| Year | Events | Subject | Country | Era |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5-2.5 million BCE | Skeletal remains uncovered suggest the Rift Valley in East Africa is home to the earliest human ancestors. | Early Human Ancestors | Ethiopia | 1492-1600 |
| 4-2.7 million BCE | Hominid species Australopithicus afarensis lived in the Hadar region of Ethiopia, including "Lucy," the famous skeletal remains found in 1974. | Early Human Ancestors | Ethiopia | 1492-1600 |
| 600,000 to 200,000 BCE | Period of migration across the African continent and out of Africa to Asia and Europe. Fire is first used during this period. | African Migration | n.a. | 1492-1600 |
| 6000-4000 BCE | Spread of agriculture across Africa. River societies emerge along the Nile, Niger, and Congo Rivers. | African Migration | n.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 Egypt | Egypt | 1492-1600 |
| 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 Egypt | Egypt | 1492-1600 |
| 4000 BCE (ca.) | Egypt emerges as a centralized state and flourishing civilization. | Ancient Egypt | Egypt | 1492-1600 |
| 2700-1087 BCE (ca.) | Period of the Old Kingdom, Middle Kingdom, and New Kingdom of Ancient Egypt and Northeastern Africa. | Ancient Egypt | Egypt | 1492-1600 |
| 2500 BCE (ca.) | Other civilizations emerge in Mesopotamia, northern China, Northeastern India. | Early Civilizations | n.a. | 1492-1600 |
| 2500 BCE (ca.) | Nubian state with its capital at Kerma emerges as a rival to Egypt. | Ancient Nubia | Egypt | 1492-1600 |
| 1500 BCE (ca.) | Egyptian New Kingdom unites the Nile Valley including Nubia. | Ancient Egypt | Egypt | 1492-1600 |
| 1069 BCE | Nubia briefly regains its independence from Egypt. | Ancient Nubia | Egypt | 1492-1600 |
| 1000-800 BCE (ca.) | Bantu migration out of present-day eastern Nigeria spreads across Sub-Saharan Africa. | African Migration | Nigeria | 1492-1600 |
| 750-664 BCE | Nubian Pharaohs rule the entire Nile Valley during the 25th Dynasty. | Ancient Nubia | Egypt | 1492-1600 |
| 500 (ca.) | Bantu-speakers arrive in what is now South Africa with iron and domesticated cattle. | African Migration | South Africa | 1492-1600 |
| 500 (ca.) | Beginning of the trans-Saharan salt and gold trade in West Africa. | West African Civilizations | Mali | 1492-1600 |
| 500 BCE | Axum emerges in Northeastern Africa. Axum eventually becomes the nation of Ethiopia. | Ancient Axum | Ethiopia | 1492-1600 |
| 500 BCE | Ancient Nok culture emerges in what is now Nigeria. | West African Civilizations | Nigeria | 1492-1600 |
| 332 BCE | Egypt is conquered by Alexander the Great. Ptolemy becomes the first ruler of a dynasty that will control Egypt until 283 BCE. | Ancient Egypt | Egypt | 1492-1600 |
| 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 Kush | Sudan | 1492-1600 |
| 247-183 BCE | Hannibal rules Carthage. During his reign, Roman Italy is invaded. | Ancient Carthage | Tunisia | 1492-1600 |
| 200 BCE | Alexandria on the Mediterranean Sea is the scientific capital of the Hellenistic world, famous for its museum, university, and library. | Ancient Egypt | Egypt | 1492-1600 |
| 200 BCE | The State of Ghana begins to evolve in the West African Sudan. It is located in what is now Burkina Faso, | West African Empires | Burkina Faso | 1492-1600 |
| 200 BCE | Settlement is established at Jenne on the Niger River in West Africa. | West African Civilizations | Mali | 1492-1600 |
| 146 BCE | Rome conquers Carthage and establishes its first significant presence on the African continent. | Ancient Carthage | Tunisia | 1492-1600 |
| 160 BCE | Terence Afer (the African) is considered one of the the Roman Empire's finest Latin translators and poets. | Ancient Rome | Italy | 1492-1600 |
| 50 BCE-476 CE | Slavery 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 Slavery | Italy | 1492-1600 |
| 47-30 BCE | Cleopatra VIII Rules Egypt. | Ancient Egypt | Egypt | 1492-1600 |
| 23 BCE | Romans invade Kush, sack the capital at Napata. | Ancient Kush | Sudan | 1492-1600 |
| 1-33 AD | Life and Era of Jesus Christ, beginnings of Christianity. | Early Christianity | Israel | 1492-1600 |
| 333 | Ezana, the ruler of Axum (Ethiopia) converts to Christianity | Ancient Axum | Ethiopia | 1492-1600 |
| 350 | Ezana destroys Meroe, the capital of Kush. | Ancient Axum | Sudan | 1492-1600 |
| 500-1400 | An 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 Slavery | Italy | 1492-1600 |
| 540 | Ethiopian monks begin to translate the Bible into their own language. | Early Christianity | Ethiopia | 1492-1600 |
| 569 | Nubia is converted to Christianity. A cathedral is established at Faras to establish the Christian era in Nubia. | Early Christianity | Egypt | 1492-1600 |
| 570 | Kingdom of Kanem-Bornu begins to emerge around Lake Chad in West Africa. | West African Empires | Chad | 1492-1600 |
| 570-632 | Life and Era of the Prophet Muhammad, beginnings of Islam. | Early Islam | Saudi Arabia | 1492-1600 |
| 615 | Muslim refugees from Arabia given refuge in Axum (Ethiopia) | Early Islam | Ethiopia | 1492-1600 |
| 620 | Beginning of trans-Indian trade as reflected by Chinese coins from the period found on the East Coast of Africa. | East African Trade | Tanzania | 1492-1600 |
| 642 | Egypt is conquered and converted to Islam. New Islamic capital of Cairo is established. | Muslim Egypt | Egypt | 1492-1600 |
| 678 | Muslim Arab armies reach the Atlantic coast of North Africa. | Early Islam | Morocco | 1492-1600 |
| 690 | Sudanic city state of Gao is founded on the Niger River in West Africa. | West African Civilization | Mali | 1492-1600 |
| 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 Slavery | Iraq | 1492-1600 |
| 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 Slavery | n.a. | 1492-1600 |
| 740 | Muslims from Arabia and Persia are trading on the East African coast. | East African Trade | Somalia | 1492-1600 |
| 740 | Islamized Africans (Moors) invade Spain and rule it until 1492. | Early Islam | Spain | 1492-1600 |
| 745 | Christian Nubians and Ethiopians invade and temporarily occupy Muslim Egypt. | Early Christianity | Egypt | 1492-1600 |
| 750 (ca.) | Islam is introduced into West Africa, reaching what is now the nation of Chad. | Early Islam | Chad | 1492-1600 |
| 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 Migration | Mexico | 1492-1600 |
| 850 | Beginning of the construction of the Citadel of Great Zimbabwe. | Southern African Empires | Zimbabwe | 1492-1600 |
| 869-83 | Thousands 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 Slavery | Iraq | 1492-1600 |
| 880 | Beta Israel (Falashas) settle in Ethiopia. | Early Judaism | Ethiopia | 1492-1600 |
| 890 | Beginning of the Kingdom of Songhai. | West African Empires | Mali | 1492-1600 |
| 908 | Permanent Arab trading settlements established in Somalia. | East African Trade | Somalia | 1492-1600 |
| 945 | Malayo-Indonesian raid from Madagascar is launched on East African coastal city of Sofala. | East African Civilizations | Mozambique | 1492-1600 |
| 975 | The Christian Kingdom of Axum is overrun by Muslims. | Ancient Axum | Ethiopia | 1492-1600 |
| 992 | The Empire of Ghana captures Berber city of Awdaghost and gains control over trans-Saharan trade. | West African Empires | Mauritania | 1492-1600 |
| 420 | Christian theologian Augustine of Hippo in North Africa argues for the equality of all human beings. | Early Christianity | Tunisia | 1492-1600 |
| 1055 | Awdaghost is overrun by the Almoravids. | West African Empires | Mauritania | 1492-1600 |
| 1076 | Ghanaian Empire falls to the Almoravids, Ghana's political leaders convert to Islam. | West African Empires | Burkina Faso | 1492-1600 |
| 1100 (ca.) | Stone-built Great Zimbabwe is the capital of the surrounding state of Zimbabwe. | Southern African Empires | Zimbabwe | 1492-1600 |
| 1100 (ca.) | Hausa city-states emerge in what is now Northern Nigeria. | West African Civilizations | Nigeria | 1492-1600 |
| 1150 | Tsaraki 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 Civilizations | Nigeria | 1492-1600 |
| 1150 | Beginning of the Zagwe Dynasty in Ethiopia. | Medieval Ethiopia | Ethiopia | 1492-1600 |
| 1200 (ca.) | King Lalibela of Ethiopia begins construction of rock-cut churches. | Medieval Ethiopia | Ethiopia | 1492-1600 |
| 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 Slavery | England | 1492-1600 |
| 1230 | The Empire of Mali emerges in West Africa under Sundiata. | West African Empires | Mali | 1492-1600 |
| 1250 | Emergence of the Empire of Benin in present-day Nigeria. Benin is the first major centralized state in the West African Rain Forest. | West African Empires | Nigeria | 1492-1600 |
| 1260 | Spanish slavery code prevents married couples from being separated, provides legal protection against mistreatment, and allows slaves to inherit property. | Spanish Slavery | Spain | 1492-1600 |
| 1260 | By this date the city of Timbuktu is the religious, commercial, and political center of the Empire of Mali. | West African Empires | Mali | 1492-1600 |
| 1260 | Mansa Ule makes the first pilgrimage of a Mali ruler to Mecca. | West African Empires | Saudi Arabia | 1492-1600 |
| 1270 | Beginning of the Solomonid Dynasty in Ethiopia. | Medieval Ethiopia | Ethiopia | 1492-1600 |
| 1300 | Muslim Merchants mainly of Arabic origin establish the Kingdom of Ifat in the Ethiopian highlands. | Medieval Ethiopia | Ethiopia | 1492-1600 |
| 1324 | Pilgrimage of Mansa Musa, the most prominent ruler of Mali, to Mecca. | West African Empires | Saudi Arabia | 1492-1600 |
| 1340 | Building of the Great Mosque at Jenne in the Mali Empire. | West African Civilizations | Mali | 1492-1600 |
| 1364 | Norman navigators reach the mouth of the Senegal River. First known presence of Europeans in sub Saharan Africa. | Exploration and Discovery | Senegal | 1492-1600 |
| 1390 (ca.) | Kingdom of the Kongo emerges in central Africa. | Central African Empires | Congo | 1492-1600 |
| 1400 | Africans in Christian religious iconography proliferate across Europe, including Balthazar and the Saints, Maurice and Gregory | Africans in Europe | Germany | 1492-1600 |
| 1400 | By 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 Slavery | Italy | 1492-1600 |
| 1400 (ca.) | Songhai breaks free of the Mali Empire. | West African Empires | Mali | 1492-1600 |
| 1400 (ca.) | Gold trade flourishes in the Zambezi River Valley and its Indian Ocean port, Sofala. | East African Trade | Mozambique | 1492-1600 |
| 1400 (ca.) | Beginning of the production of bronze statues in the Empire of Benin. | West African Civilizations | Nigeria | 1492-1600 |
| 1410 | Kano is the leading Hausa city-state. It has developed an Army which includes cavalry equipped with iron weaponry and armor. | West African Civilizations | Nigeria | 1492-1600 |
