The 19th Century

Overview:

the rise of the British Empire and the fall of the domestic tradesman:
- although Europe was dominated by Napoleon 1800-14, France was unable to defeat the British who would dominate the century as the strongest empire due to its maritime strengths.
- Britain by winning its wars with Portugal & France in the 18th and early 19thC, had managed to drive them out of India & acquire colonies.
- the British were rewarded with gigantic new markets for their goods, the making of huge fortunes in foreign trade became 1st possible, then easy.
- the staple of British trade was textile manufacture & it was not long before demand for woven goods became greater than spinners & weavers could supply, thus drove the invention of mechanised industry starting with the spinning machine in 1770, then the power loom & by 1825, the cost of weaving fell so low that the hand-weaver could no longer earn sufficient money, thus whenever a trade was mechanised, the domestic worker was undersold & starved out and had no recourse but to work in a factory.
the rise of abusive child labour:
- the only qualification of this new worker was cheapness & thus the rise of child labour in factories and in apprenticeships:
  - children, usually 6-8yrs old, especially those orphaned by the Napoleonic wars, being sold like slaves.
  - in 1847, official unemployment rate of adults was 10%, but if parents had children capable of working in mills, or in fields but not doing so, they were not given any relief. Once children entered factories, the parents rarely saw them except in late evening when they were too fatigued & would fall asleep at supper.
  - these children did not go to school, less than half could read, and the girls were especially adversely affected, not learning to cook or sew or perform domestic tasks, & nobody wanted to marry a generally stunted & weakly mill girl who had none of the accomplishments which make a man's comfort & moreover had a reputation for unchastity - usually compelled to have sex with their overlooker or master. If she tried to escape, she could be jailed if caught or enter a life of prostitution, theft & poverty.
  - the textile factories:
    - these children were fed atrociously, often only with porridge which had been flavoured by the brine in which meat had been pickled, and were forced to work long hours - usually 14hrs but often 19hrs a day - in hot conditions (usually 100degF) and savagely beaten when they slackened, great numbers died & were buried without inquiry.
  - the match factories:
    - worse still was the development of chronic severe tooth/jaw pain which lasted months or years after working in match factories from 1833 to 1862 where children dipped match splints into melted white phosphorus which gave off copious fish smelling fumes & resulted in “phossy jaw” - phosphorus necrosis of teeth & jaw bone of the worker whose pain was not relieved by opium & often unable to sleep for months, walked the streets all night in agony which only ceased when the whole jawbone became dead, & was removed surgically without anaesthetics , or came away on its own. 1 in 8 died from it.
    - despite the effects of white phosphorus becoming known in 1848, careless employees ate their food off phosphorus smeared tables & boys naturally did not keep themselves clean, going home in clothes that stank of phosphorus & shone like glow-worms in the dark.
    - despite a replacement for white phosphorus - the non-poisonous red phosphorus becoming available in 1860, the horrible practice of using white phosphorus continued & remained lawful in England until 1908 - even then non-factory children would delight in licking white phosphorus matches & rub them on their faces to make it luminous in the dark!
  - the child chimney sweeps:
    - the usual practice of apprenticing 5-6yr olds as chimney sweeps had been banned in 1788 as an Act prevented children under 8 being apprenticed to sweeps, and in 1834, the age was raised to 10yrs, and in 1840, a further Act raised this to 21yrs. Unfortunately, these Acts were systematically violated everywhere except London, & even there it was not well enforced as after all, only those under 16yrs could fit inside most chimney designs and magistrates and royalty needed their chimneys swept by boys!
    - chimneys only 9“ x 9” had to be descended, many were trapped & died before rescue whilst others fell and fractured spines
    - some were even forced down hot flues causing death from burns & suffocation
    - most were bought as slaves & the initial excoriations sustained were bathed in strong brine, putrefied urine or exposed to fire - an agonising process which brought the gradual toughening & callosity which enabled the boys to climb unscathed.
    - the boys “slept black” in their sooty clothes on straw covered with a sooty blanket & washed 3 times a year.
    - the boys had to go barefoot, even in snow, as soot would shake into their boots & gall & fester their feet.
    - once too big to climb chimneys, their ignorance forced them to resort to crime.
    - many of those that survived this died of soot cancer which attacked the genitalia
    - in 1864, the law became more strictly enforced, but it was not until 1875 that an effective measure was introduced.
European nationalism & liberalism:
- Austro-Hungarian, Russian & the Ottoman empires dominate the Balkan region, resulting in conflicts with each other and with desire for national independence of the Greeks, Serbs, Croats, Slovenes, Hungary, Italy, Germany, culminating in the revolutions of 1848 which abolished serfdom in the Hapsburg Empire & although were followed by cynicism & opportunism & use of armed force to settle grievances (eg. Bismarck's age of “blood & iron”), eventually led to Germany & Italy becoming united countries in 1871
Britain's monarchy moves out of the political arena to become a neutral guardian of national stability & is ruled by Queen Victoria with the concurrent revival of Puritanism;
American civil war & the abolishing of slavery.
the age of the telegraph:
- the electro-magnetic telegraph patented by Cooke & Wheatstone in 1837 was used for signalling on the Great Western Railway in 1838.
- the first public line was established in 1844 & the 1st telegraph company formed in 1847.
- the 1st successful submarine cable was laid in 1851 & allowed for the 1st time, prices of stocks in Paris to be known on the London stock market in business hours.
- between 1850-70, the telegraph system was extended all over England & in 1872, the Post Office took over telegraphs & made them popular. By the late 1870's cables connected most developed countries of the world including India!
- in 1876, Bell had invented the telephone & the 1st telephone exchange was established in 1879, but popularity of the telephone was dependent on number of people able to be contacted on it, & thus widespread adoption was slow.
- in 1897, wireless telegraphy was invented & was used when the Titanic sank to send an SOS message, & dramatically change naval warfare.
the age of the railways (1840-1880):
- whilst being a driver for a new wave of industrialisation & economic growth and a new Kondratieff economic wave, it practically destroyed the canal system in England as well as the English Inn for the weary road traveller, which were not to be revived again until the early 20thC with the advent of bicycles & cars.
- provided England with a virtual monopoly in engineering - railways, bridges, steamships & created a stimulus for metallurgy & mining with production of iron & coal in 1882 being 5-6 times that in 1840.
- allowed factories to be set up distant from the mines ⇒ accelerated urbanisation of people
- allowed expansion into remote areas (eg. wheat belt in mid-West USA & Canada)
- made the very existence of huge towns possible by enabling sufficient inputs such as food, & thus avoid famine
  - London becomes the world's biggest & richest city, with its population quadrupling to reach 6.6m by 1901, divided into a plush West End and the fever-ridden slums resulting in the rise in trade unionism.
- allowed perishable goods to be transported quickly
  - ⇒ the 24,000 cows kept in central London to provide fresh were no longer needed there & gradually were removed.
  - ⇒ country-killed meat transport to London became possible - although only in cold weather until the refrigerator car was invented, which also then allowed Londoners, to enjoy fish & chips for 1st time (in 1840 only salmon in winter was available to them)
