●Berlin Conference redirects here. For other uses, seeBerlin Conference (disambiguation).This article includes alist of references, butits sources remain unclear because it has insufficientinline citations.Please help toimprovethis article byintroducingmore precise citations.(February 2011)The conference of Berlin TheBerlin Conferenceof 1884–85, also known as theCongo Conference (German:Kongokonferenz) orWest Africa Conference(Westafrika-Konferenz),[1]regulatedEuropean colonizationand trade inAfricaduring theNew Imperialismperiod, and coincided with Germanys sudden emergence as an imperial power. Called for byPortugaland organized byOtto von Bismarck, firstChancellor of Germany, its outcome, theGeneral Act of the Berlin Conference, can be seen as the formalization of theScramble for Africa. The conference ushered in a period of heightened colonial activity by European powers, while simultaneously eliminating most existing forms of Africanautonomyand self-governance. Early history of the Berlin ConferenceEditThis sectiondoes notciteanyreferences or sources.Please help improve this section byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged andremoved.(May 2013) Prior the conference, European diplomacy treated African indigenous people in the same manner as the New World natives. By the mid-19th century, Africa was considered disputed territory ripe for exploration, trade, and settlement. With the exception of trading posts along the coasts, the continent was essentially ignored. This changed as a result of KingLeopold of Belgiums desire for glory. In 1878, KingLéopold II of Belgium, who had previously founded theInternational African Societyin 1876, invitedHenry Morton Stanleyto join him in researching and civilizing the continent. In 1878, theInternational Congo Societywas also formed, with more economic goals, but still closely related to the former society. Léopold secretly bought off the foreign investors in the Congo Society, which was turned toimperialisticgoals, with the African Society serving primarily as aphilanthropicfront. From 1878 to 1885, Stanley returned to the Congo, this time not as a reporter, but as an envoy from Léopold with the secret mission to organize what would become known as theCongo Free State. French intelligence had discovered Leopolds plans, and France was quickly engaging in its own colonial exploration. French naval officerPierre de Brazzawas dispatched to central Africa, traveled into the western Congo basin, and raised the French flag over the newly foundedBrazzavillein 1881, in what is currently theRepublic of Congo. Finally, Portugal, which already had a long, but essentially abandoned colonial Empire in the area through the mostly defunct proxy stateKongo Empire, also claimed the area due to old treaties with its old proxy, theKingdom of Spain, and theRoman Catholic Church. It quickly made a treaty with its old ally, theUnited Kingdom of Great Britain and Irelandon 26 February 1884 to block off the Congo Societys access to theAtlantic. By the early 1880s, due to diplomatic maneuvers, subsequent colonial exploration, and recognition of Africas abundance of valuable resources such as gold, timber, land, markets and labour power, European interest in Africa had increased dramatically. Stanleys charting of theCongo RiverBasin (1874–77) removed the last bit ofterra incognitafrom European maps of the continent, thereby delineating the rough areas of British, Portuguese, French, and Belgian control. The powers raced to push these rough boundaries to their furthest limits and eliminating any potential local minor powers which might prove troublesome to European competitive diplomacy. France moved to occupyTunisia, one of the last of theBarbary Piratestates under the pretext of anotherIslamic terrorandpiracyincident. French claims by Pierre de Brazza were quickly solidified with French taking control of todays Republic of the Congo in 1881 and alsoGuineain 1884. This, in turn, partly convinced Italy to become part of theTriple Alliance, thereby upsetting Bismarcks carefully laid plans with Italy and forcing Germany to become involved. In 1882, realizing the geopolitical extent of Portuguese control on the coasts, but seeing penetration by France eastward across Central Africa toward Ethiopia, the Nile, and theSuez Canal, Britain saw its vital trade route through Egypt and its Indian Empire threatened. Under the pretext of the collapsed Egyptian financing and a subsequent riot which saw hundreds of Europeans and British subjects murdered or injured, the United Kingdom