The Berlin Conference had established the principle of effective occupation to have African territorial rights recognised by the European Colonial Powers thus replacing the previous historical right principle.
The Portuguese Empire in Africa controlled the Congo river connection to the Atlantic and coastal areas in Eastern and Western coast of sub-Saharan Africa under the principle of historic right turned obsolete after the resolutions of 1885.
A national effort of pacification campaigns to secure its African territories and a grand expansion colonial project called Pink Map will lead the Portuguese to take men and arms to prove the British and German Empire Portugal's ability to submit to vassalage and lead a civilizing mission in the interior areas of Angola and Mozambique.