November 15, 1884 – February 26, 1885
European powers met in Berlin to set rules for colonial claims in Africa, accelerating the "Scramble for Africa" without any African representation.
The treaty places Tonkin and Annam under French protectorate.
Karl Marx dies in London, where he had lived in exile and written Das Kapital.
King Leopold II of Belgium ruled the Congo as a personal possession; its forced-labour rubber regime caused mass deaths until Belgium annexed the territory in 1908.
Britain takes Mandalay and deposes King Thibaw, ending the Konbaung dynasty and annexing all of Burma to British India.
After a failed attack on the French at Huế, Emperor Hàm Nghi flees the capital and issues an edict calling for resistance to French rule.
Louis Pasteur administers his rabies vaccine to Joseph Meister, a boy bitten by a rabid dog, who survives.