The Ten Years' War ends in Cuba, with Spain promising extensive reforms including the abolition of slavery

Three British armies invade Afghanistan, beginning the second Anglo-Afghan War

The British find a pretext to march into the territory ruled by Cetshwayo, thus launching the Zulu War

Zulu tribesmen surprise and annihilate a British army encamped near Isandhlwana

Immediately after Isandhlwana a tiny British garrison at Rorke's Drift fights off an overwhelming Zulu attack

The British destruction of Cetshwayo's kraal at Ulundi ends the Zulu War

The Boers inflict a convincing defeat on a British army at Majuba, in the Transvaal

The British withdraw from Afghanistan, having achieved nothing in the Second Anglo-Afghan War

Mohammed Ahmed, proclaiming himself the Mahdi, defeats three Egyptian armies in the Sudan

The War of the Pacific brings Chile new mineral wealth at the expense of Bolivia and Peru

German warships arrive in Zanzibar harbour to persuade the sultan to cede territory to the Kaiser, William I

Civil war breaks out in Chile between supporters of a liberal president and a hostile congress

Leander Jameson, finding a pretext for war, drives Lobengula out of his kingdom in Rhodesia

Japan and China go to war over Korea, with disastrous results for China

Japan's navy destroys the remains of China's fleet at Weihaiwei

General Alfred von Schlieffen devises plans for a potential two-pronged attack against France and Russia in a swift war

The Ethiopian emperor, Menelik II, inflicts a shattering defeat on Italian forces at Aduwa

The US battleship Maine is blown up in Havana harbour, sparking off the Spanish-American War

Russian forces seize the strategically important Chinese harbour known in the west as Port Arthur

Theodore Roosevelt fights against the Spanish in Cuba with a volunteer regiment of cavalry, the Rough Riders

Winston Churchill gallops into battle with the Twenty-First Lancers at Omdurman

In the Treaty of Paris, ending the Spanish-American War, Spain cedes Puerto Rico and Cuba to the USA

The agreement ending the Spanish-American War includes Spain selling the Philippines to the USA for a payment of $20 million

The War of a Thousand Days begins in Colombia, causing eventually 100,000 deaths

The Boer War breaks out, ostensibly over the rights of British settlers in the Transvaal