4. The Berlin Conference (1884-85) and the fall of an entire continent

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This brief guide is intended as an introductory resource. The questions posed are not central to the debates in this course, but rather serve as basic points of departure. I seek to present the material with objectivity, while acknowledging that the approach is, and cannot be, neutral. Prof. Jorge Majfud.

“Fundamental to Jacksonville University’s mission is support for an environment where divergent ideas, theories, and philosophies can be openly exchanged and critically evaluated. Consistent with these principles and the concept of Academic Freedom, this course may involve the discussion of ideas that you find uncomfortable, disagreeable, or even offensive. These ideas are intended to be presented in an objective manner, they are not intended to persuade and are not an endorsement of what you should personally believe.”

Partition without Africans; borders, legal fictions, and long-term political damage.

1. What was the main purpose of the Berlin Conference (1885), and why was it significant for the history of Africa?
2. What did the principle of “effective occupation” established at the Berlin Conference mean?
3. Name two European countries that had colonies or protectorates in Africa around 1885 and provide one example of a territory each controlled.
4. Why was Ethiopia able to avoid European colonization during the Scramble for Africa? Mention at least two factors.
5. Why was Liberia not colonized by a European power?
6. What were some long-term consequences of European colonialism in Africa, especially regarding borders, politics, and economies?

Table of Contents

The Technology of War

Between the 16th and 18th centuries, Europe did not so much discover superior military technology as discover itself through it, slowly overtaking other powers until, by the early 17th century, its cannons and tactics seemed to confirm a providential destiny that was really only a better-organized brutality; yet it was in the mid-19th century, when industrialization converted progress into rifles, artillery, steamships, railroads, telegraphs, and machine guns, that this supposed civilizing mission became truly decisive, allowing European states to carry their “unprecedented” force across oceans while still calling it order, science, and history.

Along with quinine used in Peru and produced in France by 1830 to fight malaria, between the 1850s and 1885, European warfare underwent a profound technological transformation that greatly increased the military power of industrialized states and facilitated the conquest of Africa. More war technology to expand colonization required more commodities to produce war technology, like weapons, transportation and communication.

Explosive artillery shells became more powerful and accurate, while rifled firearms and breech-loading rifles gave European soldiers greater range, speed, and precision. Machine guns, particularly the Maxim gun by the 1880s, provided unprecedented firepower against massed forces. At sea, steam-powered and increasingly iron and steel-hulled warships, equipped with modern naval artillery, allowed European powers to project military force along Africa’s coasts and rivers. Railroads and steamships revolutionized the movement of troops, weapons, and supplies, while the electric telegraph allowed colonial governments and military commanders to communicate rapidly across enormous distances. European armies also benefited from modern logistics, standardized mass-produced weapons, improved ammunition, military medicine, and increasingly professional and centrally organized armies.

These technologies did not by themselves cause the European conquest of Africa, but they created a substantial military and logistical advantage that, combined with industrial production, political organization, economic interests, and European rivalries, made the rapid expansion of European colonial rule during the “Scramble for Africa” possible.

1885 Conference

The Berlin Conference of 1885 was convened by Otto von Bismarck in Berlin between 1884 and 1885 to establish rules for the division and colonization of Africa. Representatives from fourteen countries negotiated (as usual, without the participation of any African representatives). The conference did not carve up the entire continent on maps as is sometimes believed, but it established the principle of «effective occupation,» meaning that European powers could claim African territory only if they had established authority there.

The agreements reached at Berlin accelerated the so-called «Scramble for Africa.» Over the following decades, European empires occupied and annexed almost the entire continent, often drawing arbitrary borders that ignored existing ethnic, linguistic, and political communities. These colonial conquests relied heavily on military force, coercion, and economic exploitation, profoundly disrupting African societies. The borders and institutions created during this period have had lasting political, economic, and social consequences that continue to shape many African countries today.

Otto von Bismarck was the leader of German unification. During the German Imperial period, he became a hero to German nationalists, who built monuments honouring him.

The participants were:

1. Germany (host)
2. Austria-Hungary
3. Belgium
4. Denmark
5. France
6. United Kingdom
7. Italy
8. Netherlands
9. Portugal
10. Russia
11. Spain
12. Sweden–Norway (then united under one crown)
13. Ottoman Empire
14. United States

The United States was less interested in carving out its own African empire than in keeping the Congo River and Central African markets open to international trade. By 1884, Washington had already treated King Leopold II’s International Association of the Congo as a friendly partner, a diplomatic gesture that helped shore up the international legitimacy of Leopold’s project.

Countries with colonies or protectorates in Africa around 1885

• United Kingdom: Egypt (under British occupation from 1882), the Cape Colony, Natal, Sierra Leone, the Gold Coast (Ghana), Gambia, Lagos (Nigeria), and other coastal territories.
• France: Algeria, Senegal, parts of West Africa, and expanding holdings in present-day Congo and Madagascar.
• Portugal: Angola, Mozambique, Guinea (Guinea-Bissau), Cape Verde, and São Tomé and Príncipe.
• Spain: Small possessions, including Río de Oro (Western Sahara), Fernando Pó (Bioko), and other territories in present-day Equatorial Guinea.
• Germany: Had only just begun acquiring colonies during 1884–85, including German South West Africa (Namibia), Togoland, Cameroon, and German East Africa (Tanzania, Rwanda, and Burundi).
• Belgium: Gained international recognition for the Congo Free State, which became the personal property of Leopold II rather than a Belgian state colony.

