.......DATE.............	...............................EVENT............................. ..............
1673	France assumed control over a trading post at the mouth of the Senegal River.
1787	Freetown was founded on the West African coast by the British to receive liberated slaves.
1807	The British government abolished the slave trade along the Guinea Coast.
1819	The British establish court of vice-admiralty and headquarters for anti-slave station at Freetown (Sierra Leone).
1820	First steamship operated on the Senegal River by a private French trading firm.
1823	First Anglo-Ashanti War began with the defeat of a small British force and the death of its commander Sir Charles McCarthy.
1826	The British defeated an Ashanti army but did not try to penetrate inland. The British victory ended the First Anglo-Ashanti War .
1829	First European, a Frenchman named Rene Caillie, visited Timbuctu and returned.
1830	French invade Algiers.
1830s	English trader George Maclean became influential along the Gold Coast.
1841	The French founded the colony of Gabon at the mouth of the Ogou‚ River valley.
1844	The British government recognized treaties of protection with Fanti leaders collected along the Gold Coast by British army officer George Maclean.
1848	End of Abdel Kadir's resistance to the French in Algeria.
1849	The British government sent John Beecroft as consul to the Oil Rivers. He was a trader and anti-slavery crusader.
1850	Britain bought the remaining Danish forts along the Gold Coast.
1854	Louis Faidherbe became governor of Senegal and launched the French advance inland along the Senegal River.
1860	The German firm of Woermann & Company first arrived in Cameroon.
1861	The British considered exchanging the Gambia (surrounded by Senegal) for French territory.
1863	The London Missionary Society sponsored a group of Rhineland Germans to establish a mission at Walvis Bay.
1863	Ashanti-Fanti dispute led to British casualties and public opinion that the Gold Coast was "a quagmire".
1865	A parliamentary commission recommended that Britain give up all of its West African possessions except for Freetown.
1865	French expansion in Senegal ended when Faidherbe left.
February 19, 1866	The British made Freetown the center of administration for their West African holdings.
1871	Prussia defeated France and annexed Alsace-Lorraine.
1872	Cape Colony became an autonomous colony in the British Empire.
1872	Britain bought the remaining Dutch forts along the Gold Coast, leaving Britain in sole possession of the coast.
1873	The Second Anglo-Ashanti War began when the Ashanti invaded the coastal region to protest the departure of the Dutch.
1873	The "Great Depression" began. It undermined the European economy until 1896.
July 1874	The new Disraeli government (in office since 1874/02) converted the Gold Coast into a "crown colony.".
1876	French army officer Savorgnan de Brazza began to explore the right bank of the Congo River.
1876	The Association Internationale Africaine (AIA) was founded with King Leopold of Belgium as president.
1877	The French and British made competing claims in the the "Southern Rivers" region from their respective bases in Conakry and Freetown.
1878	Britain occupied the harbor at Walvis Bay and provoked a diplomatic incident with Germany.
1879	Admiral Jaur‚guiberry, a supporter of colonial expansion and the former governor of Senegal (1860s), became the French Minister of Marine, which oversaw the colonial military troops along the Senegal River.
1879	The United Africa Company (UAC) was founded by George Taubman Goldie [Chamberlain, docs 12 & 15] to organize small trading firms along the Lower Niger River.
1879	British and Portuguese opened negotiations over the future of the Portuguese African colonies.
1879	Germany introduced high tariffs designed to protect its industries against British competition.
October 1880	France's Savorgnan de Brazza obtained his first treaty with the Makoko in the Congo River basin.
1881	Construction began at two locations along the Senegal River on a French railroad to the Niger River.
1881	The North Borneo Company became the first royal chartered company in modern British history.
1882	France raised its tariffs to protect its industries against British competition.
1882	Several important investors joined the UAC and changed its name to National African Company (NAC). Meanwhile two French companies began to trade on the Lower Niger River in competition with the NAC.
1882	The British and French reached a settlement for the "Southern Rivers" region between Sierra Leone and Guinea.
September 15, 1882	British troops occupied Cairo and ended dual control of Egyptian finaces by England and France.
November 1882	The French revived de Brazza's 1880/10 treaty to soothe domestic public opinion after the British ended dual control in Egypt.
Summer 1882	British troops occupied the Lower Nile Valley in Egypt.
1883	The French revived their protectorate over Porto-Novo (between Lagos and Gold Coast). They also established a fort on the Middle Niger River at Bamako.
1883	The Germans asked the British what their intention was for the area around Walvis Bay, and the British gave a non-committal reply.
April 1883	A German trader with interests in the Transvaal bought land to establish a post at Angra Pequena, near Walfisch Bay.
1884	The British consul at Fernando Po solicited treaties with African leaders in the Lower Niger Valley.
1884	Leopold of Belgium presented agreements collected by the Association Internationale Africaine (AIA) as treaties of protection with African leaders in the Congo basin.
1884	Goldie's NAC bought out its French competitors and gained a monopoly on trade along the Lower Niger River.
February 1884	Anglo-Portuguese Treaty recognized Portuguese claims over the region of the mouth of the Congo River and established an Anglo-Poruguese commission to control navigation on the river.
April 1884	Germany declared a protectorate over Walvis Bay.
July 1884	News reached England of Gustav Nachtigal's treaties granting Germany the right to provide "protection" in Togo and Cameroon.
November 15, 1884	The Berlin Conference opened.
1885	Charles Freycinet (Minister of Public Works in the late 1870s, became Prime Minister of France.
February 26, 1885	The Berlin Conference ended with a number of agreements, including one which required Europeans to occupy the land they claimed in Africa.
June 1885	The British declared their "protectorate" over southern Nigeria.
1886	The NAC became the Royal Niger Company [Chamberlain, doc#15a], the first of the British chartered companies in Africa.
1886	In response to the Great Depression of 1873, the British parliament conducted an extensive inquiry into the state of British industry.
1890	The French conquered Segou in the Middle Niger Valley.
1893-1894	The Third Anglo-Ashanti War took place.
1894	The French conquered Timbuctu in the Middle Niger Valley.
1895-1896	The Fourth Anglo-Ashanti War took place.
1897-1898	The British and French nearly went to war in the region around Busa (western Nigeria).
1898	The French captured Samori Toure to end resistance in the Upper Niger Valley. However, members of the French expedition to Lake Chad committed atrocities as they passed through the Middle Niger Valley.
June 14, 1898	France and Britain signed an agreement that defined the border between Nigeria and Dahomey.
September 1898	The British general Kitchener advanced up the Nile River with an Egyptian force and won the Battle of Omdurman against the Mahdist forces.
October 1898	French and British forces engaged in a stand-off at Fashoda, on the Upper Nile River south of Khartoum.
March 21, 1899	The French and British concluded a boundary agreement for territory in the Upper Nile Valley.
1900	The French captured the African resistance leader Rabah and ended resistance around Lake Chad.
September 26, 1901	The British annexed the Gold Coast.