The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), formerly Zaire, and nicknamed Congo-Kinshasa was colonized by Belgium (it was famously the private property of King Leopold II, and later called the Belgian Congo). In the 1970s and 80s, a dictator renamed the whole country Zaire, but it changed back to the DRC in 1997. It is the second-largest country in Africa by land area. The capital of The Democratic Republic of the Congo is Kinshasa.