1848: Decree-law Victor Schœlcher which abolish slavery (permanently) in the French colonial empire. 1856–1860: Second Opium War. 1857: Uprising in India against British occupation, which leads to the creation of the British Raj. 1861–1867: French intervention in Mexico ordered by Napoleon III. 1870: Franco-Prussian War. 1870–1880s: Conquest of the Desert in Argentina, led by Julio Argentino Roca. 1877–1878: War between Russia and the Ottoman Empire and March 3, 1878 Treaty of San Stefano. 1878: Treaty of Berlin recognising the independence of Romania, Serbia and Montenegro and the autonomy of Bulgaria. 1878–1881: Second Anglo-Afghan War. 1879: Anglo-Zulu War. 1880–81: First Boer War 1881: Indigenous Code in Algeria. 1883: Publication of The Story of an African Farm by Olive Schreiner . 1884–85: Berlin Conference (UK, France, Germany) which sets the right of conquest for the scramble for Africa. 1885: Foundation of the Indian National Congress. 1885: Treaty of Simulambuco (between Portugal and the N'Goyo Kingdom). 1887: France creates the Indochinese Union. 1888: Lei Áurea ("Golden Law") on May 13 in Brazil which abolish slavery. 1889: Foundation of the Republic of Brazil. 1889: British South Africa Company of Cecil Rhodes chartered by the British government to seek treaties and administer territory between the Limpopo River and African Great Lakes. 1890: Cecil Rhodes sends the Pioneer Column into Mashonaland, starting the process of annexing the territory which became Southern Rhodesia. 1891: The Stairs Expedition to Katanga kills its king, Msiri and obtains treaties from his successors for the territory to become the possession of Leopold II of Belgium. 1895: Treaty of Shimonoseki between Japan and China and Triple Intervention. 1895: Creation of French West Africa (AOF). 1895–1896: First Italo-Ethiopian War . 1896: Anglo-Zanzibar War (on August 27). 1897: Punitive Expedition led by British Admiral Harry Rawson against Benin, which brings to an end the highly sophisticated West African Kingdom of Benin. 1898: Fashoda Incident. 1898: Spanish–American War. United States defeated Spain and seizes Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines. 1899: Publication of Rudyard Kipling's The White Man's Burden, as well as Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness. 1899--1901: The Boxer Rebellion begins in Qing dynasty China, but is defeated by the Eight Nation Alliance. 1899–1902: Second Boer War. 1899–1913: Philippine–American War. 1902: Anglo-Japanese Alliance: end of Britain's Splendid isolation. 1904–05: Russo-Japanese War won by Japan. 1904–07: Herero Genocide . 1905: Partition of Bengal. 1905: First Moroccan Crisis after the March 31, 1905 visit of Kaiser