Partition of Africa

By the time of the Berlin Conference in 1884, European activity in Africa was limited to around 20% of the continent. Otto von Bismarck, the German Chancellor, seeing no room for expansion in Europe following the unification of Germany the previous decade, convened the conference in Berlin that resulted in over a thousand indigenous cultures being divided up into fifty new 'countries'.

This became known as the Scramble and Partition of Africa and its effects still resonate until the present day. Development of more sophisticated weaponry also acted as a spur.

By the 1880s European nations were undertaking what was called a scramble to 'land grab' what they could across Africa without planning nor, of course, seeking any consent from those already on the land. Cont/...