Quote:
All powers that exercise sovereign rights or influence in the areas in question undertake to supervise the preservation of the native population and the improvement of their moral and material living conditions, and to cooperate in the suppression of slavery and in particular the N**** trade; without distinction of nationality or cult, they will protect and favour all (…) institutions and undertakings which (…) aim to educate the natives and render intelligible and worthy to them the advantages of civilisation.
Source:
Deutsches Reichsgesetzblatt (1885): Generalakte der Berliner Konferenz. Nr. 23, p. 225
Author Bio:
The General Act of the Berlin Conference of 1885, from which this quote comes, was the final document of a meeting that lasted more than 2 months. The German Empire, the USA, the Ottoman Empire, Austria-Hungary, Belgium, Denmark, France, Great Britain, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Russia, Spain and Sweden-Norway took part in it. African representatives were not present.
Context:
In 1884, German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck convened the Berlin Conference to lay the foundations for the division of Africa for trade and into colonies. The standards defined in the conference’s document, which European powers portrayed as guaranteeing protection for Africans, were violated in all colonies: oppression, violence and arbitrariness were the norm for the colonised (Zimmerer 2021). Shortly after the conference, nearly the entire African continent was divided between seven European countries. In 1914, half of the earth's surface and a third of the world's population was living under colonial rule (Bertelsmann Universal-Lexikon 2006: 496). Bismarck is treated as a "cautious colonial politician" in historiography (see Bpb 2015). However, this is not because he was against subjugating and exploiting other peoples, but because for him, the costs outweighed the benefits (ibid.).Further Reading:
*Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung (2015): Bismarck und der Kolonialismus.
*DW.com (17.10.2016): Recognising Germany's Colonial Crimes: Work in Progress.