The capital and largest city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, in the western part of the country on the Congo River. Founded in 1881 by Henry M. Stanley, who named it Leopoldville after his patron, Leopold II of Belgium, it became capital of the Belgian Congo in 1926 and was the scene of the revolt in 1959 that led to Congo's independence a year later. In 1966 its name was changed to Kinshasa, after the name of an early village that occupied the site.