Berlin Conference of 1884-1885

Here was a famous building: the Reich Chancellery. It was here that the famous Berlin Conference of 1884-1885 took place. That was a major milestone in the geography and history of Africa. The conference took place on Saturday, November 15, 1884 at Bismarck’s official residence here on Wilhelmstrasse. The main dominating powers of the conference were France, Germany, Great Britain, and Portugal. They remapped Africa without considering the cultural and linguistic borders that were already established. At the end of the conference, Africa was divided into 50 colonies. The attendants established who was in control of each of these new divisions. They also planned, noncommittally, to end the slave trade in Africa. Leopold II got a very good deal on one side out of it. He got Congo and the very mineral rich area Katanga. He also got his deal to get access from Congo to the Atlantic to be able to export all the goods "harvested" in the colony. 

Pascal Brackman