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Great Zimbabwe flourishes
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Arab armies from Southwest Asia move across North Afica
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European explorers arrive in West Africa by sea
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The years 1450-1750 brought enormous changes to the North American continent. The native Americans, or Indians, as the Europeans came to call them, first encountered European explorers, and before long, saw their world transformed and largely destroyed by European settlers. And European explorers not only ventured to the lands and natural wealth of the Americas.
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Portuguese sailors begin exploring the coastof southern Africa
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Prince John and Prince Manuel continued the efforts of Prince Henry to find a sea route to India, and in 1497 Manuel placed Vasco da Gama, who already had some reputation as a warrior and navigator, in charge of four vessels built especially for the expedition. They set sail July 8, 1497, rounded the Cape of Good Hope four months later, and reached Calicut May 20, 1498.
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The first record of Mauritius comes from Arab and Malay sailors as early as the tenth century. The Portuguese sailors first visited it in 1505, and established a visiting base leaving the island uninhabited. Three ships of the eight Dutch Second Fleet that were sent to the Spice Islands were blown off course during a cyclone and landed on the island in 1598, naming it in honour of Prince Maurice of Nassau, the Stadtholder of the Netherlands.
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Muhammad Ali Pasha is regarded as the "founder of modern Egypt". The dynasty he established would rule Egypt and Sudan until the mid-20th Century. He was Viceroy of Egypt (1805 – 48) for the Ottoman Empire and founder of the dynasty that ruled Egypt until 1953. He reorganized Egyptian society in the aftermath of the Napoleonic occupation, eliminating the remnants of the Mamluks, restricting native merchants and artisans, and stamping out peasant rebellions.
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The discovery of diamonds and gold draws people from all over the world to southern Africa
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European powers meet in Berlin to try to settle colonial disputes in Africa. Most of Africa is eventually divided into European colonies.
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The Boers and the British fight for control of South Africa's mineral wealth in the Boer War
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Robert Mugabe became Zimbabwe's first president after the establishment of majority rule and the official granting of independence from Britain in 1980. He still holds that position today. Mugabe was a hero in the struggle for majority rule in the former British colony of Rhodesia, however over time he has lost popularity as his regime has become increasingly dictatorial.
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Heron of Alexandria was an ancient Greek mathematician who was a resident of a Roman province (Ptolemaic Egypt); he was also an engineer who was active in his hometown of Alexandria. He is considered the greatest experimenter of antiquity and his work is representative of the Hellenistic scientific tradition. Among his most famous inventions were the first documented steam-powered device, the aeolipile, and a windwheel, constituting one of the earliest instances of wind harnessing.
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Idi Amin Dada Oumee 'Butcher of Africa' seizes power in a coup in January 1971. Amin has become the subject of many bizarre rumours and myths. There are stories of cannibalism, of feeding the corpses of his victims to crocodiles, of keeping severed heads in a freezer at his home and bringing them out on occasions for "talks" - most or all of which are unsubstantiated, but not necessarily untrue. He thought that Hitler was right to "burn" the Jews.
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Nelson Mandela is elected South Africa's first black president.
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Significant events, statements and decisions that reveal how the United States and the West chose not to act to save hundreds of thousands of lives in the Rwandan genocide of 1994. The Beginning: April 6, 1994 Rwandan President Habyarimana is killed after a still-mysterious missile shoots down his plane. Hutu extremists quickly seize control of the government. Over the next 100 days, on average, 8,000 Rwandans a day will be butchered.
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Significant events, statements and decisions that reveal how the United States and the West chose not to act to save hundreds of thousands of lives in the Rwandan genocide of 1994. The Beginning: April 6, 1994 Rwandan President Habyarimana is killed after a still-mysterious missile shoots down his plane. Hutu extremists quickly seize control of the government. Over the next 100 days, on average, 8,000 Rwandans a day will be butchered.
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Timbuktu is a city in Tombouctou Region, in the West African nation of Mali. It was made prosperous by Mansa Musa. It is home to the prestigious Sankore University and other madrasas, and was an intellectual and spiritual capital and centre for the propagation of Islam throughout Africa in the 15th and 16th centuries. Its three great mosques, Djingareyber, Sankore and Sidi Yahya, recall Timbuktu's golden age.
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Ghana came to West and Central Africa. It mainly exported gold and cloth to North Africa.
