France establishes a protectorate over Cambodia

The Plains Indians are threatened by settlers pressing west, building railways and slaughtering buffalo

Napoleon III withdraws French troops from Mexico, leaving the emperor Maximilian in a dangerous situation

The Canadian nation is called the Dominion of Canada – the first example of 'dominion status'

Britain annexes Basutoland (now Lesotho), the kingdom of the Sotho leader Moshoeshoe

George Custer leads federal troops in the massacre of more than 100 American Indians, on an official reservation beside the Washita river

Britain, France and Italy take joint control of the finances of a bankrupt Tunisia

British explorer Samuel Baker annexes the southern Sudan, or Equatoria, on behalf of the khedive of Egypt

18-year-old English entrepreneur Cecil Rhodes, on a temporary visit to South Africa, arrives in the new diamond town of Kimberley

The Missouri, Kansas and Texas railroad cuts through the territory reserved for American Indians, bringing hordes of 'boomers'

The southern region of present-day Ghana becomes a British colony, to be known as the Gold Coast

An outbreak of measles in Fiji, brought to the islands by British visitors, kills a quarter of the population

The chaotic government finances of Egypt are placed under joint French and British control

India becomes the 'jewel in the crown' of Queen Victoria when Benjamin Disraeli secures for her the title Empress of India

Leopold II hosts a conference in Brussels on the subject of opening up the African continent

Britain annexes the Boer republic in the Transvaal

Stanley agrees to work for Leopold II in opening up the Congo river to commerce

Three British armies invade Afghanistan, beginning the second Anglo-Afghan War

The British find a pretext to march into the territory ruled by Cetshwayo, thus launching the Zulu War

Zulu tribesmen surprise and annihilate a British army encamped near Isandhlwana

Immediately after Isandhlwana a tiny British garrison at Rorke's Drift fights off an overwhelming Zulu attack

The British destruction of Cetshwayo's kraal at Ulundi ends the Zulu War

French explorer Pierre Savorgnan de Brazza forestalls Stanley in opening up the Congo, reaching Stanley Pool ahead of him

France invades Tunisia from Algeria, and in the Treaty of Bardo forces the bey of Tunis to accept the status of a French protectorate

The British withdraw from Afghanistan, having achieved nothing in the Second Anglo-Afghan War