The Colombian government rejects the Hay-Herrán treaty with the US on the Panama canal, thus prompting the break-away of Panama

The USA is granted exclusive control in perpetuity of a ten-mile corridor across Panama, suitable for a canal

A violent uprising by Herrero warriors in South West Africa targets male Germans of military age

The German general Lothar von Trotha drives 8000 Herrero people to slow death in the Kalahari desert

British troops under Francis Younghusband enter Tibet's holy city of Lhasa

Kaiser Wilhelm II visits Tangier in support of Moroccan independence, causing a diplomatic crisis with the colonial powers France and Britain

The Maji-Maji rising results in alarming outbreaks of violence in German East Africa

The German commander in east Africa uses famine as a means of ending the Maji-Maji rising

The Treaty of Portsmouth gives Japan control of Port Arthur and much of the Liaotung Peninsula

An international conference at Algeciras effectively gives France informal control of Morocco

Istanbul cedes the Sinai Peninsula to British-controlled Egypt

Transvaal is given the self-governing status promised in the treaty ending the Boer War

Austria annexes Bosnia-Herzegovina, in response to the policy of the Young Turks in Istanbul

International outrage at Congo atrocities forces Belgium to annexe King Leopold's private colony

National delegates from the four provincial parliaments draw up a draft constitution for a South African union

Three French colonies south of the Sahara are consolidated as French Equatorial Africa

Japan annexes Korea as a colony, to be controlled by a Japanese governor-general

Italy finds a reason to invade Libya, a province of the Turkish empire.

President Taft sends US marines to Honduras to protect American banana interests during a spell of political turmoil

A national uprising against Turkish rule in Albania launches a full-scale Balkan war

Turkey, beset by troubles elsewhere, cedes to Italy her north African province of Libya

Tibet declares its independence after the fall of the Qing dynasty and the end of imperial China

By the treaty of Fès a French protectorate is formally established in Morocco

President Taft sends US marines into Nicaragua during a period of disorder

France and Spain agree that Spain shall become the colonial power in the north of Morocco and France in the south