Response to the Berlin Conference

I thought our group did well for the position we were in. We were the last group to pick and we were able to surround Ethiopia. That was one of our goals to surround Italy and perhaps attack them once again to gain more land. We were able to get much of the Sahara dessert which contains oil for future use. A chunk of land in Madagascar were left so we took that land as well. We also were able to gain a little of land in the south where there were a lot of raw materials.

Great Britain did a good job with their planning and got a lot of land. They were able to gain land that possessed raw materials and land that was suitable for farming. I thought France didn't do as a good job that they should have done. If you look at what they were actually able to do, they were able to obtain a large amount of land. In our run through, France only gained small lands around ports near France. I thought they could have done better and try to get more raw materials which they really didn't go for.

The Berlin Conference affected Africa greatly because Africans had no say in what happened and all of their land was lost. Foreigners came into their land and they could do nothing else about it. Families were separated, cultures were broken, and many lives were lost during this phase. It still affects Africa now because many African countries are in terrible conditions. European countries used the land and destroyed the African's lives. After they left, they didn't help and let the countries run by themselves. Europeans encouraged tribes to fight against each other and now there are violent wars going around in Africa. Now, many countries in Africa need help and lack sanitary living conditions. They are plagued by diseases such as AIDS, dirty water, wars, and lack of food.