German Africa

State · 1871–1918 CE · at its largest around 1911 CE

Germany's late grab for colonies in Togo, Cameroon, Namibia and Tanzania brought plantations, railways and missions, enforced with forced labour and violence. Its slaughter of the Herero and Nama is recognised as genocide, and the Maji Maji revolt was crushed with famine.

On its lands while it lasted

Kingdom of Kongo (c. 1390–1914 CE): Central African kingdom with its capital at Mbanza Kongo; after Portuguese contact in 1483 its rulers adopted Christianity, and it later became deeply entangled in the Atlantic slave trade.
Kingdom of Dahomey (c. 1600–1904 CE): Fon kingdom centred on Abomey in present-day Benin, known for its female soldiers and its role in the Atlantic slave trade; conquered by France in 1894.
Sokoto Caliphate (1804–1903 CE): Islamic state founded after Usman dan Fodio's jihad against the Hausa kingdoms, one of the largest states in 19th-century Africa until British conquest in 1903.
Menelik II (1844 CE – 1913 CE): Emperor of Ethiopia from 1889 who expanded the empire, founded Addis Ababa and defeated Italy at Adwa in 1896.
Bujumbura (1871 CE): Capital of Republic of Burundi (1963–2019).
Stanley’s search for Livingstone (1871–1872 CE): Sent by the New York Herald, the journalist Henry Morton Stanley led a caravan from Bagamoyo to Ujiji on Lake Tanganyika, where in November 1871 he found David Livingstone, of whom little had been heard for years.
Stanley’s crossing of Africa down the Congo (1874–1877 CE): Stanley circumnavigated Lakes Victoria and Tanganyika, then followed the Lualaba from Nyangwe down the Congo to the Atlantic, showing they were one river. The 999-day expedition was marked by heavy losses and violent clashes along the way.
Battle of Isandlwana (1879 CE): Zulu army defeated a British force on 22 January 1879 at the start of the Anglo-Zulu War, one of the worst defeats of a colonial army by an African force.
Brazzaville (1880 CE): Capital of Free French (1940–1943).
Scramble for Africa (1881–1914 CE): Invasion, occupation and partition of almost all of Africa by European powers between the 1880s and 1914, formalised in part at the Berlin Conference of 1884–85.
Congo Free State (1885–1908 CE): Colony privately ruled by King Leopold II of Belgium, where forced labour for rubber collection caused mass deaths; international outcry led Belgium to annex it in 1908.
Haile Selassie (1892 CE – 1975 CE): Emperor of Ethiopia from 1930 to 1974 who appealed to the League of Nations against the Italian invasion; deposed by the Derg military junta in 1974.
Second Boer War (1899–1902 CE): War between the British Empire and the Boer republics of the Transvaal and Orange Free State; British concentration camps caused the deaths of many Boer and Black African civilians.
Herero and Nama genocide (1904–1908 CE): Campaign of extermination by German colonial forces in South West Africa (Namibia) that killed tens of thousands of Herero and Nama people; often called the first genocide of the 20th century.
Nelson Mandela (1918 CE – 2013 CE): Anti-apartheid leader imprisoned for 27 years who became South Africa's first Black president in 1994 and shared the 1993 Nobel Peace Prize.