Which 1884 conference set rules for European claims in Africa?

The Berlin Conference set rules for European claims in Africa from 1884 to 1885. Also called the Congo Conference, it was convened in Berlin by German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck.

Representatives of European powers and the United States discussed trade, navigation, and the recognition of territorial claims. The conference adopted principles including effective occupation, meaning a power generally had to demonstrate actual control to support a claim. It also established free-trade and free-navigation arrangements in the Congo Basin and Niger Basin in specified circumstances.

The meeting did not draw every later colonial boundary, and no African government was represented as an equal participant. Nevertheless, its diplomatic framework accelerated the Scramble for Africa, during which European powers seized or claimed most of the continent. The conference recognized the Congo Free State as the personal possession of Belgium's King Leopold II, rather than as an ordinary Belgian colony. Its consequences included coercive rule, economic exploitation, and borders that often ignored existing African political and cultural geography.