-
First European missions
The first European missionaries to south-central Africa, inspired by Livingstone, set up their Universities Mission in 1861 -
Diamonds found in Kimberley
A chance find in 1867 had drawn several thousand fortune seekers to alluvial diamond diggings along the Orange, Vaal, and Harts rivers. Richer finds in “dry diggings” in 1870 led to a large-scale rush. By the end of 1871 nearly 50,000 people lived in a sprawling polyglot mining camp that was later named Kimberley. -
Anglo Zulu War
The Anglo-Zulu War was fought in 1879 between the British Empire and the Zulu Kingdom. -
Period: to
1st Anglo Boer War
The First Boer War (Afrikaans: Eerste Vryheidsoorlog)1880–1881, also known as the First Anglo–Boer War, the Transvaal War or the Transvaal Rebellion, was a war fought from 16 December 1880 until 23 March 1881 between the United Kingdom and Boers of the Transvaal (as the South African Republic was known while under British administration).[1] The war resulted in a Boer victory and eventual independence of the South African Republic. -
Berlin West Africa conference
At the Berlin West Africa Conference of 1884–85, Portugal secured the Cabinda exclave and a portion of the left bank of the Congo River on the Atlantic coast—considerably less than it claimed—and in 1886 the Kunene-Okavango region went to Germany. Portugal gained even less in Mozambique, which remained a narrow coastal corridor. -
Discovery of Gold in Witwatersrand
Prospectors established in 1886 the existence of a belt of gold-bearing reefs 40 miles (60 km) wide centred on present-day Johannesburg. The rapid growth of the gold-mining industry intensified processes started by the diamond boom: immigration, urbanization, capital investment, and labour migrancy. -
British Central Africa protectorate (later Nyasaland, present day Malawi))
The British Central Africa Protectorate (BCA) was a British protectorate proclaimed in 1889 and ratified in 1891 that occupied the same area as present-day Malawi: it was renamed Nyasaland in 1907. -
Rhodes monopoly on diamond industry
The diamond industry became a monopoly by when De Beers Consolidated Mines (controlled by Cecil Rhodes) became the sole producer. -
Rhodes invades Mashona and Ndbele land
Rhodes secured concessionary rights to land north of the Limpopo River, founded the British South Africa Company, and in 1890 dispatched a pioneer column to occupy and annex the territory of Mashonaland and Ndeblele land what became known as Rhodesia, later part of Zimbabwe. -
Ndebele and Shona revolt
the Ndebele rose in revolt and were joined by a number of eastern Shona polities -
Period: to
2nd Anglo Boer War
1899–1902 -
Bambatha rising in Natal,
-
Union of South Africa created
Union of South Africa was created as a self-governing dominion of the British Empire on 31 May 1910 in terms of the South Africa Act 1909, which amalgamated the four previously separate British colonies: Cape Colony, Colony of Natal, Transvaal Colony, and Orange River Colony -
South African Native National Congress founded
The South African Native National Congress (SANNC), later known as the Africa National Congress (ANC) was founded on the 8 January 1912. -
South Africa becomes fully sovereign state
Although the Union of South Africa was not among the Dominions that needed to adopt the Statute of Westminster for it to take effect, two laws—the Status of the Union Act, 1934, and the Royal Executive Functions and Seals Act of 1934—were passed to confirm South Africa's status as a fully sovereign state.