African Timeline

By Ethan Burkholder
  • 1400

    Europeans start to sail

    The Europeans start to sail to Africa on boats.
  • 1400

    The Africans start to trade beyond the Sahara

    In the 1400s Africans start to trade with Europeans beyond the Sahara.
  • 1500

    Slavery

    In the 1500s African traders start to trade enslaved people with Europeans for guns and other goods.
  • 1500

    Trading posts

    In the 1500s Europeans built trading posts along the African coast.

  • Southern and Eastern Africa colonized

    In the 1600s Southern and Eastern Africa was colonized by British forces.

  • Slavery outlawed

    In the 1800s slavery was outlawed.

  • Colonization in Africa

    In the 1800s Europeans start actively colonizing Africa.

  • Africa gets power back

    In the 1900s Africans regain power over their land.

  • African colonies

    In the 1900 Europe divided Africa into colonies.

  • South Africa gains independence

    in 1910 South Africa gains independence from Great Britain.

  • Goal for freedom

    In the 1920s An organization was formed with the goal of independence.

  • Italy invades

    In the 1930s Italy invaded Ethiopia but failed.

  • Pan-africanism

    In the 1940s A political leader named Kwame Nkrumah promoted the idea of pan-africanism.

  • Apartheid

    in 1948 South Africa adopts Apartheid.
  • Period: to

    Most of Africa gains independence

    From 1950s to 1960s most of Africa gained independence.

  • Sudan gains independence

    In 1956 Sudan gains independence

  • Ghana independent

    In 1957 Ghana gained independence.

  • Nigerian independence

    In the 1960s Nigeria gained independence.

  • 1960

    In the 1960 the Belgium Congo gains independence from Belgium.

  • Nelson Mandela goes to jail

    in 1962 Nelson Mandela gets in prisoned.

  • Kenya gains independence

    In 1963 Kenya gains independence from the British.

  • Zaire

    In 1965 the army leader Joseph Mobutu seized power in the Belgium Congo and renamed it to Zaire.

  • Igbo tries to leaves Nigeria

    In 1967 an oil rich country named Igbo attempted to leave Nigeria.
  • Period: to

    Apartheid was deemed as bad

    from 1989 to 1994 the South Africa's president realized that apartheid was bad.

  • Mandela released

    In 1990 Nelson Mandela was released from prison.

  • Mandela becomes president

    In 1994 South Africans of all races voted together and made Nelson Mandela as president.

  • Hutu militia groups

    In 1994 a Hutu militia group killed 800,000 to 1 million tutsi.

  • Black farmers and others killed

    in the early 2000s Thousands of people mostly black farmers are killed in a genocide.

  • civil war

    Civil war in Sudan raged until 2005.

  • Arab spring

    In 2010 many Africans started a movement called the Arab spring.

  • Southern Sudan independence

    In 2011 South Sudan gains independence.

  • Tunisia's president resigns

    in 2011 the Tunisia president resigns from presidency.

  • Parlament strengthens

    In 2011 the people of morocco voted to take away some rights from the king and that strengthened parliament.

  • Qaddafi's demise

    In October 2011 the dictator Muammar Qaddafi was killed because of his abuse of human rights.

  • Mubarak's resignation

    In 2011 the president Hosni Mubarak was forced to resign because of his corrupt way of running things.

  • Egypt elections

    In 2012 the Egyptian people voted to put a islamic president into power.

  • Morsi is banned

    In 2013 Morsi (the Egyptian president) got arrested and his political party was banned.