Berlin conference

• Africa


  • Large continent
  • Home to immense culture and history
  • Surrounded by the Mediterranean Sea, Indian Ocean, and Atlantic Ocean
  • Second largest and second most populous continent
  • Contains 54 countries
  • Extremely diverse in terms of ethnicity and language
• The borders of African countries were largely decided by European nations during the late 19th and early 20th century in what is known as the Scramble for Africa
• Sahara


  • Largest desert in the world
  • Sheer size and magnitude acts as a major obstacle for communication, trade, and exchange of ideas
• There is evidence of Roman expeditions and explorations who were able to move across the Sahara and into the interior of Africa with the aim to secure sources of gold, salt, and spices
• For centuries, Arabs maintained trade relations with the vast empires of West Africa such as the Ghana and Mali Empire, establishing trade routes that secured gold, ivory, and slaves
• Portuguese expeditions down the west coast of Africa in the 15th century


  1. Established contact with the Kongo Kingdom

  2. Kongo kingdom eager to make use of Portuguese teachers and craftsmen

  3. Kongo king's allowed Catholic missionaries to work among their people

  4. Portuguese traded guns, cloth, and other European luxuries for slaves captured by the Kongo in wars against rival kingdoms
• By the 17th century, Portugal and other European powers began to settle on the coast of Africa
• Europeans would buy slaves in Africa, transport them to the Americas, and exchange them for valuable goods like sugar, coffee, and tobacco which were then sold at premium prices in Europe
• Arguably, between the 16th and 18th century, over 12 million Africans were enslaved and transported in harsh conditions to work on plantations in the Americas
• First European settlement established by the Dutch East India Company in the south of Africa


  1. Merchants used the location as a way point for ongoing voyages to the Dutch East Indies

  2. Came into contact with the Khoikhoi, a nomadic indigenous population of southwestern Africa

  3. Settlement known as the Cape of Good Hope grew in size

  4. Khoikhoi lost land and cattle to the Dutch

  5. Dutch adopted the name Boer, meaning farmer

  6. Due to a shortage of labour, the Dutch imported slaves from Mozambique, Madagascar, and many Indonesian islands
• The Cape of Good Hope came under the control of the British during the Napoleonic Wars
• The abolition of slavery ended slavery in the Cape in 1834
• In 1835, the Boers embarked on the Great Trek


  1. As the abolition of the slave trade resulted in financial catastrophe

  2. Dutch citizens known as Voortrekkers moved further inland into Africa

  3. They formed the free Orange State and Transvaal, which was recognised by the British
• In the north, France launched a war of conquest against Algeria in 1830 which would last until 1847
• In the United States, there was a movement to settle Freeborn blacks and freed slaves and transport them to Africa, as most whites and later a small minority of blacks believed that blacks would be better off in Africa
• The American Colonisation Society began transporting them to the closest point of Africa to establish a colony in 1822, and by 1847 the settlers issued a declaration of independence and established the independent republic of Liberia
• The construction of the Suez Canal in 1869 verified its importance as a route for trade with India and China, and in 1882 Egypt was occupied by British forces during the Anglo-Egyptian war, subsequently revealing the potential riches that Africa offered
• European explorers who explored the continent

  • David Livingstone, a Scottish missionary who attempted to convert the natives he encountered to Christianity and strove to find the source of the Nile
  • Henry Morton Stanley, famous for his exploration of Central Africa, who worked for King Leopold II of Belgium and helped map out the Congo region
• There were limited seaworthy rivers, tropical diseases, hostile natives, and weapons were not as balanced as they were in the 19th century, which is why there were no major explorations into the interior of Africa before this
• During the 19th century, most European powers experienced a dramatic growth of productivity triggered by industrialisation, and European countries overproduced goods and were consequently searching for new markets
• Interest turned towards the acquisition of land in order to grow agricultural products for European markets, and Europeans moved into the interior of Africa to extract raw materials such as rubber, palm oil, gold, copper, and diamonds
• These natural resources made Africa a vital resource for the European economy
• The Berlin Conference (1884-1885)

  1. Called by German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck

  2. 14 representatives of 14 European countries attended, including Britain, Belgium, France, Portugal, and Italy

  3. No African representatives were invited

  4. Aim was to discuss how European countries would claim colonial land in Africa and avoid war between them

  5. Each country affirmed that they would bring civilization in the form of Christianity and trade to each region they occupied

  6. Allowed King Leopold II of Belgium to become the sole ruler of a vast area that is today the Democratic Republic of the Congo

  7. The intent was to make it an area of free trade for all Europeans in Africa, but in practice Leopold kept out most European traders and granted concessions to various corporations to exploit the region's resources
• In 1908, it was revealed that under King Leopold's instructions, native people of the Congo were forced to farm wild rubber as a former tax payment to the colonial government, and those unable to carry out these instructions had their hand or foot severed
• Once news of these atrocities became known, King Leopold was stripped of his colony and a vast Congo region was ruled by the Belgian government
• Europe held the technological advantage, and bands of just a few hundred men and barely a handful of machine guns proceeded to overwhelm and obliterate thousands of Africans
• The machine gun was a revolutionary gun with five rapid shots, and its effectiveness was obvious in Sudan where a British force armed with roughly 20 machine guns and a small number of Gumbos overpowered Sudanese forces and effectively opened the door for colonization
• Abyssinia (modern-day Ethiopia) resistance against invasion from the British, French, and Italians


  1. Abyssinian Emperor exploited European rivalries by mining concessions to France in return for weapons

  2. Italy grew nervous of the growing French interests and offered the Emperor Italian weapons

  3. Throughout the 1880s, Abyssinia grew stronger and secured more modern weapons from the British and Russians

  4. In 1889, Italy claimed Abyssinia as an Italian Protectorate, which the Emperor rejected

  5. Italy ordered its troops into battle in 1894, but outnumbered, the Italians were defeated in 1896, and Abyssinia remained independent
• British resistance in South Africa against the Boers


  1. The British had previously recognised the independence of the Boer Republics, but the discovery of diamonds and the potential of a German-Boer alliance led to war

  2. The Boers used guerrilla warfare and utilised their skills of marksmanship to hinder British advancement

  3. In the end, the British forces prevailed, and Great Britain dominated the African continent with the control of Egypt, South Africa, Nigeria, and the Gold Coast
• By 1914, 90% of Africa had been divided between seven European countries, with only Ethiopia and the African-American state remaining independent