19th century

◍ Open on the globe

1801 – 1900 · 109 events

What happened around the world

Europe

1804 Coronation of Napoleon — Napoleon crowns himself and the Republic becomes an Empire
1804–1813 First Serbian Uprising — Karađorđe leads the Serbs against Ottoman rule
1805 Battle of Trafalgar — Nelson crushes the Franco-Spanish fleet and dies in battle
1814–1815 Congress of Vienna — Napoleon's victors redraw the map of Europe for decades
1815 Battle of Waterloo — Wellington and Blücher end the Napoleonic era
1816 Year Without a Summer — July snow, failed harvests — and the birth of Frankenstein
1825 First public steam railway — Stephenson's locomotive opens the railway age
1833 Abolition of slavery in the British Empire — Some 800,000 enslaved people are set free
1839 Birth of photography: the daguerreotype — France gives the world a way to capture a moment
1844 Last great auks killed — Collectors pay for rarity — fishermen kill the final pair
1845–1852 Great Famine in Ireland — Potato blight kills a million and drives a million abroad
1848–1849 Revolutions of 1848 — A wave of uprisings sweeps across Europe
1848 The Communist Manifesto — Marx and Engels: “Workers of the world, unite!”
1859 Darwin's On the Origin of Species — Natural selection explains the diversity of life
1861 Unification of Italy — Garibaldi and Cavour forge a single kingdom
1870–1871 Franco-Prussian War — Defeat at Sedan topples Napoleon III's empire
1871 Unification of Germany — Bismarck forges a new great power at Versailles
1871 Paris Commune — Workers rule Paris for two months, then die in the Bloody Week
1874 First Impressionist exhibition — Artists rejected by the Salon give a new movement its name
1876 Yablochkov candle — A simple arc lamp lights the streets of Paris and London
1878 Congress of Berlin — Europe redraws the Balkans after the Russo-Turkish War
1882 Sagrada Família begun — Gaudí's basilica has been under construction for nearly 150 years
1883 Death of the last quagga — The half-striped zebra dies in a zoo, almost unnoticed
1884–1885 Berlin Conference — Europe carves up Africa with no Africans present
1886 Benz's first automobile — A petrol engine replaces the horse
1889 Eiffel Tower — A temporary fair attraction becomes the symbol of Paris
1889 Van Gogh's The Starry Night — The view from an asylum window becomes an iconic painting
1895 Discovery of X-rays — Invisible rays let doctors see inside the body
1895 First Lumière film screening — The first paid film screening — cinema is born
1896 First modern Olympic Games — Coubertin revives the ancient games in Athens

Eastern Europe & Russia

1812 Napoleon's invasion of Russia — The Grande Armée takes Moscow, then perishes in retreat
1825 Decembrist revolt — Officers demand a constitution on Senate Square
1853–1856 Crimean War — Sevastopol falls and Russia loses its Black Sea fleet
1861 Emancipation of the serfs in Russia — Millions of peasants gain personal freedom
1867 Alaska Purchase — Russia cedes its North American territory to the United States
1869 Tolstoy's War and Peace — An epic of the Napoleonic wars — a summit of the novel
1869 Mendeleev's periodic table — Empty squares predict elements yet to be found
1877 Premiere of Swan Lake — Tchaikovsky's flop becomes the world's most famous ballet
1881 Assassination of Alexander II — A People's Will bomb kills the tsar and ends the reform era
1895 Popov's radio receiver — A device catches radio waves — Russia's Radio Day

Middle East

1828 Treaty of Turkmenchay — Persia loses Erivan and Nakhchivan; the border moves to the Aras
1839 The Edict of Gülhane opens the Tanzimat — An edict read in a rose garden promises equality to all subjects
1839–1842 First Anglo-Afghan War — The retreat from Kabul: Britain's worst disaster in Asia
1844 The Báb's declaration and the birth of Bábism — A Shiraz merchant calls himself the “Gate” — Baháʼí roots
1876–1878 The first Ottoman constitution — The empire's first constitution lasted just over a year

