Italy, one of the local colonial powers, accepts Ethiopia's claim to the Ogaden region of the Somali territory

The Spanish governor in Cuba is recalled to Spain, for pioneering the concept of the concentration camp

Zululand, annexed by Britain in 1887, is now merged with the colony of Natal

The UK colonial secretary, Joseph Chamberlain, appoints enthusiastic imperialist Alfred Milner as high commissioner in South Africa

Germany claims Ruanda and Urundi as a joint colony adjacent to German East Africa

The French exile the queen of Madagascar and claim the island as a French colony

The British burn Benin City in a punitive expedition after members of a British delegation are murdered

The Hawaiian islands are made a US territory, five years after American involvement in the overthrow of the ruling dynasty

French and British forces meet at Fashoda, in a potentially explosive incident in the scramble for Africa

Kitchener's victory at Omdurman brings to an end thirteen years of rule in Sudan by followers of the Mahdi

The Sudan begins half a century of supposedly joint rule by Britain and Egypt

Mohammed ibn Abdullah (the Mad Mullah in British eyes) leads an uprising in British Somaliland

Paul Kruger flees after the British take Pretoria and annexe both the Boer republics

Puerto Ricans are granted limited democracy in a bill of rigfhts introduced after two years of US military occupation

Hostility to foreign intrusion erupts in China with the Boxer Rising

The British government assumes direct responsibility for the entire region of Nigeria, previously entrusted to a commercial company

Thousands of women and children die in the concentration camps used by the British army for displaced Boer families

Cuba becomes independent after three years of US military rule, with certain restrictions imposed by the Platt Amendment of 1901

A treaty at Vereeniging ends the Boer War and brings the Boer republics under British control

After the defeat of neighbouring Transvaal in the Boer War, the British take sole control of Swaziland

Cuba is forced to accept a permanent US military presence in Guantanamo Bay

Edward VII, the first British monarch to travel to India, holds a great coronation durbar in Delhi

Roger Casement, British consul in the Congo Free State, discovers appalling abuses by Belgian companies

A US warship appears off the coast of Panama in support of rebels declaring an independent republic

The Colombian government rejects the Hay-Herrán treaty with the US on the Panama canal, thus prompting the break-away of Panama