Global African History Timeline

Emperor Menelik II on the throne in coronation garb
Public Domain Image
YearEventsSubjectCountryEra
5-2.5 million BCESkeletal remains uncovered suggest the Rift Valley in East Africa is home to the earliest human ancestors.Early Human AncestorsEthiopia1492-1600
4-2.7 million BCEHominid species Australopithicus afarensis lived in the Hadar region of Ethiopia, including "Lucy," the famous skeletal remains found in 1974.Early Human AncestorsEthiopia1492-1600
600,000 to 200,000 BCEPeriod of migration across the African continent and out of Africa to Asia and Europe. Fire is first used during this period.African Migrationn.a.1492-1600
6000-4000 BCESpread of agriculture across Africa. River societies emerge along the Nile, Niger, and Congo Rivers.African Migrationn.a.1492-1600
5000 BCE (ca.)Egyptian agriculturalists develop irrigation and animal husbandry to transform the lower Nile Valley. The rise in the food supply generates a rapidly increasing population. Agricultural surpluses and growing wealth allow specialization including glass making, pottery, metallurgy, weaving, woodworking, leather making, and masonry.Ancient EgyptEgypt1492-1600
4500 BCE (ca.)Egyptians begin using burial texts to accompany their dead into the afterlife. This is the first evidence of written texts anywhere in the world.Ancient EgyptEgypt1492-1600
4000 BCE (ca.)Egypt emerges as a centralized state and flourishing civilization.Ancient EgyptEgypt1492-1600
2700-1087 BCE (ca.)Period of the Old Kingdom, Middle Kingdom, and New Kingdom of Ancient Egypt and Northeastern Africa.Ancient EgyptEgypt1492-1600
2500 BCE (ca.)Other civilizations emerge in Mesopotamia, northern China, Northeastern India.Early Civilizationsn.a.1492-1600
2500 BCE (ca.)Nubian state with its capital at Kerma emerges as a rival to Egypt.Ancient NubiaEgypt1492-1600
1500 BCE (ca.)Egyptian New Kingdom unites the Nile Valley including Nubia.Ancient EgyptEgypt1492-1600
1069 BCENubia briefly regains its independence from Egypt.Ancient NubiaEgypt1492-1600
1000-800 BCE (ca.)Bantu migration out of present-day eastern Nigeria spreads across Sub-Saharan Africa.African MigrationNigeria1492-1600
750-664 BCENubian Pharaohs rule the entire Nile Valley during the 25th Dynasty.Ancient NubiaEgypt1492-1600
500 (ca.)Bantu-speakers arrive in what is now South Africa with iron and domesticated cattle.African MigrationSouth Africa1492-1600
500 (ca.)Beginning of the trans-Saharan salt and gold trade in West Africa.West African CivilizationsMali1492-1600
500 BCEAxum emerges in Northeastern Africa. Axum eventually becomes the nation of Ethiopia.Ancient AxumEthiopia1492-1600
500 BCEAncient Nok culture emerges in what is now Nigeria.West African CivilizationsNigeria1492-1600
332 BCEEgypt is conquered by Alexander the Great. Ptolemy becomes the first ruler of a dynasty that will control Egypt until 283 BCE.Ancient EgyptEgypt1492-1600
300 BCE (ca.)Rulers of Nubia establish a new kingdom at Meroe. The Kingdom, which will be called Kush, will last there for more than nine centuries.Ancient KushSudan1492-1600
247-183 BCEHannibal rules Carthage. During his reign, Roman Italy is invaded.Ancient CarthageTunisia1492-1600
200 BCEAlexandria on the Mediterranean Sea is the scientific capital of the Hellenistic world, famous for its museum, university, and library.Ancient EgyptEgypt1492-1600
200 BCEThe State of Ghana begins to evolve in the West African Sudan. It is located in what is now Burkina Faso,West African EmpiresBurkina Faso1492-1600
200 BCESettlement is established at Jenne on the Niger River in West Africa.West African CivilizationsMali1492-1600
146 BCERome conquers Carthage and establishes its first significant presence on the African continent.Ancient CarthageTunisia1492-1600
160 BCETerence Afer (the African) is considered one of the the Roman Empire's finest Latin translators and poets.Ancient RomeItaly1492-1600
50 BCE-476 CESlavery is a major feature of the Roman Empire for several hundred years. Over two million slaves from Europe, the Middle East, and Africa are in Roman Italy at the end of the Republic.Roman SlaveryItaly1492-1600
47-30 BCECleopatra VIII Rules Egypt.Ancient EgyptEgypt1492-1600
23 BCERomans invade Kush, sack the capital at Napata.Ancient KushSudan1492-1600
1-33 ADLife and Era of Jesus Christ, beginnings of Christianity.Early ChristianityIsrael1492-1600
333Ezana, the ruler of Axum (Ethiopia) converts to ChristianityAncient AxumEthiopia1492-1600
350Ezana destroys Meroe, the capital of Kush.Ancient AxumSudan1492-1600
500-1400An extensive slave trade develops in Medieval Europe. The vast majority of the slaves originate in what is now Russia and eastern Europe but slaves come from every society on the continent. By 1300 a small number of slaves are of African origin.European SlaveryItaly1492-1600
540Ethiopian monks begin to translate the Bible into their own language.Early ChristianityEthiopia1492-1600
569Nubia is converted to Christianity. A cathedral is established at Faras to establish the Christian era in Nubia.Early ChristianityEgypt1492-1600
570Kingdom of Kanem-Bornu begins to emerge around Lake Chad in West Africa.West African EmpiresChad1492-1600
570-632Life and Era of the Prophet Muhammad, beginnings of Islam.Early IslamSaudi Arabia1492-1600
615Muslim refugees from Arabia given refuge in Axum (Ethiopia)Early IslamEthiopia1492-1600
620Beginning of trans-Indian trade as reflected by Chinese coins from the period found on the East Coast of Africa.East African TradeTanzania1492-1600
642Egypt is conquered and converted to Islam. New Islamic capital of Cairo is established.Muslim EgyptEgypt1492-1600
678Muslim Arab armies reach the Atlantic coast of North Africa.Early IslamMorocco1492-1600
690Sudanic city state of Gao is founded on the Niger River in West Africa.West African CivilizationMali1492-1600
694-95"African slaves near Basra (in modern Iraq) under Rabah Shir Zanji (the ""Lion of the Zanj"") rise in rebellion against their owners. "Middle Eastern SlaveryIraq1492-1600
700 (ca.)Arabs initiate a slave trade that sends sub-Saharan Africans to both Europe and Asia. An estimated 14 million Africans are sold between 700 and 1910.Arab Slaveryn.a.1492-1600
740Muslims from Arabia and Persia are trading on the East African coast.East African TradeSomalia1492-1600
740Islamized Africans (Moors) invade Spain and rule it until 1492.Early IslamSpain1492-1600
745Christian Nubians and Ethiopians invade and temporarily occupy Muslim Egypt.Early ChristianityEgypt1492-1600
750 (ca.)Islam is introduced into West Africa, reaching what is now the nation of Chad.Early IslamChad1492-1600
800 (ca.)Evidence suggests that African travelers may have come to the Americas before Europeans. One indication is the great stone carvings of the Olmec era in Mexico, bearing African facial features.African MigrationMexico1492-1600
850Beginning of the construction of the Citadel of Great Zimbabwe.Southern African EmpiresZimbabwe1492-1600
869-83Thousands of black slaves in what is now southern Iraq will take up arms against their masters in the Zanj Rebellion and declare their independence from the Abbasid Caliphate. They will control the region and operate as an independent state for fourteen years until troops from Baghdad finally conquer the region.Middle Eastern SlaveryIraq1492-1600
880Beta Israel (Falashas) settle in Ethiopia.Early JudaismEthiopia1492-1600
890Beginning of the Kingdom of Songhai.West African EmpiresMali1492-1600
908Permanent Arab trading settlements established in Somalia.East African TradeSomalia1492-1600
945Malayo-Indonesian raid from Madagascar is launched on East African coastal city of Sofala.East African CivilizationsMozambique1492-1600
975The Christian Kingdom of Axum is overrun by Muslims.Ancient AxumEthiopia1492-1600
992The Empire of Ghana captures Berber city of Awdaghost and gains control over trans-Saharan trade.West African EmpiresMauritania1492-1600
420Christian theologian Augustine of Hippo in North Africa argues for the equality of all human beings.Early ChristianityTunisia1492-1600
1055Awdaghost is overrun by the Almoravids.West African EmpiresMauritania1492-1600
1076Ghanaian Empire falls to the Almoravids, Ghana's political leaders convert to Islam.West African EmpiresBurkina Faso1492-1600
1100 (ca.)Stone-built Great Zimbabwe is the capital of the surrounding state of Zimbabwe.Southern African EmpiresZimbabwe1492-1600
1100 (ca.)Hausa city-states emerge in what is now Northern Nigeria.West African CivilizationsNigeria1492-1600
1150Tsaraki dan Gimimasu, the ruler of Kano, completes the wall around the city. Kano will become the largest and most significant of the Hausa city-states.West African CivilizationsNigeria1492-1600
1150Beginning of the Zagwe Dynasty in Ethiopia.Medieval EthiopiaEthiopia1492-1600
1200 (ca.)King Lalibela of Ethiopia begins construction of rock-cut churches.Medieval EthiopiaEthiopia1492-1600
1200 (ca)Slavery ends in England but continues in Ireland. Slavery flourishes among the European nations along the Mediterranean as well as all of North Africa.European SlaveryEngland1492-1600
1230The Empire of Mali emerges in West Africa under Sundiata.West African EmpiresMali1492-1600
1250Emergence of the Empire of Benin in present-day Nigeria. Benin is the first major centralized state in the West African Rain Forest.West African EmpiresNigeria1492-1600
1260Spanish slavery code prevents married couples from being separated, provides legal protection against mistreatment, and allows slaves to inherit property.Spanish SlaverySpain1492-1600
1260By this date the city of Timbuktu is the religious, commercial, and political center of the Empire of Mali.West African EmpiresMali1492-1600
1260Mansa Ule makes the first pilgrimage of a Mali ruler to Mecca.West African EmpiresSaudi Arabia1492-1600
1270Beginning of the Solomonid Dynasty in Ethiopia.Medieval EthiopiaEthiopia1492-1600
1300Muslim Merchants mainly of Arabic origin establish the Kingdom of Ifat in the Ethiopian highlands.Medieval EthiopiaEthiopia1492-1600
1324Pilgrimage of Mansa Musa, the most prominent ruler of Mali, to Mecca.West African EmpiresSaudi Arabia1492-1600
1340Building of the Great Mosque at Jenne in the Mali Empire.West African CivilizationsMali1492-1600
1364Norman navigators reach the mouth of the Senegal River. First known presence of Europeans in sub Saharan Africa.Exploration and DiscoverySenegal1492-1600
1390 (ca.)Kingdom of the Kongo emerges in central Africa.Central African EmpiresCongo1492-1600
1400Africans in Christian religious iconography proliferate across Europe, including Balthazar and the Saints, Maurice and GregoryAfricans in EuropeGermany1492-1600
1400By this date a flourishing slave trade exists in the Mediterranean World. Most of the slaving countries are Italian principalities such as Florence and Venice. Most of those enslaved are Greeks and Eastern Europeans. Between 1414 and 1423, ten thousand Eastern European slaves are sold in Venice alone.Italian SlaveryItaly1492-1600
1400 (ca.)Songhai breaks free of the Mali Empire.West African EmpiresMali1492-1600
1400 (ca.)Gold trade flourishes in the Zambezi River Valley and its Indian Ocean port, Sofala.East African TradeMozambique1492-1600
1400 (ca.)Beginning of the production of bronze statues in the Empire of Benin.West African CivilizationsNigeria1492-1600
1410Kano is the leading Hausa city-state. It has developed an Army which includes cavalry equipped with iron weaponry and armor.West African CivilizationsNigeria1492-1600
1415An ambassador from Malindi, a leading East African city-state, is sent to the royal court of the Chinese Emperor.East African TradeChina1492-1600
1427The Ethiopian emperor, Yeshaq, sends an envoy to the King of Aragon (Spain) to forge an alliance against the Muslims.Medieval EthiopiaSpain1492-1600
1431Ming admiral Zheng He reaches Malindi on the East African coast, initiates a period of regular commerce between the Swahili city-states on the east African coast and China.East African TradeKenya1492-1600
1433Taureg raiders conquer Timbuktu and briefly gain control over the western trans-Saharan trade routes.West African EmpiresMali1492-1600
1434The Portuguese establish trading outposts along the West African coast.West African TradeSenegal1492-1600
