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Period: 1390 to
Kongo kingdom
From 1390 ad - 1914 ad the Kongo Empire was the main kingdom in the central area of Africa. We do not know for sure how the kingdom began because they did not have written history. We only have the accounts of the european colonization, which is the perspective of outsiders. However we believe that the myth of Nima a Nzima to Luqueni Luansanze is the myth of how the Kongo Kingdom started. The kingdom of Kongo ended because of the Europeans who took over the land. -
Period: 1480 to 1486
Diogo Cão discover the mouth of the Congo River
Cão was the first European that discovered the mouth of the Congo River. By the river, he set up a stone pillar to mark Portuguese overlordship of the area. He found that the inhabitants along the banks are willing to trade. He then traveled southward along the present Angola coast and set up a second pillar at Cape Santa Maria. After he returns to Lisbon, he was ennobled by King John II, granted an annuity, and authorized to add 2 pillars on his coat to remember the pillars that he had erected. -
1491
The king of Kongo Baptized
This event is when the king of Kongo, Joao I, got baptized into Christianity. This is an important event because this establishes Christianity in the Kongo Kingdom. This, in turn, ties the Kongo Kingdom with Portugal and many more European Countries. Then his son, Afonso I, took his place. He then took Christianity and expanded it. This is when Christianity spread out throughout all of the Kongo Empire. This single event started the spread of Christianity through the Kongo. -
Period: 1568 to 1569
The Jaga Wars
The year 1568 is when The Jaga Wars between the Jaga empire and the Kongo Empire. This war lasted until 1569. This war erupted because of the constant raids from the Kongo Empire for the Portuguese Slave Trade. From previous conflicts with the Kuba and the Teke, the Kongo Empire was weakened greatly. This, in turn, made the Kongo heavily rely on help from the Portuguese. This made the Portuguese government more militaristic in the slave trade with the Kongo. -
Period: to
Luba Kingdom
The Luba Kingdom began in the year of 1585. This Kingdom once had 1 million people paying praise to the king. The Luba Kingdom was an trade advancement as both the Atlantic and Indian oceans were centering their trade in this Kingdom. This Kingdom was honored and looked up to by all the other smaller Kingdoms. The decline of this Kingdom was caused by their thirst for slaves in the Central Africa region. The officially split into 2 and blended into the Congo in 1889. -
The Independence of Gabon
Gabon was first explored by the Portuguese navigator Diego Cam in the 15th century. The Dutch began arriving in 1593, and the French in 1630. In 1839, the French found their first settlement on the left bank of the Gabon estuary during the second half of the 19th century. In 1888, the land became a French territory and an republic within the French Union. On 17 August 1960 Gabon, the last of the four territories, had achieved independence. -
Period: to
African Countries Gain Independence
1960 was also known as “The Year of Africa” because that year is when most of the French Empire began to lose their reign on Africa and the Democratic Republic of Congo, Central African Republic, and Gabon gained their independence. In 1964-1968 Zambia gained their independence from Britain. In 1975 Angola, the last country in Central Africa still under European reign, became independent from Portugal, which was one of the last European countries to leave Africa. -
Period: to
The Angolan War of Independence
The Angolan War of Independence began as an uprising against forced planting cotton, and it’s a multi-faction struggle for the control of Portugal’s overseas province of Angola. The war later became a 3 nationalist movements and a separatist movement. The war ended when a group of military coup overthrew Portuguese Estado Novo regime, and declared that they are independent without delay. The conflict is approached as a branch of the wider Portuguese Overseas War. -
Period: to
Congo’s War
In 1994 there was a killing in Rwanda by the Tutsis. Their government tried to remove of the Tutsis people, but whoever refused was murdered, resulting in the death of 800,000 people in 100 days. The rest of them moved to the Congo. In 1996 Rwanda and Uganda went to the DRC to find the rest of the Tutsis responsible for the genocide. In 1997 the country was renamed Democratic Republic of Congo and Kabila became president. He made a peace deal with the rebel groups and the war ended in 2003. -
Boko Haram
In the year of 2013 there were attacks are various schools, kidnaping over 200 girls. This was done by the Boko Haram members. These people are notorious for going after females as they have done it many times. Boko Haram wants an Islamic state in Nigeria and that is why they are setting up so many attacks on the military, government, or schools. Recently, in 2018, the Nigerian army has rescued over 1,000 Boko Haram captives, mostly women and children but some men recruited to become fighters.
