The Democratic Republic of the Congo’s official independence movement lasted only one year. Even though there had been a lot of resistance by the Congo people to Belgian rule since the 1800’s, the people did not seriously consider gaining independence until the 1950’s. The independence movement officially started in January 1959. This period in history was a perfect time for the people of the Congo to stand up to Belgium. This is because after World War Two Belgium was not in a good condition because of the Nazi invasion and having over 85,000 Belgian casualties in World War Two. Many independence organizations figured that it would be very difficult for Belgium to rule over the Congolese people if they were to revolt, due to the state of Belgium
