North and West Africa: every state, empire and people from 3200 BCE to today
The North and West Africa section of the timeline follows 207 states, empires, colonies and peoples from 3200 BCE to today, in 7 areas: Maghreb, Egypt, Nubia and Sudan, Horn of Africa, Sahara and Sahel, Lake Chad basin and West Africa coast and forest. Among the most significant are Ghana Empire (Wagadu), Kingdom of Aksum, Ethiopian Empire (Solomonic dynasty), Carthage, Old Kingdom of Egypt and New Kingdom of Egypt.
Open North and West Africa on the interactive timeline
Maghreb
- Amazigh (Berber) tribes
- Libu and Meshwesh
- Carthage
- Cyrene and the Greek Pentapolis
- Mauretania
- Masaesyli kingdom
- Numidia
- Roman Africa
- Mauro-Roman Kingdom
- Vandal Kingdom
- Byzantine Africa (Exarchate)
- Umayyad and Abbasid Ifriqiya
- Barghawata
- Rustamids
- Idrisids
- Aghlabids
- Zirids
- Hammadids
- Almoravid dynasty
- Almohad Caliphate
- Hafsids
- Zayyanids
- Marinid Sultanate
- Wattasids
- Saadi Sultanate
- Regency of Algiers
- Ottoman Tripolitania
- Regency of Tunis
- Alaouite Sultanate of Morocco
- French Algeria
- Emirate of Abdelkader
- French protectorate of Tunisia
- Italian Libya
- French protectorate in Morocco
- Spanish protectorate in Morocco
- Republic of the Rif
- Kingdom of Libya
- Tunisia
- Morocco
- Algeria
- Libya under Gaddafi
- Libya
Egypt
- Naqada culture
- Early Dynastic Egypt
- Old Kingdom of Egypt
- First Intermediate Period
- Middle Kingdom of Egypt
- Second Intermediate Period
- Hyksos (Fifteenth Dynasty)
- New Kingdom of Egypt
- Third Intermediate Period
- Twenty-fifth Dynasty (Kushite)
- Late Period of Egypt
- Achaemenid Egypt
- Ptolemaic Kingdom
- Roman Egypt
- Coptic Christians
- Byzantine Egypt
- Arab caliphal Egypt
- Tulunids
- Fatimid Caliphate
- Ikhshidids
- Ayyubid Sultanate
- Mamluk Sultanate
- Ottoman Egypt
- French occupation of Egypt
- Muhammad Ali dynasty (Khedivate)
- British occupation of Egypt
- Sultanate of Egypt
- Kingdom of Egypt
- Egypt
Nubia and Sudan
- A-Group culture
- Middle Nile herders and farmers
- Kingdom of Kerma
- C-Group culture
- Medjay, Blemmyes and Beja nomads
- Egyptian Nubia (Viceroyalty of Kush)
- El-Kurru chiefdom
- Kingdom of Kush (Napatan period)
- Kingdom of Kush (Meroitic period)
- Noba and the Ballana culture
- Nobatia
- Makuria
- Alodia
- Arab tribes of Sudan
- Shilluk Kingdom
- Funj Sultanate of Sennar
- Sultanate of Darfur
- Turco-Egyptian Sudan
- Mahdist State
- Anglo-Egyptian Sudan
- Sudan
- South Sudan
Horn of Africa
- Cushitic-speaking pastoralists
- Ethiopian highland farmers
- Land of Punt
- D'mt
- Kingdom of Aksum
- Sultanate of Shewa
- Zagwe dynasty
- Ethiopian Empire (Solomonic dynasty)
- Ifat Sultanate
- Ajuran Sultanate
- Adal Sultanate
- Oromo Gadaa confederations
- Imamate of Aussa
- Emirate of Harar
- Geledi Sultanate
- Majeerteen Sultanate
- Kingdom of Jimma
- French Somaliland
- British Somaliland
- Italian Somaliland
- Italian Eritrea
- Dervish State
- Italian East Africa
- Somalia
- Derg (People's Democratic Republic of Ethiopia)
- Djibouti
- Ethiopia
- Somaliland
- Eritrea
Sahara and Sahel
- Saharan cattle pastoralists
- Tichitt culture
- Sahelian cereal farmers
- Garamantes
- Jenne-Jeno (Middle Niger towns)
