From 1904 to 1907, the Herero and the Namaqua took up arms against the Germans and in the subsequent Herero and Namaqua genocide, 10,000 Nama (half the population) and approximately 65,000 Hereros (about 80% of the population) were killed by their German occupiers.
Prva Evropejca, ki sta se izkrcala na obalah in raziskovala Namibijo, sta bila portugalska pomorščaka Diogo Cão (1485) in Bartolomeu Dias (1486), vendar si Kraljevina Portugalska ni lastila te regije.