The history of external colonisation of Africa can be dated from ancient, medieval, or modern history, depending on how the term colonisation is defined. In popular parlance, discussions of colonialism in Africa usually focus on the European conquests of the New Imperialism and the Scramble for Africa (1884-1914) era, followed by gradual decolonisation. The principal powers involved in the modern colonisation of Africa are Britain, France, Germany, Portugal, and Italy. In nearly all African countries today, the language used in government and media is the one imposed by a recent colonial power.
Women's rights
Until the nineteenth century, the role of women was largely confined to home, monastic seclusion, or worldly feasts, despite the eruption of figures in the French courts, in their learned halls such as Madame Pompadour, for example, or later, Emmanuelle Sand, or Marquesa de Alorna, in Portugal.
Access to higher education was another battle of women in the twentieth century, as was access to public and mainly management positions.
Throughout the twentieth century and the beginning of the twenty-first, various measures were taken with regard to the protection of women's rights. One was the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, adopted by the United Nations in 1979, as inequalities continued after the institutionalization of human rights.