Summary: The Berlin Conference of 1884 brought together Europe's leading powers to discuss trade and territorial rights in Africa. It is widely seen as one of the most significant events in the process known as the Scramble for Africa, and the decisions reached had effects which have lasted to the present day. In the following decades, European nations laid claim to most of the continent. Melvyn Bragg is joined by Richard Drayton, Rhodes Professor of Imperial History at King's College London; Richard Rathbone, Emeritus Professor of African History at SOAS, University of London and Joanna Lewis, Assistant Professor of Imperial History at the LSE, University of London.
