15th & 16th c. isolated ventures to Morocco
1569 A True Declaration of the Troublesome Voyage of Mr. John Hawkins recounts third voge as slave-trader
1585-1597 Barbary Company exported English cloth and timber to the barbary Coast, imported sugar and saltpetre
1618 Company of Adventurers of London trading to Gynney and Bynney chartered for trade in peppper, gold, ivory and redwood
1672 Royal African Company chartered and granted a monopoly of West African trade.
1715 Right of Asiento in the Treaty of Utrecht opened up the slave trade to the British
1750 Charter rescinded. Small British force maintained at Cape Coast Castle, west of Accra, with a governor and an administrative council.
1763 Peace of Paris gives French African colonies to British.
1772 Mansfield ruling frees c. 15,000 slaves in England
1773 Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral by Phyllis Wheatley (1753-84)
1783 Senegal returned to French, The Gambia reluctantly kept by British government, which had wanted to give it to the Company of Merchants.
1787 Foundation of the Society for the Abolition of the Slave Trade
Sierra Leone set up as home for slaves freed after Lord Mansfield’s historic judgement.
1788 Founding of the African Association
An Essay on the Slavery and Commerce of the Human Species by Thomas Clarkson.
1789 The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano or Gustavus Vassa, the African, Written by Himself
1791- St. Domingue (>Haiti) wins independence
1792-1814 Various missionary societies, and the British & Foreign Bible Society, founded
1799 Travels in the Interior of Africa, an account of his voyages by Mungo Park
1806 English settle in the Cape Colony
1807 Abolition of the slave trade in the British Empire
1808 Sierra Leone becomes a Crown Colony
1814 Cape of Good Hope ceded to Britain after defeat of Napoleon.
1821 The Gambia becomes a colony
1823 An Appeal to the Religion, Justice and Humanity of the Inhabitants of the British Empire on Behalf of the Negro Slaves in the West Indies, by William Wilberforce
1830 The African Association becomes the Royal Geographical Society
1833 Abolition of slavery in the British Empire
1834 Beginning of the Great Trek northwards by the Boers in South Africa
1839 The Exeter Hall Society founded, devoted to the civilization of Africa
1841 British Niger expedition
1842 Natal annexed
1845 Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, an autobiographical account by Frederick Douglass (1817-95)
1847 Founding of the Free Republic of Liberia. Governor of Cape Colony becomes high commissioner for South Africa.
1851 Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811-96), the most famous of the anti-slavery novels.
1853 Cape Colony gains representative government.
1854 By the Bloemfontein Convention, the Orange Free State becomes a Crown Colony.
1861 Representative Government, a political essay by J.S. Mill
1862 Source of the Nile located in Lake Victoria
1867 Diamonds discovered near Kimberley
1867-8 Abyssinian War
 A successful expedition of British and Indian troops led by Sir Robert Napier was sent to rescue diplomats and Europeans held by King Theodore of Abyssinia in his capital, Magdala.
1868  A Vindication of the African Race, an essay by J.Africanus Horton
1869 Suez Canal opened
1870  John Ruskin makes Inaugural speech as Slade professor of fine art at Oxford
1871 Stanley meets Livingstone
1872 Responsible government in the Cape Colony
Disraeli makes Crystal Palace Speech
1873-4 Asante campaign
Sir Garnet Wolseley mounted a successful expedition against Kumasi, the capital of the Asante, who were threatening British settlements. Further expeditions against the Asante took place in 1896 and 1900, the latter leading to the annexation of the territory.
1875 Lord Carnarvon launches plan for South African Confederation.
1877 Gladstone’s Midlothian campaign against exploitation of Empire.
Annexation of the Transvaal Boer Republic
1878-9 First Zulu War
When the Zulu chief Cetewayo ignored a British demand for the establishment of a British protectorate, Lord Chelmsford invaded Zululand. Part of his army was wiped out at Isandhlwana, but the defence of Rorke’s Drift saved natal from being overrun. Reinforcements secured the defeat of the Zulu at Ulundi.