Africa

1804–1903 Usman dan Fodio's jihad and the Sokoto Caliphate — A Fulani preacher builds West Africa's largest state
1805–1848 Muhammad Ali becomes ruler of Egypt — An Albanian officer turns Egypt into a regional power
1816 Shaka builds the Zulu Kingdom — New battle tactics unleash the upheaval of the Mfecane
1828–1861 Ranavalona I, Queen of Madagascar — A queen who kept Europe at bay for 33 years
c. 1835–1846 The Great Trek — Thousands of Boers head inland in ox wagons
1847 Liberia declares independence — Africa's first republic, founded by descendants of slaves
1855 Livingstone reaches Victoria Falls — A European first sees the great falls of the Zambezi
1869 Opening of the Suez Canal — Ships from Europe to Asia no longer round Africa
1879 Battle of Isandlwana — Spear-armed Zulus deal Britain one of its worst defeats
1885 The Mahdists take Khartoum — The British relief force arrives just two days too late
1885–1908 The Congo Free State — A Belgian king's private domain built on rubber and terror
1886 The Witwatersrand Gold Rush — A tent camp grows into Johannesburg within a decade
c. 1887–1897 African rinderpest epizootic — An imported plague kills up to 90% of cattle, starving herders
1896 Battle of Adwa — Menelik II routs Italy and keeps Ethiopia free
1897 The British sack Benin City — Thousands of Benin Bronzes end up in Europe's museums

Asia

1815 Eruption of Mount Tambora — The mightiest blast in recorded history cools the whole planet
1817–1824 First cholera pandemic — A Ganges delta disease follows trade routes all the way to Russia
1819 Raffles founds modern Singapore — A fishing island becomes the Empire's free port
1825–1830 Java War — Prince Diponegoro fights the Dutch for five years
c. 1831 Hokusai's Great Wave off Kanagawa — The most recognisable Japanese print in the world
1839–1842 First Opium War — Britain takes Hong Kong as China's century of humiliation begins
1850–1864 Taiping Rebellion — A self-proclaimed brother of Christ challenges the Qing
1853–1854 Commodore Perry's Black Ships — American steamships' guns force open a closed Japan
1857–1858 Indian Rebellion of 1857 — India passes from the Company to direct Crown rule
1868 Meiji Restoration — Isolated Japan races to become a world power
1876–1878 Great Famine in India — Drought kills millions while grain is still exported
1883 Eruption of Krakatoa — A blast heard 4,800 km away, and tsunamis sweep away villages
1885 Founding of the Indian National Congress — 72 delegates in Bombay begin India's road to independence
1891 Discovery of Java Man — An army doctor goes to Java seeking the 'missing link'
1891–1916 Building the Trans-Siberian Railway — Rails link Moscow to the Pacific
1894–1895 First Sino-Japanese War — A modernised Japan defeats the Qing Empire
1894 Yersin identifies the plague bacterium — The Black Death's microbe is found in a straw hut
1896–1898 Philippine Revolution — Asia's first anti-colonial revolution
1899–1901 Boxer Rebellion — Its suppression hastens the fall of the Qing dynasty

Americas

1803 Louisiana Purchase — The US doubled in size for $15 million
1804 Independence of Haiti — Former slaves found a nation of their own
1810–1826 Spanish American wars of independence — Bolívar and San Martín free most of a continent
1817 San Martín's Crossing of the Andes — An army crossed mountains higher than the Alps to free Chile
1822 Independence of Brazil — The Portuguese king's own son freed the colony and became emperor
1835 Darwin in the Galápagos — Five weeks that set evolutionary theory in motion
1838–1839 Trail of Tears — The Cherokee are marched over a thousand kilometres west
1844 Morse telegraph line — For the first time, news outruns the messenger
1846 First public demonstration of ether anaesthesia — Surgery without pain — modern operating begins
1846–1848 Mexican–American War — Mexico loses about half its territory
1848 California Gold Rush — Flakes in a mill race reshaped the American West
1861–1865 American Civil War — The Union survives and slavery is abolished
1863 Emancipation Proclamation — Lincoln declares slaves in the rebel states free
1864–1870 Paraguayan War — The bloodiest war in Latin American history
1867 Canadian Confederation — Canada is born without a war, by an act of Parliament
1869 First transcontinental railroad — A golden spike joins two oceans
1876 Invention of the telephone — Bell sends a voice down a wire — the world starts calling
1879 Edison's incandescent lamp — A carbon filament and a power grid light up cities
1879–1884 War of the Pacific — A war over nitrates left Bolivia landlocked
1888 Golden Law abolishes slavery in Brazil — The last country in the Americas to abolish slavery
1898 Spanish–American War — The Maine explodes in Havana, and Spain's empire ends