- allowed British middle class to take families on annual holidays to the sea
- allowed Londoners to travel to the countryside to enjoy summer evenings
- allowed the development of an affordable postal system & thus the first stamps in 1840
- in 1872, a new era in passenger travel began in England with the provision of cheap third class travel at rate of a penny a mile.
  - allowed workers to live further from their factories, creating suburbs in the industrialised towns for the better paid
  - allowed organised sport, changing village contests into a highly systematised industry (Football Assoc. 1863, County Cricket Championship 1873)
- stimulated the invention of roller coasters:
  - 1827: the Mauch Chunk Switchback Railway on a Gravity Road on a Pennsylvania coal mine, on which coal trains sped down manned by a lone driver with a simple brake in the mornings and by the mid-19thC, is used to entertain thrill seekers in the afternoons.
  - 1880's: railway companies established entertainment carousels at the ends of their lines to increase revenue.
  - 1884: Thompson's Switchback Railway gravity ride opens at New York's Coney Island
  - 1887: a Switchback Railway ride opens in Australia at the Royal Aquarium and Pleasure Grounds above Sydney's Tamarama Beach, but is shut down in 1911 due to pressure from beach-goers.
  - 1920's: worldwide boom in roller coasters leads to a golden age until the depression then WWII
  - 1959: Walt Disney introduces the Matterhorn, the 1st tubular steel rollercoaster which allowed development of loop-the-loop and corkscrew rides.
the age of the passenger steamship (1839 - 1960s):
- allowed increasing migration from England to America
- trans-Atlantic crossing times:
  - 1800 sailing ship - variable but usually 6wks to NY & 3wks back (cw 6 months England to Australia)
  - 1840 low-pressure steamship - 14 days
  - 1882 high-pressure steamship - 7 days
the age of the city slums & the eventual rise of public health & philanthropy:
- the industrialisation brought urbanisation, over-crowding & separation of the rich from the poor, so that no longer did the rich feel they were obliged to give hand-outs to the poor, who suffered in offensive conditions with exceedingly high mortality rates
- London before 1860:
  - mortality:
    - in undrained slums, avg age of death was 13 (cw overall avg age 29yrs), with 50-60% of deaths children under 5yrs old
    - annual death rates per million:
      - all deaths: 23000; TB: 600-1100; scarlet fever 960; typhoid >1000; diphtheria 300; cholera
      - all deaths working class: best paid: 13500; middle: 20,700; poorest: 27,800;
    - all deaths children < 1yr per 1000 births, working class: best paid: 173; middle: 184; poorest: 247; (servant-keeping classes: 94)
    - puerperal fever death rates per pregnancy: 1 in 60 (London hospitals vs 1 in 10 in Europe hospitals); 1 in 650 home births!
  - only 5% of population was aged over 65yrs.
  - only 1 in 6 working class families had more than one room to live in, many sharing room with other families or pigs.
  - all sewage drained into the Thames untreated or if placed in cesspools, contaminated any drinking wells
  - practically all drinking water was from sewage-contaminated streams (beer was only safer!)
    - some 80,000 houses & 640,000 Londoners had no water supply at all & depended on shallow wells or rain water
  - the only washing water was contaminated water available for ~ 30mins per day, thus people only washed face, hands, the remaining body was blackened & malodorous, even the chimney sweeps!
  - theory of infectious disease was in the air “miasma”, and so mal aria (“bad air”) from marshes became the new name for the ague - malaria. No-one until 1876 realised that it was the contaminated drinking water which was causing so much disease.
  - medical science could only partially treat a few conditions: quinine for malaria, mercury for syphilis, digitalis for CCF, lime juice for scurvy. Whilst anaesthetics had just been invented, preventing sepsis had not.
- London after 1860 - the war against dirt:
  - the rising stench of the Thames prompted govts to develop new sewage systems to divert sewage away from the Thames, which became established in 1870, and thus allowed an increase in water supply to be feasible as water needs to be transported away as sewage. The benefits on the death rate were immediate: death rate per 1,000 dropping from 24 in 1870 to 19 by 1890's.
  - however, the water companies were privatised & interested only in selling water, not supplying it, & thus it was with difficulty they were forced to supply it to the poor districts, and it was only with the public ownership did this occur (London in 1905, but surprisingly, much earlier in many other towns eg. 1830-1875)
  - the rise of modern nursing in 1860's using Nightingale's creed of fresh air, soap & water, and light to remove dirt & “putrid exhalations”, with which she had reduced the death rate of hospitalised soldiers in the Crimean War from 42% to 2.2% in 4 months!
  - from 1880, the war against dirt was further reinforced by the discovery of the germ theory which can be said to be the start of the new scientific era of medicine:
    - Pasteur who had found that organisms caused putrefaction & silk-worm disease in the 1860's, but pasteurisation of milk did not start until 1900 & saved incalculable infant lives.
    - Lister develops antisepsis & then in 1887, aseptic technique for surgery resulting in the virtual disappearance of pyaemia, hospital gangrene & erysipelas from the surgical ward, allowing new surgical techniques to be developed without such a devastating infection rate. The practise of dressing wounds with cobwebs & cow dung were ceased & the need for cleanliness as a health issue rather than a class issue was reinforced.
    - the discovery of the causal organisms of many diseases (mainly by Koch & colleagues 1876-1905):
      - anthrax (1976), wound sepsis (1878), typhoid (1880), TB (1882), cholera (1883), diphtheria (1883), malta fever (1887), tetanus (1889), plague (1894), dysentery (1898), syphilis (1905).
    - the discovery of antitoxins by von Behring, in the 1890's, to treat tetanus & diphtheria
Science & technology:
- state funded education in many countries
- medical therapies, microbiology, pathology, organic chemistry, surgery, anaesthetics; genetics;
- concrete; metallurgy; steel; railroads; electricity; electric machines;
- telegraph; photography;
- daily living in UK/USA 1895:
  - horse-drawn carriages & carts; “safety” bicycle just introduced to replace “penny farthing”; no cars/planes/motorbikes yet;
  - 1 telephone per 200 pop. in USA, much less elsewhere; wireless telegraphy unknown (1st patent 1898);
  - no refrigerators in private houses;
  - canning of food by mass production begins in USA;
  - electric lighting of home exceptional as metal filament lamp not yet invented; street lighting by gas;
  - Edison's crude cylindrical record phonographs were in many homes, but 1st motion picture theater or “nickledeon” not opened until 1905.
- by the end of the 19thC, a new era dawns:
  - as the century ended it ushered in a new era where science and electricity in particular, would dominate research and invade our homes, businesses & our daily lives as companies & govts embark on establishment of research laboratories which would change our world and the way we perceive it.
  - in 1895, research laboratories were small & mainly confined to universities with researchers usually needing to create their own instruments or equipment such as induction coils, cylinder vacuum pumps, galvanic cells to supply power, galvanometers, electroscopes;
  - 1895 was also the year X-rays were discovered by Rontgen forming the starting point of modern physics as well as revolutionising diagnostics in medicine.
  - 1896 radioactivity was discovered by Becquerel, then in 1898, Curie discovered radium
  - Rutherford discovered alpha & beta rays and by 1899, the electron - the 1st sub-atomic particle - had been discovered.
  - these, along with research into the photo-electric effect in 1898, were to set the scene for Rutherford to change our perception of matter with his vision of the atom & its structure, and for Einstein to change our perception of space and time.
Art & music:
- impressionism
- art nouveau
- classical music, ballet
- Charles Dickens, Bronte sisters, Oscar Wilde, Dostoevsky, Zola

