The General Act of the Berlin Conference on West Africa

â€Å"The brown current ran swiftly out of the heart of darkness, bearing us down towards the sea with twice the speed of our upward progress; and Kurtz’s life was running swiftly, too, ebbing, ebbing out of his heart into the sea of inexorable time. . . . Joseph Conrad- Heart of Darkness Introduction The aim of this paper is to analyze the General Act of the Berlin Conference on West Africa (1884-1885) and the partition of Africa among the main European powers, considering its importance for the construction of Europe. The Conference of Berlin was the culmination of a process that began with the presence of European traders in the costal areas of West Africa. The relations between Europe and Africa developed during the age of slave†¦show more content†¦By the beginning of 1880s, only a small part of Africa was under European rule, especially some coastal areas, where European traders had had great influence since the 16th century. At the end of the 19th century, the changes on the European political relations and the tension between the great European powers influenced their policy towards Africa. The Conference of Berlin changed the relation between European powers and Africa, and had also important consequences for both continents. The reasons for the Euro pean powers to proceed with the partition of Africa, and change from an informal dominium to a formal colonial policy, has been a topic of extensive research and debates among scholars. Furthermore, the creation of colonial empires has been interpreted in different ways according to different authors and theoretical traditions: on one hand, it has been seen as new era of national expansion, in which political and economic aspects were no longer separable, and the role of the state had increased; and on the other, as a new phase of capitalist development . Most of the partition of Africa, (also called scramble) took place on a short period of time, between the Berlin West Africa Conference of 1884-5 and a series of agreements in 1890 . For the 19th century mentality, the colonial project seemed natural and even inevitable. There are many explanations for this fact.Show MoreRelatedIn The Late Nineteenth Century, Fourteen Countries Attended1672 Words   |  7 Pagescountries attended a conference in Berlin to settle disputes over colonized land in the Congo Basin of Africa. Attendees spent months sitting around a table, which at the center laid an inaccurate map of the African continent. Here, they determined each country s claim and divided the continent based on resources, location, and convenience for the European Powers without a single African leader present. 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