What was the Berlin Conference?

The Berlin Conference of 1884–1885, also called the Berlin West Africa Conference, was a meeting between Western European nations that divided the African continent between them for the exploitation of resources.
Great Britain, France, and Germany had become industrialized nations in the eighteenth century and required materials to fuel those industries. Belgium's King Leopold II sought to increase his personal wealth through the acquisition of territory. For this reason, Belgium acquired the largest parcel of land on the continent, which was named the Belgian Congo, a fertile territory located in the heart of Africa.
Competition between Britain and France was settled by the German diplomat Otto von Bismarck. In later meetings, King Leopold II negotiated territorial claims between Great Britain, Portugal, France, and Germany, at which point agreements between the nations were settled and formalized and maps were drawn, apportioning the continent between participants.
The leaders of the conference allowed for free trade between territories and for the possibility of future renegotiations. In the 1870s, European nations initially sought entry into Africa by negotiating treaties with leaders among African tribes. By the time of the Berlin Conference, no African was involved in the division of the continent. The conference had the effect of extracting wealth from Africa and increasing the wealth and power of Europe, creating the conditions that would lead to the era of New Imperialism.
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