Timeline of European Colonization of Africa
- Related Topics:
- colonialism
The African continent has been inhabited since the dawn of humanity and has been home to many societies and civilizations over the millennia. Throughout Africa’s later history, multiple powers beyond the continent have laid claim to its territory, but the most significant group to assert claims in Africa consisted of European states and privately held companies. This began as early as the 15th century, though most of the territorial claims were made in the last quarter of the 19th century and occurred as part of a larger push by various European countries to colonize territory throughout the world. In Africa, the process was done piecemeal and often without honest consultation with the Indigenous peoples already inhabiting the areas. Here are some of the key dates in the colonization of Africa by European powers.
15th century
1415: Ceuta, a port on the Mediterranean coast near what is now Morocco, falls under the control of Portugal.
1446: Portugal claims the region of Guinea on the coast of western Africa.
1462: After Portuguese navigators sighted the uninhabited Cape Verde islands in 1456 and 1460, Portuguese settlers arrive and establish Cidade Velha on Santiago island.
1482: The Portuguese construct the São Jorge da Mina fortress (later known as Elmina Castle) in the Gold Coast region (now Ghana) of western Africa; it will become the regional center of Portuguese trade in gold and, later, enslaved people.
1497: Melilla, a port on the Mediterranean coast near what is now Morocco, falls under the control of Spain.
16th century
About 1500: The Portuguese establish trading posts on the coast of eastern Africa (at what is now Mozambique).
1503: The Portuguese establish a trading post on Zanzibar island.
1575–76: The Portuguese establish a colony at what is now Luanda, Angola—first on Luanda Island (1575), then on the mainland (1576).
17th century
1638: The French establish a trading post near the Sénégal River in western Africa; in 1659 they will establish a larger fort at what is now Saint-Louis in Senegal.
1652: A Dutch settlement is established by Jan van Riebeeck on behalf of the Dutch East India Company on the southern tip of Africa; it will become known as the Cape and later form the basis for Cape Town.
18th century
1787: Formerly enslaved people are brought by the British to the western coast of Africa at what is now Freetown, Sierra Leone.
About 1795: The British occupy the Dutch settlement at the Cape.
1798: The French, under Napoleon Bonaparte, invade Egypt, which was then ruled by the Mamluks as part of the Ottoman Empire; France will occupy it until 1801.
19th century
1802: The Treaty of Amiens orders the return of the Cape settlement to the Dutch, though the British do not do so until 1803.
1806: The British retake the Cape settlement from the Dutch during the Napoleonic Wars.
1814: The Dutch formally cede the Cape settlement to Britain, who rule it as the colony of the Cape of Good Hope, which becomes known as the Cape Colony.
1816: The British establish a base on Africa’s western coast at the mouth of the Gambia River, at what is now Banjul, The Gambia.
1821: The American Colonization Society, an organization dedicated to transporting formerly enslaved and freeborn Black people in America to Africa, obtains land on the western coast of Africa at what is now Monrovia, Liberia. The first group of settlers from America arrive the next year.
1830: The French invade Algeria in North Africa.
1835: In the Cape Colony, Boers (primarily descendants of Dutch, German, or Huguenot settlers) begin in earnest to migrate farther inland and continue to do so into the 1840s in what is called the Great Trek. They will come into conflict with the Indigenous peoples of the area, such as the Ndebele and Zulu, as well as the British colonial authorities.
1839: The Boer Republic of Natalia is established in Southern Africa; the British, who already have a nearby settlement at Port Natal, will annex the Boer Republic in 1843.
1847: Liberia declares itself an independent republic.
1852: The Sand River Convention between the British and the Boers who have settled in the Southern African interior north of the Vaal River (in the area known as the Transvaal) guarantees the latter’s right to govern themselves without the interference of Great Britain; in the following years the Boers form the South African Republic.
1854: The Bloemfontein Convention between the British and the Boers who have settled in the Southern African interior between the Orange and Vaal rivers guarantees the Boers’ right to govern themselves without the interference of Great Britain; the Boers form the Orange Free State.
1861: The British annex Lagos (now in Nigeria), on the western coast of Africa, in their campaign to abolish the slave trade.
