Berlin Conference

Topic 1 - The Partition of Africa

As the principal reason for convening this conference in 1884, dividing up Africa was a subject of much contention. Each European nation that participated sought the best deal for their countries. They considered the type and amount of natural resources available in a certain territory and the bodies of water that facilitated transportation and trade therein. By this time in history, some had already made bilateral agreements with African nations or other European nations to define their claims, but others were left scrambling to seize partitions of land to advance their nations goals. Delegates in this committee must compete with their counterparts and facilitate strong diplomacy formalize an agreement about the future of the most resource rich continent on the planet. 

Topic 2 - Defining Legitimate Territorial Claims

As debate continued about how Africa should be divided, many delegates posed the question of what exactly constitutes a legitimate claim to African territory. Delegates circled around the idea of "effective occupation," which suggested that a country must have significant administrative presence and citizens living in a territory in Africa in order to truly have a claim to the land. Nations that were long established in Africa supported the principle of effective occupation because of their significant presence in the region already. Newcomers to the scramble for Africa felt implementing effective occupation would prevent them from gaining any further claims. Thus, it is the responsibility of the delegates to decide what direction to take when defining formal claims to imperial territories.