The ‘Scramble for Africa’, also known as the ‘Race for Africa’, was the proliferation of conflicting European claims to African territory during the New Imperialism period, between the 1880s and World War I in 1914.
The last fifth of the 19th century saw the transition from the so-called "informal" imperialism of control through military influence and economic dominance to that of direct rule." Attempts to mediate imperial competition, such as the Berlin Conference (1884-1885) between Britain, France and Germany, failed to establish definitively the competing powers' claims.
