Timeline of Cameroon

Chronology

20 events spanning the history of Cameroon. BCE/CE dating.

1. 500 BCE

   Hanno sees Mount Cameroon

   The explorer Hanno from Carthage in North Africa (Tunisia) is the first foreigner who reports seeing Mount Cameroon

2. 150 BCE

   Bantu Tribes Arrive

   The first Bantu-tribes arrive

3. 1472

   Fernando Po

   A Portuguese expedition lead by Fernando Po are the first Europeans to reach the coast of Cameroon. They reach Douala and then sails up the Wouri River. They name the river Rio dos Camarões, the Prawn River, thus naming the country.

4. 1520

   Slave Trade

   Portuguese set up sugar plantations and begin slave trade

5. 1600

   Dutch take over slave trade

   The Dutch take over slave trade from the Portuguese.

6. 1700

   British Missionaries Protest Slave Trade

   British missionaries protest against the slave trade

7. 1884

   German Protectorate

   Gustav Nachtigal signs a treaty with the Chiefs of Doula on behalf of the German Kaiser Wilhelm. In return for trade advantages the chiefs accept a German protectorate

8. 1885

   German Protectorate

   Baron von Soden becomes governor of of Kamerun and spends the next ten years fighting tribal rebellions.

9. 1885

   Treaty of Berlin

   Representatives from fourteen states-roughly all the states of Europe except Switzerland attend the Berlin conference. As a result of the Treaty of Berlin of 1885, the European colonial powers agree to new borders for the entire African continent claiming the land for themselves.

10. 1898

    European Acquisitions

    A map of the African continent resembled a patchwork quilt of European acquisitions, and south of the Sahara the only independent states were Liberia and Abyssinia, and the two small Dutch Boer republics