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Berlin West Africa Conference
European history
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Alternative Title: Berlin Conference
Berlin West Africa Conference, a series of negotiations (Nov. 15, 1884–Feb. 26, 1885) at Berlin, in which the major European nations met to decide all questions connected with the Congo River basin in Central Africa.


Berlin West Africa Conference
QUICK FACTS
DATE
November 15, 1884 - February 26, 1885
LOCATION
Berlin
Germany
PARTICIPANTS
France
Germany
Portugal
United Kingdom
RELATED TOPICS
Western colonialism
Congo Free State
Portugal
The conference, proposed by Portugal in pursuance of its special claim to control of the Congo estuary, was necessitated by the jealousy and suspicion with which the great European powers viewed one another’s attempts at colonial expansion in Africa. The general act of the Conference of Berlin declared the Congo River basin to be neutral (a fact that in no way deterred the Allies from extending the war into that area in World War I); guaranteed freedom for trade and shipping for all states in the basin; forbade slave trading; and rejected Portugal’s claims to the Congo River estuary—thereby making possible the founding of the independent Congo Free State, to which Great Britain, France, and Germany had already agreed in principle.