This IB History HL PowerPoint covers Inquiry Topic 4: Emergence and impact of Mobutu on Zaire. Fully aligned with the new IB DP History curriculum (first assessment 2028).

Ready-to-teach 20-slide PowerPoint for IB History HL Paper 3 – Regional Study 7: Colonialism and Crisis in Rwanda and the Congo (first assessment 2028). Focuses exclusively on Inquiry Topic 4: Emergence and impact of Mobutu on Zaire.

What’s included (specified content from IB guide):

Congo Crisis (1960–1965) – independence, Force Publique mutiny, Katanga & South Kasai secessions, Lumumba’s assassination (Belgian & US complicity), Mobutu’s first coup (1960) and second coup (1965)

Maintenance of power – one-party state (MPR), elimination of opposition, political prisoners, secret police (AND), Lubumbashi massacre (1978), cult of personality, Authenticité (1971–72), leopard-skin hat, renaming to Zaire, divide-and-rule tactics (provincial rotation, ethnic balancing, clientelism)

Economic policies – Zairianisation (1973), Radicalisation (1974), copper crash (1975), kleptocracy (Mobutu’s personal wealth $5–10 billion), hyperinflation (1000%+), IMF/World Bank bankruptcy declaration, collapse of infrastructure & services

First Congo War (1996–1997) – Hutu genocidaires in eastern Zaire, AFDL alliance (Rwanda, Uganda, Laurent Kabila), invasion, Mobutu’s overthrow and exile

Source analysis – evaluating four perspectives on Mobutu (Western governments, Congolese opposition, Mobutu himself, historian Nzongola-Ntalaja)

Historiographical debate – colonial continuity (Nzongola-Ntalaja) vs. Cold War client (Mamdani) vs. personal agency (Young)

Causal chain linking Mobutu’s collapse to the Second Congo War

Aligned with the new IB DP History curriculum (first assessment 2028):

Builds historical arguments (inquiry topic → specified content → argument)

Evaluates diverse perspectives (Western, Congolese, Mobutu, scholarly)

Slide design: Clean, printable, ready to copy-paste into PowerPoint, Google Slides, or Canva. No stock photography – original diagrams and public domain images.

Perfect for: IB History HL teachers preparing for first assessment 2028, Paper 3 regional study, African post-colonial dictatorship units, Cold War in Africa, Congo Wars background.