World History

19th Century (1800s)

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19th century

Antoine-Jean Gros, Surrender of Madrid, 1808. Napoleon enters Spain’s capital during the Peninsular War, 1810.

The 19th (nineteenth) century was a century that began on January 1, 1801, and ended on December 31, 1900. It is often used interchangeably with the 1800s, though the start and end dates differ by a year.

The 19th century saw large amounts of social change; slavery was abolished, and the Second Industrial Revolution led to massive urbanization and much higher levels of productivity, profit and prosperity. European imperialism brought much of Asia and almost all of Africa under colonial rule.

It was marked by the collapse of the Spanish, Napoleonic, Holy Roman and Mughal empires. This paved the way for the growing influence of the British Empire, the Russian Empire, the United States, the German Empire (essentially replacing the Holy Roman Empire), the French colonial empire and Meiji Japan, with the British boasting unchallenged dominance after 1815. After the defeat of the French Empire and its allies in the Napoleonic Wars, the British and Russian empires expanded greatly, becoming the world’s leading powers. The Russian Empire expanded in central and far eastern Asia. The British Empire grew rapidly in the first half of the century, especially with the expansion of vast territories in Canada, Australia, South Africa and heavily populated India, and in the last two decades of the century in Africa. By the end of the century, the British Empire controlled a fifth of the world’s land and one quarter of the world’s population. During the post-Napoleonic era, it enforced what became known as the Pax Britannica, which had ushered in unprecedented globalization and economic integration on a massive scale.

The first electronics appeared in the 19th century, with the introduction of the electric relay in 1835, the telegraph and its Morse code protocol in 1837, the first telephone call in 1876,[1] and the first functional light bulb in 1878.[2]

The 19th century was an era of rapidly accelerating scientific discovery and invention, with significant developments in the fields of mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, electricity, and metallurgy that laid the groundwork for the technological advances of the 20th century.[3] The Industrial Revolution began in Great Britain and spread to continental Europe, North America and Japan.[4] The Victorian era was notorious for the employment of young children in factories and mines, as well as strict social norms regarding modesty and gender roles.[5] Japan embarked on a program of rapid modernization following the Meiji Restoration, before defeating China, under the Qing Dynasty, in the First Sino-Japanese War. Advances in medicine and the understanding of human anatomy and disease prevention took place in the 19th century, and were partly responsible for rapidly accelerating population growth in the western world. Europe’s population doubled during the 19th century, from approximately 200 million to more than 400 million.[6] The introduction of railroads provided the first major advancement in land transportation for centuries, changing the way people lived and obtained goods, and fuelling major urbanization movements in countries across the globe. Numerous cities worldwide surpassed populations of a million or more during this century. London became the world’s largest city and capital of the British Empire. Its population increased from 1 million in 1800 to 6.7 million a century later. The last remaining undiscovered landmasses of Earth, including vast expanses of interior Africa and Asia, were explored during this century, and with the exception of the extreme zones of the Arctic and Antarctic, accurate and detailed maps of the globe were available by the 1890s. Liberalism became the pre-eminent reform movement in Europe.[7]

Arab slave traders and their captives along the Ruvuma river (in today’s Tanzania and Mozambique), 19th century

Slavery was greatly reduced around the world. Following a successful slave revolt in Haiti, Britain and France stepped up the battle against the Barbary pirates and succeeded in stopping their enslavement of Europeans. The UK’s Slavery Abolition Act charged the British Royal Navy with ending the global slave trade.[8] The first colonial empire in the century to abolish slavery was the British, who did so in 1834. America’s 13th Amendment following their Civil War abolished slavery there in 1865, and in Brazil slavery was abolished in 1888 (see Abolitionism). Similarly, serfdom was abolished in Russia.

