After the September 1958 referendum approving the new French constitution, French Equatorial Africa was dissolved. Its four territories became autonomous members of the French Community, and Middle Congo was renamed the Congo Republic. Formal independence was granted in August 1960.

In 1997, Congo's democratic progress was 1997 due to tensions before the presidential elections scheduled for July 1997. In early October, the Lissouba government fell. Soon thereafter, Sassou declared himself President and named a 33-member government. In January 1998, the Sassou regime held a National Forum for Reconciliation to determine the nature and duration of the transition period. The Forum, tightly controlled by the government, decided elections should be held in about 3 years, elected a transition advisory legislature, and announced that a constitutional convention would finalize a draft constitution. In November and December 1999, the government signed agreements with representatives of many, though not all, of the rebel groups. The December accord, mediated by President Omar Bongo of Gabon, called for follow-on, inclusive political negotiations between the government and the opposition. During the years 2000–01, Sassou-Nguesso’s government conducted a national dialogue (Dialogue Sans Exclusif), in which the opposition parties and the government agreed to continue on the path to peace. A new constitution was drafted in 2001, approved by the provisional legislature (National Transition Council), and approved by the people of Congo in a national referendum in January 2002. Presidential elections were held in March 2002, and Sassou-Nguesso was declared the winner. Legislative elections were scheduled for May and June 2002.¹¹ Southern-based rebel groups agreed to a final peace accord in March 2003.

The Republic of Congo is one of Africa's largest petroleum producers with significant potential for offshore development. The economy is a mixture of village agriculture and handicrafts, and an industrial sector based largely on oil. Oil has supplanted forestry as the mainstay of the economy, providing a major share of government revenues and exports. In the early 1980s, rapidly rising oil revenues enabled the government to finance large-scale development projects with GDP growth averaging 5% annually, one of the highest rates in Africa. The 12 January 1994 devaluation of Franc Zone currencies by 50% resulted in inflation of 61% in 1994, but inflation has subsided since. Economic reform efforts continued with the support of international organizations, notably the World Bank and the IMF. In October 1997, Denis Sassou-Nguesso publicly expressed interest in moving forward on economic reforms and privatization and in renewing cooperation with international financial institutions. However, economic progress was badly hurt by slumping oil prices in December 1998, which worsened the republic's budget deficit. The current administration faces difficult economic problems of stimulating recovery and reducing poverty.¹²

GDP per capita is Intl $1936. This falls within the range of $8,272 ( Libya) and $346 ( Democratic Republic of the Congo) in the countries of Africa (Table 5).

Table 6 GDP per capita (Intl $): countries of Africa, 2001