Berlin Conference: Europe Partitions Africa

From November 1884 to February 1885, representatives of fourteen European powers and the United States met in Berlin at Chancellor Otto von Bismarck's invitation to establish rules for African colonization. No African representatives attended. The conference created the "effective occupation" principle and guaranteed free trade on the Congo and Niger rivers. Leopold II of Belgium received the Congo Free State as personal property. The framework accelerated European partition of Africa: by 1914, approximately 90% of the continent was under European control, with only Ethiopia and Liberia remaining independent. Colonial boundaries cut across approximately 190 African ethnic and political groups.