Reflect on the impacts the Berlin Conference (held in the
Old Chancellery) is having on Africa and its nations to this day.
The Berlin Conference reflects, in my opinion, the two
greatest problems with people: a lack of communication and ignorance. In
addition, the Berlin Conference also contains the selfishness of those in
power. After reading Michalopoulos and Papaioannou’s article "The Long-Run
Effects of the Scamble for Africa", I can understand how the problems of
Africa can be trace back to the Berlin Conference. One of the results of the
Berlin Conference that cause the most trouble in Africa was the splitting up of
ethnic groups and putting them with different ethnic groups. The borders drawn
by the European powers invited to the Berlin Conference were made to suit their
best interested and stop fighting between them. In doing so, the borders gave rise
to civil war within African countries as the borders did not reflect the actuality
of the African continent. Even after gaining independent, the borders remain
the same. It is important to note that not a single African was present at the
conference. As a result, there was no mediation or even information given to
the European powers making the decisions that would change the lives of the
Africans. In summary, I belief that the Berlin Conference is the cause of many
conflicts within African as the European power divided the continent without
proper knowledge and did so without any communication with the African people
due to their own interests.
Bibliography:
Michalopoulos, S. & Papaioannou, E. (2011)
"The Long-Run Effects of the Scamble for Africa"
4 comments:
Question. Does anyone know what type of European presences were in Africa after these borders were drawn? If any? Was there any European mediation during the civil wars that followed?
I know that prior to World War Two Mussolini had interest in the regions in Africa as he wished to expand his empire. This caused conflict between the locals there and the Italians leading to a full out war.
Interesting, but do we know the any of the European powers ever tried to step in, and clean up the mess they had made, so to speak? After these arbitrary borders were placed igniting these civil wars, did the Europeans ever attempt to step in a bring about peaceful solutions? Or did they just let the Africans battle it out amongst themselves?
I'm not entirely sure about that. You still about the ethnic conflicts within the continent. Also Apartheid was introduced in South Africa and most of the world just boycotted the country rather than intervening. Interesting fact: the grandson of the guy who came up with Apartheid is in Ireland and I went to school with him.
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