At its greatest extent it roughly corresponded to the present provinces of Équateur and Tshuapa.

The original four provinces of the Belgian Congo had considerable autonomy, but in 1933 they were reorganized into six provinces, named after their capitals, and the central government assumed more control.

By 1954 it had again been divided into Equateur, a smaller Tshuapa, Mongala and Ubangi districts.

[4] The area was 133,000 square kilometres (51,000 sq mi) out of a total of 402,100 square kilometres (155,300 sq mi) for Equateur province as a whole.

On 25 April 1966 Cuvette Centrale, Moyen-Congo, and Ubangi were reunited in a new Équateur province.