The Berlin Conference and the Rules of Partition

The Berlin Conference was formally convened by German chancellor Otto von Bismarck, at the joint request of Portugal and with the active backing of France. It ran from November 15, 1884 to February 26, 1885 at the chancellor's official residence in Berlin, bringing together representatives of fourteen nations, including Germany, Britain, France, Portugal, Belgium, and the United States. Not a single African nation or representative was invited to participate in deliberations that would determine the territorial fate of their own continent — a fact that eloquently symbolizes the fundamentally colonial and imposed nature of the whole process.