|
| AD 700 |
| c. 788 |
Idris, Arab chief, becomes ruler in Morocco |
|
| AD 800 |
| NEW NATIONS |
| 800 - 909 |
Aghlabid dynasty rules in Tunis on the coast of North Africa; the
rulers set up a colony in Sicily (827 - 902) and invade southern
Italy |
| c. 800 - c. 950 |
Christian empire in Ethiopia continues after the decline of
Aksum |
| 800s |
Arabs and Persians explore East African coast and set up trading
stations at Malindi, Mombasa, Kilwa, and Mogadishu |
| 868 |
Ahmad ibn-Tulun, Egyptian noble of Turkish descent, breaks away from
Abbasid caliphate and sets up Tulunid dynasty in Egypt |
|
| AD 900 |
| c. 900 |
Kasar Hausa (Hausaland), a fertile region on the lower Niger river in
West Africa, prospers due to increasing trade and industry |
| c. 950 - 1050 |
Igbo-Ukwu culture thrives in eastern Nigeria |
| 969 |
Fatimid dynasty expands from Tunis and conquers Egypt from Tulunid
dynasty; Fatimids build Cairo which becomes Egyptian capital |
| 970s |
Fatimids built al-Azhar University in Cairo, one of the world's first
universities; it still exists today |
|
| AD 1000 |
| MONKS AND INVADERS |
| 1000s |
Bantu-speaking peoples set up kingdoms in southern Africa |
| 1000s |
Kingdoms of Takrur and Gao flourish in West Africa due to gold
trade |
| 1021 - 35 |
Reign of Fatimid caliph al-Zahir marks start of decline of Fatimid
power |
| c. 1050s |
Culture of Yoruba people of Ife flourishes in Nigeria in West Africa;
it survives until |
| 1050s - 1146 |
Almoravids, Berber Muslims from western Sahara, take over Morocco,
Algeria, and part of Muslim Spain; they invade Ghana in 1076, and
establish power there |
| 1062 |
Almoravids found capital at Marrakech |
|
| AD 1100 |
| c. 1100 |
Ghana empire in West Africa declines |
| c. 1100 |
Katanga in Zaire central Africa probably founded |
| 1147 |
Almohads, Berber Muslims opposed to Almoravids, seize Marrakech and go
on to conquer Almoravid Spain, Algeria, and Tripoli |
| 1150s |
Zagwe dynasty rules in Ethiopian highlands |
| 1171 |
Saladin, Muslim warrior and commander in Egyptian army, overthrows
Fatimid dynasty |
| 1173 |
Saladin declares himself sultan of Egypt |
|
| AD 1200 |
| CONQUEST AND PLAGUE |
| C. 1200 - 30 |
King Lalibela of Ethiopia responsible for churches cut from rock |
| 1218 |
Ayyubid empire breaks up but Ayyubids rule Egypt to 1250 |
| c. 1220 |
City state of Kilwa in Tanzania increases in prosperity |
| c. 1230 |
Hafsid monarchy takes over from Almohads in Tunisia and acquires much
trade across the Sahara desert |
| c. 1235 |
Great warrior leader Sun Diata founds Mali empire in West Africa; it
expands under his rule |
| c. 1250 |
Kanem kingdom in Lake Chad region begins to break up into rival
factions |
| 1250 |
Last Ayyubid ruler in Egypt murdered; Mamluks, soldiers from central
Asia employed by Ayyubids, seize power and found military state |
| 1260 - 77 |
Mamluk commander Baybars takes over as sultan of Egypt |
|
| AD 1300 |
| 1300 |
Ife culture of West Africa produces famous brasses |
| 1324 |
Emperor of Mali, Mansa Musa, goes on a pilgrimage to Mecca,
Arabia |
| 1348 |
Egypt devastated by plague, called Black Death |
| 1352 - 53 |
Ibn Battuta, Berber scholar, travels across Africa and writes an
account of all he sees |
| c. 1380s |
Foundation of Kongo kingdom in Congo river-mouth region of Zaire,
central Africa |
|
| AD 1400 |
| THE EXPANSION OF
KNOWLEDGE |