1441Antam Goncalvez of Portugal captures Africans in what is now Senegal and transports them to Lisbon, initiating direct European involvement in the African slave trade.West African Slave TradeSenegal1492-1600
1441Act of Union signed in Rome between the Church of Ethiopia and the Church of Rome.Medieval EthiopiaItaly1492-1600
1450Approximately 1,000 slaves per year are transported to Europe.Slavery in EuropeSpain1492-1600
1450 (ca.)Monomutapa Empire emerges in Southern Africa, breaks from and then absorbs the declining Zimbabwe Empire.Southern African EmpiresMozambique1492-1600
1450 (ca.)Sankore University and Mosque are founded at Timbuktu in the Songhai Empire.West African CivilizationsMali1492-1600
1453The Ottoman Turks capture Constantinople and thus divert the trade in Eastern European slaves away from the Mediterranean to Islamic markets. The Italians increasingly look to North Africa as their source for slaves.European SlaveryTurkey1492-1600
1460The Sultan of Bengal acquires 500 African slaves, dramatically increasing the slave trade on the Indian subcontinent.Africans in IndiaIndia1492-1600
1460Approximately 1,000 sub-Saharan African slaves are brought directly to Europe each year.European SlaverySpain1492-1600
1462Pope Pious II signs a papal bull with forbids enslavement of Africans recently converted to Christianity.Anti-Slavery CampaignItaly1492-1600
1468Empire of Songhai under Sunni Ali conquers Mali and becomes the largest state in West Africa.West African EmpiresMali1492-1600
1470By this point small vineyards and sugar plantations have emerged around Naples and on the island of Sicily with Africans as the primary enslaved people providing the labor on these estates.European SlaveryItaly1492-1600
1470The Portuguese begin trading along the Gold Coast of West Africa.West African TradeGhana1492-1600
1474Spanish monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella creat toe office of Mayor of the Africans in Seville.Africans in SpainSpain1492-1600
1474Ferdinand and Isabella, the rulers of Aragon and Castile (Modern Spain) create the office of Mayor of the Africans in Seville.Free Blacks in EuropeSpain1492-1600
1482The Portuguese build Fort Sao Jorge da Mina (El Mina) on the Gold Coast. The fort was the first permanent structure built by Europeans in subSaharan Africa.West African TradeGhana1492-1600
1486African slaves rebel in Bengal (India) and install their own leader, Firuz Shah as sultan. He rules for three years, 1487-1490.Africans in IndiaIndia1492-1600
1490Small populations of free and enslaved Africans extend for Sicily to Portugal.European SlaveryPortugal1492-1600
1491The Portuguese King establish diplomatic relations with the Kingdom of Kongo and sends Catholic missionaries to the African ruler's court.Political AlliancesCongo1492-1600
1491Portuguese envoy Pero da Coviha reaches Sofala on the Indian Ocean. By 1500 the Portuguese will establish trading posts along the East African coast.East African TradeMozambique1492-1600
1492Christopher Columbus makes his first voyage to the New World opening a vast new empire for plantation slavery.Exploration and DiscoveryThe Bahamas1492-1600
1494The first Africans arrive in Hispaniola with Christopher Columbus. They are free persons.Africans in the New WorldDominican Republic1492-1600
1494Columbus claims Jamaica for the Spanish.Colonial ConquestJamaica1492-1600
1500Many sub-Saharan slaves are brought to Portugal, Spain, Italy and Sicily for Christianization before they are transported to the Americas.African Slavery in EuropeItaly1492-1600
1501The Spanish king allows the introduction of enslaved Africans into Spain's American colonies.Spanish SlaveryDominican Republic1492-1600
1506Nzinga Mbemba, King of the Kongo is baptized by Portuguese officials and becomes Afonso I, the first Catholic king of the Kongo (modern day Congo and Angola).Political AlliancesCongo1492-1600
1511The first enslaved Africans arrive in Hispaniola.Spanish SlaveryDominican Republic1492-1600
1513Thirty Africans accompany Vasco Nunez de Balboa on his trip to the Pacific Ocean.Exploration and DiscoveryPanama1492-1600
1517Bishop Bartolome de Las Casas petitions Spain to allow the importation of twelve enslaved Africans for each household immigrating to America's Spanish colonies. De Las Casas later regrets his actions and becomes an opponent of slavery.Spanish SlaverySpain1492-1600
1518King Charles I of Spain grants the first licenses to import enslaved Africans to the Americas.Spanish SlaveryColumbia1492-1600
1518The first shipload of enslaved Africans directly from Africa arrives in the West Indies. Prior to this time, Africans were brought first to Europe.Spanish SlaveryDominican Republic1492-1600
1518First African slaves shipped directly from West Africa (the Guinea Coast) to the West Indies, bypassing transshipment to Spain.African SlaveryGuinea1492-1600
1519Hernan Cortez begins his conquest of the Aztec Empire. Black Spaniards, including Juan Garrido are among the Conquistadors.Colonial ConquestMexico1492-1600
1520Marriage of St. Ursula to Prince Conan, a painting in a Lisbon monastery, depicts several African musicians performing for royalty.Art and LiteraturePortugal1492-1600
1520sEnslaved Africans are used as laborers in Puerto Rico, Cuba, and Mexico.Spanish SlaveryCuba1492-1600
1521Santo Domingo Slave Revolt is the first black servile insurrection in the New World.Anti-Slavery ResistanceDominican Republic1492-1600
1524Spanish conqueror Francisco Pizarro overruns Ecuador and Peru. Among his conquering forces are free and enslaved Africans serving as sailors, soldiers, and laborers.Colonial ConquestPeru1492-1600
1526Spanish colonists led by Lucas Vasquez de Ayllon build the community of San Miguel de Guadape in what is now Georgia. They bring along enslaved Africans, considered to be the first in the present-day United States. These Africans flee the colony, however, and make their homes with local Indians. After Ayllon's death, the remaining Spaniards relocate to Hispaniola.Anti-Slavery ResistanceUnited States1492-1600
1527-1539Esteban, a Moroccan-born Muslim slave, explores what is now the Southwestern United States.Exploration and DiscoveryUnited States1492-1600
1529Pope Clement VII choses nineteen-year-old Alessandro de' Medici, the son of Lorenzo de' Medici, and a former African slave named Simonetta, to become the first Duke of Florence.PoliticsItaly1492-1600
1536Spaniard Pedro de Mendoza founds Buenos Aires. Among his party are a number of enslaved and free Africans.Colonial ConquestArgentina1492-1600
1536Alessandro de' Medici, the Duke of Florence, weds Margaret of Habsburg, the daughter of Charles V, the Holy Roman Emperor and at the time the most powerful monarch in Europe.PoliticsItaly1492-1600
1537Alessandro de' Medici, the first Duke of Florence, is assassinated by his cousin, Lorenzino, who then flees to Venice.PoliticsItaly1492-1600
1538Gonzalo Jimenez de Quesada founds Bogota. His party includes enslaved and free Africans.Colonial ConquestColumbia1492-1600
1540An African from Hernando de Soto's Expedition decides to remain behind to make his home among the Native Americans there.Exploration and DiscoveryUnited States1492-1600
1540Africans serve in the New Mexico Expeditions of Francisco Vasquez de Coronado and Hernando de Alarcon.Exploration and DiscoveryUnited States1492-1600
1540Juan Valiente, former slave and Indian fighter, receives a large estate near Santiago as a reward for his participation in campaigns against the Incas.Free Blacks in Colonial New SpainChile1492-1600
1542The Spanish Crown abolishes Indian slavery in its colonial possessions.EmancipationSpain1492-1600
1542By this date over thirty thousand Africans are in Hispaniola with 10% living in Maroon colonies in the interior of the island.Spanish SlaveryDominican Republic1492-1600
1543A Spanish royal decree prohibits the enslavement of Muslims in the West Indies who have converted to Christianity.Anti-Slavery CampaignDominican Republic1492-1600
1548Large numbers of African slaves are working in the sliver mines of Zacatecas.Spanish SlaveryMexico1492-1600
1548Free and enslaved black artisans in Peru manufacture swords, lances, and rosaries for the Spanish army.Spanish SlaveryPeru1492-1600
1549Father Manuel de Nobrega arrives in Bahia from Lisbon and soon afterwards protests the enslavement of Africans.Anti-Slavery CampaignBrazil1492-1600
1549Tome de Souza founds Sao Salvador in Bahia, Brazil. He is accompanied by a number of African slaves.Colonial ConquestBrazil1492-1600
1550The first slaves directly from Africa arrive in the Brazilian city of Salvador.Portuguese SlaveryBrazil1492-1600
1550By this date enslaved people have replaced gold as the principal object of European trade with Africa.The Slave Traden. a1492-1600
1550The first slave insurrection is recorded in Nicaragua.Nicaragua1492-1600
1550The first slave insurrection is recorded in Peru.Anti-Slavery ResistancePeru1492-1600
1552Venezuela records its first slave insurrection.Anti-Slavery ResistanceVenezuela1492-1600
1552Panama experiences its first slave insurrection. The resistance led by Bayano (or Vaino) leads to the founding of a maroon colony in eastern Panama. In 1570 the colonists establish the town of Santiago del Principe.Anti-Slavery ResistancePanama1492-1600
1560Africans outnumber Europeans 15 to 1 on the island of Hispaniola.Spanish SlaveryDominican Republic1492-1600
1562Englishman John Hawkins begins trading slaves across the Atlantic when he leaves what is now Sierra Leone with a shipment of 300 enslaved people bound for Hispaniola. This is the first major example of English participation in the slave trade.The English Slave TradeDominican Republic1492-1600
1565African farmers and artisans accompany Pedro Menendez de Aviles on the expedition that establishes the community of San Agustin (St. Augustine, Florida).Colonial ConquestUnited States1492-1600
1565Afro-Spanish scholar Juan Latino is appointed the grammar chairman at Cathedral School of Granada.EducationSpain1492-1600
1565Portuguese settlers, including African slaves, found Rio de Janeiro.Colonial ConquestBrazil1492-1600
1568Spanish trade between Mexico and the Philippines introduces enslaved Africans to the Philippines.Spanish SlaveryPhilippines1492-1600
1570Gaspar Yanga, Known as the Primer Libertador de America or the first liberator of the Americas, led colonial Mexico's first successful slave uprising and later established one of the New World's first black settlements.EmancipationMexico1492-1600
1570Afro-Spanish scholar Juan Latino publishes the first of three books of poetry.Art and LiteratureSpain1492-1600
1573Professor Bartolome de Albornoz of the University of Mexico writes against the enslavement and sale of Africans.Spanish SlaveryMexico1492-1600
1590A Moroccan army invades Songhai and captures Timbuktu the following year, 1591.West African EmpiresMali1492-1600
1590The Portuguese are defeated by the combined African armies of Matamba and Ndongo.Anti-Colonial ResistanceAngola1492-1600
1591Martin de Porres, a Roman Catholic priest, begins his missionary and medical work among the poor in Lima, Peru. On January 10, 1945, Fray Martin de Porres was officially named patron saint of social justice in Peru by Pope Pius XII, becoming the Americas first cannonized black clergy.Early ChristianityPeru1492-1600
1592Portuguese forces are defeated by the Zimba in the Zambezi Valley.Anti-Colonial ResistanceMozambique1492-1600
1598Isabel de Olvera, a free mulatto, accompanies the Juan Guerra de Resa Expedition which colonizes what is now New Mexico.Africans in Colonial New SpainUnited States1492-1600
1600 (ca.)The Buganda Kingdom emerges along the shore of Lake Victoria. Its principal rival is the neighboring state of Bunyoro.East African EmpiresUganda1601-1700
1602Ethiopian-born Malik Ambar seizes a vast area in the Deccan (the Indian interior). He founds the city of Khadki which will become his new capital, and rules this region until his death in 1626.Africans in IndiaIndia1601-1700
1609Fugitive slaves in Mexico, led by Yanga, sign a truce with Spanish colonial authorities and obtain their freedom and a town of their own.Anti-Slavery ResistanceMexico1601-1700
