What Role Did The United States Play In The Imperial Partition Of Africa?

The Partition of Africa began in earnest with the Berlin Conference of 1884-1885, and was the cause of most of Africa’s borders today. This conference was called by German Chancellor Bismarck to settle how European countries would claim colonial land in Africa and to avoid a war among European nations over African territory. All the major European States were invited to the conference. Germany, France, Great Britain, Netherlands, Belgium, Portugal, and Spain were all considered to have a future role in the imperial partition of Africa. The United States was invited because of its interest in Liberia but did not attend because it had no desire to build a colonial empire in Africa. Also invited were Austria-Hungary, Sweden-Norway, Denmark, Italy, Turkey, and Russia who all were considered minor players in the quest for colonizing Africa, though Italy would claim some colonial possessions in Northeast Africa. Most notably there were no Africans present at this conference, nor were any Europeans present to ensure that native Africans had any say in the proceedings.

This meant that the interior of Africa, about which little was known, was the land area available. Most coastal land had already been claimed by various European countries, as had much of Southern Africa and Africa north of the Sahara. Few Europeans had set foot into the interior of sub-Saharan Africa prior to this conference. Following the Berlin Conference there was still little exploration into the interior of Africa beyond gaining initial treaties. Most Europeans continued to stay on the coastal regions while a few missionaries followed rivers inland to find Christian converts. By 1900, 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