General Act of the Berlin Conference
About the General Act of the Berlin Conference
Bismarck chaired the conference that set the rules of the Scramble for Africa: free navigation on the Congo and Niger, free trade in the Congo basin, notification of new coastal claims, and pledges of protection to local peoples that were rarely kept. It recognized the personal rule of King Leopold over the Congo Free State, setting up a notorious regime. Not a single African representative attended.
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