| c. 1400 |
Kingdom of Great Zimbabwe in southern Africa thrives on gold
trade |
| 1400s |
Gold from mines in Zimbabwe is exported to Asia via Sofala on the east
coast |
| c. 1400 |
Engaruka community farms land in Tanzania |
| c. 1420 |
Portuguese sailors begin to explore west coast of Africa |
| 1420s |
Songhai people in Gao region, West Africa, begin raids on Mali
empire |
| c. 1430 |
Sultans of Kilwa on east African coast begin grand building
programme |
| 1434 - 68 |
Reign of Christian emperor Zera Yacub in Ethiopia; he expands church
and promotes great monasteries |
| c. 1450 |
Building at Great Zimbabwe, southern Africa, at its height |
| 1456 |
Johannes Gutenberg inventor of the printing press in Germany |
| 1462 |
Sonni Ali becomes ruler of the Songhai and goes on to build an
empire |
| 1474 |
William Caxton prints the first book in English |
| 1482 |
Portuguese explore Congo river estuary |
| 1485 | Portuguese captain and navigator Diego Cгo landed at Cape Cross. He was the first European to set foot in Namibia, indeed, the first European of his time to reach this far south down the coast of Africa |
| 1491 |
Ruler of Congo kingdom baptized as Christian by Portuguese |
|
| AD 1500 |
| THE GREAT RULERS |
| 1500s |
Songhai empire in West Africa enters period of greatest expansion and
power under Askia Mohammed TurrИ |
| 1500s |
Trade encourages growth of Hausa states in West Africa |
| 1505-07 |
Portuguese capture Sofala on east coast and found Mozambique; they
begin to trade with Africans |
| 1507 |
Nzinga Mbemba, Christian and Portuguese ally, becomes king of Kongo
kingdom in central Africa |
| 1517 |
Ottomans defeat Mamluks and conquer Egypt |
| 1529 |
Muslims defeat Christian Ethiopian forces at the Battle of Shimbra
Kure and overrun the kingdom until 1543, when Portuguese troops help to
defeat them |
| c. 1530 |
Beginning of trans-Atlantic slave trade organized by Portuguese |
| 1560s |
First Portuguese embassies in Timbuktu, West Africa |
| 1562 |
Sir John Hawkins starts English slave trade, taking cargoes of slaves
from West Africa to the Americas |
| c. 1570 - c. 1610 |
Kanem-Bornu kingdom in western Central Africa at its most powerful;
alliance with the Ottomans brings it firearms, military training, and Arab
camel troops |
| c. 1575 |
Portuguese begin to colonize Angola; more than a century of warfare
follows |
| 1590-91 |
Songhai empire overthrown by Moroccan army |
| c. 1598 |
First Dutch trade posts set up on Guinea coast, West Africa |
|
| AD 1600 |
| COMMERCE AND
COLONIES |
| 1600s |
Kalonga kingdom, north of Zambezi river, becomes rich through ivory
trade |
| 1600s |
Hausaland dominates trade routes to Sahara |
| 1600s |
Great Zimbabwe replaced by several regional capitals in Transvaal,
Botswana, and Zimbabwe |
| 1620s |
Queen Nzinga of Ndongo fights Portuguese in Angola |
| 1650s |
Portuguese clash with Muslims in Zambezi region |
| c. 1650 |
Ethiopia expels Portuguese missionaries and diplomats |
| 1652 |
Dutch found Cape Town in South Africa |
| 1660s |
Mawlay-al-Rashid restores sultanate of Morocco |
| 1670s |
French settle in Senegal |
| 1670s |
Fulani pastoralist people gain control of Bondu in southern
Senegal |
| 1680s |
Rise of Asante kingdom in West Africa |
| 1680s |
Butua kingdom flourishes in Zimbabwe plains; Portuguese are driven
into Zambezi valley, and also eastwards |
| 1686 |
