What did Belgium do to Africa? The 1885 Berlin Conference, also known as the Colonial Conference, was a meeting where Europeans shared the African continent in line with their commercial interests, and its effects continue to this day. Under the leadership of the German statesman Bismarck, 15 countries came together in Berlin to discuss the roadmap to follow in Africa in the future. At the conference, the African continent was divided and shared by the great powers. This sharing took place largely between England, Germany and France. At the end of the conference, only two African countries remained independent: Ethiopia and Liberia. All rights of the Congo region were officially given to King Leopold of Belgium. The king named this now privately owned country the Free Congo State. It is a common view among historians that the reason the European great powers gave such a large country to the personal property of the King of Belgium was the purpose of the western powers to serve their own economic interests. Ask why? Since the active powers of the period thought that they could not easily control the entire African continent with their own means, they were allowing weak states such as Belgium to carry out these activities on their own behalf.
15 июл 2023
