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RenamedChanged1997

Zaire

Same thing, new accepted name.

TaughtZaire is the large country in central Africa, capital Kinshasa.

NowIt reverted to the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 1997 when Mobutu Sese Seko was overthrown. It is not the same country as the neighboring Republic of the Congo.

What actually happened

The country has cycled through names with each regime: Congo Free State, Belgian Congo, Republic of the Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, then Zaire from 1971 under Mobutu's Africanization campaign, then back to Democratic Republic of the Congo in 1997 after Laurent-Désiré Kabila's forces took Kinshasa.

The result is a lasting confusion that trips up even careful writers. There are two Congos: the Democratic Republic of the Congo, capital Kinshasa, which is enormous and was Zaire; and the Republic of the Congo, capital Brazzaville, which is much smaller and was never Zaire. They sit on opposite banks of the Congo River, and their capitals are the closest pair of capital cities in the world other than Rome and Vatican City. If you learned this map between 1971 and 1997, the big one has a different name now.

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Sources

  1. Encyclopaedia Britannica: Democratic Republic of the Congobritannica.com
  2. United Nations: Member statesun.org

Who was taught this

Still standard through 1997, so anyone who finished school between 1950 and 1997 learned the earlier version.