The French, The British, And The Berlin Conference

The Berlin Conference of 1884 and 1885 regulated European colonization and trade in Africa during the New Imperialism period. The outcome, which was the General Act of the Berlin Conference, is also seen as the Scramble for Africa. The conference created a period of heightened colonial activity with the European powers and had basically eliminated almost all forms of self government in the countries of Africa. By 1914 France and Britain controlled the most land of all the European powers that were present in Africa. The Berlin Conference helped Britain and France to expand enormously in Africa. In 1914 the French had claimed over what is now broken into over fifteen different countries in Africa spanning all across the continent from Madagascar to Algeria. The French empire in Africa consisted of two main areas. These were French Equatorial Africa and French West Africa. The main two French territories stretched from Gabon to Chad, to Niger, to Senegal, to Corte d’Ivoire. The French first started to establish a presence as a main European power in Africa with the AOF, or the Afrique Occidentale Francaise, in 1895. AOF was a union of French Sudan, French Guinea, Corte d’Ivoire, and Senegal; which is the oldest French settlement in Africa, controlled by France since 1672. The AOF subsequently expanded to the neighboring territories ruled by France. Eventually the AOF covered an area of over one million, eight-hundred thousand square miles. After the AOF, the French established the AEF, or the Afrique Equatoriale Francaise, in 1910. The AEF was federation of French colonial possessions expanding northward from the Congo River to the Sahara Desert. This federation consisted of the modern-day African countries of Gabon, Republic of the Congo, the Central African Republic, and Chad. Britain’s presence in Africa by 1914 was almost equal, if not more or less, to that of France by the same point in time. By 1914 the British controlled more than what now today in Africa would be fifteen different countries. The British territories at this time spanned the area from the Cape Colony of South Africa all the way to Egypt. In 1875, one of the most important and powerful territorial holdings by a European power in Africa was the entire Cape Kingdom; which is now all of South Africa. In 1882, the British’s military occupation of Egypt, caused by a race for the Suez Canal, contributed to securing the Nile Valley. And, the British possession of the Nile Valley led to the conquest of the neighboring territory of Sudan. The British at the time of 1914, thirty years after the Berlin Conference in 1884 and 1885, had made huge advances in the form of territorial control in Africa. At this point after the Berlin Conference, Britain controlled all of South Africa, Zambia, Kenya, Sudan, Egypt, Nigeria, Ghana, and more. Having territory in the almost every part of the continent except for the northwestern area from Nigeria to Gambia up, gave Britain a huge advantage in having an access to almost all the resources over the entire continent.

The occupation of Egypt and the acquisition of the Congo were the first major moves in what came to be a scramble for African territory. In 1884, Otto von Bismarck convened the 1884-85 Berlin Conference to discuss the problem in Africa. At the Berlin Conference diplomats condemned the slave trade, prohibited the sale of firearms and alcoholic beverages in certain areas, and expressed a major concern for missionary activities. The diplomats in Berlin put down rules of competition of by which the European powers were guided by in seeking colonies. The conference ruled that no nation would be able to stake claims in Africa without notifying other European powers of the given power’s intentions. And that no territory could be formally claimed before to being occupied by the given power wanting to claim it. The competitors of the powers involved in this “scramble for Africa” would often ignore the rules when convenient for there to be a gain for them and war was just barely avoided on many occasions. An example of this ignorant action for personal gain where the spark of a war was created but the flame never caught, would be the Fashoda Incident. The Fashoda Incident of 1898 was the climax of imperial disputes between Britain and France; who at the time were the largest, most powerful, and held the greatest amount of territory out of all the powers involved. The incident was a product of the British and the French wanting to have an undivided link between their territory in Africa. The British wanted to connect their African territorial holdings of most of South Africa and also theirs of Eastern Africa. While the French wanted an undivided link between the Nile and the Niger River, which would allow them to control trade from the Sahel region. In their efforts Britain and France met head-on and almost sparked a war, but resulted in the Fashoda Incident.

Also at the Berlin Conference, it was agreed that the area going along the Congo River was to be administered by King Leopold II of Belgium. The area given to King Leopold II of Belgium would be given as a neutral area, and it would be known as the Congo Free State. The Congo Free State would have trade and navigation to be free. The Berlin Conference was a huge factor in helping Britain and France to become the two European powers with the largest presence in Africa. Before the Berlin Conference had started, the British and the French already held territorial stakes in Africa which allowed them to formally claim the territory to belong to France and Britain. France had already established the first French territory in Senegal, from there the French only expanded, by 1914 the French held more than what today would be fifteen different countries in Africa. The British also by that time had control of almost as much territory, except for that the British territory was broken up and distributed to almost all corners of the continent, while France held a massive central unbroken piece of both central Africa and northwestern Africa spanning a piece of land practically larger than all of Europe. Even though Britain and France did not start out with this much control during and before the Berlin Conference of 1884 and 1885, they both grew hungry for Africa’s natural resources and annexed almost every area possible to be able to exploit the native people and the land for all that the French and British could get.

In conclusion, in the ‘scramble for Africa’ the British and the French went into Africa as followers of other powers, but set out to get as much as possible from Africa. After the Berlin Conference both powers rose immensely, almost to the point where either one of either Britain and France could have had an unbroken link from the Nile to the Niger River. The British and French met trying to create this link of territories and resulted in the Fashoda Incident of 1898. The Berlin Conference was a huge helping hand to boosting the power of France and Britain during the ‘scramble for Africa’ and this period of imperialism in Africa.