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The Berlin Conference of 1884- 85 regulated European colonisation and trade in Africa. Its outcome, the General Act of the Berlin Conference, is often seen as the formalisation of the Scramble for Africa. In the German-speaking world, it is referred to as the Kongokonferenz ("Congo Conference").
Since the first voyages of discovery in the fifteenth century, many European powers had set up colonies in the coastal regions and islands of Africa. This began with Portugal and Spain, but later France and Great Britain, and for a time even Brandenburg had settlements on the continent or its islands. These were primarily created to support trade, in particular of slaves, but also ivoryIvory is a hard, white, opaque substance that is the bulk of the teeth and tusks of animals such as the elephant, hippopotamus, walrus, mammoth, etc. Prior to the introduction of plastics, it was used for billiard balls, piano keys, buttons and ornamental, tropical wood and other African products. However, no attempts were made to settle the interior of the continent, which remained the "Dark Continent" in the language of the time.
After the invention of the steam engineA steam engine is a heat engine that makes use of the potential energy that exists as pressure in steam, converting it to mechanical work. Steam engines were used in pumps, locomotive trains and steam ships, and were essential to the Industrial Revolution, the tropicalThe tropics are the geographic region of the Earth centered on the equator and limited in latitude by the two tropics the Tropic of Cancer in the north and the Tropic of Capricorn in the southern hemisphere. This area lies approximately between 23. 5° N l regions of Africa became less economically important for Europe, as slavery had become unpopular and there was rebellion against the slave trade. However, as industrialization increased, Europe suddenly had a market for vegetable products such as peanutThe Peanut is the edible seed of the plant, Arachis hypogaea''. Although called a nut the peanut is a member of the pea family Fabaceae, and the fruit is not a nut, but a legume or pod. Peanuts develop underground in a woody pod, usually with two seeds tos and palm oilPalm oil is a form of edible vegetable oil obtained from the fruit of the Oil palm tree. The oil palm is a tropical palm tree. There are two species of palm oil, the better known one is the one originating from Guinea, Africa and was first illustrated by to use for soapThis article is about a common cleaning mixture. For other uses of the word Soap, see Soap (disambiguation). Soap is a surfactant cleaning mixture used for personal or minor cleaning. It usually comes in solid moulded form. In the developed world, synthet production.
After the loss of the AmericaThe word America has several meanings: Geographical and political The United States of America. America a small town in the Netherlands. Amerika a small town in Saxony, Germany America, Cambridgeshire a place in the United Kingdom America North, Central,n colonies by Great Britain, the British empire began to seek new areas for colonization. Mungo Park was one of the first ( 1795) to begin active research on Africa and study the interior of the continent. Most of these researchers had economic goals behind their efforts, and later these were combined with the political interests of the countries that supported them.
The first attempts at colonization began in the more temperate zones in the north and the south. Some Dutch settlers had settled in Capeland in 1652, and when the British claimed that land (1806, by 1815 the zone was fully British), they were forced into the interior ( Great Trek of 1835 ). In the North, France occupied Algeria in 1830 and was in control of the area by 1857. French settlers occupied the colonies in Algeria.
Freed American slaves founded the colony of Liberia in 1822, which was recognized as a country in 1847. In southern Africa the Boer states of Natal, Transvaal and Orange Free State were founded. In the interior of Africa, more and more countries were founded under European influence. In the West these were generally ruled by Islamic dynasties. The Suez Canal was built from 1859 to 1869, thus bringing East Africa closer to Europe.