1610Dahomey emerges as the first of a series of slave-trading states along the West African coast.West African EmpiresBenin1601-1700
1615 (ca.)The Portuguese are exporting approximately 10,000 enslaved people per year to its Brazilian colony.Portuguese SlaveryBrazil1601-1700
1617The town of San Lorenzo de los Negros receives a charter from Spanish colonial officials in Mexico and becomes the first officially recognized free settlement for blacks in the New World.Africans in Colonial New SpainMexico1601-1700
1617The Dutch purchase Goree Island to establish their presence in the commerce of enslaved people.Dutch SlaverySenegal1601-1700
1620Black Catholic clergyman Martin de Porres founds an orphanage and foundling hospital in Lima Peru.Free Blacks in Colonial New SpainPeru1601-1700
1627Nzinga, Queen of Mbundu, is victorious in a war with Portugal.Anti-Colonial ResistanceAngola1601-1700
1630Fugitive slaves under Zumbi create the independent state of Palmares in the interior of Portuguese Brazil. Palmares continues until 1695 when the Portuguese regain control of the region.Anti-Slavery ResistanceBrazil1601-1700
1634The French establish St. Louis, their first settlement in what is now Senegal.Colonial ConquestSenegal1601-1700
1635Enslaved Africans brought in by Puritan settlers become the first blacks to reside in Bluefields, Nicaragua. Eventually Bluefields will become the largest settlement of persons of African ancestry in Central America.English SlaveryNicaragua1601-1700
1636Ethiopian Emperor Fasiladas establishes a new capital at Gondar.Political UnificationEthiopia1601-1700
1638France's North American colonies open to trade in enslaved Africans.Franch SlaveryColonial New France1601-1700
1644Queen Nzinga, supported by Dutch allies, captures Luanda from the Portuguese.Anti-Colonial ResistanceAngola1601-1700
1645The Portuguese take enslaved people from Mozambique to Brazil for the first time.Portuguese SlaveryBrazil1601-1700
1650The Sultan of Oman ends Portuguese control over the East African city-states.Anti-Colonial ResistanceKenya1601-1700
1650The French take control of the island of Grenada.Colonial ConquestGrenada1601-1700
1651The Swedes capture Carolusberg castle on the Gold Coast from the Dutch and establish their first slave trading center on the West African coast.Swedish SlaveryGhana1601-1700
1652The Dutch establish a naval supply station at the Cape of Good Hope. This supply station will become the first permanent white colony in Southern Africa.Colonial ConquestSouth Africa1601-1700
1657The Danes drive out the Swedes from Carolusberg castle and take control over the trade in enslaved people along that coastal area of West Africa.Danish SlaveryGhana1601-1700
1660The Dutch defeat the Khoisan people and claim the right of conquest as boers (farmers) expand their control beyond the Cape peninsula.Colonial ConquestSouth Africa1601-1700
1660The British take control of Jamaica.Colonial ConquestJamaica1601-1700
1661The British establish their first permanent settlement in Africa when they build Fort James at the mouth of the Gambia River.Colonial ConquestGambia1601-1700
1662The Portuguese defeat the Kingdom of the Kongo at the Battle of Ambuila.Colonial ConquestCongo1601-1700
1667A treaty between Great Britain and Holland gives Surinam to the Dutch in exchange for New York which is given to the British.Colonial AdministrationSurinam1601-1700
1670A French royal decree brings French shippers into the slave trade, with the rationale that the labor of enslaved Africans helps the growth of France's island colonies.French SlaveryColonial New France1601-1700
1670A French royal decree brings French shippers into the slave trade, with the rationale that the labor of enslaved Africans helps the growth of France's island colonies.French SlaveryFrance1601-1700
1670The French establish a trading station at Offa on the Dahomey coast.Colonial ConquestBenin1601-1700
1672King Charles II of England charters the Royal African Company, which dominates the slave trade to North America for the next half century.English SlaveryGreat Britain1601-1700
1675An estimated 100,000 Africans are enslaved in the British West Indies and another 5,000 are in British North America.English SlaveryGreat Britain1601-1700
1680The Ashanti Empire emerges in West Africa.West African EmpiresGhana1601-1700
1681The Changamire Empire emerges in southern Africa.Southern African EmpiresMozambique1601-1700
1684Changamire defeats a Portuguese army at the Battle of Maungwe. The battle initiates a military campaign between the Changamire Empire and Portugal which will continue until 1917.Anti-Colonial ResistanceMozambique1601-1700
1693All fugitive Africans who have escaped slavery in the British colonies and fled to Florida are granted their freedom by the Spanish monarchy.EmancipationUnited States1601-1700
1697The island of Hispaniola is divided between France which takes the western third, and Spain which retains the eastern two thirds.Colonial AdministrationDominican Republic1601-1700
1698The Omani Arabs take control of Mombasa in East Africa and the island of Zanzibar the following year.Colonial ConquestKenya1601-1700
1724The Black Code is enacted in New Orleans, French Territory, to control blacks and banish Jews.Racial RestrictionsColonial New France1701-1800
1730Little George Slave Revolt was one of the most significant uprisings of captured Africans on the high seas.Anti-Slavery ResistanceGuinea1701-1800
1731Dahomey is conquered by Oyo, a rising West African state.West African EmpiresBenin1701-1800
1734The Sultan of Bornu takes control of the neighboring state of Kanem, creating the Kanem-Bornu Empire in the central sudan region.Military ExpansionChad1701-1800
1734African-born scholar Anton Wilhelm Amo receives a doctorate degree from the University of Wittenberg in Germany where he defended his dissertation. After he is awarded his doctorate he lectures at the University of Halle in Germany. Amo is the first African to receive a doctorate and to teach at a university.EducationGermany1701-1800
1740The Lunda Kingdom emerges in central Africa.Southern African EmpiresAngola1701-1800
1747Oyo is the major military power along the West African coast from Dahomey to the Niger Delta.Military ExpansionNigeria1701-1800
1750The British take control of Grenada and introduce an economy dominated by slave labor.Colonial ConquestGrenada1701-1800
1750The French take control of the Seychelles Islands.Colonial ConquestThe Seychelles1701-1800
1750 (ca.)Escaped slaves from other Caribbean island settle on St. Vincent, intermarry with the indigenous Caribs and become the Garifuna (Black Caribs). The island is officially controlled by French settlers.Anti-Slavery ResistanceSt. Vincent & Grenadines1701-1800
1752The Sultanate of Darfur extends from Kanem Bornu in the west to the Nile Valley.Military ExpansionSudan1701-1800
1759Great Britain gains control over the Caribbean island of Dominica,Colonial ConquestDominica1701-1800
1760Abram Petrovich Hannibal,a former slave who later becomes the godson of Peter the Great, is appointed a general in the Russian Army. A trained engineer he oversaw various projects such as the construction of the Ladoga Canal and a number of Russian fortresses.EducationRussia1701-1800
1760Boers cross the Orange River to begin settlement in the interior of South Africa.Colonial ConquestSouth Africa1701-1800
1761Portugal abolishes slavery in mainland Portugal and its possessions in India.EmancipationIndia1701-1800
1772On June 22, Lord Chief Mansfield rules in the James Somerset case that an enslaved person brought to England becomes free and cannot be returned to slavery, laying the legal basis for the freeing of England's 15,000 slaves.Major Judicial DecisionsGreat Britain1701-1800
1772Slavery is declared illegal in England.EmancipatonGreat Britain1701-1800
1776Sultanate of Kilwa on the East African coast agrees to supply enslaved people from the interior for the French sugar plantations on Reunion and Mauritius. This agreement dramatically increases the slave trade in the region.East African Slave TradeKenya1701-1800
1779Joseph de Bologne\Le Chevalier de Saint-Georges, an Officer of the Royal Guard of King Louis XVI, was an accomplished composer who in 1779 began performing music with Queen Marie-Antoinette.18th Century MusicFrance1701-1800
1781Los Angeles is founded by fifty-four settlers including twenty-six of African ancestry.Africans in Colonial New SpainUnited States1701-1800
1783Approximately 3,000 black supporters of the British during the American Revolution were repatriated to British Canada at the end of the conflict.American RevolutionCanada1701-1800
1783British take control of St. Kitts & Nevis.Colonial ConquestSt. Kitts & Nevis1701-1800
1783British take control of St. Vincent & the Grenadines.Colonial ConquestSt. Vincent & Grenadines1701-1800
1784The Shelburne (Nova Scotia) Race Riot is caused by resentment over David George, a black Baptist preacher, baptizing white residents and organizing racially integrated churches.Racial ViolenceCanada1701-1800
1787Society for the Abolition of the Slave Trade is founded in London.EmancipationGreat Britain1701-1800
1787Sierra Leone is founded by British abolitionists as a colony for emancipated slaves.EmancipationSierra Leone1701-1800
1791The Haitian Revolution begins.IndependenceHaiti1701-1800
1793Slavery is declared illegal in Upper Canada.EmancipationCanada1701-1800
1794The French Government abolishes slavery. The law is repealed by Napoleon in 1802.EmancipationFrance1701-1800
1795The British capture the Cape of Good Hope and Capetown from the Dutch.Colonial ConquestSouth Africa1701-1800
1796The French crush a revolt by the Garifuna in St Vincent. In the aftermath nearly 5,000 Black Caribs (Garifuna) migrate to Honduras and British Honduras.Colonial ConquestSt. Vincent1701-1800
1742Jacobus Ellisa Capitein, an African-born Dutch scholar, receives an advanced degree from the University of Leiden for his dissertation on slavery and Christian liberty.Free Blacks in EuropeThe Netherlands1701-1800
1789Child musical prodigy George Bridgetower of Great Britain gives his first public violin performance in Paris at the age of 10.Free Blacks in EuropeFrance1601-1700
1791The Haitian Revolution begins when Toussaint L'Overture leads slaves in Saint-Domingue in a rebellion against French rule.IndependenceHaiti1701-1800
1791Slaves on Dominica initiate an unsuccessful rebellion against English plantation owners.Anti-Slavery ResistanceDominica1701-1800
1792The British government grants a charter to the Sierra Leone Company which is founded by abolitionists for the purpose of establishing a free labor colony for former slaves on the west coast of Africa.Anti-Slavery CampaignSierra Leone1701-1800
1793The British government outlaws the importation of enslaved people into Upper Canada (Ontario). The law also frees the children of enslaved women when those children reach the ago of twenty-five.Anti-Slavery CampaignCanada1701-1800
1796Slaves revolt in Saint Lucia. The rebellion ends when the British agree to free those who lay down their weapons.Anti-Slavery ResistanceSaint Lucia1701-1800
1796After Maroons in Jamaica attempt to instigate a general rebellion of slaves on the island, the British capture 600 of them and ship them to Nova Scotia and eventually to Sierra Leone.Anti-Slavery ResistanceJamaica1701-1800
1797British troops in the Cape Colony wage war against the Xhosa, initiating a series of wars of expansion that will eventually result in their conquest of all of South Africa.Colonial ExpansionSouth Africa1701-1800
18011801: Haitian forces invade and occupy Santo Domingo (now the Dominican Republic) and occupy the Spanish colony until 1844International ConflictDominican Republic1801-1900
1804On January 1, Jean-Jacques Dessalines, the successor to Toussaint L'Ouverture, declares Saint Dominque independent and renames it Haiti. It becomes the second independent nation in the western hemisphere (after the United States).Haitian RevolutionHaiti1801-1900
1804Usman Dan Fodio initiates a holy war (jihad) that established an Islamic theocratic state, the Sokoto Caliphate, in present day Northern Nigeria.West African EmpiresNigeria1801-1900
