Granada, Portugal was strong enough to carry the war into Africa. ​In 1415 a Portuguese force captured the citadel of Ceuta on the Moorish coast. From that By the end of the 15th century Spain had completely thrown off the Moslem yoke, but even while the Moors were still in Granada, Portugal was strong enough to carry the war into Africa.  ​ In 1415 a Portuguese force captured the citadel of Ceuta on the Moorish coast. From that time onward Portugal repeatedly interfered in the affairs of Morocco, Spain and Portugal invade the Barbary States. while Spain acquired many ports in Algeria and Tunisia. Portugal, however, suffered a crushing defeat in 1578 at al Kasr al Kebir, the Moors being led by Abd el Malek I. of the then recently established Sharifan dynasty. By that time the Spaniards had lost almost all their African possessions. The Barbary states, primarily from the example of the Moors expelled from Spain, degenerated into mere communities of pirates, and under Turkish influence civilization and commerce declined. The story of these states from the beginning of the 16th century to the third decade of the 19th century is largely made up of piratical exploits on the one hand and of ineffectual reprisals on the other. In Algiers, Tunis and other cities were thousands of Christian slaves. But with the battle of Ceuta Africa had ceased to belong solely to the Mediterranean world. Among those who fought there was one. The supremacy along the coast passed in the 17th century from Portugal to Holland and from Holland in the 18th and 19th centuries to France and England. The whole coast from Senegal to Lagos was dotted with forts and “factories” of rival powers, and this international patchwork persists though all the hinterland has become either French or British territory. Southward from the mouth of the Congo [ 7 ] to the inhospitable region of Damaraland, the Portuguese, from 1491 onward, acquired influence over the Bantu-Negro inhabitants, and in the early part of the 16th century through their efforts Christianity was largely adopted in the native kingdom of Congo. Partition among European Powers In the last quarter of the 19th century the map of Africa was transformed. After the discovery of the Congo the story of exploration takes second place; the continent becomes the theatre of European expansion. Lines of partition, drawn often through trackless wildernesses, marked out the possessions of Germany, France, Great Britain and other powers. Railways penetrated the interior, vast areas were opened up to civilized occupation, and from ancient Egypt to the Zambezi the continent was startled into new life. Before 1875 the only powers with any considerable interest in Africa were Britain, Portugal and France. At that period The division of the continent in 1875. other European nations—with the occasional exception of Great Britain—were indifferent to Portugal’s pretensions, and her estimate of her African empire as covering over 700,000 sq. m. was not challenged. [ 16 ] But the area under effective control of Portugal at that time did not exceed 40,000 sq. m. Great Britain then held some 250,000 sq. m., France about 170,000 sq. m. and Spain 1000 sq. m. markets for her growing industries, and with the markets, colonies. Yet the idea of colonial expansion was of slow growth in Germany, and when Prince Bismarck at length acted Africa was the only field left to exploit, South America being protected from interference by the known determination of the United States to enforce the Monroe Doctrine, while Great Britain, France, the Netherlands, Portugal and Spain already held most of the other regions of the world where colonization was possible. For different reasons the war of 1870 was also the starting-point for France in the building up of a new colonial empire. It was further resolved to establish national committees in the various countries represented, which should collect funds and appoint delegates to the International Association. The central idea appears to have been to put the exploration and development of Africa upon an international footing. But it quickly became apparent that this was an unattainable ideal. The national committees were soon working independently of the International Association, and the Association itself passed through a succession of stages until it became purely Belgian in character, and at last developed into the Congo Free State, under the personal sovereignty of King Leopold. The conference assembled at Berlin on the 15th of November 1884, and after protracted deliberations the “General Act of the Berlin Conference” was signed by the representatives of all the powers attending the conference, on the 26th of February 1885. The powers represented were Germany, Austria-Hungary, Belgium, The Berlin Conference of 1884–85. Denmark, Spain, the United States, France, Great Britain, Italy, Holland, Portugal, Russia, Sweden and Norway, and Turkey, to name them in the alphabetical order adopted in the preamble to the French text of the General Act. Ratifications were deposited by all the signatory powers with the exception of the United States. signed with the independent tribes on that coast, the king of Spain had taken under his protection “the territories of the western coast of Zanzibar, Pemba and some smaller islands which the sultan was allowed to retain were, as has already been stated, placed under British protection in 1890, and the island of Sokotra was placed under the “gracious favour and protection” of Great Britain on the 23rd of April 1886. France’s ownership of Reunion dates back to the 17th century, but the Comoro archipelago was not placed under French protection until April 1886. None of these islands, with the exception of the Zanzibar group, have, however, materially affected the partition of the continent, and they need not be enumerated in the table which follows.