1000 Bantu-speaking peoples set up kingdoms in southern Africa

1000 Kingdoms of Takrur and Gao flourish in West Africa due to gold trade

1021-1035 Reign of Fatimid caliph al-Zahir marks start of decline of Fatimid power

1050 Culture of Yoruba people of Ife flourishes in Nigeria in West Africa; it survives until

1050-1146 Almoravids, Berber Muslims from western Sahara, take over Morocco, Algeria, and part of Muslim Spain; they invade Ghana in 1076, and establish power there

1062 Almoravids found capital at Marrakech

1100 Ghana empire in West Africa declines

1100 Katanga in Zaire central Africa probably founded

1147 Almohads, Berber Muslims opposed to Almoravids, seize Marrakech and go on to conquer Almoravid Spain, Algeria, and Tripoli

1150 Zagwe dynasty rules in Ethiopian highlands

1171 Saladin, Muslim warrior and commander in Egyptian army, overthrows Fatimid dynasty

1173 Saladin declares himself sultan of Egypt

1200-1230 King Lalibela of Ethiopia responsible for churches cut from rock

1218 Ayyubid empire breaks up but Ayyubids rule Egypt to 1250

1220 City state of Kilwa in Tanzania increases in prosperity

1230 Hafsid monarchy takes over from Almohads in Tunisia and acquires much trade across the Sahara desert

1235 Great warrior leader Sun Diata founds Mali empire in West Africa; it expands under his rule

1250 Kanem kingdom in Lake Chad region begins to break up into rival factions

1250 Last Ayyubid ruler in Egypt murdered; Mamluks, soldiers from central Asia employed by Ayyubids, seize power and found military state

1260-1277 Mamluk commander Baybars takes over as sultan of Egypt

1300 Ife culture of West Africa produces famous brasses

1324 Emperor of Mali, Mansa Musa, goes on a pilgrimage to Mecca, Arabia

1348 Egypt devastated by plague, called Black Death

1352-1253 Ibn Battuta, Berber scholar, travels across Africa and writes an account of all he sees

1380 Foundation of Kongo kingdom in Congo river-mouth region of Zaire, central Africa

1400 Kingdom of Great Zimbabwe in southern Africa thrives on gold trade

1400 Gold from mines in Zimbabwe is exported to Asia via Sofala on the east coast

1400 Engaruka community farms land in Tanzania

1420 Portuguese sailors begin to explore west coast of Africa

1420 Songhai people in Gao region, West Africa, begin raids on Mali empire

1430 Sultans of Kilwa on east African coast begin grand building programme

1434-1468 Reign of Christian emperor Zera Yacub in Ethiopia; he expands church and promotes great monasteries

1450 Building at Great Zimbabwe, southern Africa, at its height

1462 Sonni Ali becomes ruler of the Songhai and goes on to build an empire

1482 Portuguese explore Congo river estuary

1491 Ruler of Congo kingdom baptized as Christian by Portuguese

1500 Songhai empire in West Africa enters period of greatest expansion and power under Askia Mohammed Turré

1500 Trade encourages growth of Hausa states in West Africa

1505-1507 Portuguese capture Sofala on east coast and found Mozambique; they begin to trade with Africans

1507 Nzinga Mbemba, Christian and Portuguese ally, becomes king of Kongo kingdom in central Africa

1517 Ottomans defeat Mamluks and conquer Egypt

1529 Muslims defeat Christian Ethiopian forces at the Battle of Shimbra Kure and overrun the kingdom until 1543, when Portuguese troops help to defeat them

1530 Beginning of trans-Atlantic slave trade organized by Portuguese

1560 First Portuguese embassies in Timbuktu, West Africa

1562 Sir John Hawkins starts English slave trade, taking cargoes of slaves from West Africa to the Americas

1570-1610 Kanem-Bornu kingdom in western Central Africa at its most powerful; alliance with the Ottomans brings it firearms, military training, and Arab camel troops

