Which 1884–1885 meeting set rules for European colonization and trade in Africa?

The Berlin Conference set rules for European colonization and trade in Africa.

Held in Berlin from November 1884 to February 1885, the meeting was convened by German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck. Representatives of European powers and the United States negotiated rules for trade, navigation and territorial claims, while no independent African state was represented as a participant.

The conference's General Act introduced principles including notification of territorial claims and the idea of “effective occupation.” In practice, these rules accelerated the European partition of Africa, often called the Scramble for Africa, and ignored existing African political boundaries and sovereignty.

The conference did not itself draw every later colonial border or instantly divide the whole continent. Instead, it established an international framework that competing powers used while expanding their control. The Congress of Vienna concerned post-Napoleonic Europe, and the Treaty of Tordesillas divided overseas spheres between Spain and Portugal in 1494.