| 1415 | An ambassador from Malindi, a leading East African city-state, is sent to the royal court of the Chinese Emperor. | East African Trade | China | 1492-1600 |
| 1427 | The Ethiopian emperor, Yeshaq, sends an envoy to the King of Aragon (Spain) to forge an alliance against the Muslims. | Medieval Ethiopia | Spain | 1492-1600 |
| 1431 | Ming 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 Trade | Kenya | 1492-1600 |
| 1433 | Taureg raiders conquer Timbuktu and briefly gain control over the western trans-Saharan trade routes. | West African Empires | Mali | 1492-1600 |
| 1434 | The Portuguese establish trading outposts along the West African coast. | West African Trade | Senegal | 1492-1600 |
| 1441 | Antam 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 Trade | Senegal | 1492-1600 |
| 1441 | Act of Union signed in Rome between the Church of Ethiopia and the Church of Rome. | Medieval Ethiopia | Italy | 1492-1600 |
| 1450 | Approximately 1,000 slaves per year are transported to Europe. | Slavery in Europe | Spain | 1492-1600 |
| 1450 (ca.) | Monomutapa Empire emerges in Southern Africa, breaks from and then absorbs the declining Zimbabwe Empire. | Southern African Empires | Mozambique | 1492-1600 |
| 1450 (ca.) | Sankore University and Mosque are founded at Timbuktu in the Songhai Empire. | West African Civilizations | Mali | 1492-1600 |
| 1453 | The 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 Slavery | Turkey | 1492-1600 |
| 1460 | The Sultan of Bengal acquires 500 African slaves, dramatically increasing the slave trade on the Indian subcontinent. | Africans in India | India | 1492-1600 |
| 1460 | Approximately 1,000 sub-Saharan African slaves are brought directly to Europe each year. | European Slavery | Spain | 1492-1600 |
| 1462 | Pope Pious II signs a papal bull with forbids enslavement of Africans recently converted to Christianity. | Anti-Slavery Campaign | Italy | 1492-1600 |
| 1468 | Empire of Songhai under Sunni Ali conquers Mali and becomes the largest state in West Africa. | West African Empires | Mali | 1492-1600 |
| 1470 | By 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 Slavery | Italy | 1492-1600 |
| 1470 | The Portuguese begin trading along the Gold Coast of West Africa. | West African Trade | Ghana | 1492-1600 |
| 1474 | Spanish monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella creat toe office of Mayor of the Africans in Seville. | Africans in Spain | Spain | 1492-1600 |
| 1474 | Ferdinand and Isabella, the rulers of Aragon and Castile (Modern Spain) create the office of Mayor of the Africans in Seville. | Free Blacks in Europe | Spain | 1492-1600 |
| 1482 | The 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 Trade | Ghana | 1492-1600 |
| 1486 | African slaves rebel in Bengal (India) and install their own leader, Firuz Shah as sultan. He rules for three years, 1487-1490. | Africans in India | India | 1492-1600 |
| 1490 | Small populations of free and enslaved Africans extend for Sicily to Portugal. | European Slavery | Portugal | 1492-1600 |
| 1491 | The Portuguese King establish diplomatic relations with the Kingdom of Kongo and sends Catholic missionaries to the African ruler's court. | Political Alliances | Congo | 1492-1600 |
| 1491 | Portuguese 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 Trade | Mozambique | 1492-1600 |
| 1492 | Christopher Columbus makes his first voyage to the New World opening a vast new empire for plantation slavery. | Exploration and Discovery | The Bahamas | 1492-1600 |
| 1494 | The first Africans arrive in Hispaniola with Christopher Columbus. They are free persons. | Africans in the New World | Dominican Republic | 1492-1600 |
| 1494 | Columbus claims Jamaica for the Spanish. | Colonial Conquest | Jamaica | 1492-1600 |
| 1500 | Many sub-Saharan slaves are brought to Portugal, Spain, Italy and Sicily for Christianization before they are transported to the Americas. | African Slavery in Europe | Italy | 1492-1600 |
| 1501 | The Spanish king allows the introduction of enslaved Africans into Spain's American colonies. | Spanish Slavery | Dominican Republic | 1492-1600 |
| 1506 | Nzinga 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 Alliances | Congo | 1492-1600 |
| 1511 | The first enslaved Africans arrive in Hispaniola. | Spanish Slavery | Dominican Republic | 1492-1600 |
| 1513 | Thirty Africans accompany Vasco Nunez de Balboa on his trip to the Pacific Ocean. | Exploration and Discovery | Panama | 1492-1600 |
| 1517 | Bishop 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 Slavery | Spain | 1492-1600 |
| 1518 | King Charles I of Spain grants the first licenses to import enslaved Africans to the Americas. | Spanish Slavery | Columbia | 1492-1600 |
| 1518 | The first shipload of enslaved Africans directly from Africa arrives in the West Indies. Prior to this time, Africans were brought first to Europe. | Spanish Slavery | Dominican Republic | 1492-1600 |
| 1518 | First African slaves shipped directly from West Africa (the Guinea Coast) to the West Indies, bypassing transshipment to Spain. | African Slavery | Guinea | 1492-1600 |
| 1519 | Hernan Cortez begins his conquest of the Aztec Empire. Black Spaniards, including Juan Garrido are among the Conquistadors. | Colonial Conquest | Mexico | 1492-1600 |
| 1520 | Marriage of St. Ursula to Prince Conan, a painting in a Lisbon monastery, depicts several African musicians performing for royalty. | Art and Literature | Portugal | 1492-1600 |
| 1520s | Enslaved Africans are used as laborers in Puerto Rico, Cuba, and Mexico. | Spanish Slavery | Cuba | 1492-1600 |
| 1521 | Santo Domingo Slave Revolt is the first black servile insurrection in the New World. | Anti-Slavery Resistance | Dominican Republic | 1492-1600 |
| 1524 | Spanish conqueror Francisco Pizarro overruns Ecuador and Peru. Among his conquering forces are free and enslaved Africans serving as sailors, soldiers, and laborers. | Colonial Conquest | Peru | 1492-1600 |
| 1526 | Spanish 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 Resistance | United States | 1492-1600 |
| 1527-1539 | Esteban, a Moroccan-born Muslim slave, explores what is now the Southwestern United States. | Exploration and Discovery | United States | 1492-1600 |
| 1529 | Pope 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. | Politics | Italy | 1492-1600 |
| 1536 | Spaniard Pedro de Mendoza founds Buenos Aires. Among his party are a number of enslaved and free Africans. | Colonial Conquest | Argentina | 1492-1600 |
| 1536 | Alessandro 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. | Politics | Italy | 1492-1600 |
| 1537 | Alessandro de' Medici, the first Duke of Florence, is assassinated by his cousin, Lorenzino, who then flees to Venice. | Politics | Italy | 1492-1600 |
| 1538 | Gonzalo Jimenez de Quesada founds Bogota. His party includes enslaved and free Africans. | Colonial Conquest | Columbia | 1492-1600 |
| 1540 | An African from Hernando de Soto's Expedition decides to remain behind to make his home among the Native Americans there. | Exploration and Discovery | United States | 1492-1600 |
| 1540 | Africans serve in the New Mexico Expeditions of Francisco Vasquez de Coronado and Hernando de Alarcon. | Exploration and Discovery | United States | 1492-1600 |
| 1540 | Juan 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 Spain | Chile | 1492-1600 |
| 1542 | The Spanish Crown abolishes Indian slavery in its colonial possessions. | Emancipation | Spain | 1492-1600 |
| 1542 | By this date over thirty thousand Africans are in Hispaniola with 10% living in Maroon colonies in the interior of the island. | Spanish Slavery | Dominican Republic | 1492-1600 |
| 1543 | A Spanish royal decree prohibits the enslavement of Muslims in the West Indies who have converted to Christianity. | Anti-Slavery Campaign | Dominican Republic | 1492-1600 |
| 1548 | Large numbers of African slaves are working in the sliver mines of Zacatecas. | Spanish Slavery | Mexico | 1492-1600 |
| 1548 | Free and enslaved black artisans in Peru manufacture swords, lances, and rosaries for the Spanish army. | Spanish Slavery | Peru | 1492-1600 |
| 1549 | Father Manuel de Nobrega arrives in Bahia from Lisbon and soon afterwards protests the enslavement of Africans. | Anti-Slavery Campaign | Brazil | 1492-1600 |
| 1549 | Tome de Souza founds Sao Salvador in Bahia, Brazil. He is accompanied by a number of African slaves. | Colonial Conquest | Brazil | 1492-1600 |
| 1550 | The first slaves directly from Africa arrive in the Brazilian city of Salvador. | Portuguese Slavery | Brazil | 1492-1600 |
| 1550 | By this date enslaved people have replaced gold as the principal object of European trade with Africa. | The Slave Trade | n. a | 1492-1600 |
| 1550 | The first slave insurrection is recorded in Nicaragua. | Nicaragua | 1492-1600 | |
| 1550 | The first slave insurrection is recorded in Peru. | Anti-Slavery Resistance | Peru | 1492-1600 |
| 1552 | Venezuela records its first slave insurrection. | Anti-Slavery Resistance | Venezuela | 1492-1600 |
| 1552 | Panama 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 Resistance | Panama | 1492-1600 |
| 1560 | Africans outnumber Europeans 15 to 1 on the island of Hispaniola. | Spanish Slavery | Dominican Republic | 1492-1600 |
| 1562 | Englishman 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 Trade | Dominican Republic | 1492-1600 |
| 1565 | African farmers and artisans accompany Pedro Menendez de Aviles on the expedition that establishes the community of San Agustin (St. Augustine, Florida). | Colonial Conquest | United States | 1492-1600 |
| 1565 | Afro-Spanish scholar Juan Latino is appointed the grammar chairman at Cathedral School of Granada. | Education | Spain | 1492-1600 |
| 1565 | Portuguese settlers, including African slaves, found Rio de Janeiro. | Colonial Conquest | Brazil | 1492-1600 |
| 1568 | Spanish trade between Mexico and the Philippines introduces enslaved Africans to the Philippines. | Spanish Slavery | Philippines | 1492-1600 |
| 1570 | Gaspar 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. | Emancipation | Mexico | 1492-1600 |
| 1570 | Afro-Spanish scholar Juan Latino publishes the first of three books of poetry. | Art and Literature | Spain | 1492-1600 |
| 1573 | Professor Bartolome de Albornoz of the University of Mexico writes against the enslavement and sale of Africans. | Spanish Slavery | Mexico | 1492-1600 |
| 1590 | A Moroccan army invades Songhai and captures Timbuktu the following year, 1591. | West African Empires | Mali | 1492-1600 |
| 1590 | The Portuguese are defeated by the combined African armies of Matamba and Ndongo. | Anti-Colonial Resistance | Angola | 1492-1600 |
