History records that the first inhabitants of the area now known as Republic of the Congo were the Pygmy people however they had been largely displaced by the Bantu and other tribes by the time the Portuguese led by Diogo Cao explored the area in the late 15th century. As part of the Scramble for Africa the area came under French control in the 1880s when Pierre Savorgnan de Brazza negotiated a French protectorate over the northern bank of the river Congo and the area was later to become part of French Equatorial Africa in 1908 along with Gabon, Chad and what is now known as the Central African Republic.

On independence from France in 1960, the land, then known as Middle Congo, became the People's Republic of Congo. As with many of the other newly emerging African nations, politics were fraught with internal conflict and instability. Following coups and assassinations, Denis Sassou Nguesso become president of the country in 1979 and aligned the Republic of Congo firmly with the then USSR, the People's Republic of China and other communist states.

The Republic of Congo was then ruled as a Marxist state for a few years before that ideology was abandoned in 1990. Sassou lost the Republic of the Congo's first democratic presidential election in 1992 to Pascal Lissouba and remained as opposition leader. By 1997 civil war had broken out with pro-Sassou forces, supported by troops from Angola, capturing Brazzaville, forcing Lissouba to flee after allegations that Lissouba had fixed the 1997 election.

Sassou remains in power to this date ruling Congo Brazzaville as an authoritarian state albeit with allegedly democratic elections. The above video is merely a glimpse into the history of the Republic of the Congo in 1934 during French colonial rule.