THE MODERN HISTORY OF Africa as a geopolitically contested landmass full of parcels of territory that were sliced up by covetous outsiders formally began in Germany in 1884, at a famous event known as the Berlin Conference. At the time, Europeans barely controlled 10 percent of the continent, mostly in its northern and southern extremities. By 1914, as a result of decisions taken in Berlin, Old Continent monarchs and other rulers held sway over 90 percent of Africa.
