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