Oceania

1807–1837 The Musket Wars — European guns shattered the old balance between the tribes
1810 Kamehameha I unites Hawaii — Rival islands merge into a kingdom that lasts until 1893
1820 Sighting of Antarctica — Bellingshausen and Lazarev see the sixth continent
1840 Treaty of Waitangi — New Zealand passes under the British Crown
1851 The Australian gold rushes — In 20 years the colonies' population nearly quadrupled
1854 The Eureka Rebellion — Gold miners under the Southern Cross demanded the vote
1863–1904 Blackbirding in the Pacific — Tens of thousands of islanders tricked onto plantations
1893 New Zealand women win the vote — The first country where women vote in national elections
1893 Overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom — Planters and US Marines took the throne from a queen

Who ruled

Rus and Russia: Paul I 1796 – 1801, Alexander I 1801 – 1825, Nicholas I 1825 – 1855, Alexander II of Russia 1855 – 1881, Alexander III the Peacemaker 1881 – 1894, Nicholas II 1894 – 1917
England and Britain: George III 1760 – 1820, George IV 1820 – 1830, William IV 1830 – 1837, Queen Victoria 1837 – 1901
Franks and France: First Republic 1792 – 1804, Napoleon Bonaparte 1804 – 1814, Louis XVIII 1814 – 1824, Charles X 1824 – 1830, Louis Philippe I 1830 – 1848, Second Republic 1848 – 1852, Napoleon III 1852 – 1870, Third Republic 1870 – 1940
Holy Roman Empire & Austria: Francis II 1792 – 1835, Ferdinand I of Austria 1835 – 1848, Franz Joseph I 1848 – 1916
Ottoman Empire: Selim III 1789 – 1807, Mustafa IV 1807 – 1808, Mahmud II 1808 – 1839, Abdulmejid I 1839 – 1861, Abdulaziz 1861 – 1876, Abdul Hamid II 1876 – 1909
US presidents: John Adams 1797 – 1801, Thomas Jefferson 1801 – 1809, James Madison 1809 – 1817, James Monroe 1817 – 1825, John Quincy Adams 1825 – 1829, Andrew Jackson 1829 – 1837, Martin Van Buren 1837 – 1841, John Tyler 1841 – 1845, James K. Polk 1845 – 1849, Zachary Taylor 1849 – 1850, Millard Fillmore 1850 – 1853, Franklin Pierce 1853 – 1857, James Buchanan 1857 – 1861, Abraham Lincoln 1861 – 1865, Andrew Johnson 1865 – 1869, Ulysses S. Grant 1869 – 1877, Rutherford B. Hayes 1877 – 1881, Chester A. Arthur 1881 – 1885, Grover Cleveland 1885 – 1889, Benjamin Harrison 1889 – 1893, Grover Cleveland 1893 – 1897, William McKinley 1897 – 1901
China: dynasties: Qing 1644 – 1912
Japan: shoguns & emperors: Tokugawa Ienari 1787 – 1837, Tokugawa Ieyoshi 1837 – 1853, Tokugawa Iesada 1853 – 1858, Tokugawa Iemochi 1858 – 1866, Tokugawa Yoshinobu 1867 – 1868, Emperor Meiji 1868 – 1912
India: empires: Mughal Empire 1526 – 1857, British Raj 1858 – 1947

19th century

What happened around the world

Europe

Eastern Europe & Russia

Middle East

Africa

Asia

Americas

Oceania

Who ruled

Largest states