| 1591 | Martin 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 Christianity | Peru | 1492-1600 |
| 1592 | Portuguese forces are defeated by the Zimba in the Zambezi Valley. | Anti-Colonial Resistance | Mozambique | 1492-1600 |
| 1598 | Isabel de Olvera, a free mulatto, accompanies the Juan Guerra de Resa Expedition which colonizes what is now New Mexico. | Africans in Colonial New Spain | United States | 1492-1600 |
| 1600 (ca.) | The Buganda Kingdom emerges along the shore of Lake Victoria. Its principal rival is the neighboring state of Bunyoro. | East African Empires | Uganda | 1601-1700 |
| 1602 | Ethiopian-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 India | India | 1601-1700 |
| 1609 | Fugitive 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 Resistance | Mexico | 1601-1700 |
| 1610 | Dahomey emerges as the first of a series of slave-trading states along the West African coast. | West African Empires | Benin | 1601-1700 |
| 1615 (ca.) | The Portuguese are exporting approximately 10,000 enslaved people per year to its Brazilian colony. | Portuguese Slavery | Brazil | 1601-1700 |
| 1617 | The 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 Spain | Mexico | 1601-1700 |
| 1617 | The Dutch purchase Goree Island to establish their presence in the commerce of enslaved people. | Dutch Slavery | Senegal | 1601-1700 |
| 1620 | Black Catholic clergyman Martin de Porres founds an orphanage and foundling hospital in Lima Peru. | Free Blacks in Colonial New Spain | Peru | 1601-1700 |
| 1627 | Nzinga, Queen of Mbundu, is victorious in a war with Portugal. | Anti-Colonial Resistance | Angola | 1601-1700 |
| 1630 | Fugitive 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 Resistance | Brazil | 1601-1700 |
| 1634 | The French establish St. Louis, their first settlement in what is now Senegal. | Colonial Conquest | Senegal | 1601-1700 |
| 1635 | Enslaved 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 Slavery | Nicaragua | 1601-1700 |
| 1636 | Ethiopian Emperor Fasiladas establishes a new capital at Gondar. | Political Unification | Ethiopia | 1601-1700 |
| 1638 | France's North American colonies open to trade in enslaved Africans. | Franch Slavery | Colonial New France | 1601-1700 |
| 1644 | Queen Nzinga, supported by Dutch allies, captures Luanda from the Portuguese. | Anti-Colonial Resistance | Angola | 1601-1700 |
| 1645 | The Portuguese take enslaved people from Mozambique to Brazil for the first time. | Portuguese Slavery | Brazil | 1601-1700 |
| 1650 | The Sultan of Oman ends Portuguese control over the East African city-states. | Anti-Colonial Resistance | Kenya | 1601-1700 |
| 1650 | The French take control of the island of Grenada. | Colonial Conquest | Grenada | 1601-1700 |
| 1651 | The Swedes capture Carolusberg castle on the Gold Coast from the Dutch and establish their first slave trading center on the West African coast. | Swedish Slavery | Ghana | 1601-1700 |
| 1652 | The 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 Conquest | South Africa | 1601-1700 |
| 1657 | The 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 Slavery | Ghana | 1601-1700 |
| 1660 | The Dutch defeat the Khoisan people and claim the right of conquest as boers (farmers) expand their control beyond the Cape peninsula. | Colonial Conquest | South Africa | 1601-1700 |
| 1660 | The British take control of Jamaica. | Colonial Conquest | Jamaica | 1601-1700 |
| 1661 | The British establish their first permanent settlement in Africa when they build Fort James at the mouth of the Gambia River. | Colonial Conquest | Gambia | 1601-1700 |
| 1662 | The Portuguese defeat the Kingdom of the Kongo at the Battle of Ambuila. | Colonial Conquest | Congo | 1601-1700 |
| 1667 | A treaty between Great Britain and Holland gives Surinam to the Dutch in exchange for New York which is given to the British. | Colonial Administration | Surinam | 1601-1700 |
| 1670 | A 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 Slavery | Colonial New France | 1601-1700 |
| 1670 | A 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 Slavery | France | 1601-1700 |
| 1670 | The French establish a trading station at Offa on the Dahomey coast. | Colonial Conquest | Benin | 1601-1700 |
| 1672 | King Charles II of England charters the Royal African Company, which dominates the slave trade to North America for the next half century. | English Slavery | Great Britain | 1601-1700 |
| 1675 | An estimated 100,000 Africans are enslaved in the British West Indies and another 5,000 are in British North America. | English Slavery | Great Britain | 1601-1700 |
| 1680 | The Ashanti Empire emerges in West Africa. | West African Empires | Ghana | 1601-1700 |
| 1681 | The Changamire Empire emerges in southern Africa. | Southern African Empires | Mozambique | 1601-1700 |
| 1684 | Changamire 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 Resistance | Mozambique | 1601-1700 |
| 1693 | All fugitive Africans who have escaped slavery in the British colonies and fled to Florida are granted their freedom by the Spanish monarchy. | Emancipation | United States | 1601-1700 |
| 1697 | The island of Hispaniola is divided between France which takes the western third, and Spain which retains the eastern two thirds. | Colonial Administration | Dominican Republic | 1601-1700 |
| 1698 | The Omani Arabs take control of Mombasa in East Africa and the island of Zanzibar the following year. | Colonial Conquest | Kenya | 1601-1700 |
| 1724 | The Black Code is enacted in New Orleans, French Territory, to control blacks and banish Jews. | Racial Restrictions | Colonial New France | 1701-1800 |
| 1730 | Little George Slave Revolt was one of the most significant uprisings of captured Africans on the high seas. | Anti-Slavery Resistance | Guinea | 1701-1800 |
| 1731 | Dahomey is conquered by Oyo, a rising West African state. | West African Empires | Benin | 1701-1800 |
| 1734 | The Sultan of Bornu takes control of the neighboring state of Kanem, creating the Kanem-Bornu Empire in the central sudan region. | Military Expansion | Chad | 1701-1800 |
| 1734 | African-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. | Education | Germany | 1701-1800 |
| 1740 | The Lunda Kingdom emerges in central Africa. | Southern African Empires | Angola | 1701-1800 |
| 1747 | Oyo is the major military power along the West African coast from Dahomey to the Niger Delta. | Military Expansion | Nigeria | 1701-1800 |
| 1750 | The British take control of Grenada and introduce an economy dominated by slave labor. | Colonial Conquest | Grenada | 1701-1800 |
| 1750 | The French take control of the Seychelles Islands. | Colonial Conquest | The Seychelles | 1701-1800 |
| 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 Resistance | St. Vincent & Grenadines | 1701-1800 |
| 1752 | The Sultanate of Darfur extends from Kanem Bornu in the west to the Nile Valley. | Military Expansion | Sudan | 1701-1800 |
| 1759 | Great Britain gains control over the Caribbean island of Dominica, | Colonial Conquest | Dominica | 1701-1800 |
| 1760 | Abram 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. | Education | Russia | 1701-1800 |
| 1760 | Boers cross the Orange River to begin settlement in the interior of South Africa. | Colonial Conquest | South Africa | 1701-1800 |
| 1761 | Portugal abolishes slavery in mainland Portugal and its possessions in India. | Emancipation | India | 1701-1800 |
| 1772 | On 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 Decisions | Great Britain | 1701-1800 |
| 1772 | Slavery is declared illegal in England. | Emancipaton | Great Britain | 1701-1800 |
| 1776 | Sultanate 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 Trade | Kenya | 1701-1800 |
| 1779 | Joseph 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 Music | France | 1701-1800 |
| 1781 | Los Angeles is founded by fifty-four settlers including twenty-six of African ancestry. | Africans in Colonial New Spain | United States | 1701-1800 |
| 1783 | Approximately 3,000 black supporters of the British during the American Revolution were repatriated to British Canada at the end of the conflict. | American Revolution | Canada | 1701-1800 |
| 1783 | British take control of St. Kitts & Nevis. | Colonial Conquest | St. Kitts & Nevis | 1701-1800 |
| 1783 | British take control of St. Vincent & the Grenadines. | Colonial Conquest | St. Vincent & Grenadines | 1701-1800 |
| 1784 | The 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 Violence | Canada | 1701-1800 |
| 1787 | Society for the Abolition of the Slave Trade is founded in London. | Emancipation | Great Britain | 1701-1800 |
| 1787 | Sierra Leone is founded by British abolitionists as a colony for emancipated slaves. | Emancipation | Sierra Leone | 1701-1800 |
| 1791 | The Haitian Revolution begins. | Independence | Haiti | 1701-1800 |
| 1793 | Slavery is declared illegal in Upper Canada. | Emancipation | Canada | 1701-1800 |
| 1794 | The French Government abolishes slavery. The law is repealed by Napoleon in 1802. | Emancipation | France | 1701-1800 |
| 1795 | The British capture the Cape of Good Hope and Capetown from the Dutch. | Colonial Conquest | South Africa | 1701-1800 |
| 1796 | The 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 Conquest | St. Vincent | 1701-1800 |
| 1742 | Jacobus 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 Europe | The Netherlands | 1701-1800 |
| 1789 | Child musical prodigy George Bridgetower of Great Britain gives his first public violin performance in Paris at the age of 10. | Free Blacks in Europe | France | 1601-1700 |
| 1791 | The Haitian Revolution begins when Toussaint L'Overture leads slaves in Saint-Domingue in a rebellion against French rule. | Independence | Haiti | 1701-1800 |
| 1791 | Slaves on Dominica initiate an unsuccessful rebellion against English plantation owners. | Anti-Slavery Resistance | Dominica | 1701-1800 |
| 1792 | The 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 Campaign | Sierra Leone | 1701-1800 |
| 1793 | The 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 Campaign | Canada | 1701-1800 |
| 1796 | Slaves revolt in Saint Lucia. The rebellion ends when the British agree to free those who lay down their weapons. | Anti-Slavery Resistance | Saint Lucia | 1701-1800 |
| 1796 | After 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 Resistance | Jamaica | 1701-1800 |
| 1797 | British 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 Expansion | South Africa | 1701-1800 |
| 1801 | 1801: Haitian forces invade and occupy Santo Domingo (now the Dominican Republic) and occupy the Spanish colony until 1844 | International Conflict | Dominican Republic | 1801-1900 |
| 1804 | On 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 Revolution | Haiti | 1801-1900 |