1807Great Britain abolishes the importation of enslaved Africans into its colonial possessions.The Slave TradeGreat Britain1801-1900
1807George Bridgetower, a former child prodigy who at 11 performs his first concert before a Paris audience, is elected to the British Royal Society of Musicians.19th Century Black MusicGreat Britain1801-1900
1811Spain abolishes slavery at home and in all colonies except Cuba, Puerto Rico, and Santo Domingo.EmancipationSpain1801-1900
1813Argentina abolishes slavery.EmancipationArgentina1801-1900
1814Mauritania becomes a French colony.Colonial ConquestMauritania1801-1900
1814Great Britain gains control of the Seychelles from France.Colonial AdministrationThe Seychelles1801-1900
1816Shaka Zulu becomes King of the Zulu nation and begins to create an empire in the southern African interior.Southern African EmpiresSouth Africa1801-1900
1819The Canadian government refuses to cooperate with the United States government in the apprehension of fugitive slaves living in Canada.Fugitive Slaves in CanadaCanada1801-1900
1820Rev. Daniel Coker of Baltimore leads eighty six African Americans who become the first black settlers to Liberia.African Americans in LiberiaLiberia1801-1900
1820The American Colonization Society's first shop, Mayflower of Liberia, arrives in Liberia.Black ColonizationLiberia1801-1900
1820Large numbers of British settlers begin arriving in the Cape Colony.Colonial ConquestSouth Africa1801-1900
1820New cash crops are introduced into central and southern Africa including cotton in Angola and cloves in Zanzibar. Shortly afterwards palm oil and groundnuts (peanuts) become important cash crops in West Africa.African EconomyAngola1801-1900
1821Ecuador adopts a gradual emancipation program.EmancipationEcuador1801-1900
1821Columbia adopts a gradual emancipation program.EmancipationColumbia1801-1900
1821Venezeula adopts a gradual emancipation program.EmancipationVenezeula1801-1900
1822Liberia founded by the American Colonization Society as a colony for emancipated slaves.EmancipationLiberia1801-1900
1823Chile abolishes slavery.EmancipationChile1801-1900
1824Mexico outlaws slavery. This act creates the incentive for Anglo Texans to fight for independence.Slavery in MexicoMexico1801-1900
1824Ira Aldridge, alumnus of the African Grove Theater, begins prominent acting career in London.Art and LiteratureGreat Britain1801-1900
1824The Federal Republic of Central America abolishes slavery.Political UnificationGuatemala1801-1900
1824Moshoeshoe brings together rival clans to establish the Kingdom of Sotho in Southern Africa.Southern African EmpiresSouth Africa1801-1900
1827Fourah Bay College is established in Freetown, Sierra Leone. The college is the first western-oriented institution of higher education on the African continent.EducationSierra Leone1801-1900
1828Shaka Zulu, the Zulu leader, is assassinated by his half brother, Dingane who then proclaims himself ruler of the Zulu Empire.Southern African EmpiresSouth Africa1801-1900
1829Mexican independence leader Vincente Guerrero of African and Indian ancestry becomes the second President of Mexico. Shortly afterwards he finally abolishes slavery in Mexico.EmancipationMexico1801-1900
1831Bolivia abolishes slavery.EmancipationBolivia1801-1900
1831Guyana becomes a British colony.Colonial ConquestGuyana1801-1900
1833The British Parliament abolishes slavery in the entire British Empire.EmancipationGreat Britain1801-1900
1834The British abolition of slavery in the Cape Colony prompts many boers to move further north into the interior of Southern Africa beyond the reach of British authority. Their migration eventually brings them into conflict with the Zulu nation and other indigenous African people.EmancipationSouth Africa1801-1900
1836John B. Russwurm is appointed Governor of the Cape Palmas district of Liberia by the American Colonization Society.African Americans in LiberiaLiberia1801-1900
1837Muhammad Bello, the Sultan of Sokoto, and son of Usman dan Fodio, dies. With a population of ten million, Sokoto at the time is the largest state in West Africa.West African EmpiresNigeria1801-1900
1837The first groundnuts (peanuts) are exported to the United States and Europe from Sierra Leone.African EconomySierra Leone1801-1900
1838Boers clash for the first time directly with the Zulu at the Battle of Blood River in Natal.Southern African EmpiresSouth Africa1801-1900
1840Sayyid Said, the Sultan of Oman, moves his capital to Zanzibar which will soon evolve into the largest slave-trading state in East Africa.East African Slave TradeZanzibar1801-1900
1842Uruguay abolishes slavery.EmancipationUruguay1801-1900
1844The British Governor of the Gold Coast forms an alliance with the Fante states along the coast against the Ashanti Empire.Colonial ConquestGhana1801-1900
1844New Orleans-born African American playwright Victor Sejour's first play, Diegarias, is performed at the Theatre Francais in Paris.Art and LiteratureFrance1801-1900
1845By this date the French have constructed the forts of Assinie, Bassam, and Dabou on the Slave Coast in what is now Cote d'Ivoire.Colonial ConquestCote d'Ivoire1801-1900
1846Tunisia abolishes slavery.EmancipationTunisia1801-1900
1847Sweden abolishes slavery.EmancipationSweden1801-1900
1847On July 26, Liberia becomes an independent nation. It's first president is Joseph Jenkins Roberts.IndependenceLiberia1801-1900
1848Denmark abolishes slavery.EmancipationDenmark1801-1900
1848Slavery is abolished in all French ColoniesEmancipationFrance1801-1900
1848France founds Gabon for the settlement of emancipated slaves.EmancipationGabon1801-1900
1848The French Assembly grants full voting rights to the inhabitants of Dakar and Rufisque, the two largest cities in the colony of Senegal. These inhabitants will govern themselves and send representatives to the French Assembly in Paris. This is the first time African colonial subjects will have a voice in the government of France. In 1872 similar rights will be granted to St. Louis and Goree Island.Colonial AdministrationSenegal1801-1900
1850Denmark sells its colony on the Gold Coast to the British and withdraws from Africa.Colonial AdministrationGhana1801-1900
1850Swahili-Arab traders extend trading routes for enslaved people and ivory across Lake Tanganyika into what is now the eastern Congo.East African Slave TradeTanzania1801-1900
1851The Liberian legislature authorizes the establishment of Liberia College which will eventually become the University of Liberia.EducationLiberia1801-1900
1851Columbia abolishes slavery.EmancipationColumbia1801-1900
1852The Hawaiian Kingdom abolishes slavery.EmancipationThe Hawaiian Kingdom1801-1900
1852Swahili traders from east Africa cross the continent and reach the Atlantic coastal state of Benguela.East African Slave TradeAngola1801-1900
1853The British allow the Gold Coast colony to have a legislative council. This is the first instance of the British providing limited self-government for their sub-Saharan colonial subjects.Colonial AdministrationGhana1801-1900
1853Mary Ann Shadd becomes the first woman of African ancestry to publish a newspaper anywhere in the world when she takes control of the Provincial Freeman in Chatham, Ontario.Anti-Slavery CampaignCanada1801-1900
1854Venezuela abolishes slavery.EmancipationVenezula1901-2000
1854Peru abolishs slavery.EmancipationPeru1801-1900
1854Al-Hajj Umar, a Muslim religious leader from Futa Toro (in present-day Senegal), initiates a jihad which captures much of the interior of west Africa including the Kingdom of Kaarta.West African EmpiresSenegal1801-1900
1854Quinine is used in in the Gold Coast for the first time in Africa to treat malaria.Health and MedicineGhana1801-1900
1855Ras Kassa unifies the warring states of Ethiopia and crowns himself Emperor Tewodros II.Political UnificationEthiopia1801-1900
1855Msiri, a Nyamwezi ivory and slave trader establishes a permanent interior state (called Nyamwezi) with a capital at Bunyeka.East African Slave TradeTanzania1801-1900
1855An estimated 4,000 fugitive slaves from Texas and the U.S. Southwest are living in and around the Mexican border town of Matamoras.EmancipationMexico1801-1900
1858Spain gains control over Equatorial Guinea.Colonial ConquestEquatorial Guinea1801-1900
1861The British establish a protectorate at the port of Lagos, the first step in creating the colony of Nigeria.Colonial ConquestNigeria1801-1900
1861Tukulor leader Al-Hajj Umar conquers the Kingdom of Segu.West African EmpiresBurkina Faso1801-1900
1861France gains control over Djibouti.Colonial ConquestDjibouti1801-1900
1863Slavery is abolished in all Dutch colonies.EmancipationThe Netherlands1801-1900
1863Al-Hajj Umar clashes with the French in the Senegal Valley and captures Timbuktu. The following year Umar is killed putting down a rebellion in Masina.West African EmpiresMali1801-1900
1863The French establish a protectorate over Porto Novo in Dahomey.Colonial ConquestBenin1801-1900
1864Former slave Samuel Crowther becomes the first African Anglican bishop.  He is appointed to serve in what is now Nigeria.19th Century Black ReligionNigeria1801-1900
1865Samori Toure, the leader of the Mandinka, begins an empire in the upper Niger River basin.West African EmpiresMali1801-1900
1865Tippu Tip, a Swahili trader, gains control over the ivory and slave trade in the east African interior and becomes a rival to Msiri.East African Slave TradeTanzania1801-1900
1865The Dominican Republic is declared independent from Spain.IndependenceDominican Republic1801-1900
1866In November Mifflin W. Gibbs is elected to the Victoria, British Columbia City Council. He becomes the second black Canadian resident elected to office.PoliticsCanada1801-1900
1867Diamonds are found at Kimberley in the Orange Free State in what is now South Africa.African EconomySouth Africa1801-1900
1868Ethiopian Emperor Tewodros II is defeated by the British at the Battle of Aroge and subsequently commits suicide.International ConflictEthiopia1801-1900
1868Moshoeshoe, the King of Sotho in southern Africa requests British annexation of his kingdom to avoid being overrun by the Boers.Southern African EmpiresSouth Africa1801-1900
1868Antonio Maceo Grajales joins the Cuban independence movement eventually rising to the level of General in the insurgent army at the time of his death in 1896.Anti-Colonial CampaignCuba1801-1900
1869Slavery is abolished in Portugal's African colonies.EmancipationPortugal1801-1900
1869Gold is discovered at Tati in South Africa and in neighboring Botswana, setting off an international gold rush into the region.African EconomySouth Africa1801-1900
1869The Suez Canal is opened with Great Britain and France in control of the waterway.Colonial AdministrationEgypt1801-1900
1873Slavery is abolished in Puerto RicoEmancipationUnited States1801-1900
1873The British persuade the Sultan of Zanzibar to end the slave trade.East African Slave TradeZanzibar1801-1900
1873-74The Anglo-Ashanti War. After initial victories by the Ashanti, the British eventually prevail and force the Ashanti Emperor to surrender.Colonial ConquestGhana1801-1900
1879In the first Anglo-Zulu War the British suffer a crushing defeat at Isandlwana.Anti-Colonial ResistanceSouth Africa1801-1900
1880Samori Toure extends his conquests to include the west African gold fields and the upper Niger valley.West African EmpiresNiger1801-1900
1880Afro-French explorer Pierre de Brazza-Savorgnan negotiates a treaty with the Kingdom of the Kongo which relinquishes its claim to the north bank of the Congo River. He founds Brazzaville, the first settlement in the new colony.Colonial ConquestCongo-Brazzaville1801-1900
1881The Mahdist Revolution began on June 29 when a Sudanese Islamic cleric, Muhammad Ahmad, proclaimed himself the Mahdi.Islam in AfricaSudan1801-1900
1882Great Britain gains control over Egypt from the Ottoman Empire.Colonial ConquestEgypt1801-1900
1884Nehemiah Tile founds the Tembu National Church, the first of a series of African-controlled churches in South Africa, in the Transkei region of South Africa.African ReligionSouth Africa1801-1900
1884Germany acquires Namibia, Togo, and Cameroon as its first African colonies.Colonial ConquestNamibia1801-1900
