1884 — The Conference That Carved Africa

On November 15, 1884, Otto von Bismarck opened the Berlin Conference at his Wilhelmstrasse residence, where fourteen nations drew up the rules for the Scramble for Africa. Over 104 days, they wrote the General Act of Berlin, enshrining "effective occupation" as the test of a claim. Under that rule, a European power's hold on African land could be made good on paper, by presence and proclamation, far from the peoples whose homes were being divided.

And not one African was at the table. Kingdoms were divided by rulers' lines drawn thousands of miles away — borders decided in a Berlin room, by men who would never live inside them.