Katanga (province)
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Katanga Province Province du Katanga |
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| Former province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo |
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| Coordinates: 11°08′S 27°06′E / 11.133°S 27.100°ECoordinates: 11°08′S 27°06′E / 11.133°S 27.100°E | |
| Country |
 Democratic Republic of the Congo
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| Established | 1966 |
| Dissolved | 2015 |
| Capital | Lubumbashi |
| Largest city | Lubumbashi |
| Area | |
| • Total | 496,871 km2 (191,843 sq mi) |
| Population (2010 est.) | |
| • Total | 5,608,683 |
| • Density | 11/km2 (29/sq mi) |
| Demonym(s) | Katangese |
| Official language | French |
| National languages spoken | Swahili |
| Website | katanga.cd |
Katanga was one of the eleven provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo between 1966 and 2015, when it was split into the Tanganyika, Haut-Lomami, Lualaba and Haut-Katanga provinces. Between 1971 and 1997 (during the rule of Mobutu Sese Seko when Congo was known as Zaïre), its official name was Shaba Province.
Katanga's area encompassed 497,000 km2. Farming and ranching are carried out on the Katanga Plateau. The eastern part of the province is considered a rich mining region, which supplies cobalt, copper, tin, radium, uranium, and diamonds. The region's former capital, Lubumbashi, is the second largest city in the Congo.
Copper mining in Katanga dates back over 1,000 years and mines in the region were producing standard sized ingots of copper for international transport by the end of the 1st Millennium AD. In the 1890s the province was beleaguered by Cecil Rhodes from the South (Rhodes colonized Northern Rhodesia) and the Belgian Congo which was owned by King Leopold II. Msiri, the King of Katanga, held out against both but eventually Katanga was subsumed by the Belgian Congo.
From 1900, the Societe Generale de Belgique practically controlled all of the mining in the province through Union Miniere du Haut Katanga. This included uranium, radium, copper, cobalt, zinc, cadmium, germanium, manganese, silver, gold, and tin. By the start of WWII, the mining companies "constituted a state within the Belgian Congo."
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Wikipedia