| 1804 | Usman Dan Fodio initiates a holy war (jihad) that established an Islamic theocratic state, the Sokoto Caliphate, in present day Northern Nigeria. | West African Empires | Nigeria | 1801-1900 |
| 1807 | Great Britain abolishes the importation of enslaved Africans into its colonial possessions. | The Slave Trade | Great Britain | 1801-1900 |
| 1807 | George 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 Music | Great Britain | 1801-1900 |
| 1811 | Spain abolishes slavery at home and in all colonies except Cuba, Puerto Rico, and Santo Domingo. | Emancipation | Spain | 1801-1900 |
| 1813 | Argentina abolishes slavery. | Emancipation | Argentina | 1801-1900 |
| 1814 | Mauritania becomes a French colony. | Colonial Conquest | Mauritania | 1801-1900 |
| 1814 | Great Britain gains control of the Seychelles from France. | Colonial Administration | The Seychelles | 1801-1900 |
| 1816 | Shaka Zulu becomes King of the Zulu nation and begins to create an empire in the southern African interior. | Southern African Empires | South Africa | 1801-1900 |
| 1819 | The Canadian government refuses to cooperate with the United States government in the apprehension of fugitive slaves living in Canada. | Fugitive Slaves in Canada | Canada | 1801-1900 |
| 1820 | Rev. Daniel Coker of Baltimore leads eighty six African Americans who become the first black settlers to Liberia. | African Americans in Liberia | Liberia | 1801-1900 |
| 1820 | The American Colonization Society's first shop, Mayflower of Liberia, arrives in Liberia. | Black Colonization | Liberia | 1801-1900 |
| 1820 | Large numbers of British settlers begin arriving in the Cape Colony. | Colonial Conquest | South Africa | 1801-1900 |
| 1820 | New 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 Economy | Angola | 1801-1900 |
| 1821 | Ecuador adopts a gradual emancipation program. | Emancipation | Ecuador | 1801-1900 |
| 1821 | Columbia adopts a gradual emancipation program. | Emancipation | Columbia | 1801-1900 |
| 1821 | Venezeula adopts a gradual emancipation program. | Emancipation | Venezeula | 1801-1900 |
| 1822 | Liberia founded by the American Colonization Society as a colony for emancipated slaves. | Emancipation | Liberia | 1801-1900 |
| 1823 | Chile abolishes slavery. | Emancipation | Chile | 1801-1900 |
| 1824 | Mexico outlaws slavery. This act creates the incentive for Anglo Texans to fight for independence. | Slavery in Mexico | Mexico | 1801-1900 |
| 1824 | Ira Aldridge, alumnus of the African Grove Theater, begins prominent acting career in London. | Art and Literature | Great Britain | 1801-1900 |
| 1824 | The Federal Republic of Central America abolishes slavery. | Political Unification | Guatemala | 1801-1900 |
| 1824 | Moshoeshoe brings together rival clans to establish the Kingdom of Sotho in Southern Africa. | Southern African Empires | South Africa | 1801-1900 |
| 1827 | Fourah Bay College is established in Freetown, Sierra Leone. The college is the first western-oriented institution of higher education on the African continent. | Education | Sierra Leone | 1801-1900 |
| 1828 | Shaka Zulu, the Zulu leader, is assassinated by his half brother, Dingane who then proclaims himself ruler of the Zulu Empire. | Southern African Empires | South Africa | 1801-1900 |
| 1829 | Mexican independence leader Vincente Guerrero of African and Indian ancestry becomes the second President of Mexico. Shortly afterwards he finally abolishes slavery in Mexico. | Emancipation | Mexico | 1801-1900 |
| 1831 | Bolivia abolishes slavery. | Emancipation | Bolivia | 1801-1900 |
| 1831 | Guyana becomes a British colony. | Colonial Conquest | Guyana | 1801-1900 |
| 1833 | The British Parliament abolishes slavery in the entire British Empire. | Emancipation | Great Britain | 1801-1900 |
| 1834 | The 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. | Emancipation | South Africa | 1801-1900 |
| 1836 | John B. Russwurm is appointed Governor of the Cape Palmas district of Liberia by the American Colonization Society. | African Americans in Liberia | Liberia | 1801-1900 |
| 1837 | Muhammad 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 Empires | Nigeria | 1801-1900 |
| 1837 | The first groundnuts (peanuts) are exported to the United States and Europe from Sierra Leone. | African Economy | Sierra Leone | 1801-1900 |
| 1838 | Boers clash for the first time directly with the Zulu at the Battle of Blood River in Natal. | Southern African Empires | South Africa | 1801-1900 |
| 1840 | Sayyid 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 Trade | Zanzibar | 1801-1900 |
| 1842 | Uruguay abolishes slavery. | Emancipation | Uruguay | 1801-1900 |
| 1844 | The British Governor of the Gold Coast forms an alliance with the Fante states along the coast against the Ashanti Empire. | Colonial Conquest | Ghana | 1801-1900 |
| 1844 | New Orleans-born African American playwright Victor Sejour's first play, Diegarias, is performed at the Theatre Francais in Paris. | Art and Literature | France | 1801-1900 |
| 1845 | By 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 Conquest | Cote d'Ivoire | 1801-1900 |
| 1846 | Tunisia abolishes slavery. | Emancipation | Tunisia | 1801-1900 |
| 1847 | Sweden abolishes slavery. | Emancipation | Sweden | 1801-1900 |
| 1847 | On July 26, Liberia becomes an independent nation. It's first president is Joseph Jenkins Roberts. | Independence | Liberia | 1801-1900 |
| 1848 | Denmark abolishes slavery. | Emancipation | Denmark | 1801-1900 |
| 1848 | Slavery is abolished in all French Colonies | Emancipation | France | 1801-1900 |
| 1848 | France founds Gabon for the settlement of emancipated slaves. | Emancipation | Gabon | 1801-1900 |
| 1848 | The 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 Administration | Senegal | 1801-1900 |
| 1850 | Denmark sells its colony on the Gold Coast to the British and withdraws from Africa. | Colonial Administration | Ghana | 1801-1900 |
| 1850 | Swahili-Arab traders extend trading routes for enslaved people and ivory across Lake Tanganyika into what is now the eastern Congo. | East African Slave Trade | Tanzania | 1801-1900 |
| 1851 | The Liberian legislature authorizes the establishment of Liberia College which will eventually become the University of Liberia. | Education | Liberia | 1801-1900 |
| 1851 | Columbia abolishes slavery. | Emancipation | Columbia | 1801-1900 |
| 1852 | The Hawaiian Kingdom abolishes slavery. | Emancipation | The Hawaiian Kingdom | 1801-1900 |
| 1852 | Swahili traders from east Africa cross the continent and reach the Atlantic coastal state of Benguela. | East African Slave Trade | Angola | 1801-1900 |
| 1853 | The 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 Administration | Ghana | 1801-1900 |
| 1853 | Mary 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 Campaign | Canada | 1801-1900 |
| 1854 | Venezuela abolishes slavery. | Emancipation | Venezula | 1901-2000 |
| 1854 | Peru abolishs slavery. | Emancipation | Peru | 1801-1900 |
| 1854 | Al-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 Empires | Senegal | 1801-1900 |
| 1854 | Quinine is used in in the Gold Coast for the first time in Africa to treat malaria. | Health and Medicine | Ghana | 1801-1900 |
| 1855 | Ras Kassa unifies the warring states of Ethiopia and crowns himself Emperor Tewodros II. | Political Unification | Ethiopia | 1801-1900 |
| 1855 | Msiri, a Nyamwezi ivory and slave trader establishes a permanent interior state (called Nyamwezi) with a capital at Bunyeka. | East African Slave Trade | Tanzania | 1801-1900 |
| 1855 | An estimated 4,000 fugitive slaves from Texas and the U.S. Southwest are living in and around the Mexican border town of Matamoras. | Emancipation | Mexico | 1801-1900 |
| 1858 | Spain gains control over Equatorial Guinea. | Colonial Conquest | Equatorial Guinea | 1801-1900 |
| 1861 | The British establish a protectorate at the port of Lagos, the first step in creating the colony of Nigeria. | Colonial Conquest | Nigeria | 1801-1900 |
| 1861 | Tukulor leader Al-Hajj Umar conquers the Kingdom of Segu. | West African Empires | Burkina Faso | 1801-1900 |
| 1861 | France gains control over Djibouti. | Colonial Conquest | Djibouti | 1801-1900 |
| 1863 | Slavery is abolished in all Dutch colonies. | Emancipation | The Netherlands | 1801-1900 |
| 1863 | Al-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 Empires | Mali | 1801-1900 |
| 1863 | The French establish a protectorate over Porto Novo in Dahomey. | Colonial Conquest | Benin | 1801-1900 |
| 1864 | Former slave Samuel Crowther becomes the first African Anglican bishop. He is appointed to serve in what is now Nigeria. | 19th Century Black Religion | Nigeria | 1801-1900 |
| 1865 | Samori Toure, the leader of the Mandinka, begins an empire in the upper Niger River basin. | West African Empires | Mali | 1801-1900 |
| 1865 | Tippu 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 Trade | Tanzania | 1801-1900 |
| 1865 | The Dominican Republic is declared independent from Spain. | Independence | Dominican Republic | 1801-1900 |
| 1866 | In November Mifflin W. Gibbs is elected to the Victoria, British Columbia City Council. He becomes the second black Canadian resident elected to office. | Politics | Canada | 1801-1900 |
| 1867 | Diamonds are found at Kimberley in the Orange Free State in what is now South Africa. | African Economy | South Africa | 1801-1900 |
| 1868 | Ethiopian Emperor Tewodros II is defeated by the British at the Battle of Aroge and subsequently commits suicide. | International Conflict | Ethiopia | 1801-1900 |
| 1868 | Moshoeshoe, the King of Sotho in southern Africa requests British annexation of his kingdom to avoid being overrun by the Boers. | Southern African Empires | South Africa | 1801-1900 |
| 1868 | Antonio 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 Campaign | Cuba | 1801-1900 |
| 1869 | Slavery is abolished in Portugal's African colonies. | Emancipation | Portugal | 1801-1900 |
| 1869 | Gold is discovered at Tati in South Africa and in neighboring Botswana, setting off an international gold rush into the region. | African Economy | South Africa | 1801-1900 |
| 1869 | The Suez Canal is opened with Great Britain and France in control of the waterway. | Colonial Administration | Egypt | 1801-1900 |
| 1873 | Slavery is abolished in Puerto Rico | Emancipation | United States | 1801-1900 |
| 1873 | The British persuade the Sultan of Zanzibar to end the slave trade. | East African Slave Trade | Zanzibar | 1801-1900 |
| 1873-74 | The Anglo-Ashanti War. After initial victories by the Ashanti, the British eventually prevail and force the Ashanti Emperor to surrender. | Colonial Conquest | Ghana | 1801-1900 |
| 1879 | In the first Anglo-Zulu War the British suffer a crushing defeat at Isandlwana. | Anti-Colonial Resistance | South Africa | 1801-1900 |