1884European nations at the Berlin Conference reach agreement on the partition of Africa.Colonial ConquestGermany1801-1900
1885Germany establishes a protectorate over the Tanganyika coast.Colonial ConquestTanzania1801-1900
1885King Leopold of Belgium acquires the Congo, a vast area of nearly 905,000 square miles, as his personal possession. He calls the area the Congo Free State.Colonial ConquestCongo1801-1900
1885The French declare a protectorate over Madagascar.Colonial ConquestMadagascar1801-1900
1885Pan-Africanist intellectual Edward Wilmot Blyden campaigns unsuccessfully for President of Liberia. After his defeat he goes into self-imposed exile in neighboring Sierra Leone.PoliticsLiberia1801-1900
1885The Royal Niger Company, backed by the British Army, takes control of the Lower Niger and Benue River valleys. With that expansion they effectively rule half of what will eventually be the colony of Nigeria.Colonial ConquestNigeria1801-1900
1886Slavery is abolished in Cuba.EmancipationCuba1801-1900
1886City of Johannesburg is founded in South Africa.Colonial AdministrationSouth Africa1801-1900
1886The Comoros Islands become a French protectorate.Colonial ConquestComoros1801-1900
1887The British declare a protectorate over what is now Southern Nigeria.Colonial ConquestNigeria1801-1900
1888Slavery is abolished in Brazil.EmancipationBrazil1801-1900
1888The British help the Germans crush Muslim resistance on the East African coast.Colonial ConquestTanzania1801-1900
1889Italy gains control over Eritrea.Colonial ConquestEritrea1801-1900
1889Cecil Rhodes' British South African Company begins the colonize the African interior. White settlers name the colony Rhodesia.Colonial ConquestSouth Africa1801-1900
1889Menelik II becomes the Emperor of Ethiopia and initiates a campaign of expansion which will double the size of the empire.Political UnificationEthiopia1801-1900
1893Henry Ossawa Tanner paints The Banjo Lesson while living in France.  The painting is eventually hailed as one of the major works of art of the late 19th Century.Art and LiteratureFrance1801-1900
1893French forces capture Timbuktu and destroy the Tukulor Empire.Colonial ConquestMali1801-1900
1893The French declare the Ivory Coast to be their colony.Colonial ConquestCote d'Ivoire1801-1900
1894Buganda is occupied by the British who begin to form the colony of Uganda.Colonial ConquestUganda1801-1900
1894The French conquer Dahomey.Colonial ConquestBenin1801-1900
1895Tananarive, the capital of Madagascar, surrenders to the French.Colonial ConquestMadagascar1801-1900
1896The Ethiopians, under Emperor Menelik II, defeat the Italians at the Battle of Adwa and becomes the only African nation to successfully resist European conquest during this period.Anti-Colonial ResistanceEthiiopia1801-1900
1896Sultan Khaled surrenders Zanzibar to the British.Colonial ConquestZanzibar1801-1900
1896British forces invade and occupy the Ashanti Empire.Colonial ConquestGhana1801-1900
1897Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis, a prominent 19th century Brazilian writer is a founder and the first President of the Brazilian Academy of Literature. He holds the post until his death in 1908.Art and LiteratureBrazil1801-1900
1897Zanzibar abolishes slavery.EmancipationZanzibar1801-1900
1897The British Army creates the West African Frontier Force, regiments of African soldiers led by British officers.Colonial ConquestNigeria1801-1900
1898Afro-English composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor is commissioned at 23 to write his Ballade in A Minor for Britain19th Century Black MusicGreat Britain1801-1900
1898The French gain control over Guinea.Colonial ConquestGuinea1801-1900
1899The British and French establish joint rule over Sudan.Colonial AdministrationSudan1801-1900
1899Germany conquers Rwanda.Colonial ConquestRwanda1801-1900
1900The United States Pavilion at the Paris Exposition (April 14-Nov. 10) houses an exhibition on black Americans called the Exposition des Negres d'Amerique.Art and LiteratureFrance1801-1900
1900The first Pan African Conference, organized by Henry Sylvester Williams, a Trinidad attorney, meets in London in July.Pan AfricanismGreat Britain1801-1900
1900The British establish the Protectorate of Northern Nigeria.Colonial AdministrationNigeria1801-1900
1900Beginning of large scale copper mining in the Katanga region of the Congo Free State.African EconomyCongo1801-1900
1900The first white settlers arrive in Kenya.Colonial ConquestKenya1801-1900
1901African American cyclist Marshall "Major" Taylor wins European Cycling championship in Paris, France.Black AthletesFrance1901-2000
1901The British annex the Ashanti Empire into their Gold Coast colony.Colonial ConquestGhana1901-2000
1903Meta Vaux Warrick, an African American sculptor, exhibits her work at the Paris Salon, Paris France.Art and LiteratureFrance1901-2000
1903Thousands of black workers from the Caribbean and Latin America arrive in the Canal Zone to help build the Panama Canal.Black LaborPanama1901-2000
1903Troops of the West African Frontier Force, led by British officers, take the city of Sokoto. Shortly afterwards the Sokoto Caliphate is annexed to Nigeria.Colonial ConquestNigeria1901-2000
1904France creates a federation of its West African colonies stretching from Chad and the Cameroons west to Senegal.Colonial AdministrationChad1901-2000
1904The Herero rise in rebellion against German forces in South West Africa (Namibia). The rebellion is crushed the following year.Anti-Colonial ResistanceNamibia1901-2000
1904Black South Africans are required for the first time to settle in Soweto, a township on the edge of Johannesburg. Soweto is the first and will eventually become the largest of the all-black townships near white South African cities under the new system of government-mandated residential segregation.Colonial AdministrationSouth Africa1901-2000
1905The Maji-Maji Uprising begins in German East Africa.Anti-Colonial ResistanceTanzania1901-2000
1906Britain, France, and Italy agree to recognize the independence of Ethiopia.IndependenceEthiopia1901-2000
1906Lagos is incorporated into the Protectorate of Southern Nigeria.Colonial AdministrationNigeria1901-2000
1907German forces capture Abdallah Mapanda, the leader of the Maji-Maji Uprising in German East Africa (Tanganyika).Anti-Colonial ResistanceTanzania1901-2000
1907Nairobi is chosen as the capital of British East Africa.Colonial AdministrationKenya1901-2000
1907German forces defeat the Nama people, ending resistance to the conquest of South West AfricaColonial ConquestNamibia1901-2000
1908John Baxter "Doc" Taylor of the University of Pennsylvania becomes the first African American to win an Olympic Gold Medal. His event is the 4/400-meter medley at the London Games.African American AthletesGreat Britain1901-2000
1908On December 26, Jack Johnson defeats Canadian Tommy Burns in Sydney, Australia to become the first African American heavyweight boxing champion of the world.African American AthletesAustralia1901-2000
1908Leopold II transfers control of the Congo Free State to Belgium.Colonial AdministrationCongo1901-2000
1910The Union of South Africa is formed with the Afrikaners as the majority of the white population. The Union becomes a dominion of the British Empire.Colonial AdministrationSouth Africa1901-2000
1912The African National Congress (ANC) was formed in Bloemfontein, South Africa on January 18, 1912, when a group of Africans, Coloreds, and Indians convened a meeting to discuss their grievances against the colonial government.Anti-Colonial ResistanceSouth Africa1901-2000
1912The French establish a protectorate in Morocco.Colonial ConquestMorocco1901-2000
1913Mohandas Gandhi is arrested in South Africa for leading a protest against the treatment of Indians there.Anti-Colonial ResistanceSouth Africa1901-2000
1914The Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) is founded in Kingston, Jamaica by Marcus and Amy Jacques Garvey.Pan AfricanismJamaica1901-2000
1914U.S. born pilot Eugene Jacques Bullard volunteers to serve with the French Air Force in World War I. He is the first black pilot to see combat in that conflict.African Americans in World War IFrance1901-2000
1914Blaise Diagne wins a seat in the French National Assembly in Paris, representing Dakar, Senegal. He also recruits Senegalese troops for the French Army during World War I. In 1934 he becomes the Deputy Minister of the Colonies in the French government.PoliticsSenegal1901-2000
1914The British Protectorates of Northern and Southern Nigeria are combined to form the Colony of Nigeria, the most populous colony in Africa.Colonial AdministrationNigeria1901-2000
1915On July 28, the United States begins a 19 year occupation of Haiti, the longest in U.S. history.The United States in HaitiHaiti1901-2000
1915Invoking the name of U.S. abolitionist John Brown, John Chilembwe leads 200 followers in an unsuccessful revolt against British colonial rule in Nyasaland (now Malawi). Chilembwe and his followers kill three British subjects before he flees to Mozambique where he is killed ten days later by Portuguese-led African soldiers.Resistance to ColonialismMalawi1901-2000
1916In March the Tenth Cavalry is one of two cavalry units under the command of General John J. Pershing given the assignment to capture Mexican Revolutionary leader Francisco Pancho Villa. The Seventh Cavalry is the other. They are unsuccessful.African Americans and the MilitaryMexico1901-2000
1918The Ecole de Medecine de Dakar is founded in Dakar, Senegal. It eventually becomes Cheik Anta Diop University.EducationSenegal1901-2000
1919James Reese Europe's Army jazz band popularizes jazz in France and Western Europe20th Century Black MusicFrance1901-2000
1919The second Pan African Conference, led by W.E. B. DuBois, meets in Paris in February partly to help influence the post war Versailles Peace Conference.Pan AfricanismFrance1901-2000
1920Former German colonies of Togo, Cameroons, South West Africa, and Tanganyika in Africa are divided by the victorious French and British after World War I.Colonial AdministrationTogo1901-2000
1921Bessie Coleman, the first black female pilot, also becomes the first woman to receive an international pilots license when she graduates from the Federation Aeronautique International in France.Black WomenFrance1901-2000
1921The third Pan African Conference meets in London and Brussels.Pan AfricanismBelgium1901-2000
1922Senegelese boxer Louis Phal, also known as Battling Siki, defeats Georges Carpentier in Paris to win the world light heavyweight boxing title. Phal becomes the first African to win an international professional sports title.Black AthletesFrance1901-2000
1922Makerere University is founded as a vocational institute on the edge of Kampala, Uganda. It will become the largest university in East Africa.EducationUganda1901-2000
1922Egypt gains its independence from Great Britain on February 22. King Fuad I is the first head of state.IndependenceEgypt1901-2000
1923The fourth Pan African Congress meets in London and Lisbon.Pan AfricanismPortugal1901-2000
1923Abyssinia (Ethiopia) becomes the first African nation to join the League of Nations.International OrganizationsThe Netherlands1901-2000
1924Eugene ONeill's play The Emperor Jones opens in London with Paul Robeson in the title role.Art and LiteratureGreat Britain1901-2000
1924Achimota School is founded near Accra, The Gold Coast. Part of the institution eventually evolves into the University of Ghana.EducationGhana1901-2000
1924Iraq abolishes slavery.EmancipationIraq1901-2000
1924O Clarim da Alvorada (Clarion of Dawn) becomes of the first Afro-Brazilian newspapers.  Founded in Sao Paulo, it will be a leading force in the growing black culture movement in Brazil.Civil RightsBrazil1901-2000
1924The Ligue Universelle pour la Defense de la Race Noire (LUDRN), a Pan African Association, is created on April 30 in Paris.  The Ligue works to improve conditions for colonized Africans.Pan AfricanismFrance1901-2000
1925American-born Josephine Baker emerges as a popular entertainer in Paris after she appears in the musical La Revue Negre.Black EntertainmentFrance1901-2000