- Saharan camel nomads (Sanhaja and Tuareg)
- Ghana Empire (Wagadu)
- Midrarids of Sijilmasa
- Kingdom of Gao
- Takrur
- Sosso Kingdom
- Mali Empire
- Sultanate of Agadez
- Mossi kingdoms
- Songhai Empire
- Pashalik of Timbuktu
- Dendi Kingdom
- Bambara Empire of Ségou
- Massina Empire
- Toucouleur Empire
- Wassoulou Empire
- Spanish Sahara
- French West Africa
- Mauritania
- Mali
- Niger
- Burkina Faso
- Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic
Lake Chad basin
- Lake Chad fishers and herders
- Gajiganna culture
- Chadic-speaking farmers
- Sao culture
- Kanem Empire
- Hausa city-states
- Bornu Empire
- Kwararafa (Jukun)
- Sultanate of Bagirmi
- Wadai Sultanate
- Sokoto Caliphate
- German Kamerun (north)
- Rabih az-Zubayr's state
- Northern Nigeria Protectorate
- French Chad
- Chad
West Africa coast and forest
- Tropical forest hunter-gatherers
- Kintampo culture
- West African yam and oil palm farmers
- Nok culture
- Igbo-Ukwu
- Kingdom of Nri
- Ife
- Kingdom of Benin
- Jolof Empire
- Oyo Empire
- Portuguese Cape Verde
- Portuguese Gold Coast (Elmina)
- Kaabu
- Kingdom of Cayor
- Kingdom of Dahomey
- Dutch Gold Coast
- Denkyira
- French Senegal
- Ashanti Empire
- Kong Empire
- Imamate of Futa Jallon
- Imamate of Futa Toro
- Sierra Leone Colony
- British Gold Coast
- Liberia
- Lagos Colony
- Portuguese Guinea
- German Togoland
- British Nigeria
- Ghana
- Guinea
- Senegal
- Nigeria
- Côte d'Ivoire
- Benin
- Togo
- Sierra Leone
- The Gambia
- Republic of Biafra
- Guinea-Bissau
- Cape Verde
Key events
- The Green Sahara dries out. As monsoon rains shift south, the grassland Sahara turns to desert over centuries, pushing herders toward the Nile valley, the Sahel and Lake Chad.
- Unification of Egypt. Narmer, king of Upper Egypt, brings the Nile valley and the Delta under one crown, shown on the Narmer Palette. Memphis becomes the capital.
- Great Pyramid of Giza. Khufu's pyramid at Giza is completed, 146 metres high and the tallest human-made structure on Earth for nearly 4,000 years.
- Hatshepsut's expedition to Punt. Queen Hatshepsut sends five ships down the Red Sea to Punt. Reliefs at Deir el-Bahari show myrrh trees, incense and the queen of Punt.
- Akhenaten founds Amarna. Pharaoh Akhenaten moves the capital to a new city at Amarna devoted to the sun disc Aten, a religious revolution reversed after his death.
- Founding of Carthage. Phoenician settlers from Tyre found Carthage on the Gulf of Tunis, according to tradition under Queen Dido. It becomes the leading city of the western Mediterranean.
- Piye conquers Egypt. The Kushite king Piye sails down the Nile, takes Memphis and receives the submission of Egypt's rival kings, beginning a century of Nubian pharaohs.
- Iron smelting in West Africa. Furnaces at Nok sites in Nigeria and at Taruga smelt iron by about 500 BCE, one of the earliest iron industries south of the Sahara.
- Founding of Alexandria. Alexander the Great founds Alexandria on the Mediterranean coast of Egypt. Under the Ptolemies it becomes the largest Greek city and home of the Great Library.
- Destruction of Carthage. Roman forces under Scipio Aemilianus storm and burn Carthage after a three-year siege, ending the Third Punic War. Its territory becomes the province of Africa.
