-
Rise of Kongo empire, centred in modern northern Angola and including extreme western Congo and territories round lakes Kisale and Upemba in central Katanga (now Shaba).
-
Sundiata Keita founds the empire of Mali
-
The empire of Mali expands to the Atlantic
-
Portuguese navigator Diogo Cao becomes the first European to visit the Congo; Portuguese set up ties with the king of Kongo.
-
Cape Verde becomes a Portuguese colony
-
Portugal establishes a trade post in Luanda (Angola) to buy slaves for Brazil
-
British, Dutch, Portuguese and French merchants engage in slave trade through Kongo intermediaries.
-
Belgian King Leopold II sets up a private venture to colonise Kongo.
-
British explorer Henry Stanley navigates Congo river to the Atlantic Ocean.
-
Leopold commissions Stanley to establish the king's authority in the Congo basin.
-
European powers at the Conference of Berlin recognise Leopold's claim to the Congo basin.
-
Leopold announces the establishment of the Congo Free State, headed by himself
-
Belgians conquer Katanga.
-
Eastern Congo wrested from the control of East African Arab and Swahili-speaking traders
-
Belgian state annexes Congo amid protests over killings and atrocities carried out on a mass scale by Leopold's agents. Millions of Congolese are said to have been killed or worked to death during Leopold's control of the territory
-
Belgian Professor Antoin van Bilsen publishes a "30-Year Plan" for granting the Congo increased self-government.
-
Congo becomes independent with Patrice Lumumba as prime minister and Joseph Kasavubu as president.
-
Congolese army mutinies; Moise Tshombe declares Katanga independent; Belgian troops sent in ostensibly to protect Belgian citizens and mining interests; UN Security Council votes to send in troops to help establish order, but the troops are not allowed to
-
Lumumba got arrested.
-
Christians in the south of Sudan begin a civil war
