Berlin Conference was a meeting of 14 nations to discuss territorial disputes in Africa. The meeting was held in Berlin, Germany, from November 1884 to February 1885 and included representatives from the United States and such European nations as the United Kingdom, France, and Germany. No Africans were invited to the conference.
The Berlin Conference took place at a time when European powers were rushing to establish direct political control in Africa. This race to expand European colonial influence is often referred to as the “Scramble for Africa.” Europeans called the Berlin meeting because they felt rules were needed to prevent war over claims to African lands.
The Berlin Conference adopted a number of provisions. For example, it ruled that European nations could not just claim African territory but had to actually occupy and administer the land. It also declared that a nation already holding colonies on the African coast would have first claim on the neighboring interior. Rivers in Africa were to be open to all ships, not just those of the colonial power through whose land the river ran. Slavery and the slave trade were to end in all European colonies. The conference also recognized the Congo Free State—now the Democratic Republic of the Congo—as a country, with King Leopold II of Belgium as its ruler. Leopold, acting as a private citizen, had claimed the region in 1878.
