The economic growth and economic development of the country is determined by many factors, including geographic, climatic, demographic, political, as well as its natural resource potential and historical path of development. Between all these factors there is both interrelation and interdependence, and contradictions. The historical path of the country’s development, the current sectoral and territorial structure of the economy, the institutional environment, political processes, the values of economic activity and established business practices have an impact both in the short and long term. The result of these factors can be a variety of institutional traps that give rise to the effect of hysteresis and determine the choice of strategic development priorities or even their absence. In addition to internal factors, the country’s economy is influenced by external economic and political factors, as well as the interests of global economic actors: foreign companies, states and institutions. The identification of the relationship between all of the above factors in the historical context is of high scientific importance for predicting the further development of the country’s economy. The authors of the article studied the influence of economic and political factors on the economic development of the Democratic Republic of the Congo in the late 20th and early 21st centuries and revealed the existence of institutional traps that caused the hysteresis effect as the main cause of poverty in one of the most resource-rich countries on the African continent.