| 1880 | Samori Toure extends his conquests to include the west African gold fields and the upper Niger valley. | West African Empires | Niger | 1801-1900 |
| 1880 | Afro-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 Conquest | Congo-Brazzaville | 1801-1900 |
| 1881 | The Mahdist Revolution began on June 29 when a Sudanese Islamic cleric, Muhammad Ahmad, proclaimed himself the Mahdi. | Islam in Africa | Sudan | 1801-1900 |
| 1882 | Great Britain gains control over Egypt from the Ottoman Empire. | Colonial Conquest | Egypt | 1801-1900 |
| 1884 | Nehemiah 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 Religion | South Africa | 1801-1900 |
| 1884 | Germany acquires Namibia, Togo, and Cameroon as its first African colonies. | Colonial Conquest | Namibia | 1801-1900 |
| 1884 | European nations at the Berlin Conference reach agreement on the partition of Africa. | Colonial Conquest | Germany | 1801-1900 |
| 1885 | Germany establishes a protectorate over the Tanganyika coast. | Colonial Conquest | Tanzania | 1801-1900 |
| 1885 | King 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 Conquest | Congo | 1801-1900 |
| 1885 | The French declare a protectorate over Madagascar. | Colonial Conquest | Madagascar | 1801-1900 |
| 1885 | Pan-Africanist intellectual Edward Wilmot Blyden campaigns unsuccessfully for President of Liberia. After his defeat he goes into self-imposed exile in neighboring Sierra Leone. | Politics | Liberia | 1801-1900 |
| 1885 | The 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 Conquest | Nigeria | 1801-1900 |
| 1886 | Slavery is abolished in Cuba. | Emancipation | Cuba | 1801-1900 |
| 1886 | City of Johannesburg is founded in South Africa. | Colonial Administration | South Africa | 1801-1900 |
| 1886 | The Comoros Islands become a French protectorate. | Colonial Conquest | Comoros | 1801-1900 |
| 1887 | The British declare a protectorate over what is now Southern Nigeria. | Colonial Conquest | Nigeria | 1801-1900 |
| 1888 | Slavery is abolished in Brazil. | Emancipation | Brazil | 1801-1900 |
| 1888 | The British help the Germans crush Muslim resistance on the East African coast. | Colonial Conquest | Tanzania | 1801-1900 |
| 1889 | Italy gains control over Eritrea. | Colonial Conquest | Eritrea | 1801-1900 |
| 1889 | Cecil Rhodes' British South African Company begins the colonize the African interior. White settlers name the colony Rhodesia. | Colonial Conquest | South Africa | 1801-1900 |
| 1889 | Menelik II becomes the Emperor of Ethiopia and initiates a campaign of expansion which will double the size of the empire. | Political Unification | Ethiopia | 1801-1900 |
| 1893 | Henry 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 Literature | France | 1801-1900 |
| 1893 | French forces capture Timbuktu and destroy the Tukulor Empire. | Colonial Conquest | Mali | 1801-1900 |
| 1893 | The French declare the Ivory Coast to be their colony. | Colonial Conquest | Cote d'Ivoire | 1801-1900 |
| 1894 | Buganda is occupied by the British who begin to form the colony of Uganda. | Colonial Conquest | Uganda | 1801-1900 |
| 1894 | The French conquer Dahomey. | Colonial Conquest | Benin | 1801-1900 |
| 1895 | Tananarive, the capital of Madagascar, surrenders to the French. | Colonial Conquest | Madagascar | 1801-1900 |
| 1896 | The 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 Resistance | Ethiiopia | 1801-1900 |
| 1896 | Sultan Khaled surrenders Zanzibar to the British. | Colonial Conquest | Zanzibar | 1801-1900 |
| 1896 | British forces invade and occupy the Ashanti Empire. | Colonial Conquest | Ghana | 1801-1900 |
| 1897 | Joaquim 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 Literature | Brazil | 1801-1900 |
| 1897 | Zanzibar abolishes slavery. | Emancipation | Zanzibar | 1801-1900 |
| 1897 | The British Army creates the West African Frontier Force, regiments of African soldiers led by British officers. | Colonial Conquest | Nigeria | 1801-1900 |
| 1898 | Afro-English composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor is commissioned at 23 to write his Ballade in A Minor for Britain | 19th Century Black Music | Great Britain | 1801-1900 |
| 1898 | The French gain control over Guinea. | Colonial Conquest | Guinea | 1801-1900 |
| 1899 | The British and French establish joint rule over Sudan. | Colonial Administration | Sudan | 1801-1900 |
| 1899 | Germany conquers Rwanda. | Colonial Conquest | Rwanda | 1801-1900 |
| 1900 | The 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 Literature | France | 1801-1900 |
| 1900 | The first Pan African Conference, organized by Henry Sylvester Williams, a Trinidad attorney, meets in London in July. | Pan Africanism | Great Britain | 1801-1900 |
| 1900 | The British establish the Protectorate of Northern Nigeria. | Colonial Administration | Nigeria | 1801-1900 |
| 1900 | Beginning of large scale copper mining in the Katanga region of the Congo Free State. | African Economy | Congo | 1801-1900 |
| 1900 | The first white settlers arrive in Kenya. | Colonial Conquest | Kenya | 1801-1900 |
| 1901 | African American cyclist Marshall "Major" Taylor wins European Cycling championship in Paris, France. | Black Athletes | France | 1901-2000 |
| 1901 | The British annex the Ashanti Empire into their Gold Coast colony. | Colonial Conquest | Ghana | 1901-2000 |
| 1903 | Meta Vaux Warrick, an African American sculptor, exhibits her work at the Paris Salon, Paris France. | Art and Literature | France | 1901-2000 |
| 1903 | Thousands of black workers from the Caribbean and Latin America arrive in the Canal Zone to help build the Panama Canal. | Black Labor | Panama | 1901-2000 |
| 1903 | Troops 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 Conquest | Nigeria | 1901-2000 |
| 1904 | France creates a federation of its West African colonies stretching from Chad and the Cameroons west to Senegal. | Colonial Administration | Chad | 1901-2000 |
| 1904 | The Herero rise in rebellion against German forces in South West Africa (Namibia). The rebellion is crushed the following year. | Anti-Colonial Resistance | Namibia | 1901-2000 |
| 1904 | Black 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 Administration | South Africa | 1901-2000 |
| 1905 | The Maji-Maji Uprising begins in German East Africa. | Anti-Colonial Resistance | Tanzania | 1901-2000 |
| 1906 | Britain, France, and Italy agree to recognize the independence of Ethiopia. | Independence | Ethiopia | 1901-2000 |
| 1906 | Lagos is incorporated into the Protectorate of Southern Nigeria. | Colonial Administration | Nigeria | 1901-2000 |
| 1907 | German forces capture Abdallah Mapanda, the leader of the Maji-Maji Uprising in German East Africa (Tanganyika). | Anti-Colonial Resistance | Tanzania | 1901-2000 |
| 1907 | Nairobi is chosen as the capital of British East Africa. | Colonial Administration | Kenya | 1901-2000 |
| 1907 | German forces defeat the Nama people, ending resistance to the conquest of South West Africa | Colonial Conquest | Namibia | 1901-2000 |
| 1908 | John 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 Athletes | Great Britain | 1901-2000 |
| 1908 | On 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 Athletes | Australia | 1901-2000 |
| 1908 | Leopold II transfers control of the Congo Free State to Belgium. | Colonial Administration | Congo | 1901-2000 |
| 1910 | The 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 Administration | South Africa | 1901-2000 |
| 1912 | The 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 Resistance | South Africa | 1901-2000 |
| 1912 | The French establish a protectorate in Morocco. | Colonial Conquest | Morocco | 1901-2000 |
| 1913 | Mohandas Gandhi is arrested in South Africa for leading a protest against the treatment of Indians there. | Anti-Colonial Resistance | South Africa | 1901-2000 |
| 1914 | The Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) is founded in Kingston, Jamaica by Marcus and Amy Jacques Garvey. | Pan Africanism | Jamaica | 1901-2000 |
| 1914 | U.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 I | France | 1901-2000 |
| 1914 | Blaise 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. | Politics | Senegal | 1901-2000 |
| 1914 | The British Protectorates of Northern and Southern Nigeria are combined to form the Colony of Nigeria, the most populous colony in Africa. | Colonial Administration | Nigeria | 1901-2000 |
| 1915 | On July 28, the United States begins a 19 year occupation of Haiti, the longest in U.S. history. | The United States in Haiti | Haiti | 1901-2000 |
| 1915 | Invoking 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 Colonialism | Malawi | 1901-2000 |
| 1916 | In 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 Military | Mexico | 1901-2000 |
| 1918 | The Ecole de Medecine de Dakar is founded in Dakar, Senegal. It eventually becomes Cheik Anta Diop University. | Education | Senegal | 1901-2000 |
| 1919 | James Reese Europe's Army jazz band popularizes jazz in France and Western Europe | 20th Century Black Music | France | 1901-2000 |
| 1919 | The 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 Africanism | France | 1901-2000 |
| 1920 | Former 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 Administration | Togo | 1901-2000 |
| 1921 | Bessie 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 Women | France | 1901-2000 |
| 1921 | The third Pan African Conference meets in London and Brussels. | Pan Africanism | Belgium | 1901-2000 |
| 1922 | Senegelese 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 Athletes | France | 1901-2000 |
| 1922 | Makerere University is founded as a vocational institute on the edge of Kampala, Uganda. It will become the largest university in East Africa. | Education | Uganda | 1901-2000 |
| 1922 | Egypt gains its independence from Great Britain on February 22. King Fuad I is the first head of state. | Independence | Egypt | 1901-2000 |
| 1923 | The fourth Pan African Congress meets in London and Lisbon. | Pan Africanism | Portugal | 1901-2000 |
| 1923 | Abyssinia (Ethiopia) becomes the first African nation to join the League of Nations. | International Organizations | The Netherlands | 1901-2000 |
| 1924 | Eugene ONeill's play The Emperor Jones opens in London with Paul Robeson in the title role. | Art and Literature | Great Britain | 1901-2000 |
| 1924 | Achimota School is founded near Accra, The Gold Coast. Part of the institution eventually evolves into the University of Ghana. | Education | Ghana | 1901-2000 |
| 1924 | Iraq abolishes slavery. | Emancipation | Iraq | 1901-2000 |
| 1924 | O 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 Rights | Brazil | 1901-2000 |
