6.1

PD: THINK LIKE A HISTORIAN

What kind of conclusions can you make about this cooperative agreement among European powers at the Berlin Conference of 1885?

"WISHING, in a spirit of good and mutual accord, to regulate the conditions most [favorable] to the development of trade and civilization in certain regions of Africa, and to assure to all nations the advantages of free navigation on the two chief rivers of Africa flowing into the Atlantic Ocean; BEING DESIROUS, on the other hand, to obviate [remove] the misunderstanding and disputes which might in the future arise from new acts of occupation on the coast of Africa, and concerned, at the same time, as to the means of furthering the moral and material well-being of the native populations; HAVE RESOLVED, on the invitation addressed to them by the Imperial Government of Germany, in agreement with the Government of the French Republic, to meet for those purposes in Conference at Berlin..."

General Act of the Conference at Berlin, 1885