Liberia wins independence and international recognition as a republic

Harry Smith annexes for Britain the land between the Orange and Vaal rivers, calling it the Orange River Sovereignty

The British government buys the Danish fortresses on the Gold Coast, including Christiansborg castle in Accra

David Livingstone makes a heroic six-month journey from the Zambezi river to the west coast of Africa

The Boers establish the Orange Free State as an independent republic, with its own custom-built constitution

William Baikie, on an expedition up the Niger, protects his men from malaria by administering quinine

Ferdinand de Lesseps is granted the concession to construct a canal from the Mediterranean to the Red Sea

An Ethiopian baron usurps the throne and proclaims himself emperor, as Theodore II

The Boers of the southern Transvaal declare independence as the South African Republic

Lagos, on the coast of Nigeria, is annexed as a British colony when the royal family prove unable or unwilling to end the slave trade

Richard Burton, visiting Dahomey, provides reports of the kingdom's celebrated Amazons preparing for war

Speke and Grant find the Ripon Falls, over which the headwater of the Nile flows from Lake Tanganyika

Britain annexes Basutoland (now Lesotho), the kingdom of the Sotho leader Moshoeshoe

Britain, France and Italy take joint control of the finances of a bankrupt Tunisia

The proprietor of the New York Herald gives Henry Morton Stanley a very concise commission – 'Find Livingstone'

British explorer Samuel Baker annexes the southern Sudan, or Equatoria, on behalf of the khedive of Egypt

Thousands of distinguished guests assemble at Port Said for the opening of the Suez Canal

The Afghan philosopher Jamal al-Din, moving to Cairo, urges drastic and violent measures against western influence

18-year-old English entrepreneur Cecil Rhodes, on a temporary visit to South Africa, arrives in the new diamond town of Kimberley

Giuseppe Verdi's opera Aida, is commissioned for the Cairo opera house, part of the process of Egypt becoming westernized

Cetshwayo becomes king of Zululand, on the death of his father Mpande

The British consul in Zanzibar persuades the sultan to end the island's notorious slave trade

The southern region of present-day Ghana becomes a British colony, to be known as the Gold Coast

Stanley sets off from Bagamoyo, intending to resume the exploration of central Africa where Livingstone left off

Stanley passes Nyangwe on the Lualaba, the furthest point down the Congo river system reached by Livingstone