Source Analysis

First Partial 4th Semester

General Act of the Berlin Conference

Name1: Aranzza del Carmen Pérez Tejada Valdez Group: 4F

Name2: Isabella Astudillo Martínez

Name 3: Ximena Pérez Tello Gómez

Name 4: Luis Santiago Bello González

Name 5: Jorge Gilberto González López

Instructions: To understand in a better way the repercussions of the Berlin Conference, it

will be important to know the policies that were adopted by the empires of the 19th century
on Africa, its territory and its population.

To develop the following Source Analysis you will need to team up with another 4
classmates, making teams of 5 participants no more, no less, and upload it in the next format
with the name of the participants.

The Source will be uploaded to classroom by the leader of the team, the other ones will mark
the task as “finished”

Important: No one can be left without a team, if this happens the entire classroom will
automatically lose 2 points in the assignment.

Title of the doc. General Act of the Berlin Conference on West Africa, 26
February 1885

Link https://loveman.sdsu.edu/docs/1885GeneralActBerlinConference
.pdf

Information European expansion into Africa during the 19th century led German
Chancellor Otto von Bismarck to organize the Berlin conference.
Between 1884 and 1885, the European powers agreed on a series of
principles for colonizing the continent, which ended up almost
completely dominating. The source maintains in the first instance the
countries called and participants, the representatives of each power,
the articles holding the frontrarian limits to be discussed and the
 clauses that would be established by territories.

Origin The document originates in Berlin, Germany, being signed on

February 26, 1885, after being reacted to and signed by those
involved. This is considered a primary source, as it’s an original and
first-hand information medium.

Perspective The source was written from a geopolitical point of view, with the
political and geographical rules that involved the continent being
drafted, in this way the agreements would be approved by the nations
convened, the common interests in trade and free navigation in Africa
are recognized as the main perspective. looking for the "just"
distribution.

Context At the end of the 19th century, the continuous and new explorations
toward the African continent led the European powers to seek ways of
exploiting the wealth found, being very important the impact and
value of imperialism at the time, as it represented how strong a
country was to conquer new territories, so in a "regulated" partition
the need for distribution arises without considering african
representatives.

Audience The document is addressed to European nations and empires, although

it is also a warning of what was about to happen to the world. The
participating nations were: Belgium, France, Germany, Spain, United
Kingdom, Portugal, Italy, Denmark, Netherlands, USA, Russia,
Sweden, Norway and the Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian Empires.

Motive The main reason was to stipulate and curb political competition,
seeking fair geographical division for countries, increasing the
exploitation of both resources and entire communities and
populations, although a few years later, the clauses were prevented by
other conflicts.

Summary: This source, being the General Act of the Berlin Conference, is a
primary means of information, as it was written as an agreement to
With the elements distribute the African territories to the nations involved, which were
of the IOP CAM United Kingdom, France, Germany, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Spain,
make the next the United States of America, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Russia,
analysis: Sweden-Norway, and the Ottoman Empire.
What was sought was to regulate the conditions for free
Paragraph 1: navigation and trade in the continent, because it would favor the
Values Of Origin economies and imperialist sense of the powers, whose value was
Paragraph 2: determined by colonization and conquest.
Values of Purpose Among the regulations were the development of trade and
Paragraph 3: civilization, so no one could prevent the passage of a ship or impose
Values of Context tariffs on its goods, not even during a war, and the territories of the
Paragraph 4: Congo became neutral, France and the United Kingdom. For their part,
Limitation they would control the passage through the Niger.
Being a very important document for the time, it determined the
actions of the nations, quickly causing Africa to be owned by Europe.
Among the value of origin is the importance of Otto von Bismarck,
chancellor who convened the assembly with a global audience, having a
great impact on the world's vision for European expansion.
Finally, the main limitation found in the source, is that of the
perspective from socio-political interests, more like an unfair
demonstration on distributing territories of a continent whose
representatives were not taken into account, starting with a great wave of
colonization, exploitation of memories and of own civilizations, (even
considering that one of the clauses was the prohibition of slavery).

Extra: The teams you form fo the source analysis will be the same the same ones in
which you will compete during the “amazing race”