page_title: German West Africa
section_title: The West Africa Conference and territorial adjustments
hierarchical_section_title: German West Africa / The West Africa Conference and territorial adjustments
caption_attribution_description: Español: Caricatura sobre conferencia de Berlín, 1885 English: Cartoon about the Berlin Conference, original title: «&#160;Découpage de l’Afrique à la conférence de Berlin&#160;», Subtitle: LA CONFÉRENCE DE BERLIN - A chacun sa part, si l'on est bien sage.
context_page_description: German West Africa was a rarely used designation for the German colonies in West Africa between 1884 and 1919. The term was normally used for the territories of Cameroon and Togo. German West Africa was not an administrative unit. However, in trade and in the vernacular the term was sometimes in use.
context_section_description: Having staked its claims with Nachtigal and backed them up with naval force by dispatching the West Africa Squadron, Germany needed to secure international recognition of its position in the region.  Bismarck believed that the acquisition of colonies, while expensive and of no real economic or military interest, was beneficial in terms of gaining bargaining power with other governments. His foreign policy goal was to secure an international agreement that would place a check on the extensive ‘informal empire’ that Britain had built up. With French support, he, therefore, convened a conference in Berlin which would place Germany’s acquisitions in Africa on an internationally-recognised footing and would establish the rules that all powers would follow in future when making territorial claims in the continent.
  The Berlin Conference (known as the ‘West Africa Conference’ or the ‘Congo Conference’) convened in November 1884, and remained in session until February 1885. The General Act of the conference made no mention of Togo, Kamerun or any specific territory other than the basin of the Congo. Nevertheless the conference did confirm the steps required in order for the Powers to recognise each others’ territorial claims in West Africa – steps which Nachtigal had followed. Along with a number of claims by other Powers, German claims in West Africa were thus effectively recognised by means of the conference. In parallel with the main conference sessions, discussions were pursued which were intended to avoid possible conflict by tidying up overlapping claims and starting to define borders. Just two months after the Berlin Conference, on 22 April 1885, Germany concluded a treaty with England which established the borders around Mount Cameroon. The following year, on May 6, 1886, another treaty extended the frontier to the east. An agreement with France on December 24, 1885 fixed the Campo River as the southern border of Kamerun.
  As these border agreements proceeded, Germany abandoned certain of its claims in order to consolidate its position in Togoland and Kamerun. Thus on October 24, 1885, Mahinland came under British protection in return for territorial compensation to Germany. On 24 December 1885 Kapitaï and Koba were ceded to France in return for compensation in Togo.
  In 1884 an expedition led by Eduard Schulze tried to establish a Germany colony near Nokki on the Congo, but it received no official support. The International African Association recognised the German claim, the borders of which were never defined. However at the Berlin Conference Bismarck ceded German rights in Nokki to Portugal.
caption: Cartoon of Bismarck dividing Africa at the Berlin Conference, 1885
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