a region in the southeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, originally conquered by the Congo Free State (owned by the Belgian king, not his European state) but administered as a corporate mining concession; Since 1910, an autonomous part of the Belgian colony Congo; Since 1933, a regular province, until 1947 however named after its capital: Elisabethstad in Dutch or Elisabethville in French; In 1960 a unilaterally declared independent state; in 1961-63 reconquered by Congo and reorganized in three provinces until 1966; renamed Shaba 1972-1997 as part of president Mobutu's Zairization