Rwanda experienced Africa's worst genocide in modern times, and the country's recovery was marred by its intervention in the conflict in neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo.
The country has been beset by ethnic tension associated with the traditionally unequal relationship between the dominant Tutsi minority and the majority Hutus.
Although after 1959 the ethnic relationship was reversed, when civil war prompted around 200,000 Tutsis to flee to Burundi, lingering resentment led to periodic massacres of Tutsis.
The most notorious of these began in April 1994. The shooting down of the plane carrying President Juvenal Habyarimana, and his Burundian counterpart, near Kigali triggered what appeared to be a coordinated attempt by Hutus to eliminate the Tutsi population.
In response, the Tutsi-led Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) launched a military campaign to control the country. It achieved this by July, by which time at least 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus had been brutally massacred.
Some two million Hutus fled to Zaire, now the DR Congo. They included some of those responsible for the massacres, and some joined Zairean forces to attack local Tutsis. Rwanda responded by invading refugee camps dominated by Hutu militiamen.
Meanwhile, Laurent Kabila, who seized control of Zaire and renamed it the DR Congo, failed to banish the Hutu extremists, prompting Rwanda to support the rebels trying to overthrow him.
Rwanda withdrew its forces from DR Congo in late 2002 after signing a peace deal with Kinshasa. But tensions simmer, with Rwanda accusing the Congolese army of aiding Hutu rebels in eastern DR Congo.
Rwanda has used traditional "gacaca" community courts to try those suspected of taking part in the 1994 genocide. But key individuals - particularly those accused of orchestrating the slaughter - appear before an International Criminal Tribunal in northern Tanzania.
The country is striving to rebuild its economy, with coffee and tea production being among its main sources of foreign exchange. Nearly two thirds of the population live below the poverty line.
President: Paul Kagame
Paul Kagame has been in control of Rwanda since his rebel army ended the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of people in 1994.
He was sworn in as vice-president and defence minister in the new, post-genocide government in July 1994, but he was widely seen as the real power in Rwanda.
In 2000 parliament elected him as president. He won presidential elections in 2003 and again in 2010.
To his admirers he is an economic visionary and to his critics he is a despot who tolerates no opposition.
He has been praised by economists for striving to turn a land of subsistence farmers into a middle-income country by 2020. Rwanda was named the world's top reformer in the World Bank's Doing Business Report 2010.
At home Mr Kagame has been criticised for trampling on freedoms. He has enjoyed a free hand in Rwanda, building up the army to assert his authority and using anti-genocide legislation to clamp down on opponents.
The run-up to the 2010 presidential elections was marred by a gruesome murder of a senior member of an opposition party, an attack on his former army chief and the slaying of a critical journalist.
Mr Kagame, born in 1957, left the country as a young child when around half a million fellow Tutsis fled following a bloody Hutu-led revolution that sparked ethnic violence.
His family settled in Uganda, and Mr Kagame later helped Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni come to power.
From 1990 he led the military arm of the Rwandan Patriotic Army (RPF) in its war against Rwanda's Hutu-controlled government.
His rebel force ended the 1994 genocide, in which Hutu death squads killed some 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus. The RPF seized control of Rwanda after driving the 40,000-strong Hutu army and more than 2 million civilian Hutus into exile in neighbouring countries.
Rwanda's subsequent involvement in the DR Congo is controversial, with a UN report released in 2010 suggesting that Rwandan forces took part in attacks on Hutu civilians which - if proven in court - could amount to genocide. Rwanda has rejected the charge.
A chronology of key events:
1300s - Tutsis migrate into what is now Rwanda, which was already inhabited by the Twa and Hutu peoples.
1600s - Tutsi King Ruganzu Ndori subdues central Rwanda and outlying Hutu areas.
Late 1800s - Tutsi King Kigeri Rwabugiri establishes a unified state with a centralised military structure.
1858 - British explorer Hanning Speke is the first European to visit the area.
1890 - Rwanda becomes part of German East Africa.
1916 - Belgian forces occupy Rwanda.
1923 - Belgium granted League of Nations mandate to govern Ruanda-Urundi, which it ruled indirectly through Tutsi kings.
1946 - Ruanda-Urundi becomes UN trust territory governed by Belgium.
Independence
1957 - Hutus issue manifesto calling for a change in Rwanda's power structure to give them a voice commensurate with their numbers; Hutu political parties formed.
1959 - Tutsi King Kigeri V, together with tens of thousands of Tutsis, forced into exile in Uganda following inter-ethnic violence.