| 1924 | The 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 Africanism | France | 1901-2000 |
| 1925 | American-born Josephine Baker emerges as a popular entertainer in Paris after she appears in the musical La Revue Negre. | Black Entertainment | France | 1901-2000 |
| 1926 | League of Nations Slavery Convention bounds all signatories to end the slave trade and slavery. | Emancipation | The Netherlands | 1901-2000 |
| 1927 | Fifth Pan African Congress meets in New York City. | Pan Africanism | United States | 1901-2000 |
| 1928 | Iran abolishes slavery. | Emancipation | Iran | 1901-2000 |
| 1929 | The Aba Women's Riots in Aba, Nigeria, are the first direct revolt by Nigerians against British colonial rule. | Anti-Colonial Resistance | Nigeria | 1901-2000 |
| 1930 | Ras Tafari is crowned Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia. | Political Unification | Ethiopia | 1901-2000 |
| 1931 | The Frente Negra Brasileira (Brazilian Black Front) is formed in the city of Sao Paulo. | Civil Rights | Brazil | 1901-2000 |
| 1934 | Abidjan is declared the capital of the French colony of Ivory Coast. | Colonial Administration | Cote d'Ivoire | 1901-2000 |
| 1934 | American-born Robert Robinson becaue the first black city councilman in Moscow, Russia (The Soviet Union). | Politics | Russia | 1901-2000 |
| 1935 | On October 3, Italy invades Ethiopia. | Italian Invasion of Ethiopia | Ethiopia | 1901-2000 |
| 1936 | Addis Ababa is conquered by Italian forces. Mussolini declares the conquest the foundation of a new Roman Empire. | Italian Invasion of Ethiopia | Ethiopia | 1901-2000 |
| 1936 | Felix 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 Administration | Guadeloupe | 1901-2000 |
| 1936 | On 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 Invasion | Ethiopia | 1901-2000 |
| 1937 | Approximately 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 Internationalism | Spain | 1901-2000 |
| 1941 | Ethiopia with the assistance of British forces defeats the Italians and reestablishes its independence. | Italian Invasion of Ethiopia | Ethiopia | 1901-2000 |
| 1942 | Slavery is abolished in the Ethiopian Empire. | Emancipation | Ethiopia | 1901-2000 |
| 1942-43 | Nearly 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 Military | New Guinea | 1901-2000 |
| 1943 | African troops fight in both Allied and Axis armies in North, West, and East Africa. | Black Soldiers | Libya | 1901-2000 |
| 1943 | President 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 Diplomacy | Liberia | 1901-2000 |
| 1944 | Eilud Mathu becomes the first black member of the legislative council of Kenya. | Politics | Kenya | 1901-2000 |
| 1944 | The 81st and 82nd West African Divisions and the 11th East African Division (British Army) fight the Japanese in Burma. | Black Soldiers | Burma | 1901-2000 |
| 1944 | Abdias do Nascimento founds the Teatro Nacional do Negro in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. | Art and Literature | Brazil | 1901-2000 |
| 1944 | Eric 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 Literature | United States | 1901-2000 |
| 1944 | Soon 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 Military | France | 1901-2000 |
| 1945 | The sixth Pan African Congress meets in Manchester, England. | Pan Africanism | Great Britain | 1901-2000 |
| 1945 | Madame E. T. Eboue is the first person of African ancestry to win a seat in the French Assembly. | Politics | France | 1901-2000 |
| 1946 | The 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 Africanism | Mali | 1901-2000 |
| 1947 | Alioine Diop establishes Presence Africaine, a journal devoted to African culture, in Dakar, Senegal. | Art and Literature | Senegal | 1901-2000 |
| 1947 | The 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 Campaign | South Africa | 1901-2000 |
| 1948 | United Nations Article 4 bans slavery globally. | Emancipation | United States | 1901-2000 |
| 1948 | The Nationalist Party wins parliamentary elections in South Africa. Within a year it will make Apartheid the official policy of the government. | Apartheid | South Africa | 1901-2000 |
| 1948 | The 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. | Education | Nigeria | 1901-2000 |
| 1948 | The University of the West Indies is established as the University College of the West Indies at Mona, Jamaica. | Education | Jamaica | 1901-2000 |
| 1950 | On 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 Awards | Sweden | 1901-2000 |
| 1951 | On December 24, Libya gains its independence from Italy. Its first head of state is King Idris. | Independence | Libya | 1901-2000 |
| 1951 | The Algerian National Liberation Front begins a guerrilla campaign against the French. The campaign ends with Algerian independence in 1962. | Anti-Colonial Resistance | Algeria | 1901-2000 |
| 1952 | The Mau Mau Uprising begins in Kenya. The uprising ends in 1956 after more than 13,000 people are killed. | Anti-Colonial Resistance | Kenya | 1901-2000 |
| 1952 | Qatar abolishes slavery. | Emancipation | Qatar | 1901-2000 |
| 1952 | Ethiopia gains control over Eritrea. | Colonial Conquest | Eritrea | 1901-2000 |
| 1955 | Civil War begins in Sudan pitting the Muslim North against the Christian South. | Civil War | Sudan | 1901-2000 |
| 1956 | Eric Eustace Williams founds the People's National Movement in Trinidad. | Politics | Trinidad & Tobago | 1901-2000 |
| 1956 | On January 1, Sudan gains independence from Great Britain. Ismail al-Azhari is the first head of state. | Independence | Sudan | 1901-2000 |
| 1956 | On March 20, Tunisia gains independence from France. The first head of state is Muhammad VIII al-Amin. | Independence | Tunisia | 1901-2000 |
| 1956 | On April 7, Morocco gains its independence from France. The first head of state is Muhammad V. | Independence | Morocco | 1901-2000 |
| 1957 | On July 6, Althea Gibson becomes the first African American to win the Womens Singles Division of the British Tennis Championship at Wimbledon. | African American Athletes | Great Britain | 1901-2000 |
| 1957 | On 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. | Independence | Ghana | 1901-2000 |
| 1957 | The Bahutu Manifesto drawn up by Rwandan Hutu intellectuals, called for Hutu ethnic and political solidarity and the political disfranchisement of the Tutsi people. | Ethnic Conflict | Rwanda | 1901-2000 |
| 1958 | Nigerian novelist Chinua Achebe publishes Things Fall Apart, his first critically acclaimed novel. | Art and Literature | Nigeria | 1901-2000 |
| 1958 | Edson 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 Athletes | Brazil | 1901-2000 |
| 1958 | Canadian 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 Athletes | Canada | 1901-2000 |
| 1958 | On October 2, Guinea gains its independence from France. Sekou Toure is the first head of state. | Independence | Guinea | 1901-2000 |
| 1959 | The National Symphony Orchestra is founded in Accra, Ghana. It is the first in sub-Saharan Africa. | 20th Century Black Music | Ghana | 1901-2000 |
| 1959 | South Africa writer Es'kia Mphahlele publishes his critically acclaimed autobiography Down Second Avenue. | Art and Literature | South Africa | 1901-2000 |
| 1960 | Albert John Lutuli, President of the African National Congress, wins the Nobel Peace Prize. | Humanitarian Awards | Sweden | 1901-2000 |
| 1960 | Track 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 Athletes | Italy | 1901-2000 |
| 1960 | Burkina Faso becomes independent from France. Its first head of state is Maurice Yameogo. | Independence | Burkina Faso | 1901-2000 |
| 1960 | Cote d'Ivoire is declared independent from France. Felix Houphouet-Boigny is the nation's first President. | Independence | Cote d'Ivoire | 1901-2000 |
| 1960 | Chad becomes independent of France on August 11. Francois Tombalbaye is the first head of state. | Independence | Chad | 1901-2000 |
| 1960 | Abebe Bikila, the barefoot Ethiopian runner, became the first African to win an Olympic gold medal. He competed at the games in Rome, Italy. | Black Athletes | Italy | 1901-2000 |
| 1960 | On June 26, Madagascar is declared independent by France. Philibert Tsiranana is the first head of state. | Independence | Madagascar | 1901-2000 |
| 1960 | On August 1 Benin is declared independent of France. Its first head of state is Hubert Maga. | Independence | Benin | 1901-2000 |
| 1960 | On August 3, Niger becomes independent of France. Hamani Diori is chosen as the first head of state. | Independence | Niger | 1901-2000 |
| 1960 | On June 20, Mali gains independence from France. Modibo Keita is the first head of state. | Independence | Mali | 1901-2000 |
| 1960 | Senegal is declared independent by France on June 20. Leopold Senghor is the nation's first President. | Independence | Senegal | 1901-2000 |
| 1960 | On April 27, Togo gains its independence from France. The first head of state is Sylvanus Olympio. | Independence | Togo | 1901-2000 |
| 1960 | On January 1, Cameroon is granted independence by Great Britain and France. The first head of state is Ahmadou Ahidjo. | Independence | Cameroon | 1901-2000 |
| 1960 | On 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. | Independence | Congo | 1901-2000 |
| 1960 | Nigeria 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. | Independence | Nigeria | 1901-2000 |
| 1960 | On July 1, British and Italian Somaliland are united to form the nation of Somalia. Aden Abdullah Osman Daar is the first Head of State. | Independence | Somalia | 1901-2000 |
| 1960 | On 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 Resistance | South Africa | 1901-2000 |
| 1960 | South West Africa People's Organization (SWAPO) is formed by Sam Nujoma and Herman Toivo ja Toivo. | Anti-Colonial Resistance | Namibia | 1901-2000 |
| 1960 | The Central African Republic is granted independence from France on August 13. David Dacko becomes the first head of state. | Independence | Central African Republic | 1901-2000 |
| 1960 | France grants independence to Congo-Brazzaville on August 15. Fulbert Youlou is the first head of state. | Independence | Congo-Brazzaville | 1901-2000 |
| 1960 | Gabon becomes independent of France on August 17. Leon M'ba is the first head of state. | Independence | Gabon | 1901-2000 |
| 1960 | On November 28 Mauritania is declared independent of France. Moktar Ould Daddah is the first head of state. | Independence | Maurtania | 1901-2000 |
| 1961 | On January 18, Patrice Lumumba, the leader of the Congo independence movement is killed by troops of the secessionist Katanga province. | Civil War | Congo | 1901-2000 |
| 1961 | The Nationalist struggle against Portuguese rule is launched in Angola. It continues until Angolan independence in 1974. | Anti-Colonial Resistance | Angola | 1901-2000 |
