5The Coming of a Bipolar World and the Crisis of the “Middle
Citations (1)
- The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers whole source · open book
5The Coming of a Bipolar World and the Crisis of the “Middle Powers”: Part One, 1885–1918 In the winter of 1884–1885, the Great Powers of the world, joined by a few smaller states, met in Berlin in an attempt to reach an agreement over trade, navigation, and boundaries in West Africa and the Congo and the principles of effective occupation in Africa more generally.1 In so many ways, the Berlin West Africa Conference can be seen, symbolically, as the zenith of Old Europe’s period of predominance in global affairs. Japan was not a member of the conference; although modernizing swiftly, it was still regarded by the West as a quaint, backward state.
chapter: Chapter 5 . The Coming of a Bipolar World and the Crisis of the “Middle Powers”: Part One, 1885–1918