An examination of the attempts by Bismarck, the European powers and the US to internationalize Africa for free trade, while dividing it into colonial monopolies. The work includes recent research by African and European historians.

The conference in Berlin and future in Africa 1884-85; trade of western Africa 1875-90; free trade and territorial partition in 19th century West Africa; chartered companies in Africa; Christian missionary activities in Africa; the German Empire; imperial Germany and West Africa; Bismarck, the Concert of Europe and future of West Africa 1883-85; French African priorities; the British Empire and the Anglo-Portuguese Congo treaty of February 1884; Portuguese and Spanish roles in Africa; Leopold II and the Association Internationale du Congo; the Berlin Act of 26 February 1885; West African boundaries and the eventual partition; the Berlin conference and international law, and humanitarianism, and USA interest, and coverage in the German, French and British press; resistance in West Africa; African politics and European rivalry in Bufumbira; indigenization of European colonialism in Africa - Yorubaland and Dahomey since 1860; Nigerian reaction to British rule 1885-1918; Afro-European relations in the western Congo basin 1884-85; Nigerian emirates 1897-1906; African perception of European policies in Africa during the 1880s - reflections by a European; the Berlin conference and the expansion of Europe; results of the Berlin West Africa conference. Index.