- Death of Cleopatra. After defeat at Actium, Cleopatra VII and Mark Antony take their own lives. Octavian annexes Egypt, ending three centuries of Ptolemaic rule.
- Aksum adopts Christianity. King Ezana of Aksum converts under the influence of the Syrian bishop Frumentius, and his coins switch from pagan symbols to the cross.
- Arab conquest of Egypt. Amr ibn al-As takes Babylon fortress and then Alexandria, ending Byzantine rule. He founds Fustat, the nucleus of later Cairo.
- The Baqt treaty. After failing to take Dongola, an Arab army agrees a treaty with Makuria trading slaves for grain and cloth. It keeps the peace for some six centuries.
- Founding of Kairouan. Uqba ibn Nafi founds Kairouan in Tunisia as a garrison for the conquest of the Maghreb. Its Great Mosque becomes a centre of Islamic learning.
- Fatimids found Cairo. The Fatimid general Jawhar conquers Egypt and lays out al-Qahira, 'the victorious', next to Fustat. Al-Azhar mosque opens soon after.
- Banu Hilal migration. Arab Bedouin tribes sent west by the Fatimids sweep into Ifriqiya, sacking Kairouan in 1057 and speeding the spread of Arabic in the Maghreb.
- Battle of Kirina. Sundiata Keita defeats the Sosso king Sumanguru Kante, founding the Mali Empire, a story still told by griots in the Epic of Sundiata.
- Mansa Musa's pilgrimage. Mansa Musa of Mali crosses Cairo on the way to Mecca with thousands of followers and so much gold that its price falls in Egypt for years.
- Black Death reaches Egypt. Plague arrives in Alexandria and kills perhaps a third of Egypt's people, wrecking the Mamluk economy and irrigation system.
- Portuguese build Elmina. Portugal builds the fortress of São Jorge da Mina on the Gold Coast, opening direct European trade in gold and later enslaved people.
- Battle of Shimbra Kure. Imam Ahmad of Adal routs Emperor Lebna Dengel, beginning fourteen years of conquest across the Christian highlands of Ethiopia.
- Battle of Tondibi. A Moroccan army of musketeers sent across the Sahara by Ahmad al-Mansur routs the Songhai, ending the last great Sahelian empire.
- Peak of the Atlantic slave trade. In the 18th century over six million Africans are shipped from the West African coast to the Americas, much of the trade passing through Dahomey, Oyo and the Gold Coast forts.
- Napoleon invades Egypt. Napoleon defeats the Mamluks at the Battle of the Pyramids. The short French occupation breaks Mamluk power and brings Egypt to European attention.
- Usman dan Fodio's jihad. The Fula scholar Usman dan Fodio declares a holy war against the Hausa king of Gobir, founding the Sokoto Caliphate within a few years.
- Suez Canal opens. The canal linking the Mediterranean and Red Sea opens under Khedive Ismail, cutting the sea route from Europe to India by thousands of kilometres.
- Berlin Conference. European powers meet in Berlin to set rules for claiming African territory, accelerating the Scramble for Africa that left only Ethiopia and Liberia independent.
- Battle of Adwa. Emperor Menelik II's army defeats an Italian invasion force, securing Ethiopia's independence through the colonial era.
- Algerian War begins. The FLN launches coordinated attacks on 1 November. Eight years of war and terror end with Algerian independence in 1962.
- Suez Crisis. Nasser nationalises the Suez Canal, and Britain, France and Israel invade. American and Soviet pressure forces them out, a blow to European imperial power.
- Ghana wins independence. Kwame Nkrumah leads the Gold Coast to independence as Ghana, the first sub-Saharan colony to break free and a model for the rest of Africa.
- Year of Africa. Seventeen African countries win independence in a single year, including Nigeria, Mali, Senegal, Niger, Chad and Somalia.
- Arab Spring. Protests that began in Tunisia in December 2010 topple Ben Ali, then Mubarak in Egypt, and set off the war in Libya that ends Gaddafi's rule.