1575 Portuguese begin to colonize Angola; more than a century of warfare follows

1590-1591 Songhai empire overthrown by Moroccan army

1598 First Dutch trade posts set up on Guinea coast, West Africa

1600 Kalonga kingdom, north of Zambezi river, becomes rich through ivory trade

1600 Hausaland dominates trade routes to Sahara

1600 Great Zimbabwe replaced by several regional capitals in Transvaal, Botswana, and Zimbabwe

1620 Queen Nzinga of Ndongo fights Portuguese in Angola

1650 Portuguese clash with Muslims in Zambezi region

1650 Ethiopia expels Portuguese missionaries and diplomats

1652 Dutch found Cape Town in South Africa

1660 Mawlay-al-Rashid restores sultanate of Morocco

1670 French settle in Senegal

1670 Fulani pastoralist people gain control of Bondu in southern Senegal

1680 Rise of Asante kingdom in West Africa

1680 Butua kingdom flourishes in Zimbabwe plains; Portuguese are driven into Zambezi valley, and also eastwards

1686 Louis XIV of France officially annexes Madagascar

1698 Portuguese expelled from Mombasa on eastern coast

1701 Osei Tutu creates free Asante nation in West Africa

1705 Bey (army commander) Husain ibn Ali founds dynasty at Tunis in North Africa

1705 Kongo prophetess, Dona Beatrice, founds new religious cult and helps to end civil war

1710 Dey (military leader) becomes pasha in Algiers, controlling northern Algeria

1714 France captures the island of Mauritius, in the Indian Ocean

1720 Yoruba state of Oyo still dominates region west of the Niger river in West Africa

1722-1723 Asante conquer kingdom of Bono-Mansu north of the forest area of Akan region of West Africa

1724-1734 King Agaja of Dahomey in West Africa temporarily disrupts slave trade; it is reintroduced in the 1740s

1725 Fulani Muslim cleric Alfa Ibrahim appointed Commander of the Faithful in Futa Jalon in West Africa

1727 Death of Mulai Ismail followed by 30 years of anarchy in Morocco

1740 The Lunda create prosperous new kingdom

1746 Mazrui dynasty in Mombasa, East Africa, becomes independent from Oman

1755 The first outbreak of smallpox, brought by sailors, in Cape Town, South Africa, spreads rapidly inland; it kills many Khoisan hunters and herders

1764-1777 Reign of Osei Kwadwo, Asante ruler, in West Africa

1768-1773 Scottish explorer James Bruce travels in Ethiopia

1768 Ali Bey, a Mamluk army officer, makes himself ruler of Egypt

1770 Tukolor kingdom gains power in former Songhai region of West Africa

1773 Ali Bey dies a week after being wounded in a battle with rebels led by Abu'l-Dhahab

1777 Sidi Mohammed, ruler of Morocco (1757-90), abolishes Christian slavery

1779 Dutch farmers in Cape Colony clash with organized Xhosa resistance

1781 Militant Tijaniyya Islamic order set up in Algeria

1785 Omani rulers reassert influence in Zanzibar

1787 Tuaregs, nomads in Sahara, abolish Moroccan pashalik of Timbuktu

1788 Usuman dan Fodio, a Fulani cleric, stirs holy war against a Hausa king

1788 African Association founded in England to explore interior of Africa

1795 British seize Cape Colony from Dutch for the first time

1795-1796 Scottish explorer Mungo Park travels through Gambia and reaches Niger

1804 Fulani begin jihad (holy war) in northern Nigeria

1805-1806 Mungo Park explores Niger river, West Africa

1805-1848 Mohammed Ali rules Egypt; Egypt breaks away from Ottoman empire

1807 Asante invade Fante confederacy of states

1808 Fulani invade Bornu near Lake Chad

1814 Cape Colony in south Africa formally ceded to Britain by Netherlands

1816-1828 Career of Zulu ruler Shaka in South Africa

1820 Fulani emirate founded in Adamawa, West Africa

1820-1864 Fulani in Mali, West Africa, found and rule Hamdallahi caliphate

1822 Liberia founded in West Africa as home for freed slaves

1825 Egyptians found the city of Khartoum in Sudan

1828 Basel mission to Ghana (then called Gold Coast), West Africa

1828 Shaka, Zulu ruler, assassinated by his half-brother Dingane who takes over as ruler of Zulu nation

1830 French invade Algeria; they gradually occupy the country

1832-1847 Abd-al-Kadir leads Arab resistance to France in Algeria

1836-1837 The Great Trek of Boers (Dutch farmers) away from British in South Africa; they fond the Republic of Natal in 1838 and the Orange Free State in 1854

1840 Imam Sayyid Said, ruler of Oman (1806-56), makes Zanzibar, a small island off the east African coast, his capital

1843 Britain takes over Natal from the Boers as a British colony

1852 Tukolor leader al-Hajj 'Umar launches jihad along Senegal and upper Niger rivers to establish Islamic state

1852 In South Africa, Britain recognizes Transvaal's independence

1853-1856 Dr David Livingstone crosses Africa; follows course of Zambezi river, reaches Victoria Falls

1855-1868 Reign of Emperor Theodore of Ethiopia

1863 Al-Hajj 'Umar takes Timbuktu

1865-1868 Wars between Orange Free State and Moshweshwe's Basuto people, in South Africa

1867 Diamonds discovered at Kimberley at South Africa

1869 Suez Canal opened

1872 Cape Colony in South Africa granted self-government by Britain

1873-1874 War between Asante kingdom and Britain

1874 Beginnings of Mande state in old Mali under Samori Turé

1879 Zulu war with British; British defeated at Isandlwana but victorious at Ulundi

1880 Beginning of the European ³Scramble for Africa²

1880-1881 First Boer War, Transvaal defeats Britain

1885 Conference in Berlin on Scramble for Africa

1885 in Sudan, Muslim leader, the Mahdi, takes Khartoum from Egypt; General Gordon killed