Louis XIV of France officially annexes Madagascar |
| 1698 |
Portuguese expelled from Mombasa on eastern coast |
|
| AD 1700 |
| THE AGE OF ENQUIRY |
| 1701 |
Osei Tutu creates free Asante nation in West Africa |
| c. 1705 |
Bey (army commander) Husain ibn Ali founds dynasty at Tunis in North
Africa |
| c. 1705 |
Kongo prophetess, Dona Beatrice, founds new religious cult and helps
to end civil war |
| 1710 |
Dey (military leader) becomes pasha in Algiers, controlling northern
Algeria |
| 1714 |
France captures the island of Mauritius, in the Indian Ocean |
| 1720s |
Yoruba state of Oyo still dominates region west of the Niger river in
West Africa |
| 1722 -23 |
Asante conquer kingdom of Bono-Mansu north of the forest area of Akan
region of West Africa |
| 1724-34 |
King Agaja of Dahomey in West Africa temporarily disrupts slave trade;
it is reintroduced in the 1740s |
| c. 1725 |
Fulani Muslim cleric Alfa Ibrahim appointed „Commander of the
Faithfulѕ in Futa Jalon in West Africa |
| 1727 |
Death of Mulai Ismail followed by 30 years of anarchy in Morocco |
| 1740s |
The Lunda create prosperous new kingdom |
| 1746 |
Mazrui dynasty in Mombasa, East Africa, becomes independent from
Oman |
| 1755 |
The first outbreak of smallpox, brought by sailors, in Cape Town,
South Africa, spreads rapidly inland; it kills many Khoisan hunters and
herders |
| 1764-77 |
Reign of Osei Kwadwo, Asante ruler, in West Africa |
| 1768-73 |
Scottish explorer James Bruce travels in Ethiopia |
| 1768 |
Ali Bey, a Mamluk army officer, makes himself ruler of Egypt |
| 1770s |
Tukolor kingdom gains power in former Songhai region of West
Africa |
| 1773 |
Ali Bey dies a week after being wounded in a battle with rebels led by
Abu'l-Dhahab |
| 1777 |
Sidi Mohammed, ruler of Morocco (1757-90), abolishes Christian
slavery |
| 1779 |
Dutch farmers in Cape Colony clash with organized Xhosa
resistance |
| 1781 |
Militant Tijaniyya Islamic order set up in Algeria |
| 1785 |
Omani rulers reassert influence in Zanzibar |
| 1787 |
Tuaregs, nomads in Sahara, abolish Moroccan pashalik of Timbuktu |
| c. 1788 |
Usuman dan Fodio, a Fulani cleric, stirs holy war against a Hausa
king |
| 1788 |
African Association founded in England to explore interior of
Africa |
| 1795 |
British seize Cape Colony from Dutch for the first time |
| 1795-96 |
Scottish explorer Mungo Park travels through Gambia and reaches
Niger |
|
| AD 1800 |
| INDEPENDENCE AND
INDUSTRY |
| 1804 |
Fulani begin jihad (holy war) in northern Nigeria |
| 1805-06 |
Mungo Park explores Niger river, West Africa |
| 1805-48 |
Mohammed Ali rules Egypt; Egypt breaks away from Ottoman empire |
| 1807 |
Asante invade Fante confederacy of states |
| 1808 |
Fulani invade Bornu near Lake Chad |
| 1814 |
Cape Colony in South Africa formally ceded to Britain by
Netherlands |
| c. 1816-28 |
Career of Zulu ruler Shaka in South Africa |
| c. 1820 |
Fulani emirate founded in Adamawa, West Africa |
| 1820-64 |
Fulani in Mali, West Africa, found and rule Hamdallahi caliphate |
| 1822 |
Liberia founded in West Africa as home for freed slaves |
| 1825 |
Egyptians found the city of Khartoum in Sudan |
| 1828 |
Basel mission to Ghana (then called Gold Coast), West Africa |
| 1828 |
Shaka, Zulu ruler, assassinated by his half-brother Dingane who takes
over as ruler of Zulu nation |
| 1830 |
French invade Algeria; they gradually occupy the country |