Britain:

1800, the Combination Laws banned trade unionism, thus unions forced to operate in secret or under the guise of “non-political” Friendly Societies which were recognised as legal in 1793.
1802, children banned from working more than 12hrs a day
1800-15 - see under Europe for the conflicts with Napoleon;
1810-12 & 1816-17, Luddite protesters against introduction of new equipment in textile industry smash factory machinery
1819, children aged < 9yrs banned from working in cotton mills
1824, laws against trade unionism repealed but their legal status was precarious until the 1860s
1830, King George IV dies & is succeeded by Queen Victoria (r. 1837-1901) an 18yr old princess who would become England's longest-reigning monarch with 9 off-spring & their spouses being in most of the royal houses of Europe making her popularly known as the “grandmother of Europe”
1830's government funding for elementary schools leads to rise in state education which became free for anyone by 1870
1830's & 40's, cholera epidemics lead to public health measures.
1832, Reform Act leads to the Whigs & the Conservative Party to organise themselves as national parties
1834, the New Poor Law, workhouse conditions must be inferior to lowest paid labourer outside to discourage laziness & vagrancy
1835-7, 1st railway boom in England, creating many, disconnected lines owned by new railway companies. Railway investments commonly returned 10% on their capital.
1841, Robert Peel becomes 1st PM of a Conservative (as opposed to a purely Tory) Party after defeating former PM Lord Melbourne's Whig Party.
1844, limits on woman's working hours; 2nd railway boom, almost exhausting the available capital of the investing public;
1845, establishment of free public libraries
1847, Emily Bronte “Wuthering Heights”;
1850-3, Anglo-Kaffir war;
1851, Prince Albert establishes the Great Exhibition to promote industry & peace;
1855, Viscount Palmerston becomes PM & clashed often with Victoria
1857, Irish Republican Brotherhood (Fenians) founded;
1860's, despite ferocious penalties for even petty crime, 100,000 lived in London by thieving or swindling & another 80,000 were prostitutes. This was the city of Sweeney Todd the Barber & Jack the Ripper.
1861, Prince Albert dies causing Victoria to retreat from social life & lose popularity; Charles Dickens “Great Expectations”;
1864, 1st International Workingmen's Assoc. founded by Karl Marx;
1865, William Booth, concerned for the adverse effects of urbanism, founds the Salvation Army to help provide social & spiritual welfare of the destitute; Many land owners earned £100,000/yr & paid tax of only 2d in the pound, the average labourer's income was £70
1869, Liberal Party PM Gladstone (r. 68-74; 80-85; 86; 92-94) disestablishes the Irish Church;
- John Stuart Mill pushes for women's rights:
  - fighting against loveless marriages as marriages were primarily a property exchange with husband taking all of his wife's property as well as being able to cane her and lock her up if refusing sex without her ever being able to free herself of her tormentor.
  - fighting for equal pay for women and woman's right to vote.
1870, secondary education made universal;
1871, Lewis Carroll “Through the looking glass”; Charles Darwin “The descent of man”; Jehovah's Witnesses founded; F.A. cup;
1872, the great railway companies founded from the amalgamation of many smaller ones. Introduction of cheap 3rd class train travel at a penny a mile;
1876, Conservative Party PM Disraeli makes Victoria Empress of India; Gilbert and Sullivan “HMS Pinafore”;
1880, education for children < 10 yrs made compulsory which finally cleared the streets of ragged children living on their wits. Dining cars on trains;
1883, the Cheap Trains Act made provision for discounted workmen's tickets which then allowed the better paid factory workers to live further out in the suburbs away from the slums around the factories.
1884, the agricultural labourer is enfranchised
1885, 1 in 4 Londoners still lived in abject poverty
1885, Lord Salisbury, a Tory becomes PM (r. 85-6; 86-92, 95-02) an implacable foe of Irish Home Rule, made the Conservative Party the most powerful one
1886-7, Karl Marx “Das Kapital” published in English; violent riots by the unemployed vented distress that accompanied the music halls, gin palaces & imperial pomp of Victorian London.
1887, Doyle's 1st Sherlock Holmes story;
1889, London dock strike;
1897, Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee
1890, corridor trains, & then lavatory-equipped ones, made long non-stop train trips possible.
1891, minimum age for children to work raised to 11yrs; Thomas Hardy “Tess of the D'Urbervilles”;
1895, H.G.Wells “The Time Machine”; Rutherford comes to England from NZ;
1898, H.G.Wells “The War of the Worlds”;
1899, Oscar Wilde “The importance of being earnest”; Elgar “Enigma Variations”;

Europe:

1800, Napoleon becomes 1st Consul of France:
- established the Bank of France & centralised taxation
- swiftly acted to bring peace to Europe:
  - shattered Austrian power in Italy;
  - concordat with the Papacy;
  - pro-French Russian Tsar Paul ceased hostilities against Napoleon;
  - Russia, Prussia, Denmark & Sweden join in a French-inspired League of Armed Neutrality designed to weaken Napoleon's chief remaining foe - Britain, by blocking her trade with continental Europe;
1801, Russian Tsar Paul assassinated & replaced with pro-English Tsar Alexander
