page_title: History of Africa
section_title: European colonial territories
hierarchical_section_title: History of Africa / 19th century / European colonial territories
caption_attribution_description: English: Propaganda posttcard made by Italian Army dedicated to Giovanni Pastorelli (1859-1911), fallen in Libya during Italo-Turkish War. Italiano: Cartolina di propaganda del Regio Esercito del 1914 dedicata al colonello Giovanni Pastorelli (1859-1911), caduto durante la Guerra Italo-Turca a Ain Zara.
context_page_description: The history of Africa begins with the emergence of hominids, archaic humans and—at least 200,000 years ago—anatomically modern humans, in East Africa, and continues unbroken into the present as a patchwork of diverse and politically developing nation states.The earliest known recorded history arose in Ancient Egypt, and later in Nubia, the Sahel, the Maghreb and the Horn of Africa.
  Following the desertification of the Sahara, North African history became entwined with the Middle East and Southern Europe while the Bantu expansion swept from modern day Cameroon across much of the sub-Saharan continent in waves between around 1000 BC and 1 AD, creating a linguistic commonality across much of the central and Southern continent.
  During the Middle Ages, Islam spread west from Arabia to Egypt, crossing the Maghreb and the Sahel.
context_section_description: Belgium
  Congo Free State and Belgian Congo (today's Democratic Republic of the Congo)
  Ruanda-Urundi (comprising modern Rwanda and Burundi, between 1916 and 1960)
  France
  French West Africa:
  Mauritania
  Senegal
  French Sudan (now Mali)
  French Guinea (now Guinea)
  Ivory Coast
  Niger
  French Upper Volta (now Burkina Faso)
  French Dahomey (now Benin)
  French Algeria (now Algeria)
  Tunisia
  French Morocco
  French Somaliland (now Djibouti)
  Madagascar
  Comoros
  French Equatorial Africa:
  Gabon
  Middle Congo (now the Republic of the Congo)
  Oubangi-Chari (now the Central African Republic)
  Chad
  Germany
  German Kamerun (now Cameroon and part of Nigeria)
  German East Africa (now Rwanda, Burundi and most of Tanzania)
  German South West Africa (now Namibia)
  German Togoland (now Togo and eastern part of Ghana)
  Italy
  Italian North Africa (now Libya)
  Eritrea
  Italian Somaliland (now part of Somalia)
  Portugal
  Portuguese West Africa (now Angola)
  Mainland Angola
  Portuguese Congo (now Cabinda Province of Angola)
  Portuguese East Africa (now Mozambique)
  Portuguese Guinea (now Guinea-Bissau)
  Cape Verde Islands
  São Tomé e Príncipe
  São Tomé Island
  Príncipe Island
  Fort of São João Baptista de Ajudá (now Ouidah, in Benin)
  Spain
  Spanish Sahara (now Western Sahara)
  Río de Oro
  Saguia el-Hamra
  Spanish Morocco
  Tarfaya Strip
  Ifni
  Spanish Guinea (now Equatorial Guinea)
  Fernando Po
  Río Muni
  Annobon
  United Kingdom
  Egypt
  Anglo-Egyptian Sudan (now Sudan)
  British Somaliland (now part of Somalia)
  British East Africa:
  Kenya
  Uganda Protectorate (now Uganda)
  Tanganyika (1919–1961, now part of Tanzania)
  Zanzibar (now part of Tanzania)
  Bechuanaland (now Botswana)
  Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe)
  Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia)
  British South Africa (now South Africa)
  Transvaal (now part of South Africa)
  Cape Colony (now part of South Africa)
  Colony of Natal (now part of South Africa)
  Orange Free State (now part of South Africa)
  The Gambia
  Sierra Leone
  Nigeria
  Cameroons (now parts of Cameroon and Nigeria)
  British Gold Coast (now Ghana)
  Nyasaland (now Malawi)
  Basutoland (now Lesotho)
  Swaziland
  Independent states
  Liberia, founded by the American Colonization Society of the United States in 1821; declared independence in 1847
  Ethiopian Empire (Abyssinia) had its borders re-drawn with Italian Eritrea and French Somaliland (modern Djibouti), briefly occupied by Italy from 1936 to 1941 during the Abyssinia Crisis;
  Sudan, independent under Mahdi rule between 1885 and 1899. It was then under British rule from 1899 to 1956.
caption: Italian invasion of Libya in 1911: propaganda postcard made by Italian Army
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