Talk:Belgian Congo

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  • has replicated text from Congo Crisis
  • more opinion than history

Contents

[edit] Rename

I'd suggest renaming Congo Free State and Belgian Congo, as they suggest articles about a former states, when in fact they are just history of a current state article. Consider also an example of History of Poland (1945–1989) vs. People's Republic of Poland, or History of Poland (1569-1795) vs. Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.--Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus Talk 21:28, 2 February 2006 (UTC)

[edit] WWII photo

I don't have much detail about this photo but it might be useful. It's of soldiers in Belgian Congo in 1943.

[edit] Suggestion

Suggestion for advanced Wiki user(s) to fix apparent linking problems in right column regarding general statistics.—The preceding unsigned comment was added by Ctrl freak (talkcontribs) 13:49, 16 May 2006.

I have replaced the infobox tamplate with a table. {{Infobox Country}} is really not appropriate for defunct states. --Ezeu 15:34, 16 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] New International Encyclopedia

Is the entire text of this article from the NIE?? Because I can't find a copy of the NIE in order to verify, and this article has no other references!

I added two, but they're woefully inadequate. It's problems like these that cause Wikipedia to not be taken seriously as a source of academic knowledge! 207.175.48.45 21:09, 27 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Gross National Product

It's inconceivable to me that the Congo's GNP in the 1950s was greater than that of South Africa. Maybe the greatest among the African colonies--but more than that of Algeria, with its petroleum production? I'll check for data. Dynzmoar 16:51, 2 September 2006 (UTC)


[edit] Life Expectancy

The claim that the Belgian Congo life expectancy was 55 in the 1950s, is almost laughable, that would make it a land with lamost no roads, and still some forced labour, and few doctors have a life expectancy above some of the richest lands in the World of the time. This source shows this strange claim is untrue, life expectancy was 38-39.5 in the early 1950s, http://66.102.9.104/search?q=cache:Y8l_-3MZSvcJ:www.lifetable.de/data/RileyBib.pdf+Congo+%22life+expectancy%22+1940&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=uk.

[edit] This article is unclear, especially towards the end

The article is unclear in its later paragraphs. Who were the 'évolués' and what was their viewpoint? How, when and why did Belgium decide to leave the Congo? How did the elections that are mentioned come about? What were the riots at Léopoldville? Somebody who knows the answers ought to put this right. --APW 07:33, 29 April 2007 (UTC)