The research station's charter was repealed in 1894 during administrative reforms and the German colonial regime set up a first rate education system in the area.

In September 1914 a small German military unit had sallied across the border into British Northern Rhodesia and attacked Abercorn.

The British army and the naval expeditionary force entered Bismarckburg on 8 June, where Spicer-Simson was chastened to learn that the fort's guns were in fact wooden dummies.

[2] In 1918 the German General Paul Emil von Lettow-Vorbeck and his remarkable Schutztruppe army of Askaris surrendered nearby at Abercorn.

In 2008 a major investment revamp of the harbour facilities was announced, with the hope of cashing in on trade opportunities with neighbouring Congo and Zambia.