The 19th century was remarkable in the widespread formation of new settlement foundations which were particularly prevalent across North America and Australia, with a significant proportion of the two continents’ largest cities being founded at some point in the century. Chicago in the United States and Melbourne in Australia were non-existent in the earliest decades but grew to become the 2nd largest cities in the United States and British Empire respectively by the end of the century. In the 19th century approximately 70 million people left Europe, with most migrating to the United States.[9]

The 19th century also saw the rapid creation, development and codification of many sports, particularly in Britain and the United States. Association football, rugby union, baseball and many other sports were developed during the 19th century, while the British Empire facilitated the rapid spread of sports such as cricket to many different parts of the world. Also, ladywear was a very sensitive topic during this time, where women showing their ankles was viewed to be scandalous.

The boundaries set by the Congress of Vienna, 1815.

It also marks the fall of the Ottoman rule of the Balkans which led to the creation of Serbia, Bulgaria, Montenegro and Romania as a result of the second Russo-Turkish War, which in itself followed the great Crimean War.

Eras[edit]

Map of the world from 1897. The British Empire (marked in pink) was the superpower of the 19th century.

Wars[edit]

Napoleonic Wars[edit]

Main article: Napoleonic Wars
See also: Timeline of the Napoleonic era

Napoleon‘s retreat from Russia in 1812. The war swings decisively against the French Empire

The Napoleonic Wars were a series of major conflicts from 1803 to 1815 pitting the French Empire and its allies, led by Napoleon I, against a fluctuating array of European powers formed into various coalitions, financed and usually led by the United Kingdom. The wars stemmed from the unresolved disputes associated with the French Revolution and its resultant conflict.

In the aftermath of the French Revolution, Napoleon Bonaparte gained power in France in 1799. In 1804, he crowned himself Emperor of the French.

In 1805, the French victory over an Austrian-Russian army at the Battle of Austerlitz ended the War of the Third Coalition. As a result of the Treaty of Pressburg, the Holy Roman Empire was dissolved.

Later efforts were less successful. In the Peninsular War, France unsuccessfully attempted to establish Joseph Bonaparte as King of Spain. In 1812, the French invasion of Russia had massive French casualties, and was a turning point in the Napoleonic Wars.

In 1814, after defeat in the War of the Sixth Coalition, Napoleon abdicated and was exiled to Elba. Later that year, he escaped exile and began the Hundred Days before finally being defeated at the Battle of Waterloo and exiled to Saint Helena, an island in the South Atlantic Ocean.

After Napoleon’s defeat, the Congress of Vienna was held to determine new national borders. The Concert of Europe attempted to preserve this settlement was established to preserve these borders, with limited impact.

Latin American independence[edit]

Main articles: Latin American wars of independence and Spanish American wars of independence
Portrait of the Chilean declaration of independence

The Chilean Declaration of Independence on 18 February 1818

Most countries in Central America and South America obtained independence from colonial overlords during the 19th century. In 1804, Haiti gained independence from France. In Mexico, the Mexican War of Independence was a decade-long conflict that ended in Mexican independence in 1821.

Due to the Napoleonic Wars, the royal family of Portugal relocated to Brazil from 1808-1821, leading to Brazil having a separate monarchy from Portugal.

The Federal Republic of Central America gained independence from Spain in 1821 and from Mexico in 1823. After several rebellions, by 1841 the federation had dissolved into the independent countries of Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica.[10]

In 1830, the post-colonial nation of Gran Colombia dissolved and the nations of Colombia (including modern-day Panama), Ecuador, and Venezuela took its place.

Revolutions of 1848[edit]

Liberal and nationalist pressure led to the European revolutions of 1848

The Revolutions of 1848 were a series of political upheavals throughout Europe in 1848. The revolutions were essentially democratic and liberal in nature, with the aim of removing the old monarchical structures and creating independent nation states.

The first revolution began in January in Sicily.[clarification needed] Revolutions then spread across Europe after a separate revolution began in France in February. Over 50 countries were affected, but with no coordination or cooperation among their respective revolutionaries.

According to Evans and von Strandmann (2000), some of the major contributing factors were widespread dissatisfaction with political leadership, demands for more participation in government and democracy, demands for freedom of the press, other demands made by the working class, the upsurge of nationalism, and the regrouping of established government forces.[11]

Abolition and the American Civil War[edit]

Main articles: Abolitionism and American Civil War

William Wilberforce (1759–1833), politician and philanthropist who was a leader of the movement to abolish the slave trade.

