European Colonization of Africa

Up to the 1870s, European powers controlled only 10 percent of the African continent. By 1900, seven European powers -- Britain, Germany, France, Portugal, Spain, Belgium and Italy -- controlled over 90 percent of Africa. These countries competed for power on the European continent and hoped to demonstrate their strength by acquisitions abroad. They were also able to export surplus populations at home by establishing colonies throughout Africa. This movement became known as the “Scramble for Africa” and threatened wars and conflicts between Europeans on the African continent.

African Slave Trade

From their arrival in Africa in the 15th century, Europeans concentrated most of their activities on the slave trade. By 1807, when Britain outlawed the African slave trade, European ships had transported 11 million Africans as slaves to the Americas. However, after 1807, Spanish and Portuguese ships continued to trade in slaves to Cuba and Brazil while Arab slave traders operated in East Africa. Slave ships continued to be fitted in British ports, and British investors did business in countries such as Cuba where slavery remained legal.

Otto von Bismarck

United Germany’s first chancellor, Otto von Bismarck, convened the 1884-1885 Berlin Conference. Germany was unified only in 1871 and was a late entrant into the scramble for African colonies compared with other European powers. South West Africa, today’s Namibia, was Germany’s first colonial African acquisition in 1884. Bismarck’s aim was to attenuate the European rivalries; he had little interest in Africa and regarded colonies as useless and expensive. However, the conference was a way of consolidating German power in Africa. A further reason for convening the conference was to stamp out the African slave trade.

Attendees and Agreements

The conference attendees were all the period's major powers: Britain, France, Spain, Portugal, Belgium, Italy, Germany, Denmark, Netherlands, Austria-Hungary and Sweden-Norway, together with the Ottoman Empire and the United States. The conference opened up the Congo River basin to free trade among Europeans and reduced tensions between French, Belgian and British traders and explorers there. It introduced the doctrine of “spheres of influence,” regions under the control of specific powers. Defining the limits of Portugal’s African interests in Angola and Mozambique, it opened the region between these countries to British colonization. Britain’s claim to Egypt was also recognized. The conference confirmed Germany’s claim to Tanganyika, Namibia, Togo and Cameroon. It did include a resolution to suppress slavery, but this carried little force.