Established empires, especially the British, Portuguese and French empires, had already claimed vast areas of Africa and Asia to add to their growing empires. Emerging imperial powers such as Italy and Germany had also carved sections of these regions, however on a smaller scale.
The Berlin Conference: The 1884 Berlin Conference (1884–85), also known as the Congo Conference or West Africa Conference, regulated European colonisation and trade in Africa during the New Imperialism period, and coincided with Germany's sudden emergence as an imperial power. The Berlin Conference was organised by Otto von Bismarck, first Chancellor of Germany. The outcome of the Berlin Conference was the General Act of the Berlin Conference, which can be seen as the formalisation of the "Scramble for Africa". The relatively orderly process of colonisation ceased, and a frantic scramble for land began. The "Scramble for Africa" was the occupation, division, and colonisation of African territory by European powers during the period of New Imperialism, between 1881 and 1914. The conference ushered in a period of heightened colonial activity by European powers, which eliminated or overrode most existing forms of African autonomy and self-governance. Between the Franco-Prussian War and the Great War, Europe added almost 14.5 million square kilometres, 1/5 of the land mass on earth, to its overseas colonial possessions. |
The 1884 Berlin Conference, initiated by Bismarck to establish international guidelines for the acquisition of African territory, formalised this "New Imperialism".
Belgium's King Leopold II divides up the spoils and takes the Congo as his own private state.
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