What was the main subject of the 1884–1885 Berlin Conference?

The 1884–1885 Berlin Conference addressed European colonization and trade in Africa.

German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck hosted representatives of European powers and the United States in Berlin from November 1884 to February 1885. African states were not represented as equal participants, even though the decisions directly affected their territories and peoples.

The conference established rules for European claims, including the principle of “effective occupation,” which required a power claiming coastal territory to demonstrate actual authority there. It also addressed trade and navigation in the Congo Basin and along the Niger River. The General Act of Berlin formalized these arrangements.

The conference did not literally draw every modern African border in one meeting, but it accelerated the Scramble for Africa. European governments subsequently seized and administered large territories through conquest, treaties, and coercion. The event is therefore associated with the partition of Africa, though colonial boundary-making continued long afterward.