February 26, 2025
140th Anniversary of Conclusion of Berlin Conference,

Imperialist Powers Shameful “Scramble for Africa” for Slavery, Resources and Apartheid

– Clyde Weatherhead –

Illustration of the Berlin Conference in 1884, as published in Illustrierte Zeitung.

The Berlin Conference of 1884-1885 was a meeting at which the major European powers negotiated and formalized claims to territory in Africa; it was also called the Berlin West Africa Conference.

The Berlin Conference of 1884-1885 marked the climax of the European competition for territory in Africa, a process commonly known as the Scramble for Africa. During the 1870s and early 1880s, European nations such as Great Britain, France, and Germany began looking to Africa for natural resources for their growing industrial sectors as well as a potential market for the goods these factories produced.

Inevitably, the scramble for territory led to conflict among European powers, particularly between the British and French in West Africa; Egypt, the Portuguese, and the British in East Africa; and the French and Belgian King Leopold II in central Africa.

The Berlin Conference of 1884-1885 was a meeting of colonial powers that concluded with the signing of the General Act of Berlin, an agreement regulating European colonization and trade in Africa during the New Imperialism period.

The conference of 14 countries was organized by Otto von Bismarck, the first chancellor of Germany, at the request of Leopold II of Belgium. It met on November 15, 1884 and, after an adjournment, concluded on February 26, 1885 with the signing of the General Act.

Of these 14 nations at the Berlin Conference, France, Germany, Great Britain, and Portugal were the major players. The United States, itself a former English colony and the newest rising imperial power, was also included.

One of the tasks of this conference was for each European country that claimed possession over a part of Africa to bring “civilization,” in the form of Christianity, as well as trade.

The Congo was formally recognized as the personal possession of King Leopold II of Belgium.

Notably missing were any representatives from Africa.

The General Act fixed the following points:

– Partly to gain public acceptance, the conference resolved to end slavery by African and Islamic powers.

– The properties occupied by Belgian King Leopold’s International Congo Society were confirmed as belonging to the Society and the Belgian King himself.

– The 14 signatory powers would have free trade throughout the Congo Basin as well as Lake Malawi.

– The Niger and Congo rivers were made free for ship traffic.

– The Principle of Effective Occupation was introduced to prevent powers from setting up colonies in name only.

The principle of effective occupation meant that an imperial power could acquire rights over colonial lands only if it possessed them or had effective occupation: if it had treaties with local leaders, flew its flag there, and established an administration in the territory to govern it with a police force to keep order.

The conference contributed to ushering in a period of heightened colonial activity by European powers and is described as the imperialist gathering responsible for the carving up of Africa among the Euro-American powers.

The Berlin Conference did not initiate European colonization of Africa, but it did legitimize and formalize the process. In addition, it sparked new imperial interest in Africa. Following the close of the conference, European powers expanded their claims in Africa such that by 1900, European states had claimed nearly 90 per cent of African territory.

That Conference, ending on February 26, 1885, accelerated the processes by which imperial powers, large and small, divided the spoils of exploitation of the resources of Africa among themselves, accumulating great capital for the development of capitalism and imperial power in the West at the expense of the savage exploitation of the peoples of Africa.

That imperial scramble for Africa has been analyzed by Professor Walter Rodney in his seminal work, How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, first published in 1972.[1]

Statue of King Leopold II bears the people’s condemnation of his crimes.

The crimes of the imperial carving up of Africa included the atrocities inflicted on the Congolese people, including using them as slave labour and severe punishments ranging from the severing of a hand to death if production targets were not met. About 10 million people – half of Congo’s population – perished during Leopold’s inhumane rule.

The inhumanity of the imperial powers included establishing savage apartheid regimes in South Africa, Rhodesia and elsewhere, overthrowing regimes and killing leaders like Patrice Lumumba, whose only crime was demanding the end of the imperialist domination of the African continent.

By a confluence and coincidence of history, that February 26, 1885 is inextricably with the 26 February 1970, the date on which the February Revolution or ’70 Revo was launched in Trinidad and Tobago, to eliminate imperial and colonial domination of the country and bring Power to the People.

The aspirations of the victims of the Euro-American scramble for Africa and the former colonized people of Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean continue to be the driving force in their shared common struggles for full independence and social progress.

Note

1. Walter Rodney was a Guyanese historian, political activist and academic. His notable works include How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, first published in 1972. On June 13, 1980, Rodney was assassinated in Georgetown, at the age of 38, by an explosive communication device in his car, a month after he returned from celebrations of independence in Zimbabwe at a time of intense political activism.

(Photos/images: Wikicommons, Al Jazeera)