1802, Britain makes peace with France agreeing to return all her overseas possessions except for Ceylon & Trinidad whilst Napoleon agreed to evacuate Holland & Naples;
1803, war breaks out between Britain & France when Napoleon doesn't evacuate Holland & still blocks British trade, so Britain refuse to evacuate Malta;
1805, Britain's Horatio Nelson destroys the combined French & Spanish fleets at the Battle of Trafalgar thus ending Napoleon's plans to invade England;
1808, Napoleon forces Charles IV of Spain to abdicate & be replaced by Napoleon's brother Joseph, but the Spanish people revolt & are supported by the British;
1809: after the Russo-Sweden war of 1808-09, Russia takes Finland from Sweden and makes Helsinki its capital.
1810, Napoleon annexes Holland & German coast to further block British trade with the continent;
1812, Napoleon who had gained control of most of Europe, sends 611,000 men to invade Russia after Russia had ended its alliance in 1810 due to the commercial crisis of Europe; His men were forced into a winter retreat leaving only 10,000 men capable of combat;
1814, Prussia, Austria & Britain invade France and force Napoleon to abdicate & to exile on the island of Elba;
1814, Congress of Vienna to decide on national boundaries results in Russia gaining a feared stronghold in Europe (much of Poland).
1815, Napoleon returns but is defeated by the Duke of Wellington at Waterloo, thus exiled to St Helena where he dies in 1825;
1815, the waltz becomes fashionable as the European monarchies are restored;
1816, Napoleon's occupation of Spain leads to independence of the Spanish colony of Argentina (incl. Paraguay, Bolivia & Uruguay)
1809-48, Metternich, a foreign minister of the Hapsburgs introduces repressive measures to suppress nationalism, esp. in Italy;
1821, Greco-Turkish war begins & with the loss to the Greeks, the power of the Turks over the Balkans diminished; Spanish Empire dissolves resulting in most of its remaining colonies gaining independence (eg. Mexico, Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Peru & New Granada - Colombia, Ecuador, Panama & Venezeula) but retained colonies of Puerto Rico, Cuba;
1830, Belgium independence; but Polish nationalistic move crushed;
1830's: Russian Tsar Nicholas I invades Caucasus meeting stiff resistance
1832, Greek independence recognised after Lord Byron had previously raised an army for this cause.
1848-9, anti-Hapsburg revolutions:
- in the Balkans, with desire for the Serbs, Croats & Slovenes to form a nation Jugoslavia (southern slavs), but was crushed by Vienna;
- in Germany & Italy
1848, Karl Marx publishes “Communist Manifesto” which created a fear of socialism & inhibited the revolutions
1850's:
- Paris sewers begun after cholera outbreak of 1848
- Cavour, the Prime Minister of Piedmont, builds his state up as a magnet to attract other Italian states, & by 1859, had formed a north Italian kingdom.
- British start using the Red Sea route to India (and thus allowing British women to travel to India) rather than sail around Cape of Good Hope.
- Russian army advances towards Red Sea causing alarm in England
  - Queen Victoria's husband, the German-born Prince Albert who is against starting war against the Russians is accused by many to be a spy
1854-6, Crimean War:
- Turkey, then an under-prepared Britain & France declare war on Russia with Austria remaining neutral but becoming an enemy of Russia for doing so;
- Russian forces worn down in the Crimea in 1855 & the new Russian Tsar Alexander II sued for peace;
1857, Anglo-Persian war ends;
1858: Russia wrests control of Caucasus from Ottoman Empire. Chechnya beaten after Iman Shamil's rebels fail to establish Islamic state.
1859, Austria invades Sardinia; France declares war on Austria;
1860, Garibaldi helps the Sicilians drive out the Neapolitan army & swept through Naples & targeted Rome, but when confronted by Cavour's Piedmont army, in a dramatic gesture gave up the south to Piedmont, leaving only Venetia & Rome not united.
1861, Warsaw massacre as troops fire upon protesters against Russian rule; Emancipation of Russian serfs;
1864, Tolstoy “War and Peace”
1866, Piedmont gains Venetia from Austrians; Dostoevsky “Crime and punishment”;
1867, Ibsen “Peer Gynt”;
1868, revolution in Spain, Queen Isabella II deposed;
1869, following a Turkish ultimatum, Greece agrees to leave Crete; Parliamentary system reintroduced in France;
1870, France withdraws its troops from Rome to fight the Prussians, allowing Victor Emmanuel to become king of a united Italy with Rome becoming its capital; Jules Verne “20,000 leagues under the sea”; Tchaikovsky “Romeo and Juliet”; Wagner “Die Walkure”;
1860's, Prince Otto von Bismarck of Prussia, determined to remove Austrian influence, won several wars & in 1867, created a north German confederation which after winning a war against France in 1870, united with the south German confederation to form a united Germany in 1871.
1874, 1st impressionism exhibition;
1878, Greece declares war on Turkey; Anti-socialist law enacted in Germany;
1881, 1st cabaret; Persecution of Jews in Russia;
1882, Tchaikovsky “1812 Overture”;
1890, Swiss govt introduce social insurance; van Gogh dies;
1891, triple alliance of Germany, Austria & Italy renewed; Franco-Russian entente;
1894, Sibelius “Finlandia”;
1895, Tchaikovsky “Swan Lake”; Art nouveau style;