1926League of Nations Slavery Convention bounds all signatories to end the slave trade and slavery.EmancipationThe Netherlands1901-2000
1927Fifth Pan African Congress meets in New York City.Pan AfricanismUnited States1901-2000
1928Iran abolishes slavery.EmancipationIran1901-2000
1929The Aba Women's Riots in Aba, Nigeria, are the first direct revolt by Nigerians against British colonial rule.Anti-Colonial ResistanceNigeria1901-2000
1930Ras Tafari is crowned Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia.Political UnificationEthiopia1901-2000
1931The Frente Negra Brasileira (Brazilian Black Front) is formed in the city of Sao Paulo.Civil RightsBrazil1901-2000
1934Abidjan is declared the capital of the French colony of Ivory Coast.Colonial AdministrationCote d'Ivoire1901-2000
1934American-born Robert Robinson becaue the first black city councilman in Moscow, Russia (The Soviet Union).PoliticsRussia1901-2000
1935On October 3, Italy invades Ethiopia.Italian Invasion of EthiopiaEthiopia1901-2000
1936Addis Ababa is conquered by Italian forces. Mussolini declares the conquest the foundation of a new Roman Empire.Italian Invasion of EthiopiaEthiopia1901-2000
1936Felix Eboue become Colonial Governor of Guadeloupe, French West Indies, the first person of African ancestry to hold the post in the French Colonial Empire. Eventually he will hold the same post in Chad and in 1940 becomes Governor General of French Equatorial Africa.Colonial AdministrationGuadeloupe1901-2000
1936On June 30, Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie appeals unsuccessfully to the League of Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, to assist his country in expelling the Italian invaders.Military InvasionEthiopia1901-2000
1937Approximately 80 African Americans are among the 3,000 U.S. volunteers who fight in the Spanish Civil War. One of them, Texas-born Oliver Law, commands the Lincoln Battalion. Law is killed in battle on July 9.Black InternationalismSpain1901-2000
1941Ethiopia with the assistance of British forces defeats the Italians and reestablishes its independence.Italian Invasion of EthiopiaEthiopia1901-2000
1942Slavery is abolished in the Ethiopian Empire.EmancipationEthiopia1901-2000
1942-43Nearly 100,000 African American noncombat soldiers are sent to Alaska, Hawaii, Guam, Samoa and other areas of the Pacific to build roads, ports and airfields in the war against Imperial Japan. Black black soldiers with the 95th Engineer Regiment, for example, help construct the Alaska-Canadian (ALCAN) Highway in 1942.African Americans and the MilitaryNew Guinea1901-2000
1943African troops fight in both Allied and Axis armies in North, West, and East Africa.Black SoldiersLibya1901-2000
1943President Franklin Roosevelt travels to Liberia to Meet with Liberian President Edwin J. Barclay to lobby for its rubber and other natural resources for the Allied war effort. This marks the first trip by a U.S. President while in office to a sub-Saharan African nation.International DiplomacyLiberia1901-2000
1944Eilud Mathu becomes the first black member of the legislative council of Kenya.PoliticsKenya1901-2000
1944The 81st and 82nd West African Divisions and the 11th East African Division (British Army) fight the Japanese in Burma.Black SoldiersBurma1901-2000
1944Abdias do Nascimento founds the Teatro Nacional do Negro in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.Art and LiteratureBrazil1901-2000
1944Eric Eustace Williams publishes the influential Capitalism and Slavery which argues that the British abolition of slavery grew from the realization that wage labor had supplanted slave labor in the global capitalist marketplace.Art and LiteratureUnited States1901-2000
1944Soon after the Allied invasion at Normandy on D-Day, the U.S. Army organizes the Red Ball Express to bring need supplies from the coast to troops advancing across France toward Germay. Nearly 75% of the supply truck drivers are African American.African Americans and the MilitaryFrance1901-2000
1945The sixth Pan African Congress meets in Manchester, England.Pan AfricanismGreat Britain1901-2000
1945Madame E. T. Eboue is the first person of African ancestry to win a seat in the French Assembly.PoliticsFrance1901-2000
1946The Rassemblement Democratique Africain (RDA) was the first French-speaking Pan African organization.  Founded in 1946 in Bamako, Mali to provide a voice for colonized Africans in the French National Assembly in Paris, its various colonial sections by 1960 become the first political parties in Mali, Upper Volta, Chad and other newly independent French-speaking nations.Pan AfricanismMali1901-2000
1947Alioine Diop establishes Presence Africaine, a journal devoted to African culture, in Dakar, Senegal.Art and LiteratureSenegal1901-2000
1947The African National Congress (ANC) forms an alliance with the Natal Indian Congress and the Transvaal Indian Congress to oppose British and Afrikaner rule in South Africa.Anti-Colonial CampaignSouth Africa1901-2000
1948United Nations Article 4 bans slavery globally.EmancipationUnited States1901-2000
1948The Nationalist Party wins parliamentary elections in South Africa. Within a year it will make Apartheid the official policy of the government.ApartheidSouth Africa1901-2000
1948The University of Ibadan is established in the city of Ibadan, the second largest city in the colony of Nigeria. The university will be the first institution of higher education in Nigeria.EducationNigeria1901-2000
1948The University of the West Indies is established as the University College of the West Indies at Mona, Jamaica.EducationJamaica1901-2000
1950On September 22, Ralph Bunche becomes the first African American recipient of a Nobel Peace Prize for his mediation of a settlement between Arabs and Israelis in the 1947-48 Mideast Crisis.Humanitarian AwardsSweden1901-2000
1951On December 24, Libya gains its independence from Italy. Its first head of state is King Idris.IndependenceLibya1901-2000
1951The Algerian National Liberation Front begins a guerrilla campaign against the French. The campaign ends with Algerian independence in 1962.Anti-Colonial ResistanceAlgeria1901-2000
1952The Mau Mau Uprising begins in Kenya. The uprising ends in 1956 after more than 13,000 people are killed.Anti-Colonial ResistanceKenya1901-2000
1952Qatar abolishes slavery.EmancipationQatar1901-2000
1952Ethiopia gains control over Eritrea.Colonial ConquestEritrea1901-2000
1955Civil War begins in Sudan pitting the Muslim North against the Christian South.Civil WarSudan1901-2000
1956Eric Eustace Williams founds the People's National Movement in Trinidad.PoliticsTrinidad & Tobago1901-2000
1956On January 1, Sudan gains independence from Great Britain. Ismail al-Azhari is the first head of state.IndependenceSudan1901-2000
1956On March 20, Tunisia gains independence from France. The first head of state is Muhammad VIII al-Amin.IndependenceTunisia1901-2000
1956On April 7, Morocco gains its independence from France. The first head of state is Muhammad V.IndependenceMorocco1901-2000
1957On July 6, Althea Gibson becomes the first African American to win the Womens Singles Division of the British Tennis Championship at Wimbledon.African American AthletesGreat Britain1901-2000
1957On March 6, Ghana becomes the first sub-Saharan nation to gain independence when it is declared free by Great Britain. The first head of state is Prime Minister Kwame Nkrumah.IndependenceGhana1901-2000
1957The Bahutu Manifesto drawn up by Rwandan Hutu intellectuals, called for Hutu ethnic and political solidarity and the political disfranchisement of the Tutsi people.Ethnic ConflictRwanda1901-2000
1958Nigerian novelist Chinua Achebe publishes Things Fall Apart, his first critically acclaimed novel.Art and LiteratureNigeria1901-2000
1958Edson Arantes do Nascimento, 17 year-old Brazilian soccer star leads the Brazilian National Soccer team to its first World Cup championship in international competition in Stockholm, Sweden.Black AthletesBrazil1901-2000
1958Canadian native Willie O'Ree is the first black hockey player in the National Hockey League. He made his NHL debut on January 18, 1958 as a player for the Boston Bruins. Their opponent was the Montreal Canadiens.Black AthletesCanada1901-2000
1958On October 2, Guinea gains its independence from France. Sekou Toure is the first head of state.IndependenceGuinea1901-2000
1959The National Symphony Orchestra is founded in Accra, Ghana. It is the first in sub-Saharan Africa.20th Century Black MusicGhana1901-2000
1959South Africa writer Es'kia Mphahlele publishes his critically acclaimed autobiography Down Second Avenue.Art and LiteratureSouth Africa1901-2000
1960Albert John Lutuli, President of the African National Congress, wins the Nobel Peace Prize.Humanitarian AwardsSweden1901-2000
1960Track star Wilma Rudolph of Tennessee State University is the first woman to win three gold medals at the Olympic Games which are held that year in Rome.African American AthletesItaly1901-2000
1960Burkina Faso becomes independent from France. Its first head of state is Maurice Yameogo.IndependenceBurkina Faso1901-2000
1960Cote d'Ivoire is declared independent from France. Felix Houphouet-Boigny is the nation's first President.IndependenceCote d'Ivoire1901-2000
1960Chad becomes independent of France on August 11. Francois Tombalbaye is the first head of state.IndependenceChad1901-2000
1960Abebe Bikila, the barefoot Ethiopian runner, became the first African to win an Olympic gold medal. He competed at the games in Rome, Italy.Black AthletesItaly1901-2000
1960On June 26, Madagascar is declared independent by France. Philibert Tsiranana is the first head of state.IndependenceMadagascar1901-2000
1960On August 1 Benin is declared independent of France. Its first head of state is Hubert Maga.IndependenceBenin1901-2000
1960On August 3, Niger becomes independent of France. Hamani Diori is chosen as the first head of state.IndependenceNiger1901-2000
1960On June 20, Mali gains independence from France. Modibo Keita is the first head of state.IndependenceMali1901-2000
1960Senegal is declared independent by France on June 20. Leopold Senghor is the nation's first President.IndependenceSenegal1901-2000
1960On April 27, Togo gains its independence from France. The first head of state is Sylvanus Olympio.IndependenceTogo1901-2000
1960On January 1, Cameroon is granted independence by Great Britain and France. The first head of state is Ahmadou Ahidjo.IndependenceCameroon1901-2000
1960On June 30, Belgium grants independence to the Congo, (Leopoldville). Joseph Kasavubu is the first Head of State. Within weeks of that independence Katanga province secedes from the Congo prompting a four year civil war in that new nation and United Nations intervention.IndependenceCongo1901-2000
1960Nigeria gains its independence from Great Britain on October 1. Nnamdi Azikiwe is the first President of the nation but in a powersharing arrangement worked out by the British, Sir Abubakar Tafawa is the first Prime Minister.IndependenceNigeria1901-2000
1960On July 1, British and Italian Somaliland are united to form the nation of Somalia. Aden Abdullah Osman Daar is the first Head of State.IndependenceSomalia1901-2000
1960On March 21, 69 approximately 7,000 protestors gathered at the Sharpeville, South Africa police station to protest Apartheid pass laws. Police opened fire and 69 demonstrators were killed and 186 were wounded. In the aftermath the South African government banned a number of organizations including the African National Congress. The Sharpeville Massacre is considered the first major confrontation by black South Africans against Apartheid.Anti-Apartheid ResistanceSouth Africa1901-2000
1960South West Africa People's Organization (SWAPO) is formed by Sam Nujoma and Herman Toivo ja Toivo.Anti-Colonial ResistanceNamibia1901-2000
1960The Central African Republic is granted independence from France on August 13. David Dacko becomes the first head of state.IndependenceCentral African Republic1901-2000
1960France grants independence to Congo-Brazzaville on August 15. Fulbert Youlou is the first head of state.IndependenceCongo-Brazzaville1901-2000
1960Gabon becomes independent of France on August 17. Leon M'ba is the first head of state.IndependenceGabon1901-2000