1868: The British annex Basutoland (now Lesotho) in the Southern African interior after the Basuto paramount chief Moshoeshoe, following years of devastating warfare with the Boers of the Orange Free State, asks Britain for assistance.
1869: In Egypt, the Suez Canal, which connects the Mediterranean and Red seas, opens; more than half of the cost of construction is financed by French investors.
1872: Britain grants the Cape Colony in Southern Africa “responsible government”—i.e., full internal self-government.
1874: The British declare the Gold Coast to be a British colony.
1879: Explorer Henry Morton Stanley, known for having explored the Congo River in Central Africa, begins his next journey through that area, this time working on behalf of Belgian King Leopold II’s Association Internationale du Congo.
1881: The French invade Tunisia, which then becomes a protectorate of France under the Treaty of Bardo.
1882: After deadly anti-European riots break out in June in Alexandria, Egypt, the British bombard the city the next month and occupy Egypt before the end of the year.
1884: German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck annexes Togo and Cameroon in western Africa and Angra Pequena (Lüderitz in modern Namibia) in Southern Africa for Germany.
1884: Years of competing claims among the imperial powers over trade, navigation, and administrative rights on and along the Congo River come to a head.
1884: At Bismarck’s invitation, more than a dozen countries (though no representatives from Africa) gather for the Berlin West Africa Conference, which begins on November 15 and concludes February 26, 1885. Agreements made at the meeting are formalized in the General Act of the Berlin Conference, which includes declarations that the Niger and Congo rivers are free waters and a framework for defining and recognizing any new occupation of African territory by European powers. The pace of European claims on African territory increases.
1884: Spain claims territory in northwestern Africa along the Atlantic coast (modern Western Sahara).
1885: German explorer Carl Peters, active in what is now Tanzania, secures a charter for his German East Africa Company.
1885: King Leopold II becomes the sovereign of the newly constituted Congo Free State in Central Africa.
1885: Britain proclaims the Bechuanaland Protectorate (modern Botswana) in Southern Africa.
1886: The Anglo-German Agreement sets a border that determines British and German spheres of influence in East Africa; north of the border (most of modern Kenya) is under the British, whereas south of the border is under the Germans (Tanganyika; modern mainland Tanzania).
1886: British administrator George Goldie secures a charter for the Royal Niger Company, which is authorized to administer the Niger delta and the country on the banks of the Niger and Benue rivers (in modern Nigeria).
1887: The British annex Zululand nearly a decade after defeating the Zulu people in the Anglo-Zulu War.
1888: The Imperial British East Africa Company is given a charter to administer territory under the British sphere of influence in East Africa.
1889: France and Britain agree on boundaries for some of their colonial holdings in western Africa, setting the borders for modern Senegal and The Gambia.
1889: Ethiopian Emperor Menilek II signs the Treaty of Wichale (Ucciali) with Italy, recognizing the Italian possessions along the Red Sea coast in the Horn of Africa, including the former Ethiopian province of Eritrea.
1889: British financier Cecil Rhodes secures a charter for the British South Africa Company, which will acquire territory in central Southern Africa and have commercial and administrative rights.
1890: A provisional government is established for the Kingdom of Swaziland (now Eswatini) that comprises representatives from the Swazi people, Great Britain, and the South African Republic. It is followed by other administrative schemes that are foisted upon the Swazi people, with power shifting to the South African Republic before ultimately landing with Britain.
1890: Cecil Rhodes sends a “pioneer column” into Matabeleland and Mashonaland (in modern Zimbabwe).
1890: Britain and Germany settle disputes over their respective spheres of influence in Africa and exchange territory there as well as the North Sea island of Helgoland. Agreements include those for German recognition of Britain’s claim to the Sultanate of Zanzibar; British recognition of German claims over territory that includes what is now mainland Tanzania, Rwanda, and Burundi; and the transfer of Helgoland from Britain to Germany.
1890: Britain proclaims a protectorate over the Sultanate of Zanzibar, centered on the Indian Ocean island of the same name that lies 22 miles (35 km) off the coast of east-central Africa.
1891: The German government takes over the administration of German East Africa Company’s territory.
1891: The British establish the Nyasaland Districts Protectorate in what is now Malawi; in 1893 it is renamed as the British Central Africa Protectorate.
