 | 50,000-40,000 BP Upper Paleolithic Efflorescence |
| 20,000 BP intensive grass seed gathering |
| 8,000 BP Dry phase-early spread of agriculture and pastoralism. |
| 3000 BCE Unification of Egypt |
| 3000 BCE Farming in forest zone |
| 2000-1500 BCE Bantu Expansion |
| 300 BCE Meroe |
| 300 CE Axum |
| 600 CE Kingdom of Ghana |
| 750 CE First Muslims in East Africa |
| 1200 CE Empire of Mali and Swahili Civilization in East Africa |
| 1400 First Forest States-Kongo, Akan States |
| 1480 Portuguese on West African Coast |
| 1500 Portuguese on East African Coast |
| 1600 Rise of Songhai Empire in West Africa |
| 1680 Dutch in South Africa, Oman drives Portuguese from Swahili coast |
| 1700 British and Dutch on West African Coast-Atlantic Slave trade expands |
| 1700 Rise of Asante and Dahomey Kingdoms in West Africa |
| 1800 Fulani Jihads in West Africa |
| 1820 Gold Coast Colony (Britain) and St. Louis(French) in West Africa |
| 1840 French in Algeria |
| 1850 use of quinine as anti-malarial |
| 1885 Berlin Conference |
| 1900 Virtually all of Africa colonized |
| 1905 Anglo-Boer War |
| 1914 World War I |
| 1929 Great Depression |
| 1930 many Anti-colonial Organizations formed |
| 1939 World War II |
| 1949 Apartheid in South Africa |
| 1950s Anti-colonial efforts begin to succeed |
| 1960 decolonization begins in most French and British colonies |
| 1975 Portuguese colonies get independence |
| 1980 white rule in Rhodesia/Zimbabwe ends |
| 1990 Apartheid ends in South Africa |
| 1990s Economic decline in sub-Saharan Africa |
| 1990s Post-Cold War political order |