1961 - Rwanda proclaimed a republic.
1962 - Rwanda becomes independent with a Hutu, Gregoire Kayibanda, as president; many Tutsis leave the country.
1963 - Some 20,000 Tutsis killed following an incursion by Tutsi rebels based in Burundi.
1973 - President Gregoire Kayibanda ousted in military coup led by Juvenal Habyarimana.
1978 - New constitution ratified; Habyarimana elected president.
1988 - Some 50,000 Hutu refugees flee to Rwanda from Burundi following ethnic violence there.
1990 - Forces of the rebel, mainly Tutsi, Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) invade Rwanda from Uganda.
1991 - New multi-party constitution promulgated.
Genocide
1993 - President Habyarimana signs a power-sharing agreement with the Tutsis in the Tanzanian town of Arusha, ostensibly signalling the end of civil war; UN mission sent to monitor the peace agreement.
1994 April - Habyarimana and the Burundian president are killed after their plane is shot down over Kigali; RPF launches a major offensive; extremist Hutu militia and elements of the Rwandan military begin the systematic massacre of Tutsis. Within 100 days around 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus are killed; Hutu militias flee to Zaire, taking with them around 2 million Hutu refugees.
1994-96 - Refugee camps in Zaire fall under the control of the Hutu militias responsible for the genocide in Rwanda.
1995 - Extremist Hutu militias and Zairean government forces attack local Zairean Banyamulenge Tutsis; Zaire attempts to force refugees back into Rwanda.
1995 - UN-appointed international tribunal begins charging and sentencing a number of people responsible for the Hutu-Tutsi atrocities.
Intervention in DR Congo
1996 - Rwandan troops invade and attack Hutu militia-dominated camps in Zaire in order to drive home the refugees.
1997 - Rwandan- and Ugandan-backed rebels depose President Mobutu Sese Seko of Zaire; Laurent Kabila becomes president of Zaire, which is renamed the Democratic Republic of Congo.
1998 - Rwanda switches allegiance to support rebel forces trying to depose Kabila in the wake of the Congolese president's failure to expel extremist Hutu militias.
2000 March - Rwandan President Pasteur Bizimungu, a Hutu, resigns over differences regarding the composition of a new cabinet and after accusing parliament of targeting Hutu politicians in anti-corruption investigations.
Kagame elected
2000 April - Ministers and members of parliament elect Vice-President Paul Kagame as Rwanda's new president.
2001 October - Voting to elect members of traditional "gacaca" courts begins. The courts - in which ordinary Rwandans judge their peers - aim to clear the backlog of 1994 genocide cases.
2001 December - A new flag and national anthem are unveiled to try to promote national unity and reconciliation.
2002 April - Former president Pasteur Bizimungu is arrested and faces trial on charges of illegal political activity and threats to state security.
2002 July - Rwanda, DR Congo sign peace deal under which Rwanda will pull troops out of DR Congo and DR Congo will help disarm Rwandan Hutu gunmen blamed for killing Tutsi minority in 1994 genocide.
DR Congo pull-out
2002 October - Rwanda says it has pulled the last of its troops out of DR Congo, four years after they went in to support Congolese rebels against the Kabila government.
2003 May - Voters back a draft constitution which bans the incitement of ethnic hatred.
2003 August - Paul Kagame wins the first presidential elections since the 1994 genocide.
2003 October - First multi-party parliamentary elections; President Kagame's Rwandan Patriotic Front wins absolute majority. EU observers say poll was marred by irregularities and fraud.
2003 December - Three former media directors found guilty of inciting Hutus to kill Tutsis during 1994 genocide and receive lengthy jail sentences.
2004 March - President Kagame rejects French report which says he ordered 1994 attack on president's plane, which sparked genocide.
2004 June - Former president, Pasteur Bizimungu, is sentenced to 15 years in jail for embezzlement, inciting violence and associating with criminals.
2005 March - Main Hutu rebel group, FDLR, says it is ending its armed struggle. FDLR is one of several groups accused of creating instability in DR Congo; many of its members are accused of taking part in 1994 genocide.
Mass prisoner release
2005 July - Government begins the mass release of 36,000 prisoners. Most of them have confessed to involvement in the 1994 genocide. It is the third phase of releases since 2003 - part of an attempt to ease overcrowding.
2006 January - Rwanda's 12 provinces are replaced by a smaller number of regions with the aim of creating ethnically-diverse administrative areas.
