To what extent did chartered companies play an important role in the partition of Africa?

The question requires that candidates consider the merits or otherwise of the suggestion that chartered companies played an important role in the partition of Africa. Candidates may refer to the role of chartered companies such as Goldie’s Royal Niger Company, Rhodes’s British South Africa Company and Mackinnon’s Imperial British East Africa Company as forward agents of imperialist expansion, and analyse the activities of these companies in areas such as exploration, mineral exploitation, warfare, treaty-making and the negotiation of protectorates. While other relevant factors, such as the role of explorers and missionaries in the partition, and general economic and strategic causes, may be referred to, the bulk of the response will remain on the issue raised in the question.