German interest in West Africa dated from the 17th and 18th centuries, when the Duchy of Courland and Brandenburg-Prussia established fortifications and trading posts in the region.

[5]: 32–34  At the same time as established German commercial interests in West Africa were seeking government and naval support, the broader social movement in favour of colonisation was gaining ground.

[6] Chancellor Otto von Bismarck asked for views on potential German intervention in West Africa from the senates of Lübeck, Hamburg and Bremen.

[7] In December 1883 the government undertook to take action to protect German traders by sending an Imperial Commissioner for West Africa to enter into formal treaties with local rulers.

[9] Bismarck's plan was to use Nachitigal's treaties to establish German sovereignty over key areas in West Africa, which would then be governed indirectly, with administration undertaken mainly by a commercial company.

[8] On 5 July 1884 Nachtigal signed a treaty with Mlapa III, ruler of Togo (a village known today as Togoville) establishing a German protectorate over a stretch of coastal territory.

On September 30, 1884, Emperor Wilhelm I issued an order establishing a West African squadron under the command of the Chief of the Staff of the Admiralty, Rear Admiral Eduard von Knorr.

[19] Shortly before the squadron arrived, the settlement of chief Manga Ndumbe Bell, who had signed a treaty with Nachtigal, had been burned down and the German flag removed.

The landing party received word that rioters on the opposite bank had attacked the Jantzen & Thormählen factories and carried off their managers, and they stormed Joss town to try and recover them.

[21] Having staked its claims with Nachtigal and backed them up with naval force by dispatching the West Africa Squadron, Germany needed to secure international recognition of its position in the region.

Bismarck believed that the acquisition of colonies, while expensive and of no real economic or military interest, was beneficial in terms of gaining bargaining power with other governments.

With French support, he, therefore, convened a conference in Berlin which would place Germany's acquisitions in Africa on an internationally recognised footing and would establish the rules that all powers would follow in future when making territorial claims in the continent.

In parallel with the main conference sessions, discussions were pursued which were intended to avoid possible conflict by tidying up overlapping claims and starting to define borders.

[35] While the Berlin Conference was largely concerned with the Congo, there was also competition between Germany, France and Britain for rights on the Niger, an important artery for the colonization of the interior.

[36] The Benue expedition of Paul Staudinger [de] in 1885/86 sought to establish relations with the Sokoto Caliphate and the Emirate of Gwandu, but this did not lead to occupation or protection.

[37] Likewise Friedrich Colin’s attempt to reach the headwaters of the Niger from Guinea came to nothing after Germany agreed to cede Kapitaï and Koba (also known as ‘Colinsland’) to France.

In 1894/95 an expedition funded by the Togo Committee and led by Hans Gruner [de] attempted to acquire territories for Germany in the central Niger region.