| 1832-47 |
Abd-al-Kadir leads Arab resistance to France in Algeria |
| 1836-37 |
The Great Trek of Boers (Dutch farmers) away from British in South
Africa; they fond the Republic of Natal in 1838 and the Orange Free State
in 1854 |
| 1840 |
Imam Sayyid Said, ruler of Oman (1806-56), makes Zanzibar, a small
island off the east African coast, his capital |
| 1843 |
Britain takes over Natal from the Boers as a British colony |
| 1852 |
Tukolor leader al-Hajj 'Umar launches jihad along Senegal and upper
Niger rivers to establish Islamic state |
| 1852 |
In South Africa, Britain recognizes Transvaal's independence |
| 1853-56 |
Dr David Livingstone crosses Africa; follows course of Zambezi river,
reaches Victoria Falls |
| 1855-68 |
Reign of Emperor Theodore of Ethiopia |
| 1863 |
Al-Hajj 'Umar takes Timbuktu |
| 1865-68 |
Wars between Orange Free State and Moshweshwe's Basuto people, in
South Africa |
| 1867 |
Diamonds discovered at Kimberley at South Africa |
| 1869 |
Suez Canal opened |
| 1872 |
Cape Colony in South Africa granted self-government by Britain |
| 1873-74 |
War between Asante kingdom and Britain |
| 1874 |
Beginnings of Mande state in old Mali under Samori TurИ |
| 1879 |
Zulu war with British; British defeated at Isandlwana but victorious
at Ulundi |
| c. 1880 |
Beginning of the European „Scramble for Africaѕ |
| 1880-81 |
First Boer War, Transvaal defeats Britain |
| 1885 |
Conference in Berlin on Scramble for Africa |
| 1885 |
in Sudan, Muslim leader, the Mahdi, takes Khartoum from Egypt; General
Gordon killed |
| 1886 |
Gold found in Transvaal |
| 1894 |
French set up protectorate in Dahomey (Benin), West Africa |
| 1895-96 |
Jameson Raid into Transvaal |
| 1896 |
France takes Madagascar |
| 1896 |
Ethiopian ruler Menelik crushes Italian army at Adowa |
| 1897 |
Slavery banned in Zanzibar |
| 1899-1902 |
Second Boer War in South Africa |
|
| AD 1900 |
| THE WORLD GOES TO
WAR |
| 1900 |
Buganda, East Africa, is ruled by the kabaka, or king, with British
advice |
| 1900-01 |
Rising in Asante, West Africa; Britain annexes Asante |
| 1902 |
Treaty of Verceniging ends second Boer War in South Africa; defeated
Boers remain bitter and determined to regain power |
| 1903 |
Sokoto caliphate in Hausaland taken over by Britain |
| 1904 |
French create federation of French West Africa |
| 1905 |
Kaiser William II of Germany visits Tangier and provokes crisis with
France |
| 1905 |
Maji-Maji rebellion begins in Tanzania (German East Africa) |
| 1906 |
Tripartite pact (Britain, France, Italy)seeks to preserve integrity of
Ethiopia |
| 1907 |
Government of Mozambique organized |
| 1908 |
Belgium takes over Congo Free State |
| 1909 |
Franco-German agreement reached on Morocco |
| 1909 |
Liberia calls on United States for financial assistance |
| 1910 |
Union of South Africa |
| 1912 |
New loans to Liberia coupled with US control over customs
revenue |
| 1912 |
French make Morocco a protectorate at Treaty of Fez |
| 1913 |
South African government introduces laws to reserve 87 per cent of
land for whites |
| 1914 |
Britain and France occupy German colonies in West Africa |
| 1916 |
Boer leader Jan Smuts leads an anti-German drive from Kenya into
Tanzania (German East Africa) |
| 1916 |
British and Belgian troops take Yaounde, the capital of the German
Cameroons |
| 1917 |
