The so-called Belgian Congo was a colony of Belgium from 1908 until its independence, which took place in 1960, and then it was called the Republic of the Congo. In 1964 the country was renamed the Democratic Republic of the Congo to distinguish itself from the neighboring Republic of the Congo Brazzaville. In 1971, President Mobutu renamed it the Republic of Zaire, derived from the Kikongo word nzere – 'the river that swallows all rivers', after the Congo River, which was also renamed Zaire. After the dictator was overthrown in 1997, the country regained the name that appears on current maps: Democratic Republic of the Congo .
Another nation with a changing name has been Vietnam , which in ancient times was known as Van Lang, Dai Viet and Dai Nam, until in 1945 it acquired its current name. Also, the former Burma was renamed as Myanmar in 1989. For its part, the Republic of Upper Volta became Burkina Faso, 'homeland of men of integrity', back in 1984.
And we still find many more countries affected by the name changes. Thus, for example, Southern Rhodesia was renamed Zimbabwe in 1965 . The Kingdom of Dahomey, meanwhile, was renamed the Republic of Benin in 1975. Present-day Namibia was called Southwest Africa until the 1960s, while it was a German colony. And the Pacific archipelago today known as Vanuatu was called the New Hebrides during the period when it was an Anglo-French colony, until 1980.
