19th Century

As a means of recording the passage of time, the 19th century was that century which lasted from 1801-1900.

Events

• The Little Ice Age ended.
• Napoleon, who conquers much of Europe, is ultimately defeated in 1815; some old European regimes are restored, others not.
• The modern city of Singapore is established when Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles of the English East India Company acquires land on the island from the Sultan of Johore in 1819.
• The Libertadores lead most of Latin America to independence.
• Industrial Revolution continues and spreads, developments include the Rail Transport, telegraph, and telephone.
• Belgium becomes independent in 1830 after a massive uprising against the Dutch. Leopold becomes the first king of Belgium.
• Belgium will be the second industrial power in the world by the middle of the 19th century.
• Leopold II, son of Leopold, becomes the second king of Belgium. He buys the gigantic territory of Congo in Africa with his own fortune and will later (1908) offer it to Belgium.
• Discovery of the relationships between magnetism and electricity and light by Hans Christian Ørsted and James Clerk Maxwell. (See:electromagnetism)
• Mass migration from Europe to the United States.
• During the reign of Queen Victoria, the United Kingdom experiences the Victorian Age, which is the age in which the United Kingdom is the leading economic power in the world.
• Political revolution and constitutional reform across Europe severely limits powers of monarchs, advances democracy.
• The religious revival of the Second Great Awakening in the eastern United States and Canada gives rise to unique, American, Christian religions during the era of Restorationism
• Gold discovered in Australia and throughout the west of the United States, leading to huge increases in national wealth and encouraging mass migration of free settlers there.
• Slavery ended in British colonies and in America. See American Civil War. End of global slave trade enforced by British navy.
• Charles Darwin revolutionizes biology with his theories of evolution, 1858.
• Europeans conquer and colonize most of Africa and parts of Asia.
• Karl Marx writes the Communist Manifesto, encouraging workers to revolt against owners.
• Meiji Restoration in 1868 opens Japan to modern influences and returns the emperor to power.
• Germany and Italy are formed as nations.
• Railroads make fast mass transit available to many. Transcontinental railroads built, including the Panama Railway in 1855, the US Transcontinental Railroad finished in 1869 linking east to west in the United States, and the Canadian National Railway in 1885.
• The Suez Canal is opened, connecting Europe and the Mediterranean to the Indian Ocean and Asia in 1869.
• The British begin their so-called "forward movement" to extend control over the Malay States with the signing of the Pangkor Treaty in 1874.
• The electric telegraph and undersea cables make instant global communication possible for the first time.
• Postage Stamps introduced in Great Britain and soon thereafter, in many other countries.
• Manufactured goods become widely available by mail order

Significant people

World leaders

• Alexander II of Russia, Tsar
• Otto von Bismarck, German politician
• Simón Bolívar South American Liberator
• Empress Dowager Cixi of China
• Abraham Lincoln, US president
• Napoleon Bonaparte, French emperor
• Napoleon III, French Emperor
• José de San Martín, South American Liberator
• Queen Victoria, monarch of the British Empire

Scientists

• Charles Darwin, biologist
• Thomas Alva Edison, inventor
• Gottlob Frege, mathematician, logician and philosopher
• Louis Pasteur, biologist
• Dr. John Snow, the founder of epidemiology

Artists

• Ludwig van Beethoven, composer
• Samuel Taylor Coleridge, poet, critic, thinker
• Charles Dickens, author
• Benjamin Disraeli, novelist and politician
• Antonio de La Gandara, painter
• Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, author, thinker
• Victor Hugo, author
• Edgar Allan Poe, author
• Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens), author
• Giuseppe Verdi, composer
• Richard Wagner, composer

Religious figures

• Joseph Smith, Jr., religious leader, founder of Mormonism
• Brigham Young, Mormon religious leader
• Nikolai of Japan, religious leader who introduced the Eastern Orthodox into Japan.

• Giuseppe Garibaldi, unifier of Italy
• Karl Marx, political philosopher and economist
• William Morris, social reformer
• Friedrich Nietzsche, philosopher

Inventions, Discoveries, Introductions

• Automobile
• Electric light
• Motion pictures
• Phonograph
• Photography
• Repetition rifle
• Railroad Locomotive
• Steamship
• Telegraph
• Telephone

Decades and Years

1790s	1790	1791	1792	1793	1794	1795	1796	1797	1798	1799
1800s	1800	1801	1802	1803	1804	1805	1806	1807	1808	1809
1810s	1810	1811	1812	1813	1814	1815	1816	1817	1818	1819
1820s	1820	1821	1822	1823	1824	1825	1826	1827	1828	1829
1830s	1830	1831	1832	1833	1834	1835	1836	1837	1838	1839
1840s	1840	1841	1842	1843	1844	1845	1846	1847	1848	1849
1850s	1850	1851	1852	1853	1854	1855	1856	1857	1858	1859
1860s	1860	1861	1862	1863	1864	1865	1866	1867	1868	1869
1870s	1870	1871	1872	1873	1874	1875	1876	1877	1878	1879
1880s	1880	1881	1882	1883	1884	1885	1886	1887	1888	1889
1890s	1890	1891	1892	1893	1894	1895	1896	1897	1898	1899
1900s	1900	1901	1902	1903	1904	1905	1906	1907	1908	1909

Referenced By