1960On November 28 Mauritania is declared independent of France. Moktar Ould Daddah is the first head of state.IndependenceMaurtania1901-2000
1961On January 18, Patrice Lumumba, the leader of the Congo independence movement is killed by troops of the secessionist Katanga province.Civil WarCongo1901-2000
1961The Nationalist struggle against Portuguese rule is launched in Angola. It continues until Angolan independence in 1974.Anti-Colonial ResistanceAngola1901-2000
1961On April 27, Sierra Leone gains its independence from Great Britain. Milton Margai is its first head of state.IndependenceSierra Leone1901-2000
1961An armed guerilla struggle begins in the Portuguese colonies of Cape Verde and Guinea-Bissau. The struggle continues until both colonies are granted independence in 1975.Anti-Colonial ResistanceGuinea-Bissau1901-2000
1961On December 9, Tanganyika gains its independence from Great Britain. Julius Nyerere is the first head of state.IndependenceTanzania1901-2000
1962Yemen abolishes slavery.EmancipationYemen1901-2000
1962On July 3, Algeria is declared independent by France. Ahmed Ben Bella is its first head of state.IndependenceAlgeria1901-2000
1962On October 9, Uganda gains its independence from Great Britain. The first head of state is Milton Obote.IndependenceUganda1901-2000
1962Jamaica gains its independence from Great Britain on August 6. Alexander Bustamante is the first head of state.IndependenceJamaica1901-2000
1962Trinidad & Tobago gain independence from Great Britain on August 31. Eric Eustace Williams is the first head of state.IndependenceTrinidad and Tobago1901-2000
1962Saudi Arabia abolishes slavery.EmancipationSaudi Arabia1901-2000
1962On July 1, Rwanda is granted independence by Belgium. Gregoire Kayibanda is its first head of state.IndependenceRwanda1901-2000
1962On July 1, Burundi is granted independence by Belgium. King Mwambutsa IV is the first head of state.IndependenceBurundi1901-2000
1963James Baldwin publishes The Fire Next Time while living in Paris.Art and LiteratureFrance1901-2000
1963Kenya gains independence from Great Britain on December 12. Jomo Kenyatta is the first head of state.IndependenceKenya1901-2000
1963The Organization of African Unity (OAU) founded in Addis Abba, Ethiopia, on May 23.International OrganizationsEthiopia1901-2000
1963The United Arab Emirates abolish slavery.EmancipationUnited Arab Emirates1901-2000
1964The Zanzibar Revolution of 1964 ends 120 years of Arab control of the Islands of Zanzibar and Pemba Islands.IndependenceTanzania1901-2000
1964Kenyan writer Ngugi wa Thiongo publishes Weep Not, Child, the first major novel in English by an East African.Art and LiteratureKenya1901-2000
1964On December 10, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. receives the Nobel Peace Prize in Stockholm, Sweden.Humanitarian AwardsSweden1901-2000
1964On July 6, Malawi is declared independent by Great Britain. Hastings Kamuzu Banda is the first head of state.IndependenceMalawi1901-2000
1964Tanganyikan President Julius Nyerere negotiates an agreement with newly independent Zanzibar to merge the two nations. Nyerere becomes President of the new nation of Tanzania.Political UnificationTanzania1901-2000
1964A Nationalist guerilla struggle against Portuguese rule is launched in Mozambique. It continues until Mozambique is declared independent in 1974.Anti-Colonial ResistanceMozambique1901-2000
1964On October 24, Zambia is declared independent by Great Britain. Kenneth Kaunda is the first head of state.IndependenceZambia1901-2000
1965Gambia gains independence from Great Britain on February 18. Dawda Kairaba Jawara is the first head of state.IndependenceGambia1901-2000
1965The white minority-controlled Rhodesian government declares its independence from Great Britain.IndependenceZimbabwe1901-2000
1966Nigerian novelist Flora Nwapa, publishes Efuru, one of the first novels in English by an African woman.Art and LiteratureNigeria1901-2000
1966First World Festival of Negro Arts (FESTAC) is held in Dakar, Senegal.Art and LiteratureSenegal1901-2000
1966Botswana gains independence from Great Britain on September 30. Seretse Khama is the first head of state.IndependenceBotswana1901-2000
1966Barbados gains independence from Great Britain on November 30. Errol Barrow is the first head of state.IndependenceBarbadoes1901-2000
1966The first military coup takes place in Nigeria, led by Igbo officers. It will lead directly to the Nigerian Civil War.Military DictatorshipNigeria1901-2000
1966Guyana gains its independence from Great Britain on May 26. Linden Forbes Sampson Burham is the first head of state.IndependenceGuyana1901-2000
1966Lesotho gains its independence from Great Britain on October 4. Leabua Jonathan is the first head of state.IndependenceLesotho1901-2000
1967The oil rich states of southeastern Nigeria secede and declare themselves the independent Republic of Biafra. Their action initiates the three year Nigerian Civil War.Civil WarNigeria1901-2000
1968Senegelese writer and film director Ousmane Sembene produces Mandabi, the first film in the Wolof language.Art and LiteratureSenegal1901-2000
1968Equatorial Guinea gain independence from Spain on October 12. Francisco Macias Nguema is the first head of state.IndependenceEquatorial Guinea1901-2000
1968Steve Biko founds the anti-Apartheid South Africa Students Organization (SASO). Eventually it becomes one of the largest black protest organizations in the nation.Anti-ApartheidSouth Africa1901-2000
1968Mauritius gains its independence from Great Britain on March 12.IndependenceMauritius1901-2000
1969Learie Constantine [Lord Constantine] becomes the first person of African ancestry to become a British peer.PoliticsGreat Britain1901-2000
1970The Nigerian Civil War ends with the surrender of the Republic of Biafra. Over one million Nigerians, mostly in the breakaway state of Biafra, die including many of starvation.Civil WarNigeria1901-2000
1970Oman abolishes slavery.EmancipationOman1901-2000
1970Josephine Hosten, a native of Grenada and a flight attendant became the first woman of African ancestry to will the Miss World pageant.Beauty PageantsGreat Britain1901-2000
1971General Idi Amin overthrows the government of President Milton Obote establishes a dictatorship in Uganda. Amin remains in power until 1986.Military DictatorshipUganda1901-2000
1972Uganda Asians are expelled from the nation by the dictator, General Idi Amin.Military DictatorshipUganda1901-2000
1972Nearly 150,000 Hutus are massacred by the Tutsi in Burundi.Ethnic ConflictBurundi1901-2000
1972Rosemary Brown of Vancouver becomes the first Afro-Canadian woman to be elected to public office when she wins a seat in the British Columbia Legislative Assembly.PoliticsCanada1901-2000
1972A famine begins in Ethiopia which in the next two years kills over 200,000 people.The EnvironmentEthiopia1901-2000
1973The Bahamas gains independence from Great Britain on July 10. Lynden Pindling is the first head of state.IndependenceThe Bahamas1901-2000
1973Guinea-Bissau gains its independence from Portugal on September 24. Luis Cabral is the first head of state.IndependenceGuinea-Bissau1901-2000
1974On October 30, Muhammad Ali defeats George Foreman in Kinshasa, Zaire to regain the world heavyweight championship.African American AthletesZaire1901-2000
1974The seventh Pan African Congress meets in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.Pan AfricanismTanzania1901-2000
1974Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie is deposed following a Marxist military coup led by Colonel Mengistu Haile Mariam.Military DictatorshipEthiopia1901-2000
1974Approximately 750,000 Portuguese colonists leave Angola, Mozambique, and Guinea-Bissau and return to Portugal after that nation's decision to withdraw from all of its African colonies.African MigrationMozambique1901-2000
1974Greneda gains its independence from Great Britain on February 7. Sir Eric Matthew Gairy is the first head of state.IndependenceGrenada1901-2000
1975On June 25, Mozambique gain its independence from Portugal. Samora Machel is the first head of state.IndependenceMozambique1901-2000
1975Cape Verde wins its independence from Portugal on July 5.IndependenceCape Verde1901-2000
1975On November 11, Angola gains its independence from Portugal. Agostinho Neto is the first head of state. Angolan independence is followed by the Angolan Civil War, a twenty-seven year conflict between the Marxist government and South African-backed rebels. The war ends in February 2002 with the death of rebel leader Jonas Savimbi.Civil WarAngola1901-2000
1975Surinam gains independence from the Netherlands on November 25. Johan Ferrier is the first head of state.IndependenceSurinam1901-2000
1975On July 12, Sao Tome & Principe gain indepenence from Portugal.IndependenceSao Tome & Principe1901-2000
1975Comoros is granted independence from France on July 6.IndependenceComoros1901-2000
1976On June 25, Seychelles gains independence from Great Britain. James Richard Marie Mancham is the first head of state.IndependenceSeychelles1901-2000
1976Cuban troops and military advisors from the Soviet Union are sent to assist the Angolan government in its campaign against South African-supported insurgents during the Angolan Civil War. Cuban troops remain in Angola until 1991.Military InterventionAngola1901-2000
1976The first Bantustans or homelands are created by the South African government to prevent black majority rule. These new quasi-independent states are intended to be the home of most of the blacks residing in South Africa.ApartheidSouth Africa1901-2000
1976Student-led riots break out in Soweto, the sprawling all-black township outside of Johannesburg, to protest Apartheid and continuing white minority rule.Anti-Apartheid ResistanceSouth Africa1901-2000
1976On July 3, Israeli commandos landed at Entebbe Airport outside Kampala and rescued 103 hostages held by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).Military InterventionUganda1901-2000
1977Janelle Commissiong, representing Trinidad & Tobago, was crowned Miss Universe at the pageant in Santo Domingo, the capital of the Dominican Republic. She was the first woman of African descent to win the title.Beauty PageantsDominican Republic1901-2000
1977The First Congress of Black Culture in the Americas convenes in Columbia.Art and LiteratureColumbia1901-2000
1977On June 27, Djibouti gains its independence from France. Hassan Gouled Aptidon is the first head of state.IndependenceDjibouti1901-2000
1977President Jean-Bedel Bokassa declares the Central African Republic to be the Central African Empire and crowns himself Emperor Bokassa I.Military DictatorshipCentral African Republic1901-2000
1977War breaks out between Ethiopia and Somalia over the Ogaden region. The conflict will continue until 1988.International ConflictEthiopia1901-2000
1977Cuba sends troops to support the Marxist dictatorship in Ethiopia.Military InterventionEthiopia1901-2000
1978Dominica gains its independence from Great Britain on November 3. Patrick Roland John is the first head of state.IndependenceDominica1901-2000
1979Emperor Bokassa I is overthrown and a parliamentary government is restored in the Central African Republic.Military DictatorshipCentral African Republic1901-2000
1979On March 13, Maurice Bishop leads a coup and seizes control of the government of Grenada. He sets up a Marxist regime and is ousted and killed on October 19, 1983, six days before United States troops take control of the island.Military DictatorshipGrenada1901-2000
1979St. Vincent & Grenadines gain independence from Great Britain on September 19. R. Milton Cato is the first head of state.IndependenceSt. Vincent & Grenadines1901-2000
1980On April 18, black majority rule comes to Rhodesia which renames itself Zimbabwe. Canaan Banana is the first head of state.IndependenceZimbabwe1901-2000
1980A military coup led by Sgt. Samuel K. Doe ends 133 years of political domination by the Americo-Liberian elite in Liberia.Military DictatorshipLiberia1901-2000
1981Mauritania abolishes slavery.EmancipationMauritania1901-2000
1981Antigua & Barbuda gain independence from Great Britain on November 1. Vere Cornwall Bird is the first head of state.IndependenceAntigua & Barbuda1901-2000
