The Berlin Conference (also known as the Berlin West Africa Conference) was held from November 1884 to February 1885. It was convened by Otto von Bismarck, the Chancellor of Germany, and hosted in Berlin. The conference brought together representatives of fourteen European nations and the United States to establish rules for the partition and colonisation of Africa.
Bismarck called the conference partly because of growing rivalries among European powers over African territory, particularly in the Congo basin and West Africa. Germany itself had recently entered the colonial race, and Bismarck sought to manage competing claims diplomatically rather than through military confrontation. The conference produced the General Act of the Berlin Conference, which set out principles including free trade in the Congo basin, free navigation of the Niger and Congo rivers, and the requirement that any European power claiming African territory must establish effective occupation.
The conference is historically significant because it formalised the "Scramble for Africa," accelerating the partition of the continent among European powers with little regard for existing African political boundaries or the wishes of African peoples. While Britain, France, and Belgium were major participants and colonial powers, it was Germany that hosted and organised the conference.
