The Berlin Conference
The three great European Empires – France, Great Britain, and Germany, were by the early 1880s making significant advances into Africa, carving out profitable but oppressive colonies which enriched them at the expense of the African native population. The three empires were wary of the power each was attaining, and all three were involved in an arms race including the expensive expansion of their respective navies. Forays into the continent by the Portuguese and the Italians further complicated the balance of power, which shifted with alliances and treaties on intervention. By 1882 Great Britain occupied Egypt and the Sudan, concerned about a potential threat to its trade routes to India.
In 1884 German Chancellor Bismarck called for an international conference in Berlin, supported by Portugal and Great Britain, to reach mutual agreement on the disposition of Africa. Fourteen nations, including the United States, sent representatives to the conference, although the Americans reserved the right not to accede to the conference’s results (the Americans were represented by Henry Morton Stanley, among others). Bismarck chaired the conference, which convened in the autumn of 1884 and ran until the end of February the following year. There were no representatives for any of the African tribes.
Although slavery was officially abolished in most of the western world, it was still practiced among the rival African tribes within the spheres of European colonies. The standard practice of all of the European nations was to ignore slavery among the tribes, rather than take steps to eradicate the practice. The Berlin conference attendees agreed to eliminate the practice among the African tribes and the Islamic controlled regions. None of the attending nations took immediate steps to do so in their areas of control. The conference also recognized the validity of the private colony of the Congo Free State, which was seen as a buffer between colonies of France, Great Britain, and Germany.
The conference agreed that any further occupation of African territory was subject to the prior notification (but not approval) of all of the powers which signed the agreement. It was further agreed that colonies were subject to actual occupation by the claiming nation, rather than just making the claim of the territory. Effective occupation could be had through the establishment of treaties with tribal leaders. The general regions of the continent which could be colonized by the Europeans were defined by the conference members, and the continent was effectively assigned to the colonial powers for their use and development. Free transit zones for trade purposes were also established.
The Berlin Conference led to an increase in colonization of the African continent, due in part to its requirement that a colonizing power take possession of the land. Ten years after the conference the only independent states in Africa were Morocco, Liberia, the Majerteen Sultanate, the Ethiopian Empire, and the Sultanate of Hobyo (northern Somalia). After the British seized the Boer Republics 90% of Africa was under the control of the European powers, and subject to the rivalries between the French, Germans, and British. With the subject of seizure of African land and colonization of the continent agreed to the conquest of Africa began in earnest.