1878 Boy’s Own Paper launched.
1880-1 First Boer War
After the defeat of the British at Majuba Hill, the Boers were granted their independence under British suzerainty, by the Convention of Pretoria.
1881 Revolt of the Mahdi in the Sudan.
The Aims and Methods of a Liberal Education for Africans, an essay by Edward Wilmot Blyden
1882 Nationalist uprising in Egypt, led by Colonel Arabi, was crushed at Tel-el-Kebir. British occupy Egypt and assume control of finances.
The Story of an African Farm, an autobiographical account by Olive Schreiner
1883 British force under Hicks Pasha defeated in the Sudan. Sir Evelyn Baring (Lord Cromer) appointed Consul-General in Egypt.
The Expansion of England, a historical account by Sir John Seeley
1884 Imperial Federation League founded
1885 Berlin Conference partitions Africa
Mahdi capture Khartoum and General Gordon is killed.
British Protectorate in Bechuanaland
King Solomon’s Mines, a novel by Rider Haggard
1886 The Royal Niger Company chartered.
Gold discovered in Witwatersrand
Oceana, or England and her colonies, an essay by J.A. Froude
1887 First Colonial Conference held in London
Christianity, Islam and the Negro Race, by Edward Wilmot Blyden, supports Islam for its accomodation of African culture
Allan Quatermain and She, two novels by Rider Haggard,
1888 Imperial British East Africa Company chartered
1889 Cecil Rhodes sets up Chartered British South Africa Company for the conquest of Mashonaland and the development of mining in the region
New colony of Rhodesia founded.
1891 Anglo-Portuguese colonial treaty recognizes British Protectorate in Nyasaland.
1893 Niger Coast Protectorate. Responsible government in Natal.
1894 L.S. Jameson appointed administrator of Southern Rhodesia. Protectorate established in Uganda.
1895 Joseph Chamberlain made Colonial Secretary in Salisbury’s government. British east Africa protectorate established. Jameson raid.
1895- Building of the Uganda Railway
1896 War in the Sudan. The second Asante war deposes monarchy & establishes protectorate.
Ndebele and Shona rebellions in Rhodesia
 Travels in West Africa, an account by Mary Kingsley
Trooper Peter, an allegorical tale by Olive Schreiner
1897 Alfred Milner becomes High Commissioner of the Cape Colony.
An English South African’s View of the Situation, an essay by Olive Schreiner
1898 Kitchener wins victory at Omdurman.
Fashoda Incident between English and French on the Upper Nile. Anglo-Egyptian condominium proclaimed over the Sudan after Kitchener's defeat of the Mahdi at Omdurman.
Niger Convention with the French.
1899 Royal Niger Company loses its powers to the Crown.
 "Heart of Darkness", a novella by Joseph Conrad,
1899-1902 Boer War
The first stages of the war went badly for the British, with Mafeking, Kimberley and Ladysmith beseiged. These were relieved and Pretoria captured. After 18 months of guerilla warfare, peace was signed at Vereeniging. British casualties were 5774 killed, 22,829 wounded. Boers : 4000 killed
1900  Nigeria becomes a Britishprotectorate
Fabianism and the Empire, manifesto by the Fabian Society, written by George Bernard Shaw,
1901  Britain annexes the Asanti kingdom as part of the Gold Coast
        Up from Slavery, an autobiography by Booker T. Washington (1856-1915)
1902  Imperialism : a Study by J.A. Hobson,
1903 Gold Coast Native Institutions, an essay by J.E. Casely Haylford,
1904 Entente Cordiale : the British and French recognize each other's spheres of influence in Africa.
1906  Zulu uprising in Natal
Responsible government in the Transvaal
White Capital and Coloured Labour, an essay by Sydney Olivier (revised and re-issued in 1929)
