Following the Republic of the Congo-Léopoldville's accession to independence in June 1960, Tshombe became president of the autonomous province, and soon came into conflict with the central government's leftist prime minister, Patrice Lumumba.

[2] Unlike the other provinces of the Belgian Congo, Katanga was rich in mineral resources, such as copper, tin and uranium, all of which were exploited by the Union Minière company.

Uranium from the Shinkolobwe mine was used in developing nuclear weapons by the United States and Nazi Germany during World War II.

[3] Tshombe, like many members of the Lunda royalty, was close to the settler elite, and felt threatened by the flood of Kasai Baluba moving into Katanga.

[9] On the evening of 11 July, Tshombe, accusing the central government of communist leanings and dictatorial rule, announced that Katanga was seceding from the Congo.

[11] Favoring continued ties with Belgium, Tshombe asked the Belgian government to send military officers to recruit and train a Katangese army.

[12] To disguise its military nature, the force being raised and trained was called the Katangese gendarmerie, but this was highly misleading as it was in fact an army.

Tshombe engaged in a successful bluff in the summer of 1960 as he maintained that Katanga had the military forces to repel an invasion while an army was being raised.

[14] Nonetheless, Congolese Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba and his successor, Cyrille Adoula, successfully requested intervention from UN forces.

Tshombe was basically a weak person who was always being manipulated by others – the Union Minière, right-wing politicians in Europe and the United States, mercenaries, arms dealers and other adventurers who were after his money.

Harold Charles d'Aspremont Lynden (Belgian minister for African Affairs) sent a highly confidential telegram on 16 January 1961 to the government in Léopoldville (President Joseph Kasa-Vubu and Mobutu) to send Lumumba to Katanga.

In custody in Katanga, Lumumba was visited by Katangese notables and Belgian officers, who included Tshombe, Godefroid Munongo, Kibwe, Kitenge, Grandelet, Son, Gat, Huyghé, Tignée, Verscheure, Segers and Rougefort.

[17] In September 1961, the United Nations launched Operation Morthor with the aim of reintegrating Katanga into the Congo, causing Tshombe to flee into Northern Rhodesia for a time.

However, the Katangese gendarmerie proved to be tougher than expected and in the siege of Jadotville, Irish troops serving under the United Nations flag were forced to surrender.

[21] The principal lobbying group for Tshombe was the American Committee for Aid to Katangan Freedom Fighters that portrayed the United Nations as a communist-dominated organization that was seeking to crush Katanga to achieve Soviet foreign policy goals in Africa.

Tshombe took 890 suitcases full of one million gold pieces with him into exile, which he placed into various European banks, allowing him to live in comfort and luxury.

At the same time, Tshombe started to correspond with several of his former enemies such as the justice minister, Justin-Marie Bomboko; the police chief, Victor Nendaka; and most importantly, the commander of the army, General Joseph-Désiré Mobutu.

He pressured President Joseph Kasa-Vubu to appoint Tshombe premier on the grounds that he was the Congolese politician most likely to secure Western support.

[27] Tshombe's national support was derived from the backing of provincial political bosses, customary chiefs, and foreign financial interests.

[28] Among his first acts in office were the lifting of a curfew in Léopoldville, the release of 600 political prisoners—including Antoine Gizenga, and the ordering of Katangese gendarmes to return from their exile in Angola to the Congo and join the national army.

In November, General Joseph Mobutu, who had just staged a successful coup against Kasa-Vubu, brought charges of treason against Tshombe, who again fled the country and settled in Francoist Spain.

A part of his supporters gathered to form the Tshombe Emergency Committee in the U.S., including Marvin Liebman and William F. Buckley, to press for his release and move to Spain.

[37] In the context of a series of interviews regarding a conspiracy theory about the assassination of US President John F. Kennedy, Belgian mercenary Joseph Smal told author Stephen J. Rivele that Tshombe was killed by two injections with two different substances, prepared by the CIA.

[39] Owing to his role in the death of Lumumba and his association with Western interests, Tshombe's name became synonymous with "sellout" to Black African nationalists.

[43] The plot of the 1978 war film The Wild Geese is based in part on speculation that Tshombe's plane had initially been diverted to Rhodesia before being sent to Algeria.

The film's characters Colonel Allen Faulkner and President Julius Limbani were largely based on Tshombe and his military ally Maj. "Mad Mike" Hoare.