The humanitarian outcry against both the slave trade and slavery which occurred at the end of the eighteenth century and swelled in the early nineteenth century, became a significant force as the need for slave labor diminished.

In the beginning, as previously noted, the Europeans were not powerful enough to seize slaves at will or to invade the African kingdoms.

But the industrial revolution had immeasurably widened the power gap between Europe and Africa.

By the time the slave trade ended, and European adventurers had found new ways to achieve gigantic capital gains, Europe had achieved a power advantage sufficient to invade Africa at will.
As European interests in colonizing Africa increased, the European powers, at the middle of the nineteenth century, were also tearing one another apart in the process of this competitive expansion, In order to avoid further misfortune, the great powers of Europe met at the conference of Berlin in 1885.

Without troubling to consult with any Africans, they drew lines on a map of Africa dividing it among themselves.