evidence: After several centuries of local governance, the Kingdoms of Kongo, Luba, and Lunda emerged and ruled different parts of the Congo River Basin until the end of the 19th Century. European conquest in the 1870s brought the territory under the control of Belgian King LEOPOLD II and later the Belgian state. The Republic of the Congo gained its independence from Belgium in 1960. The country’s name was changed to Zaire in 1971 and to Democratic Republic of the Congo in 1997.