2005, Government expropriation of White-owned farms began.
2004, Hifikepunye
became President.
1999, Sam
Nujoma won a third term.
1994, South Africa ceded control of the enclave of Walvis Bay to Namibia.
30
November 1992, SWAPO won a landslide victory in elections
in Namibia.
16
February 1990, Sam
Nujoma, leader of
the South West Africa People�s Organisation (SWAPO), was elected first President of
independent Namibia.
1 January 1989. Namibia was granted independence from South Africa.
13December 1988, In
Brazzaville, South Africa signed an accord granting independence to Namibia.
November 1989, After a protracted war in Namibia between SWAPO
and South African forces, that cost the lives of over 2,500 South African
soldiers and was costing South Africa over US$ 1 billion annually, elections
were held under UN supervision. SWAPO won these elections, led by Sam Nujoma.
1972, The United Nations recognised SWAPO.
1968, The UN called on South Africa to withdraw from Namibia, following a
war of independence waged by the South West Africa People�s Organisation (SWAPO)
from 1966. In 1971 the International Court of Justice ruled that South African
occupation of Namibia was illegal.
1968, South West Africa was renamed
Namibia.
1966, Apartheid laws were imposed in Namibia.
1958, SWAPO
(South West Africa People�s Organisation) was founded to organise the guerrilla
war against the South African administration of the country.
13
December 1950. South Africa again
refused to place South West Africa under UN Trusteeship.
21
January 1947, South African President J C Smuts refused to
place South West Africa under UN Trusteeship.
1946, The United Nations refused to recognise South Africa�s right to
incorporate South West Africa in its territory.
World War Two � for main events see
France-Germany
World War One � for main events see France-Germany
2 April 1937, South
Africa banned political activity by foreigners in South West Africa. The Nazis
protested at this move.
17 December 1920, The League
of Nations ratified South African rule over Namibia (South West
Africa), a territory taken by South Africa from German rule in 1915.
30 May 1919, At the
Paris Peace Conference, Britain agreed to the transfer of part of German South
West Africa to Belgium.
12 May 1915, South
Africa occupied Windhoek, capital of German South West Africa.
19 September1914, South
African forces took Luderitz from the Germans, in Namibia.
July 1908, Diamonds were discovered near Ludritz, Namibia,
increasing European interest in the area.
21
September1907, Morenga was
killed in a brief battle with British forces. He had escaped back into Namibia
in 8/1907, causing alarm on both sides of the frontier, but then returned to
British-controlled territory. A British task force was sent to arrest him and
he died in an exchange of fire in the Kalahari Desert.
March 1907, The ongoing Hottentot �rebellion was now largely overcome by German
forces, whose numbers could now be reduced from a peak of 19,000 to just 5,000.
The Hottentots
had intermarried with some Dutch colonisers, and acquired knowledge of European
tactics. From their stronghold in the Karas Mountains, they raided European
stores of cattle and small arms, but gradually they were worn down by German
forces.
12
October 1906, Hottentot rebellion in Namibia
crushed by the Germans.
16
May 1906, Morenga was
interned by the British. He had been pursued by Germans across the frontier
into British-colonised territory and wounded, but he escaped from the Germans.
The British classerd him as a political refugee and refused German calls for
his extradition.
3
November 1905, Hendrik Witboi, Chief of the Hottentots,
who had actually helped Germany suppress the Bondelzwart rebellion (10/1903)
but who subsequently fell out with the German administrators, died aged 75. His
son and successor, Samuel Isaac, now surrendered to the Germans. However a
rebel Hottentot
faction then emerged under Morenga, who continued
guerrilla warfare against the colonisers.
28 November 1904, Rebels in South West Africa were defeated by the Germans,
see 3 October 1904.
12 November 1904, In Namibia, Von Trotha took command of German forces.
2 October 1904, Von Trotha, exasperated by his lack of success
at containing the Herero guerrilla
warfare, issued a general order to shoot all Herero,
armed or not, men women and children. He later modified this and ordered his
soldiers to fire �over the heads of� women and children. Many Herero fled across the border to British-colonised
territory.
11
August 1904, The Herero
of Namibia were defeated by the Germans at Hamakari. Survivors were driven into
the Kalahari Desert where waterholes had been poisoned. The Herero were reduced from a population of 80,000 to around
15,000. Survivors were interned in slave labour camps. However many escaped to
the countryside, from where they maintained guerrilla warfare against the
colonisers. The Germans, hampered by lack of water and transport, could not
quell them.
12
January 1904, Uprising by the Herero �in the
Namibian town of Okahandja against German rule, taking advantage of the Bondelzwart
rebellion against German rule. White farmers were attacked in Damaraland. Kaiser Wilhelm
II sent 14,000 troops under Lieutenant-General�
Lothar vn Trotha (who had previously suppressed the Boxer
Rebellion in China)
to quell the revolt.
October 1903, Rebellion by the Bondelzwarts, in the area north
of the Orange River.
3 September1904, Hottentot Chiefs in Namibia refused to disarm
their men.
1893, Britain ceded the Caprivi Strip to Namibia, to give the German colony
access to the Zambesi River corridor.
24
April 1884. Bismarck cabled Cape Town to state that South West Africa was a German colony.
1883, FAE
Luderitz (1834-86), a merchant from Bremen, established a trading
station at Angra Pequena (Luderitz), with the approval of Prince Bismarck.
1878, Britain claimed Walvis (whale-fish) Bay
as a colony.
1867, Britain
began to exploit the guano deposits (fertiliser) from the islands off Namibia.
1486, Portuguese
navigator Diogo Cao landed on the coast of Namibia. However European
colonisation of the area did not begin until the 1840s, with Germany claiming
the region in 1884.