1907  Responsible government in orange Free State. The Selbourne memorandum.
Labour and the Empire, an essay by Ramsey MacDonald,
1908 African Life and Customs, by Edward Wilmot Blyden, argued that communalism was well-adapted to tropical conditions
1909  India. Impressions and Suggestions, an essay by Keir Hardie
1910 Union of South Africa : the Cape, Natal, the Orange Free State, the Transvaal.
1911 Ethiopia Unbound, an essay by J.E. Casely Haylford,  argued that the African should develop according to his own lights
1912 Formation of the South African Natives National Congres (>the ANC)
1913 Beatrice & Sidney Webb publish an article entitled"The Guardianship of the Non-adult Races ” in New Statesman and Nation after round world trip lasting a year
1914 Northern and Southern Nigeria amalgamated. British Protectorate in Egypt.
1914-18 First World War
Military operations centred on the 4 German colonies of German East Africa, Cameroon, Togoland and South-West Africa. The latter three put up little resistance, but in East Africa General Lettow-Vorbeck was undefeated when war ended , having pinned down 130,000 Allied troops in guerilla warfare.
1916 Lénine, "L’Impérialisme, stade suprême du capitalisme"
Native Life in South Africa, by Soloman Tshekisho Plaatje (1877-1932) attacked the 1913 Natives Land Act.
1917 Lytton Strachey’s Eminent Victorians contains an essay on General Gordon
1918 Rhodesian Native National Congress formed
1919 First pan-African Congress organized by Web DuBois : 57 delegates from 15 countries, mainly to petition Versailles Peace Conference that former German colonies in Africa be administered as condominium on behalf of Africans and that African be allowed to participate in their own government "as fast as their development permits".
Nationalist revolt in Egypt.
1920 Charter of the Covenant of the League of Nations.
East African protectorate becomes colony of Kenya.
Empire and Commerce in Africa, an essay by Leonard Woolf,
1921 Second Pan-African conference > radical London Manifesto
National Congress in British West Africa formed
1922 The Dual Mandate in British Tropical Africa, an essay by Lord Lugard, argues the benefits of indirect rule.
1923 Southern Rhodesia becomes a self-governing colony
Devonshire Declaration
Third Pan-African Congress, in London and Lisbon, ill-organized and ill-attended
1924  Protectorate of Northern Rhodesia established
1925 The New Negro, anthology of the Harlem Renaissance edited by Alain Locke
1926 Imperial conference issues the Balfour Report : dominions are autonomous and equal.
1927 Sydney Oliver publishes his novel The Empire Builder (written 1905)
Fourth Pan-African Congress held in New York
1928 Imperialism and Civilisation, an essay by Leonard Woolf
1929 Minority Labour government in power. Sydney Webb becomes Lord Passfield and Colonial Secretary
The Colonial Development and Welfare Act benefits British industry more than the colonies
The Strategic Importance of the Colonies, an essay by Joseph Stalin
1931 The Statute of Westminster
1932 Imperial Economic Conference at Ottawa : preferential trade within Commonwealth
        Black Mischief, a satiric novel by Evelyn Waugh (1902-66)
1934 In a Province, a novel by Laurens van der Post (1906- )
1935 Emperor Hailé Selassie’s speech to the League of Nations after the Italian invasion of Abyssinia
Government of India Act extends self-government in British India
White Man’s Country : Lord Delamere and the Making of Kenya, a historical account by Elspeth Huxley
1936   "The League and Abyssinia", an essay by Leonard Wool
Africa and World Peace and How Britain Rules Africa, two essays by George Padmore
Out of Africa, an autobiographical account by Karen Blixen
Absalom, Absalom!, a novel by William Faulkner
1938  Revised edition of J.A. Hobson, Imperialism : a Study
1939 Economic Survey, by  Arthur Lewis,
Conditions of Economic Growth, by Colin Clark, made quantatively evident the gulf between European countries and the rest of the world
Empire or Democracy, an essay by Leonard Barnes,
1939-45 Second World War
Fighting in sub-Saharan Africa on much smaller scale than in WW1 : Dakar expedition, Fezzan campaign, Gabon campaign.
