| 1400–1600s | Salt trade dominates West African economy |
| ca. 1464–1591 | Songhai kingdom dominates the western Sudan |
| 1485 | Portuguese and other Europeans first appear in Benin |
| 1493–1528 | Muhammad Toure governs and expands kingdom of Songhai |
| 1498 | Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama sails around Africa |
| ca. 1500–1900 | Era of transatlantic slave trade |
| 1502–1507 | Portuguese erect forts at Kilwa, Zanzibar, and Sofala on Swahili coast |
| 1529 | Adal defeats Ethiopian emperor and begins systematic devastation of Ethiopia |
| 1543 | Joint Ethiopian and Portuguese force defeat Muslims in Ethiopia |
| 1571–1603 | Idris Alooma governs kingdom of Kanem-Bornu |
| 1591 | Moroccan army defeats Songhai |
| 1658 | Dutch East India Company allows importation of slaves into Cape Colony |
| 1680s | Famine from Senegambian coast to Upper Nile |
| 1738–1756 | Major famine in West Africa |
| 1789 | Olaudah Equiano publishes autobiography |