- 1602
- 20 March, The Dutch East India Company (VOC) comes into being.
- 1652
- Jan van Riebeeck, a representative of the Dutch East India Company (VOC), establishes a station at the Cape of Good Hope, at the southern tip of Africa.
- 1656
- The first conflict between the Dutch and local Khoi erupt at the Cape.
- 1657
- The first 12 free burghers settle along the Liesbeeck River in the Cape to cultivate land to provide ships stopping at the station with fresh food.
- 1659
- The Khoi at the cape attempt to regain their territory from the Dutch settlers at the Cape but are unsuccessful and lose many men in the conflict.
- 1662
- Jan van Riebeeck leaves the Cape to become commander at the new post at Malacca. There are 40 free burghers with about 15 women and 20 children settled at the Cape to cultivate land to provide ships stopping at the station with fresh food.
- 1672
- The Dutch East India Company (VOC) takes over the Hottentots Holland, False Bay and Saldanha Bay areas.
- 1673
- The Khoi at the cape attempt to regain their territory from the Dutch settlers at the Cape but are unsuccessful and lose many men in the conflict.
- 1713
- 8 April, A smallpox epidemic breaks out among the slaves at the Cape Colony.
- 1755
- A smallpox epidemic breaks out in the Cape Colony and wreaks devastation among the Khoikhoi.
- 1767
- A smallpox epidemic breaks out in the Cape Colony and wreaks devastation among the Khoikhoi and nearly eradicates them. Those who survive become westernised, Christianised and learnt to speak Dutch, which later became Afrikaans, and dress in European clothes.
- 1795
- September, The British win The Cape of Good Hope from the Dutch.
- 1795 - 1854
- British annexation of the Cape continueds intermittently during this period.
- 1787
- The Philadelphia Convention takes place in America and the different American states? representatives draw up a federal constitution.
- 1789
- Serious conflict develops between Spain and Britain over the American fur trade.
- 1794
- The American representative John Jay is sent to Britain and concludes the Jay Treaty.
- 1803
- The American state of Ohio is established. American Prseident, Thomas Jefferson, dispatches Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, with a Corps of Discovery, to find a water route to the Pacific and to explore the uncharted west of America.
- 1809
- The expansion of the Cape Colony?s borders to the Orange River comes up for the first time. An American Indian chief, Tecumseh, from Canada forms an alliance of tribes to try to halt American expansion.
- 1811
- The American Congress meets and President James Madison decides to declare war on Britain for Canadian territory.
- 1812
- The Anglo American War breaks out.
- 1814
- The British war against France is won. British war veterans are sent to the Canadian/American border to protect British land. Peace negotiations commence between Britain and America at Ghent and in the resulting Treaty neither side gains any territory. Large numbers of European settlers arrive in America after the Napoleonic War.
- 1816
- Indiana becomes part of the United States of America.
- 1817
- Mississippi becomes part of the United States of America.
- 1818
- Illinois becomes part of the United States of America.
- 1819
- Alabama becomes part of the United States of America.
- 1818 - 1819
- The British are involved in a second conflict wit Xhosa forces for the territory east of the Great Fish River.
- 1820
- British settlers arrive at the Cape of Good Hope and the extension of the Colony?s borders to the Orange River becomes more necessary.
- 1822
- The Cape Colony's borders are redefined to accommodate the influx of European settlers and now extends to the Orange River in the north and towards the east it stretched to the Stormberg Spruit.
- 1825
- Plagues of locusts and drought result in farmers in the Orange River area being allowed to extend their grazing over the river as an emergency measure.
- 1826
- Rainfall allows most of the farmers who had grazed their cattle across the Orange River in 1825, as an emergency measure against drought, to return their cattle.
- 1828
- Another drought in the territory of the Cape Colony next to the Orange River breaks out and contributes to the permanent settlement north of the Orange River.
- 1829
- The 1828 drought in the territory of the Cape Colony to the Orange River continues and contributes to the permanent settlement north of the Orange River. Andrew Jackson becomes president of the United States of America.
- 1830/31
- Thaba Bosiu, the Basotho stronghold under Moshoeshoe, is attacked by the Ndebele, who are defeated.
- 28 May, American President Andrew Jackson's suggestion of relocating all Indians to the west, over the Mississippi River, becomes law.
- 1832
- American Indian chief Black Hawk is captured after years of waging war on white settlers.
- 1834
- Griqua, Kora and Rolong forces, in the company of Wesleyan missionaries arrive at Moshoeshoe?s, king of the Basotho, borders.
- 1838
- American Indian chief Black Hawk dies in detention.
- 1867
- Most of Moshoeshoe's land is overrun by Boers from the Orange Free State and he appeals to the British for protection.
- 1868
- The Boers from the Orange Free State continue to overrun Moshoeshoe, king of the Basotho's, land.
- March, Basutoland, which later becomes Lesotho, under king Moshoeshoe, becomes a British protectorate.
- 1966
- Lesotho gains its independence from the British.