1940 Colonial Development and Welfare Act
Native Son, a novel by Richard Wright
1941 Atlantic Charter §3 asserted "the right of all peoples to choose the form of government under which they will live"
Haile Selassie restored to power
1942 Fall of Singapore
Plan for Africa, by Rita Hinden, an early essay in development economics
1943 The West African Produce Control Board gives Britain monopoly of purchasing power
1945 Fifth Pan-African Congress held in Manchester
1946  New constitution for the Gold Coast : African majority in restricted legislature
1947 New constitution for Nigeria
India and Pakistan become independent
1948 Riots in Accra
Empire Windrush arrives in England with 492 Jamaicans
Nationality Act distinguishes between British and Commonwealth subjects, but allows both to work in the UK
 Cry, the Beloved Country, a novel by Alan Paton,
1949 Africa : Britain’s Third Empire, an essay by George Padmore
How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, an essay by Walter Rodney,
1950 New apartheid laws in South Africa.
The Grass is Singing, a novel by Doris Lessing (1919- )
1951 Self-rule for the Gold Coast under the Coussey Constitution. Nkrumah and the CPP elected.
1952 >1959 Mau Mau rising in Kenya
Invisible Man, a novel by Ralph Waldo Ellison (1914- )
1953 Federation of Northern and Southern Rhodesia and Nyasaland
Go Tell It On The Mountain, a novel by James Baldwin (1924-87)
1954 Elections in the Gold Coast divide the south and the cocoa-producing north
1956 Suez crisis.
1957 The Gold Coast becomes independent as Ghana.
1958 All-African Peoples’ Conference in Accra.
Things Fall Apart, by Chinua Achebe (1930- )
1960 Harold MacMillan’s "Wind of Change" speech
Sharpeville Massacre
Nigeria and British Somaliland become independent
1961 Tanganyika, Sierra Leone and British Cameroons become independent.
South Africa gains independence.
1963 Charter of Organization of African Unity agreed in Addis Adaba
Kenya and Zanzibar become independent
A Dance of the Forests, a play by Wole Soyinka (1934- )
1964 The Federation of Rhodesia & Nyasaland is dissolved : Northern Rhodesia becomes independent as Zambia, Nyasaland as Malawi.
Rhodesia makes a Unilateral Declaration of Independence
The Gambia becomes independent
1965 Basutoland (Lesotho) and Bechuanaland (Botswana) become independent
Dilemma of a Ghost, a play by Ghanaian playwright Ama Ata Aidoo (1942- )
1968 Mauritius and Swaziland become independent
1972 The Boer War Diary of Soloman Tshekisho Plaatje (1877-1932) is published for the first time.
1973 A Simple Lust, collected poems by Dennis Brutus (1924- )
André Brink's novel Looking on Darkness becomes the first Afrikaans novel to be banned in South Africa.
1977 Death of Steve Biko
1979 By the Lancaster Accords, Britain and the Patriotic Front reach a cease-fire agreement in Rhodesia.
1979-83 Variations on the Theme of an African Dictatorship, a trilogy of novels by Nuruddin Farah (1945- )
1980 Zimbabwe becomes independent and holds elections.
Waiting for the Barbarians, a novel by J.M. Coetzee (1940- )
1986 Wole Soyinka wins the Nobel prize for Literature.
1990 Nelson Mandela released from gaol.
South-West Africa becomes independent as Namibia.
1991 Nadine Gordimer (1923- ) wins the Nobel prize for Literature.
The Famished Road, by Ben Okri (1959- ) wins the Booker Prize.
1994 Multi-racial elections held in South Africa, which rejoins the Commonwealth.
1995 Cameroon joins Commonwealth, Nigeria is suspended.
 

Stanford and Columbia Universities provide some good links for Africa on the Internet.