The 1884 Berlin Conference and the Colonization of Africa
Early European Contact with Africa
Until the end of the 15th century, Africa was an almost unknown continent, except for its northern region bordering the Mediterranean, where ancient civilizations like Egypt had settled or had been colonized by Greeks, Romans, and Arabs. Beyond the Mediterranean coast, Africa opened into vast deserts that Europeans had not yet crossed.
In the 15th century, the expansion of the Ottoman Empire made it necessary to find new routes to the East, the land of silk and spices. This led the Portuguese to circumnavigate the coast of Africa to reach India. While the continent’s outline became well-known, European settlement was limited to trading posts on the coasts. Deeper penetration was not possible due to Africa’s geography: a continent with few natural harbors, capes, and navigable rivers, but with an abundance of fast-flowing rivers, vast deserts, and jungles with unhealthy climates.
The Berlin Conference of 1884
In the 19th century, medical and technological advances finally made the colonization of Africa possible. The colonizing powers realized that this would create many conflicts among them, so they attempted to regulate it by setting basic standards at the Berlin Conference in 1884. The conference was held in Berlin because Germany, since its unification, had become the guiding element of European diplomacy.
Bismarck’s Diplomatic Strategy
Chancellor Otto von Bismarck governed diplomacy by seeking alliances with the most opposed powers, which allowed him to isolate France and maintain rivalry among the other nations. Bismarck realized that colonization would be a source of conflict, so he decided to keep Germany out of it while encouraging others to create colonial empires. In this way, Bismarck affirmed Germany’s power by becoming the arbiter of these tensions. He also knew that France’s desire for an empire would lead it to confront England, thus keeping it isolated.
Key Resolutions of the Conference
At the Berlin Conference, the following resolutions were made to address the colonization of Africa:
- If a power occupied two points on the coast, it could claim the territory between them.
- Freedom of navigation was decreed for the Congo and Niger rivers.
- In the heart of Africa, a state was established, the Congo, which was given as personal property to King Leopold II of Belgium. He eventually bequeathed it to the nation, as the Belgian parliament had funded the territory’s occupation.
Consequences of the Conference
These measures were taken to ensure the rapid occupation of a continent of deserts and jungles, resulting in colonies that had their borders drawn along lines of longitude and latitude. The freedom of navigation on the Congo and Niger rivers was necessary because, besides the Nile, they are the only major waterways whose length allows access to the heart of the continent.
The Congo Free State
The decision to grant the Congo to the Belgian king was justified as a way to avoid tensions over control of Central Africa, an area of great strategic value. The Belgian king, anxious to have a colony, devised a strategy to have his claims accepted by the great powers. He masked his colonial possession as a “free state” created with humanitarian pretenses.