The Republic of the Congo, also known as Congo-Brazzaville, is a Central African country, with Brazzaville serving as its capital. The region was settled as the French Congo in 1882, and it was a part of French Equatorial Africa until 15 August 1960, when French Equatorial Africa's component territories were granted their independence. Alphonse Massamba-Debat was the first President of the Congo, and he intended to create a socialist state; however, he was overthrown in a 1968 coup, and the communist leader Marien Ngouabi became the first leader of the "People's Republic of the Congo". From 1969 to 1992, the Congo was ruled by a communist regime, and the fall of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War led to democracy being restored under Pascal Lissouba. However, former communist politician Denis Sassou Nguesso seized power in 1997 in the Republic of Congo Civil War, overthrowing the democratically-elected government and returning the Congolese Party of Labor to power. In 2014, the Congo had a population of 4,662,446 people, with 48% being Bakongo, 20% Sangha, 17% Teke, 12% M'Bochi, and 3% European or others.
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