Britain annexes Bechuanaland as a protectorate, to secure the route north from the Cape into central Africa

Italian troops occupy Eritrea, a province of Ethiopia

German warships arrive in Zanzibar harbour to persuade the sultan to cede territory to the Kaiser, William I

Addis Ababa is founded, to become subsequently the capital of Ethiopia

Germany and Britain define neighbouring spheres of interest in east Africa

The German and British agreement in east Africa creates the present-day boundary between Tanzania and Kenya

The Ndebele chieftain, Lobengula, grants Rhodes mining rights in what is now Zimbabwe

The Imperial British East Africa Company is given a charter to adminster Kenya and Uganda

Cecil Rhodes forms the British South Africa Company to push British commerce and imperial control further north

Menelik II is crowned emperor in Ethiopia, bringing the crown back to the Solomon dynasty

France and Britain agree colonial boundaries for Senegal and Gambia in west Africa

In the treaty of Uccialli, Menelik II cedes the Ethiopian province of Eritrea to Italy

Cecil Rhodes sends colonists to settle the newly won colony of Rhodesia

Zanzibar, under its Arab sultan, is declared a British protectorate

Germany takes direct control of German East Africa as a protectorate

Rhodes wins the right to adminster the region from the Zambezi up to Lake Tanganyika, forming present-day Zambia

Frederick Lugard's Maxim machine gun settles a Protestant-Catholic clash in Kampala, the capital of Buganda

The French establish a protectorate in part of the ancient kingdom of Dahomey in west Africa

Constantine Cavafy begins a 30-year career as a civil servant in Alexandria's Irrigation Service

France claims the Ivory Coast (or Côte d'Ivoire) in west Africa as a French colony

Leander Jameson, finding a pretext for war, drives Lobengula out of his kingdom in Rhodesia

Mahatma Gandhi, travelling with a first-class ticket, is forcibly ejected from the carriage at Pietermaritzburg because of his colour

The British Central African Protectorate is set up in the region of present-day Malawi

The territory south of the Zambezi is given the name Rhodesia, in honour of the man who has colonized it

Khama III, the king of Bechuanaland, travels to London to demand the continuing protection of the British crown