9781422280676

AFRICA: WHO DREW THE LINES?

D uring the late 1870s and early 1880s King Leopold II of Belgium had been furthering his interests by laying claim to land along the lower Congo river, an area

LEFT: King Leopold II of Belgium lay claim to lands along the lower Congo river. BELOW LEFT: Germany’s first Chancellor Otto von Bismarck. BELOW: A Masai tribesman herding goats.

to which Portugal had already staked a claim. In 1884 Germany’s first chancellor, Otto von Bismarck, announced German claims to three African colonies: Togoland, Cameroon, and South-West Africa, which threatened to create a state of conflict, there being concerns over the European colonial balance of power. Bismarck, with France, called for a conference to settle these rivalries, and it was on November

10