Think As Historian: THINK AS A HISTORIAN: EXPLAIN THE CONTEXT Of THE COLONIZATION Of AfRICA

In 1884–1885, in response to Germany’s arrival as a competitive force in Africa, ambassadors from throughout Europe met at the Berlin Conference to develop some guidelines and agreements for colonizing Africa. (See Topic 6.2.)

Read the following excerpt from the General Act of the Berlin Con- ference. Then explain how it articulates the political, economic, and ideological contexts for the development of European cooperation on colonizing and partitioning Africa.

“WISHING, in a spirit of good and mutual accord, to regulate the conditions most [favorable] to the development of trade and civilization in certain regions of Africa, and to assure to all nations the advantages of free navigation on the two chief rivers of Africa flowing into the Atlantic Ocean; BEING DESIROUS, on the other hand, to obviate [remove] the misunderstanding and disputes which might in the future arise from new acts of occupation on the coast of Africa; and concerned, at the same time, as to the means of furthering the moral and material well-being of the native populations; HAVE RESOLVED, on the invitation addressed to them by the Imperial Government of Germany, in agreement with the Government of the French Republic, to meet for those purposes in Conference at Berlin . . .”

General Act of the Conference at Berlin, 1885