htimelines4

1833
1863

British abolish slavery in West Indies.
Emancipation of slaves in the United States in midst of Civil War.

1871 – 1912	Height of global European Imperialism and the"scramble for Africa" proceed, rationalized as a "civilizing mission" based on white supremacy. Europeans assert their "spheres of interest" in African colonies arbitrarily, cutting across traditionally established boundaries, homelands, and ethnic groupings of African peoples and cultures. Following a "divide and rule" theory, Europeans promote traditional inter-ethnic hostilities. "The European onslaught of Africa that began in the mid 1400s progressed to various conquests over the continent, and culminated over 400 years later with the partitioning of Africa. Armed with guns, fortified by ships, driven by the industry of capitalist economies in search of cheap raw materials, and unified by a Christian and racist ideology against the African 'heathen,' aggressive European colonial interests followed their earlier merchant and missionary inroads into Africa"(Mutere).
1884-85	The Berlin Conference: Intense rivalries among Belgium, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Spain, and Portugal for additional African territory, and the ill-defined boundaries of their various holdings, instigate the Berlin conference. Here the powers of Europe, together with the United States, defined their spheres of influence and laid down rules for future occupation on the coasts of Africa and for navigation of the Zaire and Niger rivers. No African states were invited to the Berlin conference, and none signed these agreements. Whenever possible, Africans resisted decisions made in Europe, but revolts in Algeria, in the western Sudan, in Dahomey, by the Matabele (Ndebele) and Shona, in Ashantiland, in Sierra Leone, and in the Fulani Hausa states were eventually defeated.
1870s 1879	Zulu Wars with Great Britain. Zulu victory over British at Isandhlwana, but followed by British conquest of Zulu at Rourke’s Drift, South Africa.
1879 1882 1890s 1896	Europeans "partition" West Africa (to 1890s). British takeover of Egypt Europeans "partition" East Africa. Ethiopians under Emperor Menelik II were successful in resisting European conquest, annihilating Italians at the Battle of Adwa (or Aduwa). By 1914, only Liberia in the west and Ethiopia in the east remained independent of European colonial control.
1899- 1902	Anglo-Boer War in South Africa: While British "win" the war, they must make concessions to Afrikaner (Boer) political organizations for internal control of South Africa, opening path for Afrikaners to free themselves eventually of British domination and, in turn, dominate the black African majority in South Africa. Ethiopia and Italy began demarcation of territory that will eventually become Eritrea

Late 19^th c.

Western public opinion against European colonization rises.

1914 to

1918

World War I, by which time all African had been divided up among European colonial powers; the "world" war, however, damages myths of European invincibility, superiority, and their claim of the right to rule the world. Germany loses WWI and its African colonies to France and Great Britain, who are expected by the League of Nations to prepare the colonies for independence.

1920s

Pan-African Congresses in Paris; anti-colonial unrest, African nationalism gains strength esp. among black missionary- and Western-educated elites; unrest and strikes in Sierra Leone, the Gold Coast, and Nigeria of British West Africa.

1939 –1945

World War II: Main theaters of war in European colonies of North Africa, Southeast Asia, and Pacific Islands. Decolonization becomes increasingly inevitable.

1948

1947

1950s

1960

1962

1963

1964

mid-60s

1970s

1980

1970s –1980s

1990

1991

1993

1994

Afrikaner National Party begins apartheid (literally "separation"), a rigid system of racial segregation in South Africa developed through the passage of 1000s of laws; the National Party lobbies effectively for complete independence from Great Britain.

Decolonization movements intensify with independence of India and Pakistan from the British.

GHANA BECOMES FIRST INDEPENDENT BLACK STATE IN AFRICA under Kwame Nkrumah through Gandhi-inspired rallies, boycotts, and strikes, forcing the British to transfer power over the former colony of the Gold Coast.

Kenya, with large white settle population, is led by Jomo Kenyatta into a lengthy campaign of terror and guerrilla warfare against the British, who label the rebels "Mau Mau." Despite British victory in 1956, 1000s of lives lost and negotiations finally forced preparations for independence .

Zaire (formerly Belgian Congo) becomes independent from Belgium. Mobutu Sese Seko overthrows Patrice Lumumba with the financial support of the US, specifically the CIA. The first years of this decade mark the end of the colonial period in Africa.

Algeria (of Arab and Berber peoples) wins independence from France; over 900,000 white settlers leave the newly independent nation.

Multi-ethnic Kenya (East Africa) declares independence from British.

Nelson Mandela, on trial for sabotage with other ANC leaders before the Pretoria Supreme Court, delivers his eloquent and courageous Speech from the Dock before he is imprisoned for the next 25 years in the notorious South African prison Robben Island.

Most former European colonies in Africa gain independence and European colonial era ends. NEOCOLONIALISM, however, plagues many new African nations: Western economic and cultural dominance, and African leaders’ and parties’ corruption intensify the multiple problems facing the new nations. (As Achebe points out, colonial rule does not teach subjects how to rule themselves). Indigenous ethnic groups often feel stronger loyalty to traditional cultural ties and geographical homelands than to the arbitrary political boundary lines, first drawn by European colonizers, of independent African states.

Portugal loses African colonies, including Angola and Mozambique.

Zimbabwe (formerly Southern Rhodesia) gains independence from large white settler population after years of hostilities.

Police state of South African white minority rulers hardens to maintain blatantly racist and inequitable system of apartheid; resulting violence, hostilities, strikes, massacres headlined worldwide

Dramatic freeing of long-time black political prisoner Nelson Mandela by Afrikaner President de Klerk in South Africa; ethnic violence erupts between Zulu and Xhosa factions and bitter rivalries evident among South African black majority groups and white Nationalist groups.