Berlin Conference

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This article is about the conference from 1884 to 1885. For other uses, see Berlin

Conference (disambiguation).

The conference of Berlin, as illustrated in "Die Gartenlaube"

The conference of Berlin, as illustrated in "Illustrierte Zeitung"

The Berlin Conference of 1884–1885, also known as the Congo

Conference (German: Kongokonferenz, pronounced [ˈkɔŋɡoˌkɔnfeˈʁɛnt͡s]) or West Africa

Conference (Westafrika-Konferenz, pronounced [ˌvɛstˈʔaːfʁika ˌkɔnfeˈʁɛnt͡s]),[1] regulated

European colonisation and trade in Africa during the New Imperialism period and

coincided with Germany's sudden emergence as an imperial power. The conference

was organized by Otto von Bismarck, the first chancellor of Germany. Its outcome,

the General Act of the Berlin Conference, can be seen as the formalisation of

the Scramble for Africa, but some scholars of history warn against an overemphasis of

its role in the colonial partitioning of Africa and draw attention to bilateral agreements

concluded before and after the conference. [2][3][4] The conference contributed to ushering

in a period of heightened colonial activity by European powers, which eliminated or

overrode most existing forms of African autonomy and self-governance.[5] Of the

fourteen countries being represented, six of them – Austria-Hungary, Russia, Denmark,

the Netherlands, Sweden–Norway, and the United States – came home without any

formal possessions in Africa.

Contents

 1Background

 2Conference

 3General Act

o 3.1Principle of effective occupation

 4Agenda

 5Aftermath

 6Analysis by historians

 7See also

 8References

 9Sources

 10Further reading
  11External links

Background[edit]

Cartoon depicting Leopold II and other imperial powers at the Berlin Conference

Prior to the conference, European diplomats approached governments in Africa in the

same manner as they did in the Western Hemisphere by establishing a connection to

local trade networks. In the early 1800s, the European demand for ivory, which was

then often used in the production of luxury goods, led many European merchants into

the interior markets of Africa. [6] European spheres of power and influence were limited to

coastal Africa at this time as Europeans had only established trading posts (protected

by gunboats) up to this point.[7]

In 1876, King Leopold II of Belgium, who had founded and controlled the International

African Association the same year, invited Henry Morton Stanley to join him in

researching and "civilizing" the continent. In 1878, the International Congo Society was

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 to imperialistic goals, with the "African Society" serving primarily as a

philanthropic front.[8]

From 1878 to 1885, Stanley returned to the Congo not as a reporter but as Leopold's

agent, with the secret mission to organise what would become known as the Congo

Free State soon after the closure of the Berlin Conference in August 1885. [4][9][2] French

agents discovered Leopold's plans, and in response France sent its own explorers to

Africa. In 1881, French naval officer Pierre de Brazza was dispatched to central Africa,

travelled into the western Congo basin, and raised the French flag over the newly

founded Brazzaville in what is now the Republic of Congo. Finally, Portugal, which had

essentially abandoned a colonial empire in the area, long held through the mostly

defunct proxy Kongo Empire, also claimed the area, based on old treaties

with Restoration-era Spain and the Roman Catholic Church. It quickly made a treaty on

26 February 1884 with its former ally, Great Britain, to block off the Congo Society's

access to the Atlantic.

By the early 1880s many factors including diplomatic successes, greater European local

knowledge, and the demand for resources such as gold, timber, and rubber, triggered

dramatically increased European involvement in the continent of Africa. Stanley's

charting of the Congo River Basin (1874–1877) removed the last terra incognita from

European maps of the continent, delineating the areas of British, Portuguese, French

and Belgian control. These European nations raced to annex territory that might be

claimed by rivals.[10]

France moved to take over Tunisia, one of the last of the Barbary states, using a claim

of another piracy incident. French claims by Pierre de Brazza were quickly acted on by

the French military, which took control of what is now the Republic of the Congo in 1881

and Guinea in 1884. Italy became part of the Triple Alliance, an event that upset

Bismarck's carefully laid plans and led Germany to join the European invasion of Africa.
[11]

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

the Suez Canal, Britain saw its vital trade route through Egypt to India threatened.

Under the pretext of the collapsed Egyptian financing and a subsequent mutiny in which

hundreds of British subjects were murdered or injured, Britain intervened in the

nominally Ottoman Egypt, which it controlled for decades.[12]