Golden Law abolishes slavery in Brazil
The last country in the Americas to abolish slavery
On 13 May 1888 Princess Regent Isabel signed a law of two short articles abolishing slavery with no compensation. By various estimates around 700,000 people were freed. Over three centuries Brazil had received more enslaved Africans than any other country in the Americas. Resentful planters turned against the monarchy, which was overthrown a year and a half later.
Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 19th century
Did you know
Russia abolished serfdom in 1861 and the USA slavery in 1865; Brazil was the last country in the Americas to abolish slavery, only in 1888.
Meanwhile around the world (±25 years)
Europe
- 1884–1885 Berlin Conference — 4 years earlier
- 1886 Benz's first automobile — 2 years earlier
- 1889 Eiffel Tower — 1 year later
- 1889 Van Gogh's The Starry Night — 1 year later
- 1905 Einstein's miracle year and relativity — 17 years later
Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1869 Tolstoy's War and Peace — 19 years earlier
- 1877 Premiere of Swan Lake — 11 years earlier
- 1895 Popov's radio receiver — 7 years later
- 1905–1907 Russian Revolution of 1905 — 17 years later
- 1908 Tunguska event — 20 years later
Middle East
- 1876–1878 The first Ottoman constitution — 12 years earlier
- 1905–1911 Persian Constitutional Revolution — 17 years later
- 1908 Oil struck at Masjed Soleyman — 20 years later
- 1908 Young Turk Revolution — 20 years later
Africa
- 1879 Battle of Isandlwana — 9 years earlier
- 1885 The Mahdists take Khartoum — 3 years earlier
- 1885–1908 The Congo Free State — 3 years earlier
- 1886 The Witwatersrand Gold Rush — 2 years earlier
- 1897 The British sack Benin City — 9 years later
Asia
- 1883 Eruption of Krakatoa — 5 years earlier
- 1885 Founding of the Indian National Congress — 3 years earlier
- 1891 Discovery of Java Man — 3 years later
- 1894–1895 First Sino-Japanese War — 6 years later
- 1894 Yersin identifies the plague bacterium — 6 years later
Oceania
- 1893 New Zealand women win the vote — 5 years later
- 1893 Overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom — 5 years later
- 1911 Amundsen reaches the South Pole — 23 years later
- 1912 The death of Scott's polar party — 24 years later
Alive at the time
- Queen Victoria (aged 69)
- Leo Tolstoy (aged 60)
- Dmitri Mendeleev (aged 54)
- Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (aged 48)
- Thomas Edison (aged 41)
- Vincent van Gogh (aged 35)
- Nikola Tesla (aged 32)
- Marie Curie (aged 21)
- Mahatma Gandhi (aged 19)
- Vladimir Lenin (aged 18)