The Scramble for Africa
European powers partition a continent at a conference, with no Africans present.
- When
- —
- Duration
- 30 years
- Known to
- ± 1 year
- Era
- Industrial, Holocene
Between 1881 and 1914 European states seize almost the whole of Africa; the Berlin Conference of 1884 to 1885 sets rules for doing so among themselves. Borders are drawn along lines of longitude and rivers with no relation to existing polities or peoples. Leopold II's private regime in the Congo kills millions through forced rubber collection. The political geography created in these thirty years is still the map of Africa.