1892: The French proclaim a protectorate over the Kingdom of Dahomey after having done battle with the kingdom.
1893: After a period of securing numerous treaties with the chiefs in what is now Côte d’Ivoire, France claims the territory as a colony.
1894: After additional warfare with the Dahomeyans, the French proclaim another protectorate over Dahomey in January; in June they reorganize it as a French colony.
1894: The British declare a protectorate over the eastern African kingdom of Buganda.
1895: The colony that was established by Cecil Rhodes’s “pioneer column” becomes known as Rhodesia. It will expand north of the Zambezi River, and three administrative units will be created: south of the Zambezi will be Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), and north of the river will be North-Eastern Rhodesia and North-Western Rhodesia (both now Zambia).
1895: The territory held in eastern Africa (modern Kenya) by the Imperial British East Africa Company is transferred to the British, who administer it as the East Africa Protectorate.
1895: France establishes French West Africa as an administrative grouping for some of its African colonies.
1896: Italian forces attempt to invade Ethiopia; they are bested by the Ethiopian army of Emperor Menilek II in the Battle of Adwa, the first crushing defeat of a European power by African forces during the colonial era.
1896: The French declare the Indian Ocean island of Madagascar to be a colony.
1896: Britain expands its protectorate over Buganda to include the kingdoms of Bunyoro, Toro, Ankole, and Busoga.
1897: The British incorporate Zululand into the Natal colony.
1898: A standoff ensues between British and French troops at Fashoda in Egyptian Sudan (now Kodok, South Sudan) over their competing claims to African territory; a military conflict is avoided, and in 1899 the two colonial powers agree on the boundaries of their spheres of influence.
1899: Britain and Egypt establish the Anglo-Egyptian Condominium to jointly govern the Sudan.
1899: Long-simmering tensions between the British and the two Boer republics—the South African Republic (Transvaal) and the Orange Free State—in Southern Africa erupt, and the South African War begins on October 11.
1899: Britain consolidates some of its holdings in western Africa; the charter for the Royal Niger Company is revoked on December 31. On January 1, 1900, Britain takes over the company’s holdings and, adding them to existing British-held territory in the area, proclaims the Northern and Southern protectorates of Nigeria.
20th century
1902: The British defeat the Boers in the South African War, which is brought to an end by the Peace of Vereeniging treaty on May 31. The two Boer republics come under British administration.
1908: After news of King Leopold II’s brutal regime in his private Congo Free State colony becomes widely known and leads to international outrage, he is forced to transfer his authority of it to the Belgian government, which administers it as the Belgian Congo.
1910: France establishes French Equatorial Africa as an administrative grouping for some of its African colonies: Ubangi-Shari-Chad (modern Central African Republic and Chad), Middle Congo (now Republic of the Congo), and Gabon.
1910: The Union of South Africa, a self-governing dominion within the British Empire, is formed, comprising four provinces—Cape Colony, Natal, Transvaal, and Orange Free State—that had previously been British colonies (the latter two having been Boer republics prior to that). Its formation was provided for by the South Africa Act passed by the British Parliament in 1909.
1911: Italy invades the Ottoman Empire’s North African holdings (now in Libya) in the Italo-Turkish War. It ends in 1912, with the Ottomans ceding the provinces of Tripolitania and Cyrenaica to Italy.
1911: North-Eastern and North-Western Rhodesia, still under the administration of the British South Africa Company, are combined to form Northern Rhodesia.
1912: The French establish a protectorate over Morocco under the Treaty of Fès. Later that year France and Spain agree to a Spanish protectorate in northern Morocco.
1914: Britain merges the Northern and Southern protectorates of Nigeria to form the Colony and Protectorate of Nigeria.
1914: World War I begins on July 28. The war will affect Africa, particularly Germany’s colonies. Germany fights on the side of the Central Powers, whereas other colonial powers in Africa fight on the side of the Allied powers. African soldiers fight in the conflict.
1914: In August British and French troops invade the German colony of Togoland in western Africa and will occupy it for the rest of the war.
1914: In August British, French, and Belgian troops invade German Kamerun in western Africa. After a lengthy campaign, Germany’s troops there are defeated in February 1916.
