Portuguese explorer Diogo Cão was the first European to discover the Kingdom of Kongo region.[1]
The white population in the Congo is tied to the creation of the Belgian colonial empire and fluctuated during and after Belgian rule. During the existence of the Congo Free State, the European population was estimated at 1500 people. Following annexation and the formation of the Belgian Congo, that number grew to 17,000 in 1930 but plummeted to 11,000 in 1934. In 1947, the white population was 24,000 and 115,157 in 1959.[2] The post-World War II white population increased steadily until 1960, when Belgium granted the Republic of the Congo its independence.[citation needed]
White settlers were primarily government officials and missionaries, and disproportionately young men. Belgians made up between 40 and 65 percent of the white population until after World War II. During the existence of the Congo Free State and the early years of the Belgian Congo, the majority of White Congolese were Scandinavian.[3] Demographics shifted throughout the 1950s. By 1959, 0.9 percent of the total Belgian population lived in the Congo.[citation needed]
Because of the Congo's large land area and population, White Congolese made up only about 0.8 percent of the total population in 1959. Belgian officials discouraged large scale immigration of white settlers to set up small businesses until the final 15 years of the colony's existence.[citation needed]
White Congolese Belgian nuns were at the center of the 1976 Ebola outbreak at a clinic in Yambuku, with several white health workers becoming fatally ill with the virus.[citation needed]