The abolitionism movement achieved success in the 19th century. The Atlantic slave trade was abolished in 1808, and by the end of the century, almost every government had banned slavery. The Slavery Abolition Act of 1833 banned slavery throughout the British Empire, and the Lei Áurea abolished slavery in Brazil in 1888.

The American Civil War took place from 1861-1865. Eleven southern states seceded from the United States, largely over concerns related to slavery. In 1863, President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation. Lincoln issued a preliminary [12] on September 22, 1862 warning that in all states still in rebellion (Confederacy) on January 1, 1863, he would declare their slaves “then, thenceforward, and forever free.”[13] The Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution,[14] ratified in 1865, officially abolished slavery in the entire country.

Five days after Robert E. Lee surrendered at Appomattox Courthouse, Virginia, Lincoln was assassinated by actor and Confederate sympathiser John Wilkes Booth.

Decline of the Ottoman Empire[edit]

In 1830, Greece became the first country to break away from the Ottoman Empire after the Greek War of Independence. In 1831, the Great Bosnian uprising against Ottoman rule occurred. In 1817, the Principality of Serbia became suzerain from the Ottoman Empire, and in 1867, it passed a Constitution which defined its independence from the Ottoman Empire. In 1876, Bulgarians instigate the April Uprising against Ottoman rule. Following the Russo-Turkish War, the Treaty of Berlin recognized the formal independence of the Principality of Serbia, Montenegro and Romania. Bulgaria becomes autonomous.

China: Taiping Rebellion[edit]

A scene of the Taiping Rebellion.

The Taiping Rebellion was the bloodiest conflict of the 19th century, leading to the deaths of 20 million people. Its leader, Hong Xiuquan, declared himself the younger brother of Jesus Christ and developed a new Chinese religion known as the God Worshipping Society. After proclaiming the establishment of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom in 1851, the Taiping army conquered a large part of China, capturing Nanjing in 1853. In 1864, after the death of Hong Xiuquan, Qing forces recaptured Nanjing and ended the rebellion.[15]

Japan: Meiji Restoration[edit]

Main article: Meiji Restoration

During the Edo period, Japan largely pursued an isolationist foreign policy. In 1853, United States Navy Commodore Matthew C. Perry threatened the Japanese capital Edo with gunships, demanding that they agree to open trade. This led to the opening of trade relations between Japan and foreign countries, with the policy of Sakokuformally ended in 1854.

By 1872, the Japanese government under Emperor Meiji had eliminated the daimyō system and established a strong central government. Further reforms included the abolishment of the samurai class, rapid industrialization and modernization of government, closely following European models.[16]

Colonialism[edit]

Arrival of Marshal Randon in Algiers, French Algeria in 1857

Main articles: Western imperialism in Asia and Scramble for Africa

In 1862, French gained its first foothold in Southeast Asia, and in 1863 France annexes Cambodia.

Africa[edit]

In Africa, European exploration and technology led to the colonization of almost the entire continent by 1898. New medicines such as quinine and more advanced firearms allowed European nations to conquer native populations.[17]

Motivations for the Scramble for Africa included national pride, desire for raw materials, and Christian missionary activity. Britain seized control of Egypt to ensure control of the Suez Canal. France, Belgium, Portugal, and Germany also had substantial colonies. The Berlin Conference of 1884-1885 attempted to reach agreement on colonial borders in Africa, but disputes continued, both amongst European powers and in resistance by the native population.[17]

In 1867, diamonds were discovered in the Kimberley region of South Africa. In 1886, gold was discovered in Transvaal. This led to colonization in Southern Africa by the British and business interests, led by Cecil Rhodes.[17]

Other Wars[edit]

Science and technology[edit]

Leslie - physics Francis Baily - astronomer Playfair - Uniformitarianism Rutherford - Nitrogen Dollond - Optics Young - modulus etc Brown - Brownian motion Gilbert - Royal Society president Banks - Botanist Kater - measured gravity ?? Howard - Chemical Engineer Dundonald - propellors William Allen - Pharmacist Henry - Gas law Wollaston - Palladium and Rhodium Hatchett - Niobium Davy - Chemist Maudslay - modern lathe Bentham - machinery ? Rumford - thermodynamics Murdock - sun and planet gear Rennie - Docks, canals & bridges Jessop - Canals Mylne - Blackfriars bridge Congreve - rockets Donkin - engineer Henry Fourdrinier - Paper making machine Thomson - atoms William Symington - first steam boat Miller - steam boat Nasmyth - painter and scientist Nasmyth2 Bramah - Hydraulics Trevithick Herschel - Uranus Maskelyne - Astronomer Royal Jenner - Smallpox vaccine Cavendish Dalton - atoms Brunel - Civil Engineer Boulton - Steam Huddart - Rope machine Watt - Steam engine Telford Crompton - spinning machine Tennant - Industrial Chemist Cartwright - Power loom Ronalds - Electric telegraph Stanhope - Inventor Use your cursor to explore (or Click icon to enlarge)

Distinguished Men of Science.[19] Use your cursor to see who is who.[20]

The 19th century saw the birth of science as a profession; the term scientist was coined in 1833 by William Whewell,[21] which soon replaced the older term of (natural) philosopher. Among the most influential ideas of the 19th century were those of Charles Darwin (alongside the independent researches of Alfred Russel Wallace), who in 1859 published the book The Origin of Species, which introduced the idea of evolution by natural selection. Another important landmark in medicine and biology were the successful efforts to prove the germ theory of disease. Following this, Louis Pasteur made the first vaccine against rabies, and also made many discoveries in the field of chemistry, including the asymmetry of crystals. In chemistry, Dmitri Mendeleev, following the atomic theory of John Dalton, created the first periodic table of elements. In physics, the experiments, theories and discoveries of Michael Faraday, André-Marie Ampère, James Clerk Maxwell, and their contemporaries led to the creation of electromagnetism as a new branch of science. Thermodynamics led to an understanding of heat and the notion of energy was defined. Other highlights include the discoveries unveiling the nature of atomic structure and matter, simultaneously with chemistry – and of new kinds of radiation. In astronomy, the planet Neptune was discovered. In mathematics, the notion of complex numbers finally matured and led to a subsequent analytical theory; they also began the use of hypercomplex numbers. Karl Weierstrass and others carried out the arithmetization of analysis for functions of real and complex variables. It also saw rise to new progress in geometry beyond those classical theories of Euclid, after a period of nearly two thousand years. The mathematical science of logic likewise had revolutionary breakthroughs after a similarly long period of stagnation. But the most important step in science at this time were the ideas formulated by the creators of electrical science. Their work changed the face of physics and made possible for new technology to come about: Thomas Alva Edison gave the world a practical everyday lightbulb. Nikola Tesla pioneered the induction motor, high frequency transmission of electricity, and remote control. Other new inventions were electrical telegraphy and the telephone.

Michael Faraday (1791–1867)

Medicine[edit]

Robert Koch discovered the tuberculosis bacilli. The disease killed an estimated 25 percent of the adult population of Europe during the 19th century.[22]

Inventions[edit]

Thomas Edison was an American inventor, scientist, and businessman who developed many devices that greatly influenced life around the world, including the phonograph, the motion picture camera, and a long-lasting, practical electric light bulb.

First motor bus in history: the Benz Omnibus, built in 1895 for the Netphener bus company

Religion[edit]

Culture[edit]

The Great Exhibition in London. Starting during the 18th century, the United Kingdom was the first country in the world to industrialise.

Russian writer Leo Tolstoy, author of War and Peace and Anna Karenina

Literature[edit]

Main articles: Romantic poetry and 19th century in literature

On the literary front the new century opens with romanticism, a movement that spread throughout Europe in reaction to 18th-century rationalism, and it develops more or less along the lines of the Industrial Revolution, with a design to react against the dramatic changes wrought on nature by the steam engine and the railway. William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge are considered the initiators of the new school in England, while in the continent the German Sturm und Drang spreads its influence as far as Italy and Spain. French arts had been hampered by the Napoleonic Wars but subsequently developed rapidly. Modernism began.[23]

