Discuss the impact of the Berlin West Africa conference on the partition of Africa.

The question requires that candidates offer a considered and balanced review of the impact of the Berlin West Africa conference on the partition of Africa. Its impact may extend beyond the timeframe of the section but any such references must be clearly linked to the issue raised in the question. Candidates may refer to Leopold II’s success in persuading other powers to confirm his claims to the Congo region, confirmation by those powers that Germany had arrived in the colonial game, and the need for “effective occupation” as a precondition for the recognition of any claims of sovereignty, a factor which set off a “second scramble” as European explorers clamoured to agree treaties with African leaders in the interior of the continent. While other relevant factors, for example other causes of the partition that predated the Berlin conference, may be referred to in order to contextualize the impact of the conference, the bulk of the response will remain on the impact of the conference itself.