History of Katanga
This kind of communal cooperation also made possible the construction of dams to stock fish during the long dry season.
The 5th century saw this societal evolution develop in the area around present day Kamilamba at the Kabambasee, which was followed and replaced by a number of other cultures which were based around the cities of Sanga and Katango.
The region in which these cultures appeared is particularly rich in ores and the civilization began to develop and implement iron and copper technology, in addition to trading in ivory and other goods.
Beginning in the late 16th century, the province was controlled by the Luba Empire and Lunda Kingdom, which spawned a migration of warriors and tribes into neighbouring regions.
In the mid-19th century, a Nyamwezi trader from Tabora in modern-day Tanzania called Msiri founded the powerful but short-lived Yeke Kingdom.
Msiri's power was based on copper, ivory and slaves, which he traded to both the west coast (Angola) and east coast (Zanzibar) for firearms and gunpowder, enabling him to transform himself within a few years into a warrior-king, conquering the territory between the Kasai River and Luapula River, the Zambezi-Congo watershed and Lake Upemba, taking over land and subject tribes from the Luba and Lunda peoples.
In the 1880s King Leopold II of Belgium, with the assistance of British explorer Henry Morton Stanley, established the Congo Free State (CFS) north of Katanga.
The Belgian mining cartel employed a mixture of contract mercenaries and hired guards to subdue the local population and to ensure transport of minerals and other goods out of the country.
The view of the Congolese central government and of much of international opinion, was that the secession masked an attempt to create a Belgian-controlled puppet state run for the benefit of mining interests.
The UN Security Council met in the wake of Lumumba's death in a highly emotional atmosphere charged with anti-colonial feeling and rhetoric.
On 21 February 1961 the Security Council adopted Resolution 161, which authorised 'all appropriate measures' to 'prevent the occurrence of civil war in the Congo, including ... the use of force, if necessary, in the last resort'.
The resolution demanded the expulsion from the Congo of all Belgian troops and foreign mercenaries, but did not explicitly mandate the UN to conduct offensive operations.
In June, Tshombe signed a pledge to reunite Katanga with rest of the country, however by August it was clear he had no intention of implementing this agreement.
Peace negotiations ensued, in the course of which, UN secretary-general Dag Hammarskjöld died in uncertain circumstances in a plane crash near Ndola, Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia).
Under UN pressure, Tshombe later agreed to a three-stage plan from the acting Secretary General, U Thant, that would have reunited Katanga with Congo.
