Berlin Conference
- Also known as:
- Berlin Conference of 1884–85, Berlin West Africa Conference, Berlin Congress of 1884–85
- Date:
- November 15, 1884 - February 26, 1885
- Participants:
- France
- Germany
- Portugal
- United Kingdom
News •
Berlin Conference, a series of negotiations (November 15, 1884–February 26, 1885) at Berlin, in which the major European nations met to decide all questions connected with the Congo River basin in Central Africa. During the conference, attendees also discussed other related issues and agreed on a common framework for the recognition of European “effective occupation” of African coastal territory elsewhere on the continent. After the conference, the pace of European claims being made on African territory increased, part of the Scramble for Africa that had already begun.
German chancellor and prime minister Otto von Bismarck issued invitations to the conference, which aimed to resolve competing claims along the Congo River and elsewhere in Africa. Though spurred in particular by Portugal’s pursuance of its claim to control of the Congo estuary, which was in conflict with the territorial claims of Belgian king Leopold II, the broader reason for the conference was the jealousy and suspicion with which the great European powers viewed one another’s attempts at colonial expansion in Africa. In all, representatives from 14 countries from Europe and beyond attended the conference, though only about half of them already had, or would go on to have, recognized colonial holdings in Africa.
The general act of the Conference of Berlin, the official agreement signed at the end of the conference, contained six declarations. It held 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; provided for free navigation of the Congo River; provided for free navigation of the Niger River; and established a framework for recognizing any new occupation of African coastal territory by European powers. Thought the European “scramble” for African territory had already begun years earlier, the pace of colonization greatly accelerated after the conference.
