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

The British empire is first described as a 'Commonwealth of Nations', by Lord Rosebery speaking in Australia

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

Bismarck launches the colonial scramble for Africa by suddenly annexing three territories for Germany (Togo, Cameroon and Angria Pequena)

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

Bismarck invites the European powers to a West Africa Conference in Berlin

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

Italian troops occupy Eritrea, a province of Ethiopia

German warships arrive in Zanzibar harbour to persuade the sultan to cede territory to the Kaiser, William I

Germany and Britain define neighbouring spheres of interest in east Africa

The German and British agreement in east Africa creates the present-day boundary between Tanzania and Kenya

The imperial government in China formally acknowledges Portuguese territorial rights in Macao

A gathering of leaders from the British empire holds a colonial conference in London to coincide with Queen Victoria's jubilee

France brings Cambodia and Vietnam into a federation of protectorates under the title French Indochina

The Dawes Severalty Act deprives American Indians of their tribal lands, giving each instead an allotment of up to 160 acres

The Ndebele chieftain, Lobengula, grants Rhodes mining rights in what is now Zimbabwe