The Berlin Conference: 1884-85

• Representatives of Britain, France, Germany, Portugal, Belgium, Austria-Hungry and Italy met between November 1884 and February 1885
• At this conference the rules of the scramble were decided
• A country had to have established physical presence in the prospective colony before they could claim it
• Britain agreed at the conference that Africa was ‘up for grabs’:

  ▪ Most of Britain African empire had been ‘informal’ up to this point

  ▪ It had mainly consisted of trading routes and trading posts rather than official colonies
• Britain formalised its informal empire and extended
• Britain now could call Egypt, Sudan, Somalia, British East Africa and much of South Africa, British colonies
• France secured a large swathe of territory in the West, including important ports in Morocco and the Ivory Coast
• Germany secured smaller areas of the Cameroons, German South West Africa, Togoland and German East Africa
• The rules agreed at the Berlin Conference did help prevent a European war breaking out over colonies

  ▪ However, the new borders formed in Africa presented the potential for disputes over them