Countries that joined the colonial partition in the following decades

Several countries expanded or entered the colonial race after 1885:

• Italy – Established colonies in Eritrea and Italian Somaliland, and conquered Libya in 1911–12. It attempted to conquer Ethiopia in 1896 but was defeated at the Battle of Adwa.
• Germany – Rapidly expanded its new African empire during the late 1880s and 1890s.
• Belgium – Consolidated control over the Congo, which became the Belgian Congo in 1908 after international outrage over atrocities committed under Leopold II’s rule.
• France and United Kingdom – Greatly enlarged their empires, eventually controlling most of North, West, East, Central, and Southern Africa.

By 1914, after three decades of rapid conquest, about 90 percent of Africa was under European colonial rule. Only Ethiopia and Liberia remained formally independent, although Liberia was economically and diplomatically dependent on foreign powers.

The exception of Ethiopia

Ethiopia was one of the very few African countries that largely avoided European colonization during the late nineteenth century. Several factors explain why:

1. A strong, centralized state. Unlike many African societies that were politically fragmented, Menelik II ruled a relatively unified kingdom with an established government, taxation system, and army. This allowed Ethiopia to organize an effective national defense.
2. Military modernization: Menelik II recognized the growing European threat and purchased thousands of modern rifles, artillery pieces, and ammunition from European powers. He also took advantage of rivalries among countries such as France, Russia, and Italy to acquire weapons.
3. Victory at the Battle of Adwa (1896). The decisive moment came at the Battle of Adwa. Italy attempted to make Ethiopia a protectorate, but Ethiopian forces, numbering around 100,000 and led by Menelik II and Taytu Betul, defeated the invading Italian army. This was one of the first major defeats of a European colonial power by an African army during the «Scramble for Africa.»
4. Through diplomatic skill, Ethiopia negotiated treaties and maintained diplomatic relations with several European states. Menelik II exploited competition among European powers so that no coalition formed against Ethiopia.
5. Geography: Ethiopia’s rugged mountains and highlands made military conquest and occupation much more difficult than in many other parts of Africa.

Ethiopia remained independent during the main period of the Scramble for Africa, but it was occupied by Italy from 1936 to 1941 after the Second Italo-Ethiopian War. Italy incorporated Ethiopia into Italian East Africa. However, Italian control was incomplete; Ethiopian resistance continued throughout the occupation, and Haile Selassie returned to the throne in 1941 with the support of Ethiopian resistance fighters and British forces during East African campaign.

For this reason, historians often describe Ethiopia as one of only two African countries that maintained their independence throughout the Scramble for Africa, the other being Liberia. Ethiopia’s later Italian occupation is generally viewed as a wartime occupation rather than a long-term colonial possession like those established elsewhere in Africa.

Liberia

Liberia was not colonized by a European power for reasons that were very different from Ethiopia’s. Rather than defeating European armies on the battlefield, Liberia’s independence was closely tied to the interests of the United States.

1. Founded by the American Colonization Society. In 1822, the American Colonization Society established a settlement on the West African coast for formerly enslaved and free African Americans. The settlers became known as Americo-Liberians. The society purchased land from local rulers and gradually expanded its control.
2. Early declaration of independence: Liberia declared its independence in 1847, decades before the peak of the Scramble for Africa (roughly 1880–1914). Joseph Jenkins Roberts became the country’s first president.
3. Informal U.S. protectorate: Although the United States did not officially recognize Liberia until 1862, European powers generally understood that Liberia had close political, economic, and cultural ties to the United States. As European empires competed for African territory, few wished to provoke diplomatic friction with an increasingly influential United States over Liberia.
4. Limited strategic value: During the early Scramble for Africa, European powers focused on regions with larger populations, major rivers, mineral wealth, or extensive agricultural potential. Liberia’s coast offered trade opportunities, but it was not initially viewed as one of the most valuable territories to conquer.

Liberia was politically independent, but its sovereignty was constrained in important ways. During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, European powers pressured Liberia into territorial concessions and unequal economic arrangements. In 1926, the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company obtained a vast rubber concession and became enormously influential in the country’s economy. It was a form of economic or informal imperialism rather than direct colonial rule.

The corruption of the colonial economy

The 19th century today

«Africans were assigned to be subordinate and dependent. We must return to the European Christian colonization of African nations. The only times African nations have seen civilizational improvement have been under European supervision.«

Dale Partridge, a US Christian pastor, calls for a return to colonization and the subjugation of Africans in order to bring them «civilization» under European supervision.

These are the people who preach «love for one’s neighbor»—the very demons who, under the banner of the cross, perpetrated slavery, genocide, and colonization against millions of Black people in the name of «European civilization.»

https://en.rtdoc.tv/episodes/2611-the-scramble-for-africa

Apendix

The majority of foreign military bases on the African continent are located in the Horn of Africa, North Africa, and West Africa. The most pronounced concentration is found in Djibouti (7 bases), owing to its strategic position near the Red Sea, the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, and the Suez maritime route, which links Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. In contrast, Central Africa is characterized primarily by temporary deployments, training missions, and security cooperation arrangements rather than by permanent foreign military installations.

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