North Africa: Did you mean...?

A photograph of a group of Supermarine Spitfires of the Royal Canadian Air Force at Goubrine in the North Africa Campaign during the Second World War (1939-45). (Imperial War Museums)

Around 1065, the geopolitical landscape of North Africa and the western Mediterranean was marked by fragmentation, migration, and the rise of new regional powers. Older political structures were weakening, while emergent dynasties and mobile...

A March 1942 photograph of a 'Quad' artillery tractor pulling a 25-pdr artillery gun, British Eighth Army, during the Western Desert Campaigns of the Second World War (1939-45). (Imperial War Museums)

A February 1942 photograph of a column of US-made Grant tanks of the British 5th Royal Tank Regiment during the Western Desert Campaigns of the Second World War (1939-45). (Imperial War Museums)

The discovery of gold at Witwatersrand in Transvaal in 1886, coupled with that of diamonds at Kimberley in 1867, transformed the entire region of Southern Africa. The 'Rand' proved to be the largest gold deposit in the world, and it led to...

A cover from a 1905 edition of Puck magazine showing a caricature of Kaiser Wilhelm II (1859-1941). The cartoon is suggesting the German monarch's interest in Morocco in North Africa, epitomised in the Moroccan Crises of 1905-6 and 1911...

A July 1940 photograph of British soldiers with an armoured car in North Africa during the Western Desert Campaigns of the Second World War (1939-45). (Imperial War Museums)

A Junkers Ju 88 bomber photographed in North Africa during the Second World War (1939-45). (German Federal Archives)

A 1941 photograph of maintenance being carried out on a Hawker Hurricane fighter in Libya during the North African campaign in the Second World War (1939-45). (Imperial War Museums)

The Portuguese first took an interest in East Africa from the beginning of the 16th century as their empire spread eastwards across the Indian Ocean. Trade in the region was already well-established and carried out by Africans, Indians, and...