Historians have long marked the Berlin conference in the officialization of Scramble for Africa,[22] but recent scholarships have questioned the legal and economic impact of the conference. [3] This principle allowed Europeans to conquer Africa with other writings at the conference, but to do as little as possible to manage or control it. The principle did not apply so much to the African hinterland at the time of the conference. This is where the “backcountry theory” was born, which basically gave any coastal colonial power the right to claim political influence over an indefinite area within the country. As Africa was irregularly formed, this theory caused problems and was subsequently rejected. [19] The Berlin conference did not initiate European colonization of Africa, but it legitimized and formalized the process. In addition, it has generated new interest in Africa. After the end of the conference, the European powers extended their claims to Africa so that European states claimed almost 90% of The African territory until 1900. In 1895, the British South Africa Company commissioned american Scout Frederick Russell Burnham to look for minerals and ways to improve river navigation in central and southern Africa. Burnham oversaw and led the northern Territories British South Africa Exploration Company`s expedition, which first found important copper deposits north of the Zambezi river in northeastern Rhodesia.
Along the Kafue River, Burnham saw many similarities to the copper deposits he had worked in the United States and met natives wearing copper bracelets. Copper quickly became Central Africa`s main exporter and is still essential to the economy today. After witnessing the political and economic rivalries between European empires in the last quarter of the 19th century, the formal partition of Africa prevented European countries from fighting on the territory. The conference was an opportunity to channel latent European hostilities outward, to create new areas for European expansion in the face of the growing interests of the United States, Russia and Japan, and to create a constructive dialogue to limit future hostilities. In the last years of the 19th century, informal imperialism went from “informal imperialism,” through military influence and economic domination, to direct domination that led to colonial imperialism. Colonies were seen as assets in the “balances of power,” useful as trading posts in international negotiations. Colonies of large indigenous populations were also a source of military power; Britain and France used British Indian or North African soldiers in many of their colonial wars. In the age of nationalism, an empire was a status symbol; The idea of “greatness” has been associated with the sense of duty that underlies the strategies of many nations.
Inevitably, the struggle for territory led to conflicts between European powers, particularly between the British and the French in West Africa; Egypt, the Portuguese and the British in East Africa; and the French king and King Leopold II in the Central African Republic.