French officers having reviewed the accounts of the Danish-Prussian war ignored doctrine and began to position the Mitrailleuse forward with the Infantry lines much in the way that the famed Prussian leader, Fredrich the Great, had done with his light artillery. Despite being commonly reduced by Prussian artillery fire, the persistent fear of these weapons helped to repeal the advancing Prussian troops.
As a result of the bloody wars of German unification and the potential of the provocation of yet another European war over issues in Africa, Portugal suggested the idea of an international conference that could settle the territorial disputes. Concerns about Belgian activities in the Congo, made evident the need to regulate imperialistic activity. The conference was held in Berlin between November 15, 1874 and November 26, 1875. Under the leadership of the greatly admired German Chancellor, Otto von Bismarck, the leader were able to address many of the issues of the age.
Controlling the slave trade, promoting humanitarian idealism and preventing another European war were promoted as the focus of the conference. The conferees did resolve the end of the remaining slave trade, providing for the welfare of Africa by requiring all colonial claims to be secured by the occupation and administration of colonies by a imperial power or its assigned agent. The crowning achievement of the conference was the outlawing of war between the signatories on the lands of Europe. In practice, the Berlin Conference established methods and rules for the dividing the continent of Africa between the European powers and moving the violence of war between European powers off shores, away from the eyes of the ever more powerful middle classes. While preventing out right war between the major power in the following decades, it precipitated a mad scramble for any remaining lands and innumerable colonial wars.
