The Scramble for Africa
A continent divided around a table in Berlin
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In twenty years European control went from roughly 10 to over 90 per cent of the continent. The preconditions were technological: quinine against malaria, the machine gun, river steamers and the telegraph. The conference established the principle of "effective occupation" and accelerated the scramble rather than restraining it. King Leopold's Congo Free State is the most extreme case of extraction. The borders drawn, without regard to language, ecology or political units, remain a persistent source of conflict.
For children
At a conference in Berlin, European countries divided Africa between themselves — without a single African invited. They drew lines on the map that often cut straight through peoples. Many of those lines are still national borders today.
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Part of Terra Saga — the story of Earth on a timeline. terrasaga.org