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In 1884 at the request of Portugal, German chancellor Otto von Bismarck called together the major western powers of the world to negotiate questions and end confusion over the control of Africa.
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Fourteen countries were represented by a plethora of ambassadors when the conference opened in Berlin on November 15, 1884.
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The conference lasted until February 26, 1885 - a three month period where colonial powers haggled over geometric boundaries in the interior of the continent, disregarding the cultural and linguistic boundaries already established by the indigenous African population.
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By 1914, the conference participants had fully divided Africa among themselves into fifty countries.