30 
EUROPE AND AFRICA 
come within the compass” of the deliberations. England 
thereupon gave her approval and designated Sir Edward 
Malet as her representative. The conference began its 
sittings on November 15, 1884, with Bismarck in the chair, 
and concluded them on February 26, 1885, when the ‘Gen- 
eral Act of the West African Conference” was duly signed 
by all the representatives present. 
The conference officially ignored the International Asso- 
ciation until its last session, at which the Independent State 
of the Congo (or, as it is better known, the “Congo Free 
State’’) was formally welcomed into the family of nations; 
for many members of the conference, in behalf of their re- 
spective governments, had been busy making treaties which 
established its position as a state and defined its territory. 
The United States had, indeed, recognized it as a “friendly 
government” in the preceding April, but Germany, the first 
of the European nations, did not recognize it till November 
8, and the other states followed between December 16 
(Great Britain) and February 23 (Belgium). Bismarck 
saw in this a means of preventing armed conflict over the 
Congo Basin, of restricting the Portuguese advance, and of 
preserving the region to free trade. The Association agreed 
not to levy import duties on goods brought into its territory 
and to accord to German subjects all rights granted to the 
subjects of the most favored nation. On her side, Ger- 
many recognized the flag and the boundaries of the Inde- 
pendent State to be formed by the Association, as given in 
a map appended to the treaty. The treaties signed by the 
other powers were very similar, though much European 
pressure was required to compel Portugal to recognize the 
north bank of the Congo as belonging to the new state 
(February 14, 1885). The south bank as far as Noki was 
relinquished to Portugal, and the coast province of Cabinda. 
The Congo territory on the north bank was only a narrow