On this day in 1884, the "Berlin Conference" began when delegations from nearly every Western European country and the U.S. met in Germany to develop a set of protocols for the seizure and control of African resources.

The conference, which had no African representatives, was the first international conference ever on the subject of Africa, and dealt almost soley with the matter of its exploitation.

At the time, approximately 80% of African land and resources were under domestic control; the influence of Europeans was most strongly exerted on the coast. Following it, colonial powers began seizing resources further inland.

As a result of the conference, which continued into 1885, a "General Act" was signed and ratified by all but one of the 14 nations at the table, the U.S. being the sole exception. The Act's main features were the establishment of a regime of free trade stretching across the middle of Africa, the development of which became the rationale for the recognition of the short-lived "Congo Free State", the abolition of the overland slave trade, and the principle of "effective occupation".

The Conference's rapacious intentions for Africa were noted by outsiders: socialist journalist Daniel De Leon described the conference as "an event unique in the history of political science...Diplomatic in form, it was economic in fact."

Before the Conference ended, the Lagos Observer declared that "the world had, perhaps, never witnessed a robbery on so large a scale." Theodore Holly, the first black Protestant Episcopal Bishop in the U.S., condemned the delegates as having "come together to enact into law, national rapine, robbery and murder".

Berlin 1884: Remembering the conference that divided Africa eu-cool

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  • super_mario_69 [he/him, comrade/them]
    ·
    1 year ago

    I need to take a break from the internet for a while. I'm going to burn myself out so god damn bad if I keep up like this. I've been regular burned out before, so I've tried to rationalise this vibe like "yeah work is a little rough rn but no biggie it'll be fine once I get this project sorted out", but nah, it's not just work. Work isn't so bad for me. The great big elephant in the room is the fact that I'm completely exhausted and mentally drained by seeing all the violence the NATO bloc is committing on the world, and it's getting to the point where I'm legitimately concerned for my mental wellbeing. I'm a shell of the person I was a couple of years ago, even though my own life is materially ten times better now. I haven't left (or even wanted to leave) the house in days and I'm going fucking mad. I'm so dissociated that every day is just a fucking blur at this point. Six or so hours of work, a couple of hours of chores maybe, then the regular eight hours of doomscrolling, despair, and mindless video games before heading to bed, and then doing it all over again. And through all of it I'm fucking angry and sad and crying on the inside and full of pure red screaming rage. Literally having the Mazovian Socio-Economics thought from DE rn.

    So what I thought I'd do is shove my head in the sand for a while. I'm gonna try blocking all social media and news sites I can think of (including hexbear) from all my devices and have my friend put a password on the router's blocky thing. I'll start with a couple of weeks or a month or so and see if it helps at all. Try to focus on cool and good things like making dope food and linux and making music and actually leaving the got darn house for once.

    To put it in :freeze-gamer: terms: When my teammates are being rascals and taking unnecessary risks in Apex or whatever I like to tell them "you'll get zero kills if you're dead". Likewise I can build zero communism if I'm too burnt out to even get out of bed in the morning. Peace out, I'll see you lovely people later.