ages would have provoked them to deadly strifes, was in itself a most hopeful augury, and possibly the success of the Conference inspired a too confident belief in the effective watchfulness of the Powers over the welfare of the young State to which they then stood as godfathers.  In any case it must be confessed that they have since interpreted their duties in the easy way to which godfathers are all too prone.  As in the case of the Treaty of Berlin of 1878, so in that of the Conference of Berlin of 1885, the fault lay not in the promise but in the failure of the executors to carry out the terms of the promise.

Another matter remains to be noted.  It resulted from the demands urged by Portugal in 1883-84.  By way of retort, the plenipotentiaries now declared any occupation of territory to be valid only when it had effectively taken place and had been notified to all the Powers represented at the Conference.  It also defined a “sphere of influence” as the area within which one Power is recognised as possessing priority of claims over other States.  The doctrine was to prove convenient for expansive States in the future.

The first important event in the life of the new State was the assumption by King Leopold II. of sovereign powers.  All nations, and Belgium not the least, were startled by his announcement to his Ministers, on April 16, 1885, that he desired the assent of the Belgian Parliament to this proceeding.  He stated that the union between Belgium and the Congo State would be merely personal, and that the latter would enjoy, like the former, the benefits of neutrality.  The Parliament on April 28 gave its assent, with but one dissentient voice, on the understanding stated above.  The Powers also signified their approval.  On August 1, King Leopold informed them of the facts just stated, and announced that the new State took the title of the Congo Free State (L’Etat independant du Congo)[459].

[Footnote 459:  The Story of the Congo Free State, by H.W.  Wack (New York, 1905), p. 101; Wauters, L’Etat independant du Congo, pp. 36-37.]

Questions soon arose concerning the delimitation of the boundary with the French Congo territory; and these led to the signing of a protocol at Brussels on April 29, 1887, whereby the Congo Free State gave up certain of its claims in the northern part of the Congo region (the right bank of the River Ubangi), but exacted in return the addition of a statement “that the right of pre-emption accorded to France could not be claimed as against Belgium, of which King Leopold is sovereign[460].”

[Footnote 460:  The Congo State, by D.C.  Boulger (London, 1896), p. 62.]