What decisions were made at the Berlin Conference How are the boundaries drawn during the Berlin Conference to blame for the political unrest in modern Africa?

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Berlin West Africa Conference

European history

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Alternative Title: Berlin Conference

Berlin West Africa Conference, a series of negotiations (Nov. 15, 1884–Feb. 26, 1885) at Berlin, in which the major European nations met to decide all questions connected with the Congo River basin in Central Africa.





Berlin West Africa Conference

QUICK FACTS

DATE

November 15, 1884 - February 26, 1885

LOCATION

Berlin

Germany

PARTICIPANTS

France

Germany

Portugal

United Kingdom

RELATED TOPICS

Western colonialism

Congo Free State

Portugal

The conference, proposed by Portugal in pursuance of its special claim to control of the Congo estuary, was necessitated by the jealousy and suspicion with which the great European powers viewed one another’s attempts at colonial expansion in Africa. The general act of the Conference of Berlin declared the Congo River basin to be neutral (a fact that in no way deterred the Allies from extending the war into that area in World War I); guaranteed freedom for trade and shipping for all states in the basin; forbade slave trading; and rejected Portugal’s claims to the Congo River estuary—thereby making possible the founding of the independent Congo Free State, to which Great Britain, France, and Germany had already agreed in principle.

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