November 15, 1884

Berlin Conference

The Berlin West Africa Conference opens

The meeting now imagined as men drawing lines across a map of Africa opened without assigning a single territory.

Wilhelmstraße 77, 15 November 1884

Otto von Bismarck opened the conference at the Reich Chancellery palace, Wilhelmstraße 77, in Berlin on 15 November 1884 — the same address from which he conducted imperial diplomacy.

Delegations representing fourteen states took their seats: Germany, the United States, the Ottoman Empire, Austria-Hungary, Belgium, Denmark, France, Britain, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Russia, Spain and Sweden-Norway. The delegates elected Bismarck president on the first day.

Nobody from Africa

No African representative was present, and none was consulted. That is a fact about the room on the opening day, not only a later criticism of the outcome.

Germany had issued the invitation in agreement with France, as the eventual General Act records. Leopold II's Congo association wanted international recognition, but the convening was German and French.

What was actually on the agenda

Proceedings began on free trade in the Congo basin, navigation of the Congo and the Niger, and rules meant to prevent disputes among colonial powers over future occupations.

No General Act was signed and no map was partitioned that day. The conference ran on until 26 February 1885.

Sources

Researched 23 Aug 2026 5 sources 2 audit passes

How this was checked

Researched from the web into a fact sheet, rewritten from that sheet, then audited against it by a different model. How the pipeline works →