Scottish missionaries establish Blantyre (named after Livingstone's birthplace) as a centre from which to fight slavery

Britain annexes the Boer republic in the Transvaal

Stanley completes his exploration of the Congo, reaching the Atlantic coast at Boma after a three-year journey

The British find a pretext to march into the territory ruled by Cetshwayo, thus launching the Zulu War

Zulu tribesmen surprise and annihilate a British army encamped near Isandhlwana

Immediately after Isandhlwana a tiny British garrison at Rorke's Drift fights off an overwhelming Zulu attack

George Goldie and British traders on the Niger form the United African Company (later the Royal Niger Company) to consolidate their interests

The British destruction of Cetshwayo's kraal at Ulundi ends the Zulu War

French explorer Pierre Savorgnan de Brazza forestalls Stanley in opening up the Congo, reaching Stanley Pool ahead of him

The Boers inflict a convincing defeat on a British army at Majuba, in the Transvaal

France invades Tunisia from Algeria, and in the Treaty of Bardo forces the bey of Tunis to accept the status of a French protectorate

Stanley finds Brazza's French tricolor already flying on the north bank of the Congo, on the site of what later becomes Brazzaville

Stanley establishes a foothold for Leopold II on the southern bank of the Congo, at a site which he names Leopoldville (now Kinshasa)

Anti-western riots in Alexandria result in many deaths and provoke a British invasion

French marines land at Tamatave in Madagascar to protect French interests and assert French control

Mohammed Ahmed, proclaiming himself the Mahdi, defeats three Egyptian armies in the Sudan

General Gordon marches south to protect Khartoum from the advancing forces of the Mahdi

The Boer republic in the Transvaal regains its independence from Britain

Gustav Nachtigal arrives in Togo and persuades local chiefs to accept the protection of the German emperor

Gustav Nachtigal, moving on to Cameroon, annexes this region too for the new German empire

Karl Peters hurries round east Africa persuading chiefs to accept the German emperor as their protector

British general Garnet Wolseley sails from London on a mission to rescue Gordon, trapped by the Mahdi in Khartoum

Spain begins to colonize the Western Sahara, subsequently known as the Spanish Sahara

Bismarck grants Karl Peters a charter to rule a German protectorate in east Africa

Britain annexes Bechuanaland as a protectorate, to secure the route north from the Cape into central Africa