What was the only African country that took part in the Berlin Conference of 1884-85; Liberia, Ethiopia, Libya or Egypt?

BRY2K

None. This site suggests (and it is corroborated by other sites that no African nation participated in the Conference. Between November 1884 and February 1885, diplomats from fourteen countries gathered at the Berlin Conference, organized by Bismarck:Germany, Austria-Hungary, Belgium, Denmark, Spain, the US, France, the UK, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Russia, Norway, Sweden, and theOttoman Empire. The official purpose of the conference was to regulate freedom of trade on the Niger and Congo Rivers. However, the Conference in effect set the rules for the division of Africa among the colonial powers – a future division,for, in 1885, only a quarter of the continent had then been explored andcolonized. Fifteen years later, the entire continent was in the hands of Western powers. Yet no African was invited to the negotiations, or even represented! http://72.14.205.104/search?q=cache:kRNf7FBoP8UJ:www.sunnysideofthedoc.com/upload/Berlin%25201885-Proposal.pdf%3FPHPSESSID%3D844a108a61ea1753e7112ed496f81be2+Berlin+Conference+1884+attend+africa&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=10&gl=ca Jun 13 08, 8:21 AM

truefaithmom

What is interesting to note is that Liberia was never under foreign control (although heavily influenced by the US) and Ethiopia(Abyssinia) did not come under Western control having successfully held off the Italians. I believe they were the only two independent nations. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berlin_Conference Jun 13 08, 8:29 AM

author

King Léopold II was able to convince France and Germany that common trade in Africa was in the best interests of all three countries. On the initiative of Portugal, Otto von Bismarck, German Chancellor, called on representatives of Austria–Hungary, Belgium, Denmark, France, the United Kingdom, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Russia, Spain, Sweden-Norway (union until 1905), the Ottoman Empire, and the United States to take part in the Berlin Conference to work out policy. However, the United States did not actually participate in the conference. The Berlin Conference took place in 1885. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berlin_Conference Jun 13 08, 6:12 PM

author

It is also almost true that Liberia and Ethiopia were the only independent African nations at that time. But then there was Sudan, which actually was an independent state 1885-1899. Quote: Independent states Liberia, founded by the United States' American Colonization Society in 1821. Declared independence in 1847. Ethiopia (Abyssinia), had its borders re-drawn with Italian Eritrea and French Somaliland (modern Djibouti), briefly occupied by Italy from 1936-1941 during World War II's Abyssinia Crisis Sudan, independent under Mahdi rule between 1885-1899 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scramble_for_Africa#Independent_states Jun 13 08, 6:18 PM