1981Belize gains independence from Great Britain on September 21. George Cadle Price is the first head of state.IndependenceBelize1901-2000
1983The adoption of Islamic law in Sudan leads to renewed civil war between Muslims and Christians and generates widespread famine in the southern third of the nation.Civil WarSudan1901-2000
1983St. Kitts & Nevis gain independence from Great Britain. Dr. Kennedy Simmonds is the first head of state.IndependenceSt. Kitts & Nevis1901-2000
1983Abdias do Nascimento is elected to the Brazilian Congress in 1983 on a platform of promoting Afro-Brazilian rights.PoliticsBrazil1901-2000
1984Anglican Bishop Desmond Mpilo Tutu of South Africa is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in Stockholm, Sweden.Humanitarian AwardsSweden1901-2000
1984In January Rev. Jesse Jackson travels to Syria to negotiate the release of U.S. Air Force pilot Robert Goodman who had been shot down over that country. Jackson returns to the U.S. with the freed pilot.Black InternationalismSyria1901-2000
1984Eritrea secedes from Ethiopia. The resulting conflict and ongoing drought cause severe food shortages. An estimated one million Ethiopians die as a consequence of the famine.Civil WarEritrea1901-2000
1985Live Aid Concert is held in Sydney, Australia and simultaneously in London, Philadelphia and Moscow to raise funds for Ethiopian famine relief.Humanitarian AidAustralia1901-2000
1985A State of Emergency is declared in South Africa in response to widespread anti-Apartheid rioting.Anti-Apartheid ResistanceSouth Africa1901-2000
1985The Zimbabwe government under President Robert Mugabe begins compulsory purchase of white-owned farms under the recently passed Land Acquisition Act.African EconomyZimbabwe1901-2000
1986Wole Soyinka of Nigeria becomes the first African to win a Nobel Prize in Literature.Art and LiteratureSweden1901-2000
1986The European Economic Community (EEC) and the United States impose economic sanctions against South Africa.Anti-Apartheid CampaignSouth Africa1901-2000
1989F.W. de Klerk replaces P.W. Botha as the President of South Africa. De Klerk immediately begins the dismantling of Apartheid. He also withdraws South African forces for Namibia paving the way for the colony's independence.Anti-Apartheid CampaignSouth Africa1901-2000
1990On February 11, Nelson Mandela, South Africa's leading anti-Apartheid opponent, is freed after 27 years in prison.Anti-Apartheid CampaignSouth Africa1901-2000
1990Namibia gains independence from South Africa on March 21. Sam Nujoma becomes the first head of state.IndependenceNamibia1901-2000
1990A civil war begins in Liberia initiated by Charles M. Taylor who challenged his former subordinate, Prince Johnson, for control of the nation.  The conflict continues until 1996.Civil WarLiberia1901-2000
1991Afro-French skater Surya Bonaly wins the first of five European Figure Skating Championships.Black AthletesFrance1901-2000
1991Eritrean and Tigrean rebels attack Addis Ababa and cause the overthrow of Marxist dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam. Eritrea wins defacto independence.Civil WarEthiopia1901-2000
1991In May the Israeli government airlifts over 14,000 Ethiopian Jews to the nation of Israel. The Ethiopian Jews who call themselves Beta Israel, become the foundation for a population in 2010 of nearly 100,000 Jews of Ethiopian ancestry in Israel.International InterventionEthiopia1901-2000
1992The United States and the United Nations intervene in Somalia to end famine and civil war in that nation.International InterventionSomalia1901-2000
1993Eritrea breaks away from Ethiopia to become an independent nation on May 24. Its first head of state is Isaias Afewerki. Eritrea is the first African nation to gain its independence from another African nation.IndependenceEritrea1901-2000
1993On October 3-4 in the Battle of Mogadishu, U.S. forces were besieged by Somali soldiers loyal to General Mohammad Farrah Aidid. Nineteen U.S. troops and approximately 300 Somali soldiers died before U.S. troops withdrew from the area of the city controlled by General Aidid's troops.International InterventionSomalia1901-2000
1993In December Nelson Mandela and South African President F.W. de Klerk are jointly presented the Nobel Peace Prize in Stockholm, Sweden.Humanitarian AwardsSweden1901-2000
1994On April 27 South Africa holds its first non racially restricted election signaling the independence of the nation. Nelson Mandela becomes the country's first democratically elected President. He serves as President from May 10, 1994 to June 14, 1999.Anti-Apartheid CampaignSouth Africa1901-2000
1994Civil War in Rwanda between the majority Hutus and the ruling minority Tutsis becomes a massive genocide as nearly one million Tutsis are massacred by Hutus and nearly two million Rwandans flee to neighboring countries.Civil WarRwanda1901-2000
1994Emery Barnes becomes the first black speaker of the British Columbia Legislative Assembly.PoliticsCanada1901-2000
1995The United States withdraws from Somalia after the debacle at Mogadishu in 1993.International InterventionSomalia1901-2000
1995Benedita Souza da Silva Sampaio, is the first woman of African ancestry elected to the Brazilian Senate.PoliticsBrazil1901-2000
1995Nigeria is expelled from the British Commonwealth because of its human rights abuses including the execution of Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight other Ogoni political activists who bring international attention to the exploitation of the oil-producing Niger Delta.Military DictatorshipNigeria1901-2000
1996Ethiopian Fatuma Roba becomes the first African woman to become an Olympic marathon champion. She wins the gold medal at the Atlanta Games.Black AthletesUnited States1901-2000
1996John Taylor [Baron Taylor of Warwick] becomes the first person of African ancestry to sit in the British House of Lords.PoliticsGreat Britain1901-2000
1996Addisu Messele is the first person of African ancestry to be elected to the Knesset, the Israeli Parliament.PoliticsIsrael1901-2000
1996Celso Roberto Pitta do Nascimento becomes the firt black mayor of Sao Paulo, Brazil's largest city.PoliticsBrazil1901-2000
1997After 32 years in power, President Mobutu Sese Seko is ousted in Zaire by rebel leader Laurent Kabila who declares the nation the Democratic Republic of Congo.Military DictatorshipCongo1901-2000
1997Kofi A. Annan becomes the seventh Secretary General of the United Nations and the first African to hold the post. He remains Secretary General until 2007.International OrganizationsUnited States1901-2000
1998Terrorist bombing attacks at two U.S. Embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania kill 250 people and injure another 6,000.TerrorismTanzania1901-2000
1999Mpule Kwelagobe of Botswana wins Miss Universe beauty pageant, becoming the first black African-born woman to hold the title.Beauty PageantsBotswana1901-2000
1999Civilian rule is reestablished in Nigeria after nearly three decades of military control of the national government.Military DictatorshipNigeria1901-2000
2001United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan receives the Nobel Peace Prize in Stockholm, Sweden.Humanitarian AwardsSweden2001-
2001World Conference Against Racism is held in Durban, South Africa.International DiplomacySouth Africa2001-
2002President Robert Mugabe wins disputed election and then arrests opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai on charges of treason. The country is expelled from the British Commonwealth.PoliticsZimbabwe2001-
2002On July 9, the African Union is formed with its headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The African Union (AU) is the successor organization to the Organization of African Unity (OAU).International OrganizationsEthiopia2001-
2002Yvette Jarvis, a native of New York City, is the first person of African ancestry to be elected to the City Council of Athens, Greece.PoliticsGreece2001-
2003First Conference of legislators of African descent from the Americas and the Caribbean meet in Brasilia, Brazil.International DiplomacyBrazil2001-
2004Wangari Maathai becomes the first African woman to win a Nobel Prize. She is selected for her environmental work in her native Kenya.The EnvironmentKenya2001-
2005Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf becomes the first African woman to lead an African nation when she is elected president of LiberiaPoliticsLiberia2001-
2005On September 27, 2005 Michaelle Jean was installed as the 27th Governor General of Canada. As Governor General she is appointed by the Queen of England as Canada's titular Head of State.PoliticsCanada2001-
2006Portia Simpson-Miller, leader of the People's National Party of Jamaica, becomes the nation's first female prime minister.PoliticsJamaica2001-
2006Loria Raquel Dixon Brautigam is elected to the Nicaraguan National Assembly where she represents the North Atlantic Autonomous Region of Nicaragua. She is the first woman of African ancestry to sit in the Assembly.PoliticsNicaragua2001-
2006In September Mayann E. Francis, a career public servant, became the first Nova Scotian of African descent to become Lieutenant Governor of the province. She is the second woman to hold that post.PoliticsCanada2001-
2008Dean Oliver Barrow becomes the first black Prime Minister of Belize.PoliticsBelize2001-
2009On December 10 U.S. President Barack Obama receives the Nobel Peace Prize in Stockholm, Sweden.Humanitarian AwardsSweden2001-
2010On January 12, a 7.0 magnitude earthquake devastated the Haitian capital of Port-Au-Prince and much of the rest of the nation. Preliminary estimates of the dead exceeded 250,000, making this one of the worst earthquakes in terms of loss of life in the modern era.Natural DisasterHaiti2001-
2010The FIFA World Cup is held on the African continent for the first time when the games are played in Johannesburg, South Africa.Black AthletesSouth Africa2001-
2011South Sudan becomes an independent nation when it breaks away from Sudan.IndependenceSudan2001-
2013The Death and State Funeral of former South African President Nelson Mandela.PoliticsSouth Africa2001-
2014The worst Ebola epidemic in recent history sweeps across Central and West Africa, killing 11,000 people.PandemicsAfrica2001-
2015Boko Haram initiates terror attacks in Northern Nigeria. Eventually more than 2,000 people are killed.TerrorismNigeria2001-
2015Al-Shabaab carries out a mass shooting at a Nairobi, Kenya shopping mall, killing 148 people.TerrorismKenya2001-
2017Bombing in Mogadishu, Somalia attributed to al-Shabaab, kills 587 people in one of the deadliest terrorist attacks in modern history.TerrorismSomalia2001-
2017Robert Mugabe, President of Zimbabwe since its independence in 1980, is ousted from power in a military coup.Military DictatorshipZimbabwe2001-
2018Epsy Campbell Barr is elected Vice President of Costa Rica.PoliticsCosta Rica2001-
2018Wedding of Prince Harry of Great Britain and Meghan Markle of the United States.England2001-
2019Omar al-Bashir, President of Sudan for 30 years, is ousted in a military coup.Military DictatorshipSudan2001-
2020COVID-19 pandemic begins, initiating a worldwide medical crisis that kills nearly two million people by the end of the year.Pandemics2001-
2020The murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis, Minnesota police officer sparks protests in 60 nations around the world.Racial ViolenceUnited States2001-
2021The COVAX vaccine-sharing initiative delivers its first vaccines, 600,000 doses to health care workers in Ghana.PandemicsGhana2001-
2021Tigray Defense forces seize the Tigrayan provincial capital of Mekelle, initiating the Ethiopian Civil War.Civil WarEthiopia2001-
2021Haitian President Jovenal Moise is killed by Colombian mercenaries in the Presidential Palace in Port-au-Prince.TerrorismHaiti2001-
2021Abdulrazk Gurmah, originally from Tanzania and now living in London, became only the second African since Wole Soyinka to win the Nobel Prize in 1986.Humanitarian AwardsEngland, Tanzania2001-
2021Barbados becomes a republic on the 55th anniversary of its independence from Great Britain. It remains in the British Commonwealth of Nations.IndependenceBarbados2001-