On November 15, 1884, European imperialists gathered in Berlin to start dividing up Africa between them. What impact has one of history's biggest land grabs had on the continent?
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00:00It was on November 15, 1884, that representatives from various empires in Europe, Scandinavia, and the United States assembled in Berlin to decide the fate of the African continent.
00:12The Berlin Conference was also referred to as the Congo Conference because much of the negotiations revolved around control of the vast Congo region.
00:21Otto von Bismarck of Germany and King Leopold II of Belgium were key figures at the gathering where not a single African leader was present.
00:30The European imperialists were hungry for resources.
00:34They already had some control of African coastlines, but Africa then was still largely under African rulers.
00:41The Berlin Conference led to a formal agreement in early 1885.
00:46It created the principle of effective occupation, meaning that any European military that could control territory militarily would claim it.
00:56That was a trigger for the infamous and violent Scramble for Africa.
01:01Massive colonial expansion followed, and the carving up of Africa involved subjective boundaries that split indigenous ethnic groups and unified historical rivals.
01:12The reorganization of diverse African societies by imperialists led to ethnic divisions that persist today.
01:20Colonial borders became the national boundaries of independent African states decades later, and many current conflicts date back to these artificial divisions.
01:29The legacy of the Berlin Conference is external control and influence over African countries and their resources.
01:37It is still much talked about 140 years on, with an intense push by Africans for everyone involved in the Scramble for Africa to confront the damage.
01:46Conversations about reparation and restitution often cycle back to the Berlin Conference.