Kinshasa was founded as Léopoldville in 1881, by Henry Stanley, a Welsh journalist and explorer. It was named in honor of King Leopold II of Belgian. In 1923, Léopoldville, replaced Boma as the colony’s capital. When the Congo declared its independence in 1960, Léopoldville became the capital. The city was renamed as Kinshasa in 1966, as a means of replacing colonial names with original or African titles.
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Founded in 1899, the city of Nairobi began as a rail junction for the Uganda Railway as a means of connecting the interior of Uganda and Kenya with the port city of Mombasa. In 1905, Nairobi replaced Mombasa as the capital of the British colony. The town became an important agricultural site for growing coffee, tea, and sisal, spurring further development in making Nairobi a financial and industrial center for Africa.
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Algiers began as Ikosim, a small seaport serving Phoenician commerce. After the Punic Wars, the town fell under Roman control and flourished as Icosium, a thriving commercial city in Mauretania Caesariensis, the Roman province covering the Northern Algerian coast. The modern city of Algiers began to take shape in 944 through the efforts of Bologhine ibn Ziri, the founder of the Berber Zirid–Sanhaja dynasty.
