Until the early 1800s, the peoples of central Africa lived largely beyond the reach of outsiders, separated by dense forest and distance from both the Saharan trade routes to the north and the coastal powers to the west. Muslim traders arrived first, initially peaceful, building relationships with local leaders. By mid-century, well-armed slave raiders followed. Then came the Europeans. In 1889 the French planted a post on the Ubangi River at Bangui and named their new colony Ubangi-Shari. On December 1, 1958, the colony became the Central African Republic -- a name chosen by its founding father, Barthelemy Boganda, who died in a mysterious plane crash just eight days before the final colonial elections. Independence came on August 13, 1960. Within two years, David Dacko had established a one-party state, setting the template for what followed.

The CAR's most infamous chapter belongs to Jean-Bedel Bokassa. After seizing power in 1966, Bokassa declared himself president for life, then went further: in 1977, he crowned himself emperor in a ceremony modeled on Napoleon's coronation, complete with a golden eagle throne and a diamond-studded crown. The spectacle cost an estimated $20 million -- roughly a third of the national budget. France, which had bankrolled much of the affair, eventually helped overthrow him in 1979 after reports of massacres and the murder of schoolchildren. The coups did not stop with Bokassa. They continued through the 1990s and 2000s, each one reshuffling the same deck of grievances: corruption, ethnic tension, and a government whose authority rarely extended far beyond Bangui.

Beneath the political turbulence lies a country of startling natural wealth. The southwestern corner shelters the Dzanga-Sangha Special Reserve, where researchers and a handful of brave tourists trek through primary rainforest to observe western lowland gorillas, forest elephants, and chimpanzees. Near Bouar in the west, concentric circles of megaliths stand as monuments to civilizations that flourished here thousands of years before European mapmakers drew their borders. The Chutes de Boali, a cascade of waterfalls two hours from the capital, thunders through the rainy season with a force that belies the country's flat reputation. And in 2008, National Geographic named the CAR the country least affected by light pollution on Earth -- a distinction born partly of poverty, but one that means on a clear night, the sky here blazes with stars visible almost nowhere else.

The civil war that erupted in 2012 tore open longstanding fractures between Christian and Muslim communities. Armed groups carved the country into fiefdoms. The northeastern regions became effectively lawless, and remain so. Humanitarian organizations -- MSF, UNICEF, the Red Cross -- line the streets of Bangui, their white Land Cruisers as common a sight as the capital's taxis. Checkpoints dot every road, manned by soldiers or police whose primary interest is extracting bribes. Travelers report that a drive from the Cameroon border to Bangui can cost hundreds of dollars in unofficial tolls alone. The citizens of the CAR, whose per-capita income ranks among the lowest anywhere, bear the heaviest cost of this dysfunction.

Republic Day falls on December 1, and its signature event is dugout canoe racing on the Ubangi River -- a tradition that predates the republic itself by centuries. In Bangui's markets, vendors sell crafts alongside produce, and French bakeries turn out baguettes in a city where the colonial language survives more in bread than in conversation. The Musee Ethnographique Barthelemy Boganda holds instruments, weapons, and displays documenting traditions that have outlasted every regime. Whether the CAR will ever become the ecotourism destination its geography deserves remains an open question. For now, the country endures -- its people resilient, its forests immense, its skies darker and more star-filled than almost anywhere else on Earth.