, the country encountered more problems than it was ready to handle (“Congo”). The newly independent country was filled with turmoil from the very beginning. It was plagued with riots from the Congolese people and the Congo army terrorized villagers wherever they went. More than fifteen million people, who were divided into more than two hundred separate linguistic groups, were expected to follow one singular leader (“The United Nations”). As one can see, the task of uniting the very segregated country is seemingly impossible; on top of these obstacles, the country had to deal with western democracies interfering. Although it seemed like a good plan for the United States to get involved in the Congo, in retrospect, their actions caused insurmountable damage to the country that may never be restored. There were many political and financial motives for the interests of other countries in the rural country of the Congo. Even though it was not advanced technologically or industrially, the country had many valuable natural resources that foreign countries wanted to exploit. Notably, Great Britain, France, and the United States, all had fiscal interest in the Congo’s mine wealth, mostly in the provenance of Katanga (“Congo”). All of these countries encouraged the succession of Katanga in order to take more advantage of its mines. Recent investigations have uncovered details of such exploitations. The Security Council released a statement regarding their inquiry and declared, “[they] can no longer ignore clear evidence linking the exploitation of resources to the war in the Congo” (Lobe). As many