America:

Canada:
- 1841, 'Lower Canada' (an extended, predominantly French-speaking Quebec) and 'Upper Canada' (now Ontario) unite;
- 1867, British Nth America Act establishes Dominion of Canada with union of 'Lower Canada', 'Upper Canada', Nova Scotia & New Brunswick
- 1870, Red River settlement (Manitoba) joins Canada
- 1871, the joined colonies of Vancouver Is & British Columbia join Canada
- 1873, Prince Edward Is joins Canada
- 1905, Saskatchewan & Alberta join Canada
USA:
- development of university fraternities and sororities esp. in America eg. Kappa Alpha Society founded 1825
- republicanism spreads:
  - The American Revolution which ended in 1783 sparked a world-wide republican movement resulting in the French Revolution.
  - In Mexico, those wanting change were called Federalists and those wanting to maintain the status quo of Spanish colonisation were called Centralists.
  - Anglo-American colonists were attracted to Texas as land was 1/10th the price but goods were cheaper from Louisiana than from higher taxed Mexico City and thus they felt more connected to US than to Mexico with the resulting build up in tensions and the call for change.
- 1835-6: Battle of Alamo - Federalist Ben Milam led Texian and Tejano volunteers against the centralist Mexican troops quartered in the city and took control but then had to defend it against Santa Anna's army. Among the Alamo's garrison were Jim Bowie, renowned knife fighter, and David Crockett, famed frontiersman and former congressman from Tennessee, but the heroic efforts of the nearly 200 could not stop Santa Anna regaining control. The battle became a symbol of the struggle for freedom against over-whelming odds and played a critical role in the Texas Revolution which effectively ended when General Houston defeated Santa Anna's army near the present day city of Houston in April 1836. The officials of the newly formed Republic of Texas were able to extract a Treaty of Velasco which promised to grant Texas independence.
- 1847, Mormons found Salt Lake City;
- 1848, Mexican-US war: a rogue US general sponsored by J.P.Morgan and Wall St, electively invade Mexico for its oil, gas and mineral wealth; US gets Texas, New Mexico, California, Utah, Nevada, Arizona & parts of Colorado & Wyoming from Mexico in return for a large indemnity; Wisconsin becomes a state;
- 1850, California becomes a state;
- 1858, Minnesota becomes a state;
- 1859, Oregon becomes a state;
- 1860, Abraham Lincoln becomes 16th President
- 1861, Kansas becomes a state of USA; Washington Peace Convention tries to preserve Union, but Congress of Montgomery forms the Confederate States of America (S.Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Florida, Louisiana) leading to outbreak of the American Civil War
- 1863, W.Virginia becomes state of US; French capture Mexico City;
- 1864, massacres of Cheyenne & Arapahoe Indians at Sand Creek, Colorado; Nevada becomes a state;
- 1865, Abraham Lincoln assassinated; 13th amendment to constitution abolishes slavery;
- 1867, Nebraska becomes a state;
- 1875, Mark Twain “The adventures of Tom Sawyer”;
- 1889, N&S Dakota, Montana & Washington become states;
- 1890, Idaho & Wyoming become states;
- 1893, Hawaii proclaimed a republic, annexed by treaty to US which was then withdrawn;
- 1896, Utah becomes a state;
- 1898, USA declares war on Spain over Cuba;
Central America:
- 1821, Mexico wins independence from Spain
- 1836, Mexico loses Texas to US
- 1838, emancipation of slaves in Jamaica with the declining 150 yr-old sugar cane industry, results in a period of relative poverty
- 1846-8, Mexico loses California, Utah & New Mexico to US following Mexican-US war
- 1851, Cuba declares its independence;
- 1858-61: Mexican civil war
- 1866, Jamaica becomes a Crown Colony of Britain
- 1864-7, brief Mexican monarchy under the Habsburg Maximilian, followed by further anarchy
- 1876-1910, Mexico has a period of political stability & economic development under virtual dictatorship of Porfirio Diaz although control of many of its resources fall into foreign hands
- 1895, Cuba fights Spain for independence;
- 1898, Spain cedes Cuba, Puerto Rico, Guam, & the Phillipines to USA for $20m;
Sth America:
- 1808, the Portugese court, driven from its homeland by Napoleon's invasion, moved to Rio de Janeiro;
- 1811, Venezeulan locally born whites (creoles) who had taken over govt from the Spanish in 1810, declared independence from Spain resulted in prolonged warfare between Simon Bolivar's creole army which eventually defeated Spanish forces in 1821
- 1816, independence of the Spanish colony of Argentina (incl. Paraguay, Bolivia & Uruguay which broke away from Argentina later)
- 1817, Chile becomes independent of Spain after Spanish forces defeated by combined Chilean & Argentinian forces;
- 1819, Gran Colombia becomes independent of Spain after Spanish forces defeated by Simon Bolivar
  - Gran Colombia succeeded the Spanish Viceroyalty of New Granada and consisted of Colombia, Ecuador, Panama & Venezuela
- 1822, independence of the Portugese colony of Brazil, with Dom Pedro, the son of the Portugese king, being crowned emperor;
- 1824, Peru becomes independent of Spain after Spanish forces defeated by armies of Antonio Jose de Sucre & Simon Bolivar
- 1828, Uruguay becomes independent of Argentina with the help of British mediation
- 1829, Venezuela splits from Gran Colombia
- 1830, Ecuador splits from Gran Colombia
- 1879: Indian wars end
- 1880-4, Chile war against Bolivia & Peru;
- 1889, Pedro II abdicates, Brazil becomes a republic;
- 1903, Panama splits from Gran Colombia

