Berlin conference shares Africa

After months of negotiations European powers end the West Africa conference in Berlin on 26 February 1885. This is the era of new imperialism. In addition to the old colonial powers, Britain, France, Spain and Portugal, Russia and the Netherlands, new countries have gone through the first phase of the industrial revolution. Germany, the US, Belgium, Italy and Japan are able and eager to exploit the second phase of it with mass-produced steel, electric power, oil, industrial chemistry and other innovations. Large scale production facilities requiring huge capital, banking and financial markets are evolving rapidly. The technological advances have made it possible to transport raw materials and goods over huge distances in a relatively safe and cheap way. The old and new powers compete to conquer and rule new territories for raw materials and markets.

Participants at the 1884-85 conference of Berlin.

Until now only Britain, France and Portugal have colonies in Africa south of the Sahara, and they are limited to the coast. But explorers, missionaries and traders are going to the interior of Africa. Henry Morton Stanley explores the Congo River in the 1870s and King Leopold of Belgium becomes interested. He forms a group of investors that finance Stanley’s establishment of stations signing 450 treaties with independent African entities. Now he wants acceptance of the other Europeans in competition with Portugal.

King Leopold II.  

It is in this context the gathering in Berlin takes place. They agree and sign a General Act which gives freedom of trade, neutrality and navigation in the Congo basin, prohibit slave trade and rules on occupation of Africa. They also agree on the Niger River. In practice King Leopold of Belgium gets what he wanted, and establishes the Congo Free State of 2.3 million km² as his private property. He is hailed then as a civilizer, but in reality rubber, palm oil, ivory ant other resources are taken out by forced labor. Leopold’s agents, Force Publique, kidnap families of Congolese men. If the men don’t fulfil the high work quotas, they cut hands of women and children. They also slaughter men, rape women and burn huts. The exploitation and brutality cause the death of 10 million according to Yale University referring to historian Adam Hochshild. Journalists and politicians are bribed to not disclose the reality. When it is finally revealed, by British citizens, indignation in Europe forces Leopold to transfer Congo to the Belgium government as a colony in 1908. France gets Congo- Brazzaville, Portugal achieves Angola, and the others shared most of Africa.


Children and wives had hands cut off when the men failed to meet rubber collection quotas.



In the 75 first years of the 19th century, the colonial powers added an average of 240.000 km² of land to their colonies each year. From the late 1870s to World War I, this increased to 620.00 km².

The only territories not colonized were Ethiopia which successfully resisted the Italians, and Liberia which the US established for freed American and African slaves. The impact on Africa was disastrous, and it was not until the decolonization started in the 1950s that the Africans could start to decide about their own lives and societies.



Henry Morton Stanley.

The General Act of the Berlin Conference was signed by representatives of the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Spain, the United States of America, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Russia, Sweden-Norway, and Turkey (Ottoman Empire).

 

Sources

http://www.yale.edu/gsp/colonial/belgian_congo/

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/belgium-confronts-its-heart-of-darkness-6151923.html#

http://global.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/62214/Berlin-West-Africa-Conference

http://global.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/126237/colonialism-Western/25911/Advance-of-the-US-frontier#toc25912

http://global.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/291225/20th-century-international-relations/32806/The-New-Imperialism#ref262600

http://global.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/132463/Congo-Free-State

http://africanhistory.about.com/od/eracolonialism/l/n_BerlinAct1885.htm

 

More information

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scramble_for_Africa

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congo_Free_State

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berlin_Conference

 

I am open to your comments and proposals.

Warmly

Bjarte Bjørsvik