1886 Gold found in Transvaal

1894 French set up protectorate in Dahomey (Benin), West Africa

1895-1896 Jameson Raid into Transvaal

1896 France takes Madagascar

1896 Ethiopian ruler Menelik crushes Italian army at Adowa

1897 Slavery banned in Zanzibar

1899-1902 Second Boer War in South Africa

1900 Buganda, East Africa, is ruled by the kabaka, or king, with British advice

1900-1901 Rising in Asante, West Africa; Britain annexes Asante

1902 Treaty of Verceniging ends second Boer War in South Africa; defeated Boers remain bitter and determined to regain power

1903 Sokoto caliphate in Hausaland taken over by Britain

1904 French create federation of French West Africa

1905 Kaiser William II of Germany visits Tangier and provokes crisis with France

1905 Maji-Maji rebellion begins in Tanzania (German East Africa)

1906 Tripartite pact (Britain, France, Italy)seeks to preserve integrity of Ethiopia

1907 Government of Mozambique organized

1908 Belgium takes over Congo Free State

1909 Franco-German agreement reached on Morocco

1909 Liberia calls on United States for financial assistance

1910 Union of South Africa

1912 New loans to Liberia coupled with US control over customs revenue

1912 French make Morocco a protectorate at Treaty of Fez

1913 South African government introduces laws to reserve 87 per cent of land for whites

1914 Britain and France occupy German colonies in West Africa

1916 Boer leader Jan Smuts leads an anti-German drive from Kenya into Tanzania (German East Africa)

1916 British and Belgian troops take Yaounde, the capital of the German Cameroons

1917 Ras Tafari (later, Haile Selassie) becomes regent of Ethiopia

1917 German forces in German East Africa withstand British and Portuguese at Mahiwa; Germans withdraw into Mozambique

1919 ANC demonstrates against pass laws in Transvaal

1920 More British and Indians settle Kenya

1921-1926 Abd-el-Krim leads Berbers and Arabs against Europeans in North Africa

1922 Egypt becomes independent from Britain under King Fuad

1923 Ethiopia admitted to League of Nations

1930 White women given the vote in South Africa

1930 Ras Tafari crowned emperor of Ethiopia, and takes name Haile Selassie

1931 First trans-African railway completed, from Angola to Mozambique

1934-1936 British colonial government of Ghana suppresses radical African critics

1936 Representation of Natives Act denies black South Africans any chance of political equality

1935-1936 Italians under Mussolini invade and annex Ethiopia

1939 South Africa declares war on Germany at start of World War II

1941 German army under Rommel attacks British in North Africa

1941 Ethiopia liberated from Italians by Ethiopians and British, and recognized as independent

1942 British defeat German army at Battle of El Alamein in Egypt

1943 Germans and Italians driven from North Africa

1948 Afrikaner National Party wins power in South Africa

1951 Libya gains independence

1952-1959 Mau-Mau guerrilla war against British in Kenya

1954-1962 War for independence in Algeria; freedom won in 1962

1954-1970 Colonel Nasser rules Egypt; revolutionary changes

1956 Suez crisis; Britain and France attempt to regain control of Suez canal from Egypt, but fail

1956 Morocco, Tunisia, and Sudan gain their independence

1957 Ghana is first country in sub-Saharan Africa to become independent

1958-1960 Independence for Zaire, Nigeria, Somalia, and 12 of France's 13 sub-Saharan colonies

1960 Civil war in south Sudan

1960-1965 Civil war in Zaire, formerly Belgian Congo

1961-1967 Independence for Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya, Sierra Leone, Rwanda, Burundi, Malawi, Zambia, Lesotho, Botswana, Gambia, and Swaziland

1963 Organization of African Unity founded

1965 White regime in Zimbabwe declares independence

1967-1970 Biafran War, Nigeria

1970 Severe droughts in northeastern Africa and the lands on the southern edge of the Sahara

1974 Nigeria becomes leading oil producer in Africa

1974-1991 Revolutionary regime in Ethiopia; civil war spreads

1974-1975 Portuguese colonies gain independence after long struggle

1976 African schoolchildren spark uprisings in Soweto in South Africa

1980 Zimbabwe gains independence after guerrilla war

1983 Conflict in Sudan; more than 1.5 million people die

1983 African countries adopt IMF (International Monetary Fund) plans for managing their economies

1989 Zambia and other countries see changes of government by democratic election

1990 Namibia gets independence

1990 Nelson Mandela freed in South Africa; process of dismantling apartheid begins

1993 Eritrea (in north Ethiopia) breaks from Ethiopia; first successful secession in post-colonial Africa

1994 African National Congress (ANC) wins first multi-racial election ever held in South Africa