Created in 1960 from a former British protectorate and an Italian colony, Somalia collapsed into anarchy following the overthrow of the military regime of President Siad Barre in 1991.
As rival warlords tore the country apart into clan-based fiefdoms, an internationally-backed unity government formed in 2000 struggled to establish control, with separatist movements in the two relatively peaceful northern regions of Somaliland and Puntland.
However, unlike Somaliland, Puntland is not trying to obtain international recognition as a separate nation, but is part of the federal Somali state.
The seizure of the capital Mogadishu and much of the country's south by a coalition of Islamist shariah courts in 2006 prompted an intervention by Ethiopian, and later, African Union, forces.
Since 2012, when a new internationally-backed government was installed, Somalia has been inching towards stability, but the new authorities still face a challenge from al-Qaeda-aligned Al-Shabab insurgents.
7th-19th Centuries - From the 7th-Century arrival of Islam onwards, modern-day Somalia is ruled by a series of at times competing sultanates.
19th Century - European colonial powers gradually make inroads into Somalia's rival regional states, with the bulk of the area coming under Italian rule and the British establishing control of the northwest.
1960 - Italian Somaliland and British Somaliland become independent, merge and form the United Republic of Somalia.
1969 - Mohamed Siad Barre assumes power in coup after the assassination of the elected president; he goes on to declare Somalia a socialist state and nationalises most of the economy.
1991 - The ousting of Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991 sparks a decades-long civil war between rival clan warlords and the disintegration of central authority. Former British Somaliland declares unilateral independence.
1990s- US-spearheaded UN peacekeeping mission fails to restore peace.
2006 - Militias loyal to the Islamist Union of Islamic Courts capture Mogadishu and other parts of south after defeating clan warlords, before being driven out by Ethiopian forces.
2007-11 - An African Union peacekeeping force, Amisom, begins to deploy and Ethiopian troops withdraw in 2009. Al-Shabab - a jihadist breakaway from the Islamic Courts - advance into southern and central Somalia, prompting an armed intervention by Kenya.
2012 - Efforts to restore a central authority since 2000 finally make substantial progress, with the swearing in of the first formal parliament in more than 20 years, and the holding of the first presidential election since 1967.
2022 - Somali government forces, aided by US air strikes and African Union troops carry out major offensives against al-Shabab, retaking control of significant areas that had previously been under the group's control.
