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The Berlin Conference of 1884–1885 marked the pinnacle of European competition for African territory, known colloquially as the Scramble for Africa. During the 1870s and early 1880s, European countries such as the United Kingdom, France, and Germany began to look to Africa for natural resources for their expanding industrial sectors, as well as a potential market for the goods produced by these factories. As a result, these governments sought to protect their business interests in Africa by sending explorers to the continent in order to secure pacts from indigenous peoples or their alleged legislators.
The General Act of the Berlin Conference, which resulted from it, formally established the Scramble for Africa. The envoys in Berlin established the competition rules by which the great powers were to have been directed in their quest for colonies. No nation was allowed to stake assertions in Africa without first informing other power and authority of its motives.
The Berlin Conference had an impact on Africa by dividing it without regard for native Africans' wishes or traditional tribal boundaries. The Berlin Conference is frequently cited as an underlying cause of twentieth-century African violence.