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Kinshasa (; formerly Leopoldville ((フランス語:Léopoldville) or Dutch )) is the capital and the largest city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It is located on the Congo River. Once a site of fishing villages, Kinshasa is now an urban area with a 2014 population of over 10 million.〔 It faces the capital of the neighbouring Republic of Congo, Brazzaville, which can be seen in the distance across the wide Congo River. The city of Kinshasa is also one of the DRC's 11 provinces. Because the administrative boundaries of the city-province cover a vast area, over 90% of the city-province's land is rural in nature, and the urban area only occupies a small section in the far western end of the city-province.〔 Kinshasa is the third largest urban area in Africa after Cairo and Lagos.〔 It is also the second largest "francophone" urban area in the world after Paris, French being the language of government, schools, newspapers, public services and high-end commerce in the city, while Lingala is used as a lingua franca in the street. If current demographic trends continue, Kinshasa should surpass Paris in population around 2020. Kinshasa hosted the 14th Francophonie Summit in October 2012.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=XIVe Sommet de la Francophonie )〕 Residents of Kinshasa are known as ''Kinois'' (in French and sometimes in English) or Kinshasans (English). ==History== The city was founded as a trading post by Henry Morton Stanley in 1881. It was named Léopoldville in honor of King Leopold II of Belgium, who controlled the vast territory that is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo, not as a colony but as a private property. The post flourished as the first navigable port on the Congo River above Livingstone Falls, a series of rapids over below Leopoldville. At first, all goods arriving by sea or being sent by sea had to be carried by porters between Léopoldville and Matadi, the port below the rapids and from the coast. The completion of the Matadi-Kinshasa portage railway in 1898 provided an alternative route around the rapids and sparked the rapid development of Léopoldville. In 1914 a pipeline was installed so that crude oil could be transported from Matadi to the upriver steamers in Leopoldville.〔http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/318863/Kinshasa/9050/History〕 By 1923, the city was elevated to capital of the Belgian Congo, replacing the town of Boma in the Congo estuary.〔 The town, nicknamed "Léo" or "Leopold", became a commercial centre and grew rapidly during the colonial period. In 1965, Joseph-Désiré Mobutu seized power in the Congo in his second coup and initiated a policy of "Africanizing" the names of people and places in the country. In 1966, Léopoldville was renamed ''Kinshasa'', for a village named Kinchassa that once stood near the site. The city grew rapidly under Mobutu, drawing people from across the country who came in search of their fortunes or to escape ethnic strife elsewhere. This inevitably brought a change to the city's ethnic and linguistic composition. Although it is situated in territory that traditionally belongs to the Bateke and Bahumbu people, the ''lingua franca'' among African languages in Kinshasa today is Lingala, while the administrative and main written language is French (see further Languages of the Democratic Republic of the Congo). In 1974 Kinshasa hosted The Rumble in the Jungle boxing match between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman, in which Ali defeated Foreman to regain the World Heavyweight title. In the 1990s a rebel uprising began, which by 1997 had brought down the regime of Mobutu Sese Seko.〔 Kinshasa suffered greatly due to Mobutu's excesses, mass corruption, nepotism and the civil war that led to his downfall. Nevertheless, it is still a major cultural and intellectual center for Central Africa, with a flourishing community of musicians and artists. It is also the country's major industrial center, processing many of the natural products brought from the interior. The city has recently had to fend off rioting soldiers who were protesting the government's failure to pay them. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Kinshasa」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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