How many countries divided africa

We're not done yet! Your opinion can help us make it better. We use cookies to improve our service for you. You can find more information in our data protection declaration. In European leaders met at the infamous Berlin Conference to divide Africa and arbitrarily draw up borders that exist to this day.

The map on the wall in the Reich Chancellery in Berlin was five meters It showed Africa with rivers, lakes, a few place names and many white spots. When the Berlin Conference came to an end on February 26, , after more than three months of deliberation, there were still large swathes of Africa on which no European had ever set foot.

Representatives of 13 European states, the United States of America and the Ottoman Empire converged on Berlin at the invitation of German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck to divide up Africa among themselves "in accordance with international law. The Berlin Conference led to a period of heightened colonial activity by the European powers.

With the exception of Ethiopia and Liberia, all the states that make up present day Africa were parceled out among the colonial powers within a few years after the meeting. Lines of longitude and latitude, rivers and mountain ranges were pressed into service as borders separating the colonies.

Or one simply placed a ruler on the map and drew a straight line. Many historians, such as Olyaemi Akinwumi from Nasarawa State University in Nigeria, see the conference as the crucible for future inner African conflicts. French caricature from : German chancelor Bismarck divides the African continent among the colonial powers. Johannesburg Tours. Pilanesberg Safaris. Kruger National Park Safaris.

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By , though, more Europeans moved into the African interior to extract raw materials such as rubber, palm oil, gold, copper, and diamonds. These natural resources made Africa a vital resource for the European economy. Although most of these African colonies were controlled by nations, the Berlin Conference allowed King Leopold II of Belgium to become the sole owner of the vast area that is today the Democratic Republic of the Congo in central Africa.

This area was given to Leopold by the other European powers with the intent that this be an area of Free Trade for all Europeans in Africa. Once news of these abuses of power were brought to the public light, King Leopold was stripped of his colony and the vast Congo region was ruled by the Belgium government until it became independent in Many of the boundaries drawn up by Europeans at the Berlin Conference still endure today with little regard to natural landmarks or historic ethnic or political boundaries established by the Africans themselves.

The disregard of these boundaries, most of which were retained after independence, often continues to generate conflict in Africa today.

African nations began to emerge from colonial rule first with Ghana which gained its independence in