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Summary Scramle for Africa and The Berlin Conference
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Scramle for Africa and The Berlin Conference
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Scramle for Africa and The Berlin Conference (1884)During the lead up to WW1, in the New Imperialism period in the 1880’s, the Scramble for
Africa was the invasion, occupation and colonisation of Africa by European powers. The raw
materials that were in Africa were seen as beneficial to the powers to fuel the Industrial
Revolution that had been occurring in the past century. Some people in Europe saw the
opportunity to colonise the continent as a way of “bringing” civilisation to a place that they
saw people as “sub-humand and underdeveloped”- meaning taking over the countries would
bring about a change for the “better”- due to them believing that Europeans were the
superior race. Due to the fact that Sub- Saharan Arfica was one of the last places in the
wolrd to be impacted by imperialism, Europeans gave Africans the ability to lead their
nations using means of European institutions such as democracy. They took advantage of
the fact that they were not a part of the civilised world and used it to strengthen them. When
Europeans came to Africa they extracted raw materials (exploiting the Afircans and the land
they colonosed) but also left behind beneficial things for the continent such as planting
crops- some being cash crops but still being beneficial for the Africans. Europeans felt like it
was their responsibility to incorperate their culture to the “Dark Continent” due to the belief
that the population was uncivilised. This colonisation also was in favour of the commercial
interests of the European powers but , believed by some, also left the continent with self-
beneficial econoemies once the powers left.
The Berlin Conference, 1884, Portugal requested to hold a meeting to decide who had
control over what in Africa. Otto Von Bismark decided to gather together all of the major
western powers. The countries represented at the conference were Austria- Hungary,
Britain, France, Germany, Portugal, Denmark, Belgium, Italy, the Netherlands, Russia,
Spain, Sweden-Normay, Turkey and the USA. The major powers in the conference were
France, Britain, Germany, and Portgaul due to them owning the most territory in Africa at the
time. Britain, France, Germany, Belgium, Spain, Italy, and Portuagal were all competeing
European countries within the political sphere. The puropse of the conference was to settle
and disputes the contires had over the land they owned in the continent (as they all wanted
to boost their capitalist agenda by maximising their populations which has not yet been
affected by the industrialisation of the west, creating colonies). The basis of the conference
to neutralise the Congo River and the Niger River mouths and basin; leaving them as trade
routes for all of the contries. Even though it was neutral, a section of the Congo basin was a
part of the Belgim Kingdom under the control of King Leopold II who singlehandedly killed
over half of the population due to poor management. At the present time, only costal areas
had been colonised, the interior of the continent caused the most problems as countries
disagreed over hwo should own what land. Over a three month span, the contrived decided
who would own what with the disgreduard of the regional dialects, cultures and linguistics
that made up the interior of the nation and ignoring their territories.
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