What is the Congress of Berlin and it's significance?

Answer 1

The 1878 Congress of Berlin is when the European powers met to divy up Africa betwist'd them. Most of the random lines drawn at the conference (which had no basis in historic or ethnic boundries) remain as the borders of the modern African states.

Prior to the end of colonialism in Africa (beginning in the late 1950s-early 1960s), there were only two independant African states - Liberia (colonised by American slaves) and Ethiopia (which traces its roots to the ancient state of Aksum, but more accuratly is a medieval Christian state).