| 1961 | On April 27, Sierra Leone gains its independence from Great Britain. Milton Margai is its first head of state. | Independence | Sierra Leone | 1901-2000 |
| 1961 | An 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 Resistance | Guinea-Bissau | 1901-2000 |
| 1961 | On December 9, Tanganyika gains its independence from Great Britain. Julius Nyerere is the first head of state. | Independence | Tanzania | 1901-2000 |
| 1962 | Yemen abolishes slavery. | Emancipation | Yemen | 1901-2000 |
| 1962 | On July 3, Algeria is declared independent by France. Ahmed Ben Bella is its first head of state. | Independence | Algeria | 1901-2000 |
| 1962 | On October 9, Uganda gains its independence from Great Britain. The first head of state is Milton Obote. | Independence | Uganda | 1901-2000 |
| 1962 | Jamaica gains its independence from Great Britain on August 6. Alexander Bustamante is the first head of state. | Independence | Jamaica | 1901-2000 |
| 1962 | Trinidad & Tobago gain independence from Great Britain on August 31. Eric Eustace Williams is the first head of state. | Independence | Trinidad and Tobago | 1901-2000 |
| 1962 | Saudi Arabia abolishes slavery. | Emancipation | Saudi Arabia | 1901-2000 |
| 1962 | On July 1, Rwanda is granted independence by Belgium. Gregoire Kayibanda is its first head of state. | Independence | Rwanda | 1901-2000 |
| 1962 | On July 1, Burundi is granted independence by Belgium. King Mwambutsa IV is the first head of state. | Independence | Burundi | 1901-2000 |
| 1963 | James Baldwin publishes The Fire Next Time while living in Paris. | Art and Literature | France | 1901-2000 |
| 1963 | Kenya gains independence from Great Britain on December 12. Jomo Kenyatta is the first head of state. | Independence | Kenya | 1901-2000 |
| 1963 | The Organization of African Unity (OAU) founded in Addis Abba, Ethiopia, on May 23. | International Organizations | Ethiopia | 1901-2000 |
| 1963 | The United Arab Emirates abolish slavery. | Emancipation | United Arab Emirates | 1901-2000 |
| 1964 | The Zanzibar Revolution of 1964 ends 120 years of Arab control of the Islands of Zanzibar and Pemba Islands. | Independence | Tanzania | 1901-2000 |
| 1964 | Kenyan writer Ngugi wa Thiongo publishes Weep Not, Child, the first major novel in English by an East African. | Art and Literature | Kenya | 1901-2000 |
| 1964 | On December 10, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. receives the Nobel Peace Prize in Stockholm, Sweden. | Humanitarian Awards | Sweden | 1901-2000 |
| 1964 | On July 6, Malawi is declared independent by Great Britain. Hastings Kamuzu Banda is the first head of state. | Independence | Malawi | 1901-2000 |
| 1964 | Tanganyikan 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 Unification | Tanzania | 1901-2000 |
| 1964 | A Nationalist guerilla struggle against Portuguese rule is launched in Mozambique. It continues until Mozambique is declared independent in 1974. | Anti-Colonial Resistance | Mozambique | 1901-2000 |
| 1964 | On October 24, Zambia is declared independent by Great Britain. Kenneth Kaunda is the first head of state. | Independence | Zambia | 1901-2000 |
| 1965 | Gambia gains independence from Great Britain on February 18. Dawda Kairaba Jawara is the first head of state. | Independence | Gambia | 1901-2000 |
| 1965 | The white minority-controlled Rhodesian government declares its independence from Great Britain. | Independence | Zimbabwe | 1901-2000 |
| 1966 | Nigerian novelist Flora Nwapa, publishes Efuru, one of the first novels in English by an African woman. | Art and Literature | Nigeria | 1901-2000 |
| 1966 | First World Festival of Negro Arts (FESTAC) is held in Dakar, Senegal. | Art and Literature | Senegal | 1901-2000 |
| 1966 | Botswana gains independence from Great Britain on September 30. Seretse Khama is the first head of state. | Independence | Botswana | 1901-2000 |
| 1966 | Barbados gains independence from Great Britain on November 30. Errol Barrow is the first head of state. | Independence | Barbadoes | 1901-2000 |
| 1966 | The first military coup takes place in Nigeria, led by Igbo officers. It will lead directly to the Nigerian Civil War. | Military Dictatorship | Nigeria | 1901-2000 |
| 1966 | Guyana gains its independence from Great Britain on May 26. Linden Forbes Sampson Burham is the first head of state. | Independence | Guyana | 1901-2000 |
| 1966 | Lesotho gains its independence from Great Britain on October 4. Leabua Jonathan is the first head of state. | Independence | Lesotho | 1901-2000 |
| 1967 | The 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 War | Nigeria | 1901-2000 |
| 1968 | Senegelese writer and film director Ousmane Sembene produces Mandabi, the first film in the Wolof language. | Art and Literature | Senegal | 1901-2000 |
| 1968 | Equatorial Guinea gain independence from Spain on October 12. Francisco Macias Nguema is the first head of state. | Independence | Equatorial Guinea | 1901-2000 |
| 1968 | Steve Biko founds the anti-Apartheid South Africa Students Organization (SASO). Eventually it becomes one of the largest black protest organizations in the nation. | Anti-Apartheid | South Africa | 1901-2000 |
| 1968 | Mauritius gains its independence from Great Britain on March 12. | Independence | Mauritius | 1901-2000 |
| 1969 | Learie Constantine [Lord Constantine] becomes the first person of African ancestry to become a British peer. | Politics | Great Britain | 1901-2000 |
| 1970 | The 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 War | Nigeria | 1901-2000 |
| 1970 | Oman abolishes slavery. | Emancipation | Oman | 1901-2000 |
| 1970 | Josephine Hosten, a native of Grenada and a flight attendant became the first woman of African ancestry to will the Miss World pageant. | Beauty Pageants | Great Britain | 1901-2000 |
| 1971 | General Idi Amin overthrows the government of President Milton Obote establishes a dictatorship in Uganda. Amin remains in power until 1986. | Military Dictatorship | Uganda | 1901-2000 |
| 1972 | Uganda Asians are expelled from the nation by the dictator, General Idi Amin. | Military Dictatorship | Uganda | 1901-2000 |
| 1972 | Nearly 150,000 Hutus are massacred by the Tutsi in Burundi. | Ethnic Conflict | Burundi | 1901-2000 |
| 1972 | Rosemary 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. | Politics | Canada | 1901-2000 |
| 1972 | A famine begins in Ethiopia which in the next two years kills over 200,000 people. | The Environment | Ethiopia | 1901-2000 |
| 1973 | The Bahamas gains independence from Great Britain on July 10. Lynden Pindling is the first head of state. | Independence | The Bahamas | 1901-2000 |
| 1973 | Guinea-Bissau gains its independence from Portugal on September 24. Luis Cabral is the first head of state. | Independence | Guinea-Bissau | 1901-2000 |
| 1974 | On October 30, Muhammad Ali defeats George Foreman in Kinshasa, Zaire to regain the world heavyweight championship. | African American Athletes | Zaire | 1901-2000 |
| 1974 | The seventh Pan African Congress meets in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. | Pan Africanism | Tanzania | 1901-2000 |
| 1974 | Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie is deposed following a Marxist military coup led by Colonel Mengistu Haile Mariam. | Military Dictatorship | Ethiopia | 1901-2000 |
| 1974 | Approximately 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 Migration | Mozambique | 1901-2000 |
| 1974 | Greneda gains its independence from Great Britain on February 7. Sir Eric Matthew Gairy is the first head of state. | Independence | Grenada | 1901-2000 |
| 1975 | On June 25, Mozambique gain its independence from Portugal. Samora Machel is the first head of state. | Independence | Mozambique | 1901-2000 |
| 1975 | Cape Verde wins its independence from Portugal on July 5. | Independence | Cape Verde | 1901-2000 |
| 1975 | On 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 War | Angola | 1901-2000 |
| 1975 | Surinam gains independence from the Netherlands on November 25. Johan Ferrier is the first head of state. | Independence | Surinam | 1901-2000 |
| 1975 | On July 12, Sao Tome & Principe gain indepenence from Portugal. | Independence | Sao Tome & Principe | 1901-2000 |
| 1975 | Comoros is granted independence from France on July 6. | Independence | Comoros | 1901-2000 |
| 1976 | On June 25, Seychelles gains independence from Great Britain. James Richard Marie Mancham is the first head of state. | Independence | Seychelles | 1901-2000 |
| 1976 | Cuban 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 Intervention | Angola | 1901-2000 |
| 1976 | The 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. | Apartheid | South Africa | 1901-2000 |
| 1976 | Student-led riots break out in Soweto, the sprawling all-black township outside of Johannesburg, to protest Apartheid and continuing white minority rule. | Anti-Apartheid Resistance | South Africa | 1901-2000 |
| 1976 | On 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 Intervention | Uganda | 1901-2000 |
| 1977 | Janelle 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 Pageants | Dominican Republic | 1901-2000 |
| 1977 | The First Congress of Black Culture in the Americas convenes in Columbia. | Art and Literature | Columbia | 1901-2000 |
| 1977 | On June 27, Djibouti gains its independence from France. Hassan Gouled Aptidon is the first head of state. | Independence | Djibouti | 1901-2000 |
| 1977 | President Jean-Bedel Bokassa declares the Central African Republic to be the Central African Empire and crowns himself Emperor Bokassa I. | Military Dictatorship | Central African Republic | 1901-2000 |
| 1977 | War breaks out between Ethiopia and Somalia over the Ogaden region. The conflict will continue until 1988. | International Conflict | Ethiopia | 1901-2000 |
| 1977 | Cuba sends troops to support the Marxist dictatorship in Ethiopia. | Military Intervention | Ethiopia | 1901-2000 |
| 1978 | Dominica gains its independence from Great Britain on November 3. Patrick Roland John is the first head of state. | Independence | Dominica | 1901-2000 |
| 1979 | Emperor Bokassa I is overthrown and a parliamentary government is restored in the Central African Republic. | Military Dictatorship | Central African Republic | 1901-2000 |
| 1979 | On 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 Dictatorship | Grenada | 1901-2000 |
| 1979 | St. Vincent & Grenadines gain independence from Great Britain on September 19. R. Milton Cato is the first head of state. | Independence | St. Vincent & Grenadines | 1901-2000 |
| 1980 | On April 18, black majority rule comes to Rhodesia which renames itself Zimbabwe. Canaan Banana is the first head of state. | Independence | Zimbabwe | 1901-2000 |