Asia:

India:
- 1857-8, Indian mutiny against the British suppressed, Britain proclaims peace; powers of East India Company transferred to British Crown;
China:
- 1850, Taiping rebellion; Hung Hiu-tsuen proclaims himself emperor, attacks Peking & takes Nanking & Shanghai;
- 1860, Anglo-French troops defeat Chinese at Pa-li-Chau; Treaty of Peking;
- 1894, loses war against Japan;
- 1896, Russia & China sign Manchuria Convention;
- 1898, Russia obtains lease of Port Arthur; Britain obtains lease of Kowloon; “The Boxers” - an antiforeign, anti-Western organization formed;
Japan:
- 1868, Shogun Kekie abdicates; Shogunate abolished; Meiji dynasty restored;
- 1890, 1st general election;
- 1894, Korea & Japan declare war on & defeat China;
SE Asia:
- 26th Aug 1883: Krakatoa, west of Java, erupts & self-destructs creating a massive tsunami with waves 40m high obliterating everything in its path in Indonesia, & became the greatest disaster in recorded history. Its eruption was so thoroughly & scientifically documented that it dramatically advanced the study of vulcanology. Sound heard in Perth & in east coast Africa, shockwaves traveled around the globe 7 times. Cloud blocked solar radiation, cooling the earth by 0.5degC.
- 1893, France acquires protectorate over Laos;
Oceania:
- 1873, Britain annexes Fiji;
- 1880, France annexes Tahiti;
- 1884-5, Holland, Germany & Britain annexe New Guinea
- 1892, Philipine revolution against Spanish occupation commences
- 1898, Philippines ceded to USA from Spain after Spanish-American war and the Philipine revolution, resulting in US capturing Manila but creating enemies with the Philipine revolutionary insurgents who they excluded from Manila
- 1899, US declares war on Philippines - the Filipinos-American war which some historians say resulted in at least 1.4 million Filipinos being killed, many dying in US concentration camps ¹⁾

Australia:

see also: History of Australia
1801-3, Flinders sails around Australia (except for its north coast) thereby heading of French competition headed by Baudin
1803, Van Dieman's Land becomes a British penal colony & soon its Aboriginal population is wiped out by guns & introduced diseases
1824, Brisbane founded
1829, Perth founded
1830-50: era of the inland explorers - “The Overlanders”
1834, Portland, Victoria settled by whalers
1835, Melbourne founded
1836, colony of Sth Australia & Adelaide founded
1851, colony of Victoria founded, coinciding the gold rush
1870's, the boom era of the paddle steamers transporting wool from Darling-Murrumbidgee as far north as Qld border to Echuca on the Murray River which became Australia's largest inland port and 2nd largest port only to Melbourne as it was the closest the Murray came to Melbourne and the Melbourne-Echuca railroad was the 1st to connect a coastal port with the inland wool industry.
1880's, falling export prices, over-borrowing for expansion, bank failures, & general depression leads to strikes & class bitterness which encourages labour parties into politics.

