The Berlin Conference of 1884 and Africa Research Paper

The Berlin Conference of 1884 and Africa - question Paper ExampleThe continent was relatively isolated from the rest of the world especially the western countries solely historians have recorded early trade in in Africa. Trans-Saharan trade is one of the earliest recorded commerce, carried protrude in Africa between eighth and 16th century (Wright, 2007). According to Wright (2007), Trans -Saharan trade was concentrated in the conglutinationerly Africa and it involved countries around the Mediterranean Sea and West Africa. The trade route crossed the Saharan waste and the caravans travelled for long distances to obtain goods in various regions covered in the larger frontier. The Arabs dominated the trade and it mainly involved precious metals such as gold that was mined in West African region, ivory, salt and agricultural products. In addition, slave trade was an important component of Trans- Saharan trade, and African servants were transported to the north to work as soldiers an d domestic workers (Wright, 2007 pp76-81). Conditions Leading to the Berlin Conference The rich gold deposits and success of the Trans-Saharan trade attracted the care of Europeans and in the 15th century, Portuguese traders opened new trade routes along the West African marge that had rich gold deposits (Wright, 2007 p 137). ... In the mid 1870, Henry Morton successfully completed the Congo River catchment area expedition that had remained the last unchartered frontier in Africa (Emerson, 1979). Henry Morton was later appointed by tabby Leopold II of Belgium as an envoy to Congo that eventually became Congo Free State, a Belgian settlement (Emerson, 1979 p69). In central Africa, France moved to the western part of the Congo basin and established Brazzaville in 1881. coarse Britain conquered and occupied the Ottoman Empire in Egypt that ruled Sudan and the Somaliland. Germany declared territorial ownership of Namibia, Cameroon, and Togo while Italy claimed Eritrea in the horn o f Africa in 1882 (Koponen, 1993 p124). The scramble for more African colonies generated intense competition among the European powers leading to ferocious negates and the need to have a more organized criterion for partitioning Africa became apparent. Germany had become an influential European power and other countries, including France and Britain were aggressively seeking new colonies to assert their power in Europe. In hatful of the emerging power changes in Europe, Germany was determined to maintain its leading influence in Europe. Therefore, it was important to make up a reasonable formula of partitioning African continent among the competing European powers to avoid the risk of conflict that would threaten Germany influence in Europe and the globe (Koponen, 1993, pp 129-133). The Berlin Conference At the request of Portugal, the German premier Otto von Bismarck invited leaders of fourteen European countries with territorial interests in Africa, and the United States for a conference in Berlin in 1884 (Collins,