intervened in nominallyOttomanEgypt, which, in turn, ruled over theSudanand what would later becomeBritish Somaliland.ConferenceEdit Owing to the upsetting of Bismarcks carefully laid balance of power in European politics caused by Leopolds gamble and subsequent European race for colonies, Germany felt compelled to act and started launching expeditions of its own which frightened both British and French statesmen. Hoping to quickly soothe this brewing conflict, King Leopold II was able to convince France and Germany that common trade in Africa was in the best interests of all three countries. Under support from the British and the initiative of Portugal,Otto von Bismarck,German Chancellor, called on representatives ofAustria-Hungary,Belgium,Denmark,France, theUnited Kingdom,Italy, theNetherlands,Portugal,Russia,Spain,Sweden-Norway(union until 1905), theOttoman Empire, and theUnited Statesto take part in the Berlin Conference to work out policy. However, the United States did not actually participate in the conference both because it had an inability to take part in territorial expeditions as well as a sense of not giving the conference further legitimacy.[citation needed]General ActEdit The General Act fixed the following points: ●To gain public acceptance a primary point of the conference was the ending of slavery by Black and Islamic powers. Thus, an international prohibition of the slave trade throughout their respected spheres was signed by the European members. It was primarily because of this point thatJoseph Conradsarcastically referred to the conference as the International Society for the Suppression of Savage Customs in his novellaHeart of Darkness.[2] ●TheCongo Free Statewas confirmed as private property of the Congo Society thereby ensuring that Leopolds promises to keep the country open to all European investment was retained. Thus the territory of todaysDemocratic Republic of the Congo, some two million square kilometers, was made essentially the property of Léopold II (but later would eventually become a Belgian colony). ●The 14 signatory powers would have free trade throughout theCongo Basinas well asLake Niassaand east of this in an area south of 5° N. ●TheNiger RiverandCongo Riverwere made free for ship traffic. ●A Principle of Effectivity (see below) was introduced to stop powers setting up colonies in name only. ●Any fresh act of taking possession of any portion of the African coast would have to be notified by the power taking possession, or assuming aprotectorate, to the other signatory powers. ●Which regions each European power had an exclusive right to pursue the legal ownership of land (legal in the eyes of the other European powers).[3]:44 The first reference in an international act to the obligations attaching to spheres of influence is contained in the Berlin Act.Principle of Effective OccupationEdit The principle of effective occupation stated that powers could acquire rights over colonial lands only if they actually possessed them: in other words, if they had treaties with local leaders, if they flew their flag there, and if they established an administration in the territory to govern it with a police force to keep order. The colonial power could also make use of the colony economically. This principle became important not only as a basis for the European powers to acquire territorial sovereignty in Africa, but also for determining the limits of their respective overseas possessions, as effective occupation served in some instances as a criterion for settling disputes over the boundaries between colonies. However, as the Berlin Act was limited in its scope to the lands on the African coast, there were numerous instances where European powers claimed rights over lands in the interior without demonstrating the requirement of effective occupation articulated in Article 35 of the Final Act.AgendaEdit ●Portugal - Britain: The Portuguese government presented a project, known as the Pink Map (also called the Rose-ColoredMap), in which the colonies of Angola and Mozambique were united by co-option of the intervening territory (land that later becameZambia,Zimbabwe, andMalawi.) All of the countries attending the conference,except for the United Kingdom,endorsed Portugals ambitions. A little more than five years later, in 1890, the British government, in breach of theTreaty of Windsor(and of the Treaty of Berlin itself[citation needed]), issued anultimatumdemanding that the Portuguese withdraw from the disputed area. ●France - Britain: A line running fromSayinNigertoBaroua, on the