ragedies plaguing the DROC are much more complicated. Dating back to the early 1400's when persons of non-African heritage first explored the land.It is not amazing to find that the DROC was populated as early as 10,000 years ago and settle in the 7th and 8th centuries A.D. by Bantus from present-day Nigeria. (Background Notes, 5) Despite the above knowledge the fifteenth-century Portuguese explorers noted the DROC's first recorded contacts with the external world. In 1482 Diego Cao discovered the mouth of the Congo River, giving in the name Zaire, a word supposedly derived from the African name Zadi, meaning "big water." (Merriam, 4) In 1489 a Congolese embassy was sent to the Portuguese king, and in 1490 Franciscan missionaries and artisans from Portugal went to the area. The king of the Congo was a convert to Christianity, but his attempts to impose the religion on his people provoked violent opposition. His son, Alfonso(c. 1455-1543), who succeeded him in 1507, set out to Christianize the country. Able to read and write Portuguese, Alfonso adapted the Portuguese model for his government and built many churches. The kingdom declined, however, and memory of the Christian kingdom all but disappeared. (Versaware, 4) The land of current day DROC was later explored by the English journalist Henry Morton Stanley who worked in accordance with King Leopold II to organized the International Association of the Congo in 1876 and to set up trading stations while establishing friendly relations with the native chiefs. The explorer founded a number of posts, including the city of Lopoldville (now Kinshasa); he also secured the rights to extensive regions bordering the Congo River. Later with Stanley colonized the land under Belgian rule in 1885 as the "Congo Free State."(Versaware, 5) In 1907 administration shifted to the Belgian government, which renamed the country the Belgian Congo. (Background Notes, 5)Between the years of 1885 and 1940 th...
