On this day in 1884, the “Berlin Conference” began when delegations from nearly every Western European country and the U.S. met in Germany to develop a set of protocols for the seizure and control of African resources.
The conference, which had no African representatives, was the first international conference ever on the subject of Africa, and dealt almost soley with the matter of its exploitation.
At the time, approximately 80% of African land and resources were under domestic control; the influence of Europeans was most strongly exerted on the coast. Following it, colonial powers began seizing resources further inland.
As a result of the conference, which continued into 1885, a “General Act” was signed and ratified by all but one of the 14 nations at the table, the U.S. being the sole exception. The Act’s main features were the establishment of a regime of free trade stretching across the middle of Africa, the development of which became the rationale for the recognition of the short-lived “Congo Free State”, the abolition of the overland slave trade, and the principle of “effective occupation”.
The Conference’s rapacious intentions for Africa were noted by outsiders: socialist journalist Daniel De Leon described the conference as “an event unique in the history of political science…Diplomatic in form, it was economic in fact.”
Before the Conference ended, the Lagos Observer declared that “the world had, perhaps, never witnessed a robbery on so large a scale.” Theodore Holly, the first black Protestant Episcopal Bishop in the U.S., condemned the delegates as having “come together to enact into law, national rapine, robbery and murder”.
Berlin 1884: Remembering the conference that divided Africa
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my partner has a bit that they pretend to be a gussano. it makes me laugh so hard i cry. what even funnier is that he says true things like “castro took my grandpas hotels” and its funny because castro really did take his grandpas hotels lololololol. he says "how dare you laugh my grandpa went up and down a mountain every day to save enough money to buy his first hotel. " and its funny because thats the actual family lore. we cannot make these jokes im public lol.
Which american mobsters and government pedophiles stayed there?
we dont know but he jokes that he could have made a killing off of all the child trafficking the revolution got rid off. then he shakes his fist at my castro poster.
I have a lot of Venezuelan friends, the only thing I learned from them is that being right wing isnt just an American thing. Theyre profoundly thoughtless on why the “malandros” are the way they are.
Theyre all just lazy leeches seeking to lay around and beg. Even if they are, there’s a reason why they’re like that and there’s always a socioeconomic component to it.
yeah but thats all politics, his family certainly isnt rich now, and the most far right member of his family were very poor before the revolution, his mom was a teacher who used to speak Russian and knew people from the soviet union, but then the famine happened and they came to america and their brains broke. if anything its more about treats for them lol and weird sects of Christianity.
Right same for the Venezuelans, the treats arent flowing and the embargo/sanctions dont mean anything and i dont know what those are either