Complete the account of the scramble for Africa.
Before about 1880 European presence in Africa was overwhelmingly ______, and within roughly thirty years almost the whole continent was under European rule. The Berlin Conference agreed that a claim required ______ occupation, which arguably ______ the partition by making paper claims worthless. The Congo was recognised as the personal possession of ______.
Word bank: coastal · effective · accelerated · Leopold II · inland · delayed
Hints
- The first blank describes where the trading posts were.
- A rule that claims must be made real is a rule that rewards moving fast.
Show the answer
Before about 1880 European presence in Africa was overwhelmingly coastal, and within roughly thirty years almost the whole continent was under European rule. The Berlin Conference agreed that a claim required effective occupation, which arguably accelerated the partition by making paper claims worthless. The Congo was recognised as the personal possession of Leopold II.
The effective-occupation rule is the detail that turns a procedural agreement into a cause. Once a claim had to be backed by administration on the ground, every power had an incentive to send expeditions immediately rather than negotiate at leisure, so a conference intended to regulate competition intensified it.
Practise The Extra-European World
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