My original goal was Morocco, but then I noticed every. single. map. so far seemed to be a Middle Eastern nation. I then drifted and thought of a United Korea, a Taiwan, or a Siam. Since Korea included South Korea, and Taiwan is fairly industrialized, I decided against them. Looking up what countries had the potential to be big players, and even should be big players, but aren't. This lead me to the Congo. Since I wanted to avoid stretching out the map again, and wanted to avoid a making a tiny map, I used QBAM and worked on it.
...unfortunately it looks like a clone of Bruce's, which is annoying to me because I tried to be original when picking it. Perhaps it influenced me too much when I was thinking of making a map. Anyways, here's my second entry ever for this map contest.
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Many of the belligerents inside of the second world war used troops and resources from the colonies, bringing with them much of the propaganda imagery used inside the mainland colonials. When the war had ended soldiers were sent back home indoctrinated with the ideals of freedom, liberty, and nationalism only to return to subservience in their own homes. Cries for independence, which had started long before hand in the end of the nineteenth century, picked up steam with the strong support of veterans of war and workers. Both the French and the British government initially sharply resisted this drive for independence, with Belgium being alongside them, but with the economic downturn of the late 40s and massive debt piling on from war the ravaged European continent could no longer sustain them. When the British finally let go of India in the early 60s it was the end of the British Empire. The French, even more ravenous, let go of all of their colonial possessions, apart from Algeria, by the early 90s. Portugal and Spain kept much of their colonial possessions for reasons unique to them. A committee established to help along all African colonies gain independence was disbanded after it became clear that a number of hypocrisies were being overlooked and the Soviet Union refused to recognize any more of them as independent nations until such hypocrisies were met. With most of decolonization already accomplished, the West turned towards the conflicts with Stalinistic Communism leaving the job mostly unfulfilled.
When it came to the Congo the Belgium government was very reluctant to let it go. At the time, the colony centered in the Congo was one of the wealthiest and most productive in the sub-saharan region of Africa. It housed many of the Belgian leadership in the second World War when they were not off to the United Kingdom or the United States to gather support and show a face of resistance. When the committee tried to force Belgium to give up its Congo, they refused. French and Portuguese plans with their pieces of the Congo also stalled. The French wishing to keep theirs separate from Belgium and the Portuguese considering it more a part of Angola than the Congo. In the 60s various independence groups inside of the "Congo Colonies" agreed to form a popular front towards independence. The French wishing to keep their other colonies from following the same path reluctantly tried to appease one group to focus on keeping the others. Portugal held out until the Congolese Union (the name chosen for the state after the French and Belgian colonies gained independence together as a single state) gained independence in 1968, before 'returning it' to the Congolese.
Throughout the seventies, while various groups battled for independence and raged wars against one another [in many cases after gaining independence from Europe groups would try to gain independence from one another. The same ideal that kept some colonies together, tore others apart], the Congo was comparatively less so. Still a rather poor nation, they were dependent upon industries coming into the country to help with production. As these industries moved in the need for better roads and transportation developed resulting in a number of paved roads and railroads designed for commercial industries. Coca Cola and Pepsi Cola also set up shop, having 3 and 2 factories respectively in the country. It would not be until the 80s where internal strife truly started up.
The Congolese Union had kept the status quo as much as it could, and in many ways acted as a colonial power over a large number of diverse ethnic groups and tribal communities. As the outside world moved on, contact was kept at an absolute minimum with these communities as the government tried to give them whatever they wanted in fear of that ethnic strife could cause massive turmoil in the eastern part of the country. As industry moved in, and communication improved, nationalism grew in the east. The resulting conflicts would be known collectively as the Congolese War and involve a number of competing factions. When it appeared as though the Congolese Union would lose, and with armed combat spilling into neighboring countries, the international community intervened. The conflict was resolved after two years of intense fighting, with the agreement by both the international community and the Congolese themselves that there would need to be serious changes within the government and lead to reform.
The Congolese Union attempted to craft a federal republic, but this did not work out with apparent apathy towards the central government and even more apparent hostility. In the end autonomous zones were carved up from the Congo and were given the right to complete local governance, copying off of several other nations in the process. The Conflicts died down in the 90s and few, if any, reports of strong resistance to the Union exist in modern times.
While the internal conflict resulted in a brief slow in growth, afterwards the economy of the Congolese Union exploded with the discovery of untold numbers of resources. With the country rapidly growing and job opportunities opening up, the need for a better educated populous quickly made itself apparent. Public schools with serious funding were established in every major city and town, public universities and colleges soon followed. Before this the only true education, and even the only true national identity, was provided by the Catholic Church. Now, with growing numbers going to school and the number of graduates increasing tenfold with each generation, the Congolese were finally coming out of their shell. The immense success of the Congolese Union resulted in it branching out, forming trade and economic unions with most neighboring countries, especially so with the Swahili countries in the east.
Currently the Congolese Union has a fertility rate of 2.9, higher than most industrialized nations, but lower than most African nations. Over 75% of the population is literate in French, the official language of the Congo. A number of sub-national languages also exist, when combined the literacy rate for the country approaches 90%. Low amongst much of the world, but extraordinarily high for the region. The GDP of the Congo is 1.249 Trillion, making it 13th in the world, with a population of 92 million [14th]. The GDP per capita is roughly 12,000, comparable to the country of Romania.
