2. The Scramble for Africa (late 1800s-early 1900s)
During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, European powers divided Africa with little regard for existing ethnic or cultural boundaries. This artificial partitioning led to decades of conflict and systematic exploitation, fundamentally altering the continent’s social and political landscape. The Berlin Conference of 1884-1885 formalized this process, resulting in borders that disregarded indigenous divisions and sowed seeds for future tensions (britannica.com).
