Africa: Did you mean...?

Timbuktu (Timbuctoo) is a city in Mali, West Africa which was an important trade centre of the Mali Empire which flourished between the 13th and 15th centuries CE. The city, founded c. 1100 CE, gained wealth from access to and control of...

The Songhai Empire (aka Songhay, c. 1460 - c. 1591) covered what is today southern Mauritania and Mali. It replaced the Mali Empire (1240-1645) as the most important state in West Africa. Originating as a smaller kingdom along the eastern...

Portuguese Angola in southwest Africa was the first European colony on that continent. While settlement from 1571 proved problematic in the interior, the Portuguese did obtain a large number of slaves which they shipped to their Atlantic...

The Berlin Conference of 1884-1885, also known as the Congo Conference, was convened by European powers to regulate colonization and trade in Africa during the New Imperialism period. Led by German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck at the request...

This map illustrates the North Africa Campaign of World War II, spanning from 1940 to 1943 - a series of operations and battles for control of the strategic region between the Allied forces (primarily the British Commonwealth) and the Axis...

A photograph showing Allied troops landing in Algeria, North Africa as part of Operation Torch, the Allied North Africa Landings of November 1942. (Imperial War Museums)

Agriculture arose independently at several locations across the world, beginning about 12,000 years ago. The first crops and livestock were domesticated in six rather diffuse areas including the Near East, China, Southeast Asia, and Africa...

An early title page from The History and Description of Africa by Leo Africanus (1485-1554), first published in 1526.

The Berbers have occupied North Africa, specifically the Maghreb, since the beginning of recorded history and until the Islamic conquests of the 8th century CE constituted the dominant ethnic group in the Saharan region. Modern Berber speakers...

Juba II (c. 48 BCE - 23 CE) was a Numidian prince and the king of Mauretania from c. 25 BCE until his death in 23 CE. He was raised in the household of Julius Caesar (c. 100-44 BCE) and married Cleopatra Selene II (40 - c. 17/5 BCE), the...