CAMBRIDGE, UNITED KINGDOM - 62% of Africa’s modern borders were directly affected by historical political frontiers such as pre-existing African kingdoms and water bodies rather than random European colonialist decisions, claims new research published in the American Political Science Review. Researchers push back at the commonly held notion — often focused on the now infamous Berlin Conference of 1884–85 — that all African bilateral borders were drawn arbitrarily by Europeans.

While Europeans indeed knew very little about most of Africa at that time, the researchers from Cambridge explain that “their self-interested goals of amassing territory prompted intensive examination of on-the-ground conditions as they formed borders.” This included negotiating with African rulers to secure treaties and learn about historical state frontiers. It meant Africans were able to influence the border-formation process which has given us many of our modern borders.