1914: In September South Africa invades German South West Africa; German troops there surrender in July 1915.
1914: In November British forces attempt to invade German East Africa at the port of Tanga (now in Tanzania); they are handily defeated by Germany’s forces.
1914: In December Britain proclaims a protectorate over Egypt.
1916: In April Belgian forces from Belgian Congo invade Ruanda-Urundi (now Rwanda and Burundi) in German East Africa and occupy the territory beginning in May.
1918: World War I ends on November 11, with the Allies defeating the Central Powers.
1919: In the aftermath of World War I, the Paris Peace Conference opens in January and runs until January 1920. Among the many issues discussed at the conference are the establishment of an international organization—the League of Nations—and how to handle the colonial holdings of the Ottoman Empire and Germany that have been judged not yet ready to govern themselves. It is decided to implement a mandate system, one in which various Allied countries will be mandated to oversee the administration of these colonial holdings on behalf of the League of Nations. Draft mandates are determined in advance of the League’s establishment; in Africa, Allied countries largely retain the German colonies that they had invaded during the war and had since occupied.
1920: The League of Nations officially comes into existence in January. It begins to formally approve the previously established draft mandates later that year.
1920: German South West Africa officially comes under South Africa’s administration as a Class C mandate.
1922: Britain ends its protectorate in Egypt and recognizes the independent Kingdom of Egypt, with the caveat that there are four matters—the security of imperial communications, defense, the protection of foreign interests and of minorities, and the Sudan—that Britain reserves the right to control until further negotiations can be held.
1922: British administration of German East Africa’s main component, Tanganyika, is formally approved by the League of Nations as a Class B mandate.
1922: British and French administration of the German colony of Kamerun is formally approved by the League of Nations as a Class B mandate, with France overseeing most of the territory (now in Cameroon) and Britain overseeing two smaller portions (one now part of Nigeria, the other part of Cameroon).
1922: British and French administration of the German colony of Togoland is formally approved by the League of Nations as a Class B mandate, with France overseeing most of the territory (now Togo) and Britain overseeing a smaller portion (now part of Ghana).
1922: The German colony of Ruanda-Urundi is conferred upon Belgium as a Class B mandate, but the treaty between the League of Nations and Belgium is not signed until 1923, and the Belgian Parliament does not ratify it until 1924.
1923: The British South Africa Company passes administrative control of Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) to Britain; it becomes a self-governing British colony, with governing power controlled by the white settlers.
1924: The British South Africa Company passes administrative control of Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia) to Britain; it becomes a British protectorate.
1935: Italy invades Ethiopia, launching the Italo-Ethiopian War.
1936: The Italo-Ethiopian War ends when Italian forces take Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa. Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie I goes into exile. Ethiopia is joined to Eritrea and Italian Somaliland to form Italian East Africa.
1939: World War II begins in September. The war will affect Africa, particularly Italy’s colonies. Italy fights on the side of the Axis powers, whereas other colonial powers in Africa fight on the side of the Allies. African soldiers are enlisted to fight in Africa and abroad.
1941: In January British forces invade Italy’s colony of Libya. They have initial success fighting against Italian troops and taking territory, but territory will change hands multiple times throughout the conflict. At the end of the war, Libya’s Cyrenaica and Tripolitania provinces will be under British administration, and Fezzan will be under French administration.
1941: In January British forces begin their successful invasions of Italian-held Eritrea and Italian Somaliland.
1941: British and Ethiopian troops liberate Ethiopia from Italian rule, and in May Haile Selassie I returns to the throne.
1945: World War II ends on September 2.
1945: A new international cooperation organization, the United Nations, is established.
1946: The League of Nations is formally disbanded after its powers and functions have been transferred to the United Nations. Almost every mandate in Africa is reconstituted as a trust territory, to be administered by the country that had overseen the former mandate and monitored by the UN Trusteeship Council. The exception is South West Africa, as South Africa refuses to enter into a trusteeship agreement with the United Nations.
1950: Italian Somaliland, which had been under British administration since its occupation in 1941, becomes a UN trust territory administered by Italy.
1952: Eritrea, which had been under British administration since its occupation in 1941, is joined with Ethiopia in a federation.