north-east coast ofLake Chaddetermined what part belonged to whom. France would own territory to the north of this line, and the United Kingdom would own territory to the south of it. TheNileBasin would be British, with the French taking the basin ofLake Chad. Furthermore, between the11thand15th degreeslatitude, the border would pass betweenOuaddaï, which would be French, andDarfurinSudan, to be British. In reality, ano mans land200 kilometres wide was put in place between the21stand23rd meridians. ●France - Germany: The area to the north of a line formed by the intersection of the14th meridianandMiltouwas designated French, that to the south being German. ●Britain - Germany: The separation came in the form of a line passing throughYola, on theBenoué,Dikoa, going up to the extremity ofLake Chad. ●France - Italy: Italy was to own what lies north of a line from the intersection of theTropic of Cancerand the17th meridianto the intersection of the15th paralleland21st meridian.ConsequencesEditEuropean claims in Africa, 1913. Modern-day boundaries, largely a legacy of the colonial era, are shown. Belgium Germany Spain France Great Britain Italy Portugal Independent The conference provided an opportunity to both channel latent European hostilities towards one another outward, provide new areas for helping the European powers expand in the face of rising American, Russian, and Japanese interests, and form constructive dialogue for limiting future hostilities. For Africans, colonialism was introduced across nearly all the continent. When African independence was regained afterWorld War II, it was in the form of fragmented states.[4] TheScramble for Africasped up after the Conference, since even within areas designated as their sphere of influence, the European powers still had to take possession under the Principle of Effectivity. In central Africa in particular, expeditions were dispatched to coerce traditional rulers into signing treaties, using force if necessary, as for example in the case ofMsiri, King of Katanga, in 1891. Bedouin and Berber ruled states in the Sahara and Sub-Sahara were overrun by the French in several wars by the beginning ofWorld War I. The British moved up from South Africa and down from Egypt conquering Arabic states such as theMahdist Stateand theSultanate of Zanzibar and, (having already defeated theZulu Kingdomin South Africa, in 1879), moving on to subdue and dismantle the independentAfrikaanerrepublics ofTransvaalandOrange Free State. Within a few years, Africa was at least nominally divided up south of theSahara. By 1895, the only independent states were: ●Liberia, founded with the support of the United States for returned slaves; ●Abyssinia (Ethiopia), the only free native state, which fended off Italian invasion fromEritreain what is known as theFirst Italo-Abyssinian Warof 1889-1896. ●Majeerteen Sultanate, The Sultanate was founded in the early 18th century, it was annexed byItalyin the 20th century. ●Sultanate of Hobyo, the Sultanate was carved out of the former Majeerteen Sultanate and ruled northernSomaliauntil the 20th century, when it was conquered by Italy. The following states lost their independence to the British Empire roughly a decade after (see below for more information): ●Orange Free State, aBoerrepublic founded by Dutch settlers; ●South African Republic(Transvaal), also a Boer republic; By 1902, 90% of all the land that makes up Africa was under European control. The large part of theSaharawas French, while after the quelling of theMahdi rebellionand the ending of theFashoda crisis, the Sudan remained firmly under joint British–Egyptian rulership withEgyptbeing under British occupation before becoming aBritish protectoratein 1914. The Boer republics were conquered by the United Kingdom in theBoer warfrom 1899 to 1902.Moroccowas divided between the French and Spanish in 1911, andLibyawas conquered by Italy in 1912. The official British annexation of Egypt in 1914 ended the colonial division of Africa. Germany was defeated.ReferencesEdit 1.^Berlin West Africa Conference,Encyclopaedia Britannica. 2.^Historical Context:Heart of Darkness. EXPLORING Novels, Online Edition. Gale, 2003.Discovering Collection.Subscription required 3.^Olusoga, David; Erichsen, Casper W. (2010).The Kaiserss Holocaust: Germanys Forgotten Genocide and the Colonial Roots of Nazism. London, UK: Faber and Faber. p. 394.ISBN 978-0-571-23141-6. |accessdate=requires|url=(help) 4.^de Blij, H.J.; Muller, Peter O. (1997).Geography: Realms, Regions,
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