New Zealand:

1820's, the sale of muskets intensified inter-tribal Maori wars
1840, British annexation of New Zealand following Maori agreement
1860's, Maori's lose a series of fierce wars against the British after they realised threat to land

Africa:

1802, the Cape, occupied by British on behalf of the exiled Prince of Orange to prevent it falling into French hands, is restored to the Netherlands under the Peace of Amiens.
1806, British return to the Cape, but this time making their occupation effective, thus British migrants begin an uneasy co-existence with the Afrikaaners
1835, reaction to British rule in the Cape results in the Great Trek, with Boer republics being set up beyond the frontiers.
1843, Natal annexed by British
1847, Liberia proclaimed an independent republic;
1852, an independent Transvaal is set up
1854, the Orange Free State is established
1859, Oregon becomes a state;
1869, the French-built Suez Canal opens making trips from Europe to India much shorter
1869, gold & diamond rush in Sth Africa results in Cecil Rhodes (1853-02) & his friends developing powerful controlling companies - De Beers & Consolidated Gold Fields.
1870's, Belgium's King Leopold II stakes claim for Congo River basin & renames it the Congo Free State which was ratified at the Conference of Berlin in 1884. Over the next 90yrs until its independence in 1960, the Belgians had a fierce & violent reign, while they accumulated vast fortunes for themselves from ivory & rubber through Congo slave labour while 10 million people are said to have died from forced labour, starvation & outright murder.
1875, Britain acquires Suez Canal shares after bankruptcy of the Egyptian khedive
1877, Britain annexes Transvaal
1879, Britain fights a series of small wars with Bantu people in Sth Africa incl. the Zulu War in 1879.
1881, Boers start war against Britain causing Britain to recognise the Transvaal republic
1882, Britain acquires Egypt to protect its interest in the Suez Canal
1883, French gain control of Tunis; Britain decides to evacuate Sudan;
1884, Germany annexes whole of South West Africa
1885, Britain annexes Botswana
1886, Britain annexes Zululand; Johannesburg is surveyed & despite its rocky nature & lack of water, is developed & prospers as a result of the gold rush.
1889, the Nyasaland Protectorate (now Malawi) proclaimed
1890, Britain annexes Rhodesia
1893, Tranvaal annexes Swaziland
1894, Britain annexes Pondoland & acquires protectorate of Uganda; Kipling's “Jungle Book”;
1895, Britain annexes Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia)
1890-6, Rhodes becomes PM of Cape Colony
1896, France annexes Madagascar; Kitchener begins his campaign against the Mahdi in Sudan;
1899, Boer War commences between the guerilla fighting Boers & Britain

Science & technology:

