<Table> <Tr> <Td> </Td> <Td> This section does not cite any sources . Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources . Unsourced material may be challenged and removed . (May 2013) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) </Td> </Tr> </Table> <Tr> <Td> </Td> <Td> This section does not cite any sources . Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources . Unsourced material may be challenged and removed . (May 2013) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) </Td> </Tr> <P> Before the conference, European diplomacy treated African indigenous people in the same manner as the New World natives, forming trading relationships with the indigenous chiefs . In the early 1800s the search for ivory, which was then often used in the production of luxurious products, led many white traders further into the interior of Africa . By 1870, the momentum of European intervention with Africa quickly increased, which can be seen as The Conquest of Africa . With the exception of trading posts along the coasts, the continent was essentially ignored . </P> <P> In 1876, King Leopold II of Belgium, who had previously founded the International African Society that same year, invited Henry Morton Stanley to join him in researching and' civilising' the continent . In 1878, the International Congo Society was also formed, with more economic goals, but still closely related to the former society . Léopold secretly bought off the foreign investors in the Congo Society, which was turned to imperialistic goals, with the African Society serving primarily as a philanthropic front . </P>

What was the berlin conference and how did it impact africa