Borders Drawn in European Rooms

Most of today’s borders weren’t shaped by ancient rivalries but by meetings held in

distant European rooms. In 1884, European powers met at the Berlin

Conference. No Africans were invited. Lines were drawn across maps of Africa,

dividing empires, not peoples. Straight borders cut through languages, tribes,

and trade routes. After World War I, it happened again. In 1916,

Britain and France secretly signed the Sykes–Picot Agreement. It divided Ottoman

lands in the Middle East. Modern Iraq, Syria, Jordan,

and Lebanon took shape on paper first. Local realities came second. In 1919,