see also history of photography
1800, nitrous oxide; phrenology; Herschel discovers infrared solar rays; Royal College Surgeons founded UK; 1st battery; muskets;
1801, 1st submarine; 1st iron trolley tracks;
1802, Dalton's atomic theory; Herschel disc. binary stars; term “biology” coined;
1803, cerium; Fulton's steam boat; Shrapnel shell;
1804, palladium; 1st dallias in UK;
1805, rockets re-introduced as weapons in UK army; morphine;
1806, electrolytic method of preparing potash & soda; Beaufort's wind scale;
1807, UK prohibits slave trade; gas street lighting in London;
1808, Pompeii excavations begin;
1809, Braille reading system for the blind;
1810, homeopathy; canning food;
1811, Avogadro's molecular composition of gases; Bell's anatomy of the brain; “Luddites” destroy industrial machines in UK;
1812, machine for spinning flax; the ancient hidden Hellenistic city of the Nabataeans called “Petra” is re-discovered by the Western world, in Jordan at the end of a 2km path between a narrow 300m high rocky gorge (the Siq) by Swiss explorer Johann Ludwig Burckhardt.
1813,
1814, Stephenson's 1st practical steam engine;
1815, miner's safety lamp; Fresnel's diffraction of light; UK Apothecaries Act forbids unqualified doctors to practice; crushed stone roads;
1816, kaleidoscope; stethoscope; metronome;
1817, selenium; lithium;
1818, Chubb's detector lock; Encke's comet; cadmium;
1819, isomorphism; flat-bed cylinder press for printing; electromagnetism;
1820, ballown, a form of soccer in US; platinum deposits found in Russia;
1821, electromagnetic rotation fundamentals; thermoelectricity; Wheatstone sound reproduction;
1822, diorama; lenses for lighthouses perfected; 1st iron railroad bridge;
1823, Babbage's calculating machine; chlorine liquefied; Macintosh's waterproof fabric; “The Lancet”;
1824, Portland cement; sperm is essential for fertilisation; electromagnet;
1825, benzene; oxygen-hydrogen limelight; 1st passenger railroad;
1826, Lobachevsky's non-Euclidean geometry; galvanometer; aniline;
1827, mammalian ova; Bright's disease; photographs on a metal plate; Ohm's law; screw propeller; sand filter for water; aluminium;
1828, Abel's elliptic functions; “Promethean match”, organic chemistry; urea synthesis;
1829, breechloading needle gun; electromagnetic motor; Smithsonian Institution; London omnibuses; typewriter;
1830, cell nucleus in plants; geologic time divided into eocene, miocene & pliocene; paraffin;
1831, chloroform; Faraday - electromagnetic induction; friction matches;
1832, creosote;
1833, electromagnetic telegraph; Wheatstone bridge;
1834, Babbage's analytical engine; theory of volcanism; law of electrolysis; reaping machine; phenol;
1835, colt pistol;
1836, voltaic cell that prevents polarisation; acetylene; white phosphorus matches; pepsin; harvester;
1837, Morse's electric telegraph; UK official birth registration;
1838, parallax measurement for a fixed star;
1839, Goodyear's vulcanisation of rubber; electrotyping; lanthanum; ozone; cell-growth theory; electric clock;
1840, artificial fertiliser; beginning of the age of the railway and passenger steamships in England; postage stamps & start of efficient postal services;
1841, hypnosis; spermatazoa; neuron doctrine; standard screw threads proposed;
1842, ether for surgical anaesthesia; strychnine; quinine;
1843, contagious nature of puerperal fever; Joule; erbium; mercerised textiles;
1844, safety match proposed;
1845, hydraulic crane; power loom for carpets; 1st submarine cable across English Channel; combing machine; acetic acid synthesised;
1846, Singer's sewing machine; protoplasm; ether as anaesthetic; nitroglycerine; 1st painted Xmas card; Carl Zeiss optical factory;
1847, Boole's mathematic analysis of logic; evaporated milk;
1848, safety match; appendicectomy;
1849, speed of light; amyl; safety pin;
1850, glycogenic function of the liver; gas burner; 2nd law of thermodynamics & kinetic theory of gases; primary numbers;
1851, ophthalmoscope; high tension induction coil;
1852, plaster bandages; “evolution” 1st used;
1853, hypodermic syringe;
1854, laryngoscope; electric light bulb;
1855, rayon; printing telegraph; tungsten steel; turret lathe;
1856, Bessemer's steel manufacture; cocaine; aniline dye; ductile steel;
1857, Pasteur - fermentation is by living organisms;
1858, Lister - coagulation of blood; mirror galvanometer;
1859, 1st oil well drilled (Pennsylvania), driven by discovery of kerosene synthesis & kerosene lamps as whale oil was on the decline; 1st practical storage battery; steamroller; spectroscope;
1860, caesium; rubidium; 1st practical internal combustion engine; cork linoleum;
1861, thallium; Archaeopteryx skeleton linking reptiles & birds; machine-chilled cold storage unit;
1862, Gatling gun; earth currents; starch is produced by photosynthesis;
1863, paper dress patterns; microstructure of steel & metallurgy; open-hearth steel furnace; player piano;
1864, Bertrand's treatise on differential & integral calculus; pasteurisation (of wine); 1st salmon cannery;
1865, Atlantic cable completed; composition billiard ball replacing ivory; benzene ring theory; antiseptic surgery; ice machine; Mendel's law of heredity; 1st oil pipeline; Pasteur saves French silk industry by curing silkworm disease; carpet sweeper;
1866, dynamite; underwater torpedo;
1867, bicycles; Monier patents reinforced concrete; Sth African diamonds;
1868, Cro-Magnon man skeleton; oleomargarine; lawn mower; air brake;
1869, Galton's eugenics; celluloid; periodic law for elements;
1870, the new automatic train brake allowed trains to stop within 1/10th previous distance & thus allowed faster & heavier trains to be built.
1871, pneumatic rock drill; leprosy bacillus;
1872, Billroth resects oesophagus; Edison's duplex telegraph;
1873, color photography; Remington typewriters;
1874, excavation of Olympia; streptococci; staphylococci; osteopathy; pressure cooking methods;
1875, gallium;
1876, telephone; anthrax bacillus; excavation Mycenae; petrol carburettor;
1877, oxygen liquefied; phonograph; Koch's bacterial staining;
1878, microphone; iodoform as antiseptic; repeater rifle; Benz's motorised tricycle;
1879, electric tram; saccharin; scandium; London's 1st telephone exchange;
1880, Edison's 1st practical electric lights causes start of decline for need for kerosene; malarial parasite; chicken cholera vaccine; electrostatic generator;
1881,
1882, beginnings of psychoanalysis; hydroelectric plant designed; machine gun;
1883, synthetic fibre; Koch's preventative innoculation against anthrax; 10 story skyscraper in Chicago;
1884, phagocytes; tetanus bacillus; 1st practical steam turbine engine; electrical precipitation;
1885, incandescent gas mantle; rabies vaccine; individuality of fingerprints; Benz's single cylinder engine for car; Eastmann's coated photographic paper;
1886, fluorine; aminopyrine; steam sterilisation; aluminium by hydrolysis; hydroelectric installations at Niagara Falls; Coca-Cola invented by Pemberton in Atlanta;
1887, phenacetin; celluloid film;
1888, Tesla's electric motor; Kodak box camera; Dunlop's pneumatic tyre; radio waves; ballpoint pen;
1889, cordite; pancreas secretes insulin; punch card system;
1890, rubber gloves in surgery; antitoxins; 1st moving picture shows;
1891, wireless telegraphy; zipper;
1892, viscose; Diesel's internal combustion engine; automatic telephone switchboard; Swarovski's crystal cutting machine;
1893, Benz's 4 wheel car; Ford's 1st car; coke oven;
1894, cinematograph; horizontal gramophone disc; argon;
1895, X-rays; radio telegraphy; motion picture camera; rocket propulsion principle; machine for liquefaction of air; Gillette safety razor;
1896, helium; radioactivity;
1897, cathode rays; electron;
1898, xenon; krypton; neon; dysentery bacillus; radium; polonium; Zeppelin's airship;
1899, alpha & beta rays; magnetic recording of sound;

¹⁾

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philippine%E2%80%93American_War

Table of Contents

The 19th Century

Overview:

Britain:

Europe:

America:

Asia:

Australia:

New Zealand:

Africa:

Science & technology: