Franco-Prussian War
Defeat at Sedan topples Napoleon III's empire
In July 1870 France declared war on Prussia but was quickly defeated: on 2 September Napoleon III himself was captured at Sedan and France became a republic. Paris surrendered after a siege in January 1871. Victory let Bismarck unify Germany, while France lost Alsace and part of Lorraine.
Wikipedia (English) · 19th century
Meanwhile around the world (±25 years)
Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1853–1856 Crimean War — 17 years earlier
- 1861 Emancipation of the serfs in Russia — 9 years earlier
- 1867 Alaska Purchase — 3 years earlier
- 1869 Tolstoy's War and Peace — 1 year earlier
- 1877 Premiere of Swan Lake — 7 years later
Middle East
- 1876–1878 The first Ottoman constitution — 6 years later
Africa
- 1869 Opening of the Suez Canal — 1 year earlier
- 1879 Battle of Isandlwana — 9 years later
- 1885 The Mahdists take Khartoum — 15 years later
- 1885–1908 The Congo Free State — 15 years later
- 1886 The Witwatersrand Gold Rush — 16 years later
Asia
- 1853–1854 Commodore Perry's Black Ships — 17 years earlier
- 1868 Meiji Restoration — 2 years earlier
- 1876–1878 Great Famine in India — 6 years later
- 1883 Eruption of Krakatoa — 13 years later
- 1885 Founding of the Indian National Congress — 15 years later
Americas
- 1864–1870 Paraguayan War — 6 years earlier
- 1867 Canadian Confederation — 3 years earlier
- 1869 First transcontinental railroad — 1 year earlier
- 1876 Invention of the telephone — 6 years later
- 1879 Edison's incandescent lamp — 9 years later
Oceania
- 1851 The Australian gold rushes — 19 years earlier
- 1893 New Zealand women win the vote — 23 years later
- 1893 Overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom — 23 years later
Alive at the time
- Charles Darwin (aged 61)
- Karl Marx (aged 52)
- Queen Victoria (aged 51)
- Fyodor Dostoevsky (aged 49)
- Leo Tolstoy (aged 42)
- Dmitri Mendeleev (aged 36)
- Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (aged 30)
- Thomas Edison (aged 23)
- Vincent van Gogh (aged 17)
- Nikola Tesla (aged 14)