| 1980 | A military coup led by Sgt. Samuel K. Doe ends 133 years of political domination by the Americo-Liberian elite in Liberia. | Military Dictatorship | Liberia | 1901-2000 |
| 1981 | Mauritania abolishes slavery. | Emancipation | Mauritania | 1901-2000 |
| 1981 | Antigua & Barbuda gain independence from Great Britain on November 1. Vere Cornwall Bird is the first head of state. | Independence | Antigua & Barbuda | 1901-2000 |
| 1981 | Belize gains independence from Great Britain on September 21. George Cadle Price is the first head of state. | Independence | Belize | 1901-2000 |
| 1983 | The 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 War | Sudan | 1901-2000 |
| 1983 | St. Kitts & Nevis gain independence from Great Britain. Dr. Kennedy Simmonds is the first head of state. | Independence | St. Kitts & Nevis | 1901-2000 |
| 1983 | Abdias do Nascimento is elected to the Brazilian Congress in 1983 on a platform of promoting Afro-Brazilian rights. | Politics | Brazil | 1901-2000 |
| 1984 | Anglican Bishop Desmond Mpilo Tutu of South Africa is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in Stockholm, Sweden. | Humanitarian Awards | Sweden | 1901-2000 |
| 1984 | In 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 Internationalism | Syria | 1901-2000 |
| 1984 | Eritrea 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 War | Eritrea | 1901-2000 |
| 1985 | Live Aid Concert is held in Sydney, Australia and simultaneously in London, Philadelphia and Moscow to raise funds for Ethiopian famine relief. | Humanitarian Aid | Australia | 1901-2000 |
| 1985 | A State of Emergency is declared in South Africa in response to widespread anti-Apartheid rioting. | Anti-Apartheid Resistance | South Africa | 1901-2000 |
| 1985 | The Zimbabwe government under President Robert Mugabe begins compulsory purchase of white-owned farms under the recently passed Land Acquisition Act. | African Economy | Zimbabwe | 1901-2000 |
| 1986 | Wole Soyinka of Nigeria becomes the first African to win a Nobel Prize in Literature. | Art and Literature | Sweden | 1901-2000 |
| 1986 | The European Economic Community (EEC) and the United States impose economic sanctions against South Africa. | Anti-Apartheid Campaign | South Africa | 1901-2000 |
| 1989 | F.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 Campaign | South Africa | 1901-2000 |
| 1990 | On February 11, Nelson Mandela, South Africa's leading anti-Apartheid opponent, is freed after 27 years in prison. | Anti-Apartheid Campaign | South Africa | 1901-2000 |
| 1990 | Namibia gains independence from South Africa on March 21. Sam Nujoma becomes the first head of state. | Independence | Namibia | 1901-2000 |
| 1990 | A 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 War | Liberia | 1901-2000 |
| 1991 | Afro-French skater Surya Bonaly wins the first of five European Figure Skating Championships. | Black Athletes | France | 1901-2000 |
| 1991 | Eritrean and Tigrean rebels attack Addis Ababa and cause the overthrow of Marxist dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam. Eritrea wins defacto independence. | Civil War | Ethiopia | 1901-2000 |
| 1991 | In 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 Intervention | Ethiopia | 1901-2000 |
| 1992 | The United States and the United Nations intervene in Somalia to end famine and civil war in that nation. | International Intervention | Somalia | 1901-2000 |
| 1993 | Eritrea 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. | Independence | Eritrea | 1901-2000 |
| 1993 | On 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 Intervention | Somalia | 1901-2000 |
| 1993 | In December Nelson Mandela and South African President F.W. de Klerk are jointly presented the Nobel Peace Prize in Stockholm, Sweden. | Humanitarian Awards | Sweden | 1901-2000 |
| 1994 | On 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 Campaign | South Africa | 1901-2000 |
| 1994 | Civil 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 War | Rwanda | 1901-2000 |
| 1994 | Emery Barnes becomes the first black speaker of the British Columbia Legislative Assembly. | Politics | Canada | 1901-2000 |
| 1995 | The United States withdraws from Somalia after the debacle at Mogadishu in 1993. | International Intervention | Somalia | 1901-2000 |
| 1995 | Benedita Souza da Silva Sampaio, is the first woman of African ancestry elected to the Brazilian Senate. | Politics | Brazil | 1901-2000 |
| 1995 | Nigeria 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 Dictatorship | Nigeria | 1901-2000 |
| 1996 | Ethiopian Fatuma Roba becomes the first African woman to become an Olympic marathon champion. She wins the gold medal at the Atlanta Games. | Black Athletes | United States | 1901-2000 |
| 1996 | John Taylor [Baron Taylor of Warwick] becomes the first person of African ancestry to sit in the British House of Lords. | Politics | Great Britain | 1901-2000 |
| 1996 | Addisu Messele is the first person of African ancestry to be elected to the Knesset, the Israeli Parliament. | Politics | Israel | 1901-2000 |
| 1996 | Celso Roberto Pitta do Nascimento becomes the firt black mayor of Sao Paulo, Brazil's largest city. | Politics | Brazil | 1901-2000 |
| 1997 | After 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 Dictatorship | Congo | 1901-2000 |
| 1997 | Kofi 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 Organizations | United States | 1901-2000 |
| 1998 | Terrorist bombing attacks at two U.S. Embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania kill 250 people and injure another 6,000. | Terrorism | Tanzania | 1901-2000 |
| 1999 | Mpule Kwelagobe of Botswana wins Miss Universe beauty pageant, becoming the first black African-born woman to hold the title. | Beauty Pageants | Botswana | 1901-2000 |
| 1999 | Civilian rule is reestablished in Nigeria after nearly three decades of military control of the national government. | Military Dictatorship | Nigeria | 1901-2000 |
| 2001 | United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan receives the Nobel Peace Prize in Stockholm, Sweden. | Humanitarian Awards | Sweden | 2001- |
| 2001 | World Conference Against Racism is held in Durban, South Africa. | International Diplomacy | South Africa | 2001- |
| 2002 | President Robert Mugabe wins disputed election and then arrests opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai on charges of treason. The country is expelled from the British Commonwealth. | Politics | Zimbabwe | 2001- |
| 2002 | On 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 Organizations | Ethiopia | 2001- |
| 2002 | Yvette Jarvis, a native of New York City, is the first person of African ancestry to be elected to the City Council of Athens, Greece. | Politics | Greece | 2001- |
| 2003 | First Conference of legislators of African descent from the Americas and the Caribbean meet in Brasilia, Brazil. | International Diplomacy | Brazil | 2001- |
| 2004 | Wangari Maathai becomes the first African woman to win a Nobel Prize. She is selected for her environmental work in her native Kenya. | The Environment | Kenya | 2001- |
| 2005 | Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf becomes the first African woman to lead an African nation when she is elected president of Liberia | Politics | Liberia | 2001- |
| 2005 | On 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. | Politics | Canada | 2001- |
| 2006 | Portia Simpson-Miller, leader of the People's National Party of Jamaica, becomes the nation's first female prime minister. | Politics | Jamaica | 2001- |
| 2006 | Loria 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. | Politics | Nicaragua | 2001- |
| 2006 | In 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. | Politics | Canada | 2001- |
| 2008 | Dean Oliver Barrow becomes the first black Prime Minister of Belize. | Politics | Belize | 2001- |
| 2009 | On December 10 U.S. President Barack Obama receives the Nobel Peace Prize in Stockholm, Sweden. | Humanitarian Awards | Sweden | 2001- |
| 2010 | On 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 Disaster | Haiti | 2001- |
| 2010 | The FIFA World Cup is held on the African continent for the first time when the games are played in Johannesburg, South Africa. | Black Athletes | South Africa | 2001- |
| 2011 | South Sudan becomes an independent nation when it breaks away from Sudan. | Independence | Sudan | 2001- |
| 2013 | The Death and State Funeral of former South African President Nelson Mandela. | Politics | South Africa | 2001- |
| 2014 | The worst Ebola epidemic in recent history sweeps across Central and West Africa, killing 11,000 people. | Pandemics | Africa | 2001- |
| 2015 | Boko Haram initiates terror attacks in Northern Nigeria. Eventually more than 2,000 people are killed. | Terrorism | Nigeria | 2001- |
| 2015 | Al-Shabaab carries out a mass shooting at a Nairobi, Kenya shopping mall, killing 148 people. | Terrorism | Kenya | 2001- |
| 2017 | Bombing in Mogadishu, Somalia attributed to al-Shabaab, kills 587 people in one of the deadliest terrorist attacks in modern history. | Terrorism | Somalia | 2001- |
| 2017 | Robert Mugabe, President of Zimbabwe since its independence in 1980, is ousted from power in a military coup. | Military Dictatorship | Zimbabwe | 2001- |
| 2018 | Epsy Campbell Barr is elected Vice President of Costa Rica. | Politics | Costa Rica | 2001- |
| 2018 | Wedding of Prince Harry of Great Britain and Meghan Markle of the United States. | England | 2001- | |
| 2019 | Omar al-Bashir, President of Sudan for 30 years, is ousted in a military coup. | Military Dictatorship | Sudan | 2001- |
| 2020 | COVID-19 pandemic begins, initiating a worldwide medical crisis that kills nearly two million people by the end of the year. | Pandemics | 2001- | |
| 2020 | The murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis, Minnesota police officer sparks protests in 60 nations around the world. | Racial Violence | United States | 2001- |
| 2021 | The COVAX vaccine-sharing initiative delivers its first vaccines, 600,000 doses to health care workers in Ghana. | Pandemics | Ghana | 2001- |
| 2021 | Tigray Defense forces seize the Tigrayan provincial capital of Mekelle, initiating the Ethiopian Civil War. | Civil War | Ethiopia | 2001- |
| 2021 | Haitian President Jovenal Moise is killed by Colombian mercenaries in the Presidential Palace in Port-au-Prince. | Terrorism | Haiti | 2001- |
| 2021 | Abdulrazk 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 Awards | England, Tanzania | 2001- |
| 2021 | Barbados becomes a republic on the 55th anniversary of its independence from Great Britain. It remains in the British Commonwealth of Nations. | Independence | Barbados | 2001- |
Global African History Timeline
Emperor Menelik II on the throne in coronation garb
Public Domain Image