King Leopold II of Belgium essentially ran the Congo as his own personal colony. He took much ivory out of the region (from elephant tusks), and used forced labor to harvest rubber from vines in the Central African rainforest. You could say his "successes" influenced other European countries to want in on the action.
The Berlin Conference (1884-1885) involved European powers agreeing with one another about how to divide African territories between them in such a way as to avoid conflict among themselves. No input was sought from leaders of the African peoples themselves and no real thought given to the rights of the native Africans.