Ras Tafari (later, Haile Selassie) becomes regent of Ethiopia |
| 1917 |
German forces in German East Africa withstand British and Portuguese
at Mahiwa; Germans withdraw into Mozambique |
| 1919 |
ANC demonstrates against pass laws in Transvaal |
| 1920s |
More British and Indians settle Kenya |
| 1921-26 |
Abd-el-Krim leads Berbers and Arabs against Europeans in North
Africa |
| 1922 |
Egypt becomes independent from Britain under King Fuad |
| 1923 |
Ethiopia admitted to League of Nations |
| 1930 |
White women given the vote in South Africa |
| 1930 |
Ras Tafari crowned emperor of Ethiopia, and takes name Haile
Selassie |
| 1931 |
First trans-African railway completed, from Angola to Mozambique |
| 1934-36 |
British colonial government of Ghana suppresses radical African
critics |
| 1936 |
Representation of Natives Act denies black South Africans any chance
of political equality |
| 1935-36 |
Italians under Mussolini invade and annex Ethiopia |
| 1939 |
South Africa declares war on Germany at start of World War II |
| 1941 |
German army under Rommel attacks British in North Africa |
| 1941 |
Ethiopia liberated from Italians by Ethiopians and British, and
recognized as independent |
| 1942 |
British defeat German army at Battle of El Alamein in Egypt |
| 1943 |
Germans and Italians driven from North Africa |
| 1948 |
Afrikaner National Party wins power in South Africa |
| 1951 |
Libya gains independence |
| 1952-59 |
Mau-Mau guerrilla war against British in Kenya |
| 1954-62 |
War for independence in Algeria; freedom won in 1962 |
| 1954-70 |
Colonel Nasser rules Egypt; revolutionary changes |
| 1956 |
Suez crisis; Britain and France attempt to regain control of Suez
canal from Egypt, but fail |
| 1956 |
Morocco, Tunisia, and Sudan gain their independence |
| 1957 |
Ghana is first country in sub-Saharan Africa to become
independent |
| 1958-60 |
Independence for Zaire, Nigeria, Somalia, and 12 of France's 13
sub-Saharan colonies |
| 1960s |
Civil war in south Sudan |
| 1960-65 |
Civil war in Zaire, formerly Belgian Congo |
| 1961-67 |
Independence for Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya, Sierra Leone, Rwanda,
Burundi, Malawi, Zambia, Lesotho, Botswana, Gambia, and Swaziland |
| 1963 |
Organization of African Unity founded |
| 1965 |
White regime in Zimbabwe declares independence |
| 1967-70 |
Biafran War, Nigeria |
| 1970s |
Severe droughts in northeastern Africa and the lands on the southern
edge of the Sahara |
| 1974 |
Nigeria becomes leading oil producer in Africa |
| 1974-91 |
Revolutionary regime in Ethiopia; civil war spreads |
| 1974-75 |
Portuguese colonies gain independence after long struggle |
| 1976 |
African schoolchildren spark uprisings in Soweto in South Africa |
| 1980 |
Zimbabwe gains independence after guerrilla war |
| 1983- |
Conflict in Sudan; more than 1.5 million people die |
| 1983- |
African countries adopt IMF (International Monetary Fund) plans for
managing their economies |
| 1989- |
Zambia and other countries see changes of government by democratic
election |
| 1990 |
Namibia gets independence |
| 1990 |
Nelson Mandela freed in South Africa; process of dismantling apartheid
begins |
| 1993 |
Eritrea (in north Ethiopia) breaks from Ethiopia; first successful
secession in post-colonial Africa |
| 1994 |
African National Congress (ANC) wins first multi-racial election ever
held in South Africa |