Time |
Event |
Region |
Notes |
5 - 2.5 Million BCE |
Lucy Remains |
Ethiopia |
http://web.cocc.edu/cagatucci/classes/hum211/timelines/htimeline.htm |
600,000-200,000 BC |
San people spread throughout the continent |
Africa |
|
200,000 BC |
|
Africa |
Mitochondrial DNA (MtDNA) research into modern human origins has produced two major findings. First, the entire amount of variation in mtDNA across human populations is small in comparison with that of other animal species. This means that all human mtDNA originated from a single ancestral lineage -- specifically, a single mother -- fairly recently and has been mutating ever since, producing the small diversity that exists throughout the human species. Most estimates of the mutation rate indicate an origin of about 200,000 years ago. The second major finding is that mtDNA of African populations is more diverse than of peoples of other continents. This suggests that African mtDNA has been changing for a longer time than elsewhere. Thus Africa is the likely source of the original mtDNA mother (sometimes called "Mitochondrial Eve"). Some geneticists and anthropologists have concluded, then, that modern humans originated in a small population in Africa and spread from there.
http://anthropology.si.edu/humanorigins/faq/Encarta/encarta.htm
|
130,000 BC |
|
Africa |
Based on fossils, many scientist conclude that modern H. sapiens had evolved in Africa by 130,000 years ago and started spreading to diverse parts of the world beginning on a route through the Near East sometime before 90,000 years ago.
http://anthropology.si.edu/humanorigins/faq/Encarta/encarta.htm
|
25,000-10,000 BC |
Rock paintings created |
Africa |
|
6000-4000 |
Emergence of River people along Nile and Congo
Rise of agriculture in SubSaharan
|
|
|
4500 |
First known written documents |
Egypt |
|
4000-1000 |
Rise of kingdoms |
Nile Valley |
|
1000-800 |
Bantu migration |
|
Bantu probably originated in West Africa, migrated downward to Subsaharan area, largest migration in human history, agriculturalists or pastoralists
Bantu split in Eastern, migrating down into South Africa, and Western, migrating into Angola, Namibia, and Botswana
|
600 |
Bantu cities |
Southern Africa |
Great Zimbabwe, Dhlo-Dhlo, Kilwa, Sofala flourishing through 1600 AD |
610 |
Islam |
|
|
639-641 |
Islam conquers Egypt |
|
|
700 |
Slave trade |
|
Slave trade from 700-1911 |
800 |
Trans Sahara Gold Trade |
|
From Ghana, Mali, and Songhai, gold, kola nuts, and slaves were sent north across the sahel to trade for cloth, utensils and salt |
1000 |
Soninke empire |
Ghana |
|
1200- |
Mali Empire |
Mali |
|
1439 |
Portuguese
exploration
|
West Africa |
|
1441 |
Portugeuese slave trade |
|
|
1497 |
|
South Africa |
Vasco da Gama lands in Natal |
1550- |
Other European slavers |
|
|
1591 |
Fall of Songhai Empire |
|
|
1652 |
Dutch (Boer) Colonize |
South Africa |
|
1700-1717 |
Rise of Ashanti Empire |
Ghana |
|
1720 |
Rise of Dahomey |
Dahomey |
|
1700-1800 |
Atlantic Slave Trade |
|
|
1795-1815 |
|
|
British seize control of Cape Colony (South Africa) from Dutch |
1818-1828 |
Shaka (Zulu) |
|
Shaka unified Nguni, start of mfecane, rise of Zulu kingdom. Shaka assassinated in 1828, but Zulu power kept rising |
1822 |
Creation |
Liberia |
|
1830 |
|
Zimbabwe |
Mzilikazi founds Ndebele state |
1834 |
|
|
Mzilikazi invades Rowsi state http://www.scaruffi.com/politics/africans.html |
1830-1834 |
BoerTrekkers |
|
Boers move north across Orange River, establish Orange Free State and Transvaal |
1852 |
|
South Africa |
British grant limited self-government to Transvaal |
late 1850's |
|
South Africa |
Boers proclaim Transvaal a republic |
|
|
|
|
1867 |
|
South Africa |
Diamonds discovered at Kimberly |
1870 |
|
|
Ndebele capital moved to Bulawayo |
1874 |
|
|
Britain defeats Ashanti Kingdom
http://www.scaruffi.com/politics/africans.html
|
1871-1912 |
Imperialism |
|
Global European Imperialism at its height: The "scramble for Africa" proceeds, rationalized as a "civilizing mission" based on white supremacy. Europeans assert their "spheres of interest" in African colonies arbitrarily, cutting across traditionally established boundaries, homelands, and ethnic groupings of African peoples and cultures. Following a "divide and rule" theory, Europeans promote traditional inter-ethnic hostilities. "The European onslaught of Africa that began in the mid 1400s progressed to various conquests over the continent, and culminated over 400 years later with the partitioning of Africa. Armed with guns, fortified by ships, driven by the industry of capitalist economies in search of cheap raw materials, and unified by a Christian and racist ideology against the African 'heathen,' aggressive European colonial interests followed their earlier merchant and missionary inroads into Africa"--Prof. Malaika Mutere, Howard Univ., African Culture & Aesthetics, African Odyssey Interactive: |
|
|
|
|
1884-1885 |
|
|
Europes divides up Africa at Berlin Conference. No Africans invited. |
1877 |
|
South Africa |
Britain annexes Transvaal |
1870's |
|
South Africa |
Zulu war with Great Britain |
mid 1880's |
|
South Africa |
Gold discovered in Transvaal |
1890 |
|
Zimbabwe |
Cecil Rhodes conquers Ndebele state |
1899-1902 |
|
South Africa |
Anglo-Boer war |
1902 |
|
|
Benin (Dahomey) is French colony |
1910 |
|
South Africa |
Formation of South Africa from Cape and Natal colonies, Orange Free State and Transvaal |
1922 |
|
Zimbabwe |
British settlers vote to secede from South Africa |
1934 |
|
Zimbabwe |
Racial laws forbid blacks from running business in Rhode |
|
|
|
|
1948 |
|
South Africa |
Apartheid policy established |
1950's |
|
Kenya |
Jomo Kenyatta, wars for Kenya independence |
1957 |
|
Ghana |
First independent Black state |
1958 |
|
South Africa |
South Africa independent from Britain |
1960 |
|
Mali |
Mali becomes independent |
1960-1961 |
|
Zaire |
Zaire (Belguim Congo) independent |
1964 |
|
|
Northern Rhodesia secedes and becomes Zambia |
1965 |
|
Zimbabwe |
Zimbabwe (Rhodesia) declares (white minority) independence from Britain |
1966-1968 |
|
South Africa |
Lesotho, Botswana, and Swaziland become independent states |
1970 |
|
Angola |
Portugal loses African colonies |
1980 |
|
Zimbabwe |
Zimbabwe gains independence from white minority rule (Robert Mugabe) |
1970's |
|
South Africa |
Apartheid enforced, blacks resettled in 'homelands' |
1990 |
|
South Africa |
Nelson Mandela freed |
1991 |
|
South Africa |
Apartheid abolished |
1994 |
|
Zaire, Ruwanda |
Hutus massacre Tutsis |
|
|
|
|
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