| 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 |