2006 November - Rwanda breaks off diplomatic ties with France after a French judge issues an international arrest warrant for President Kagame, alleging he was involved in bringing down Habyarimana's plane.
2006 December - Father Athanase Seromba becomes the first Roman Catholic priest to be convicted for involvement in the 1994 genocide. The International Criminal Tribunal sentences him to 15 years in prison.
2007 February - Some 8,000 prisoners accused of genocide are released. Some 60,000 suspects have been freed since 2003 to ease prison overcrowding.
2007 April - Former president, Pasteur Bizimungu, is released from jail three years into his 15-year sentence after receiving a presidential pardon.
2007 October - Inquiry launched into 1994 presidential plane crash that sparked genocide.
2007 November - Rwanda signs peace agreement with Democratic Republic of Congo. Under the deal DRC will hand over those suspected of involvement in the 1994 genocide to Kigali and to the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.
Arrests abroad
2008 January - French police arrest former Rwandan army officer Marcel Bivugabagabo who is on list of war criminals wanted for trial by the Rwandan government.
2008 February - A Spanish judge issues arrest warrants for 40 Rwandan army officers, accusing them of genocide, terrorism and crimes against humanity.
2008 April - President Paul Kagame says the Spanish judge who issued arrest warrants for Rwandan army officers can "go to hell".
2008 May - A former cabinet minister, Callixte Kalimanzira, goes on trial at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, charged with taking part in the 1994 genocide.
2008 August - Rwanda accuses France of having played an active role in the genocide of 1994, and issues a report naming more than 30 senior French officials. France says the claims are unacceptable.
2008 September - President Paul Kagame's Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF) wins large majority in parliamentary elections.
2008 September - Former deputy prosecutor Simeon Nshamihigo is sentenced to life imprisonment for role in genocide by the UN tribunal. He was working as a defence investigator at the tribunal under an assumed name when arrested in 2001.
2008 October - Rwanda decides all education will be taught in English instead of French, officially as a result of joining the English-speaking East African Community.
2008 November - Rwanda expels German ambassador and recalls own ambassador in row over detention in Germany of presidential aide Rose Kabuye in connection with the shooting down of President Habyarimana's plane.
Genocide trials
2008 December - One of Rwanda's most famous singers, Simon Bikindi, is sentenced to 15 years in prison for inciting violence during the genocide.
UN report accuses Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo of directly helping Tutsi rebels fighting in eastern DR Congo. Rwanda denies supplying aid and child soldiers.
Theoneste Bagosora sentenced to life imprisonment at UN tribunal for masterminding genocide.
2009 January - Former Justice Minister Agnes Ntamabyariro is jailed for life by a Kigali court for conspiracy to plan the genocide and speeches inciting people to take part.
2009 February - Rwandan troops leave the Democratic Republic of Congo five weeks after entering to attack Hutu rebels.
UN war crimes court finds former army chaplain Emmanuel Rukundo guilty of genocide, sexual assault and kidnapping during genocide, sentences him to 25 years in jail.
2009 March - Rwandan MP and member of Tutsi-led governing party Beatrice Nirere found guilty of genocide and sentenced to life imprisonment in Rwandan gacaca traditional community court.
Dutch court finds Rwandan Hutu Joseph Mpambara guilty of torture during the genocide but not of war crimes.
2009 November - Rwanda is admitted to the Commonwealth, as only the second country after Mozambique to become a member without a British colonial past or constitutional ties to the UK.
France and Rwanda restore diplomatic relations, three years after they were severed over a row about responsibility for the 1990s genocide.
2009 December - Rwanda declared free of landmines - the first country to achieve this status.
2010 February - French President Nicolas Sarkozy pays official visit to mark reconciliation after years of accusations over the genocide. Rwanda said France armed Hutu extremists, and a French judge accused President Kagame of involvement in the death of President Habyarimana.
2010 April - Opposition leader Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza, who planned to run against President Kagame in the August elections, is arrested. Her lawyer is later detained.
Two senior officers are arrested within days of a reshuffle of the military leadership.
2010 June - Ex-army chief of staff Faustin Kayumba Nyamwasa, a former ally turned critic of President Kagame, is wounded in a shooting while in exile in South Africa.
2010 August - President Kagame wins new term in elections.
2010 October - UN report into 1993-2003 conflict in DR Congo says Rwandan forces took part in attacks on Hutu civilians which - if proven in court - could amount to genocide.
