<P> The Berlin Conference (1884--1885) mediated the imperial competition among Britain, France and Germany, defining "effective occupation" as the criterion for international recognition of colonial claims and codifying the imposition of direct rule, accomplished usually through armed force . </P> <P> In Germany, rising pan-Germanism was coupled to imperialism in the Alldeutsche Verband ("Pangermanic League"), which argued that Britain's world power position gave the British unfair advantages on international markets, thus limiting Germany's economic growth and threatening its security . </P> <P> Asking whether colonies paid, economic historian Grover Clark argues an emphatic "No!" He reports that in every case the support cost, especially the military system necessary to support and defend the colonies outran the total trade they produced . Apart from the British Empire, they were not favored destinations for the immigration of surplus populations . </P> <P> Africa was the target of the third wave of European colonialism, after that of the Americas and Asia . Many European statesmen and industrialists wanted to accelerate the Scramble for Africa, securing colonies before they strictly needed them . As a champion of Realpolitik, Bismarck disliked colonies and thought they were a waste of time, but his hand was forced by pressure from both the elites and the general population which considered the colonization a necessity for German prestige . German colonies in Togoland, Samoa, South - West Africa and New Guinea had corporate commercial roots, while the equivalent German - dominated areas in East Africa and China owed more to political motives . The British also took an interest in Africa, using the East Africa Company to take over what are now Kenya and Uganda . The British crown formally took over in 1895 and renamed the area the East Africa Protectorate . </P>

When did the second wave of colonialism begin