The highest point in the Republic of the Congo is Mount Berongou (903 m).

The Congo River is the second longest river in Africa.

Pygmy people were the first of the Republic of the Congo's ethnic groups to inhabit the area.

The Portuguese, the first Europeans to explore the region, arrived in 1482.

Towards the end of the nineteenth century the French negotiated treaties with rulers on the right bank of the Congo River. A French Protectorate was established.

Brazzaville was named after Pierre Savorgnan de Brazza who worked on behalf of the French.

The coast was a centre of the slave trade.

France abolished the slave trade in 1826 but slavery remained in the French colonies until 1848.

Middle Congo (Republic of the Congo) was a member of the Federation of French Equatorial Africa - Afrique Equatoriale Francaise (AEF).

In 1910 Congo (Brazzaville) became the capital of the AEF.

During the Second World War, Brazzaville was the centre of the French resistance in Africa.

The AEF was dissolved in 1958. The former AEF territories became autonomous members of the French community.

Middle Congo was renamed the Republique du Congo.

The Republic of the Congo (Middle Congo) achieved independence in August 1960. The Belgian Congo also gained independence in 1960 as the Republic of the Congo (later renamed Democratic Republic of the Congo). The countries became known as Congo-Brazzaville and Congo-Kinshasa.

Large offshore oil fields were discovered in the 1960s.

The Republic of the Congo was ruled by a succession of military governments from the end of the 1960s to the early 1990s.

Between 1970 and 1992 the Republic of the Congo was known as the People's Republic of the Congo.

The Republic of the Congo experienced violence and unrest in 1993, and a civil war in 1997.

In December 2017 rebels known as Ninjas signed a ceasefire with the government.