The Goncourts and Émile Zola in France and Giovanni Verga in Italy produce some of the finest naturalist novels. Italian naturalist novels are especially important in that they give a social map of the new unified Italy to a people that until then had been scarcely aware of its ethnic and cultural diversity. There was a huge literary output during the 19th century. Some of the most famous writers included the Russians Alexander Pushkin, Nikolai Gogol, Leo Tolstoy, Anton Chekhov and Fyodor Dostoyevsky; the English Charles Dickens, John Keats, Alfred, Lord Tennyson and Jane Austen; the Scottish Sir Walter Scott; the Irish Oscar Wilde; the Americans Edgar Allan Poe, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Mark Twain; and the French Victor Hugo, Honoré de Balzac, Jules Verne, Alexandre Dumas and Charles Baudelaire.[24]

Photography[edit]

One of the first photographs, produced in 1826 by Nicéphore Niépce

Nadar, Self-portrait, c. 1860

See also: History of photography, List of photojournalists, Photojournalism, and Daguerreotype

Visual artists, painters, sculptors[edit]

Main articles: History of painting, Western painting, and Ukiyo-e

Francisco Goya, The Third of May 1808, 1814

Eugène Delacroix, Liberty Leading the People, 1830

Vincent van Gogh, self-portrait, 1889

The Realism and Romanticism of the early 19th century gave way to Impressionism and Post-Impressionism in the later half of the century, with Paris being the dominant art capital of the world. In the United States the Hudson River School was prominent. 19th-century painters included:

Music[edit]

Main articles: List of Romantic-era composers, Romantic music, and Romanticism

Ludwig van Beethoven

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

Sonata form matured during the Classical era to become the primary form of instrumental compositions throughout the 19th century. Much of the music from the 19th century was referred to as being in the Romantic style. Many great composers lived through this era such as Ludwig van Beethoven, Franz Liszt, Frédéric Chopin, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and Richard Wagner. The list includes:

Sports[edit]

1801–1850[edit]

1819: 29 January, Stamford Raffles arrives in Singapore with William Farquhar to establish a trading post for the British East India Company. 8 February, The treaty is signed between Sultan Hussein of Johor, Temenggong Abdul Rahman and Stamford Raffles. Farquhar is installed as the first Resident of the settlement.

Decembrists at the Senate Square.

Emigrants leaving Ireland. From 1830 to 1914, almost 5 million Irish people went to the United States alone.

1851–1900[edit]

The first vessels sail through the Suez Canal

A barricade in the Paris Commune, 18 March 1871. Around 30,000 Parisians were killed, and thousands more were later executed.

Black Friday, 9 May 1873, Vienna Stock Exchange. The Panic of 1873 and Long Depression followed.

Studio portrait of Ilustradosin Europe, c. 1890

For later events, see Timeline of the 20th century.

Significant people[edit]

Abraham Lincoln in 1863, 16th President of the United States, presided during the American Civil War, assassinated in April 1865

Tsar Alexander II, also known as Alexander the Liberator, was the Emperor of the Russian Empire from 3 March 1855 until his assassination in 1881

Otto von Bismarck, the Iron Chancellor

Show business and theatre[edit]

Sarah Bernhardt, 1877

Konstantin Stanislavski

P. T. Barnum, c. 1860

Business[edit]

J. P. Morgan in his earlier years

Andrew Carnegie

Main articles: Robber baron (industrialist) and business magnate

Anthropology, archaeology, scholars[edit]

Heinrich Schliemann, Archaeologist

Franz Boas one of the pioneers of modern anthropology

Journalists, missionaries, explorers[edit]

Roald Amundsen

Philosophy and religion[edit]

Karl Marx

Friedrich Nietzsche

The 19th century was host to a variety of religious and philosophical thinkers, including:

Politics and the Military[edit]

The last shōgun Tokugawa Yoshinobu, c. 1867

Sojourner Truth, 1870

The allies: Sultan of the Ottoman Empire; Abdulmecid I, Queen of United Kingdom, Victoria and President of France, Napoleon III.

Composers[edit]

Supplementary portrait gallery[edit]

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