istoryworld
Events relating to africa
Vasco da Gama reaches the southern coast of India, at Calicut, after sailing across the Indian Ocean from east Africa
The people of Benin begin a lasting tradition of sculpture in brass, melted down from objects brought by traders
The Portuguese establish trading posts in east Africa, on the coast of Mozambique
The Portuguese set up a trading post on the east African island of Zanzibar
The Ottoman sultan, Selim I, captures Cairo and ends Mameluke rule in the middle east
From Bosnia to Egypt and Arabia, the Ottoman Turks now rule the largest Muslim empire since the early caliphate - and will frequently use the title of caliph to assert their authority within Sunni Islam
Ahmad ibn Ibrahim leads Muslim Somalis in a holy war against Christian Ethiopia, destroying churches and shrines
Africans, bought in the Portuguese trading posts of west Africa, are shipped across the Atlantic as slaves
The Ashanti establish a powerful kingdom in present-day Ghana, with their capital at Kumasi
The Ottoman empire finally asserts control over the north African coast, in the footsteps of Muslim pirates
The Yoruba develop an extensive empire centred on Oyo in southern Nigeria
A law is passed expelling the Moriscos from Spain, with the result that some 300,000 are shipped to north Africa
Three brothers among the Dahomey people establish a long-lasting kingdom in the Bight of Benin
The French build a trading station on the estuary of the Senegal river in west Africa
Jan van Riebeeck establishes a Dutch settlement at the Cape of Good Hope
The Dutch in South Africa purchase slaves to do domestic and agricultural work
The British establish Fort James on an island in the Gambia river
Aphra Behn's novel Oroonoko makes an early protest against the inhumanity of the African slave trade
A fleet from Oman evicts the Portuguese from Mombasa and Zanzibar
The triangular trade, controlled from Liverpool, ships millions of Africans across the Atlantic as slaves
Dutch nomads, pressing far north from Cape Town, become known as the Trekboers
A British ship lands a party of freed slaves as the first modern settlers in Sierra Leone, on the west coast of Africa
The autobiography of Olaudah Equiano, a slave captured as a child in Africa, becomes a best-seller on both sides of the Atlantic
Dutch Boers begin calling themselves Afrikaners, to emphasize that Africa is their native land
Mungo Park sets off on his first expedition to explore the Niger on behalf of the African Association
