Zaire Province a vassal state of the Kingdom of Portugal. In 1914, the Kongo monarchy was abolished after Portuguese suppression of several revolts. From 1885, Portuguese Angola included the district of Congo, which was split in 1919 into the districts of Cabinda and Zaire, respectively north and south of the Congo/Zaire River. During the 1961–1974 Angolan War of Independence, a large fraction of the Bakongo fled to the Republic of Zaire. Many of these refugees and their offspring returned after the Alvor Agreement recognised Angolan independence. Historical and cultural monuments include: M'Banza Congo (formerly São Salvador do Congo) is the provincial capital.
Constitution of Zaire president as President of Zaire itself with total power over government and judiciary (Articles 28 and 30). Mobutism was declared the state ideology (Article 46) and all Zaireans were automatically made members of the MPR (Article 8). Mobutu himself was exempted from the restrictions on power mentioned in the document and given the power to unilaterally modify the document at will. The state of Zaire's legal system as established by the constitution led Marcel Lihau, a jurist and former president of the Supreme Court of Justice who had fled the country, to remark that "Mobutu is the constitution in Zaire".