Unification of Germany
Bismarck forges a new great power at Versailles
.jpg?width=640)
On 18 January 1871, after victory over France, King Wilhelm I of Prussia was proclaimed German Emperor in the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles. Unification under Otto von Bismarck created a new great power at the heart of Europe.
Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 19th century
Meanwhile around the world (±25 years)
Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1853–1856 Crimean War — 18 years earlier
- 1861 Emancipation of the serfs in Russia — 10 years earlier
- 1867 Alaska Purchase — 4 years earlier
- 1869 Tolstoy's War and Peace — 2 years earlier
- 1877 Premiere of Swan Lake — 6 years later
Middle East
- 1876–1878 The first Ottoman constitution — 5 years later
Africa
- 1869 Opening of the Suez Canal — 2 years earlier
- 1879 Battle of Isandlwana — 8 years later
- 1885 The Mahdists take Khartoum — 14 years later
- 1885–1908 The Congo Free State — 14 years later
- 1886 The Witwatersrand Gold Rush — 15 years later
Asia
- 1853–1854 Commodore Perry's Black Ships — 18 years earlier
- 1868 Meiji Restoration — 3 years earlier
- 1876–1878 Great Famine in India — 5 years later
- 1883 Eruption of Krakatoa — 12 years later
- 1885 Founding of the Indian National Congress — 14 years later
Americas
- 1864–1870 Paraguayan War — 7 years earlier
- 1867 Canadian Confederation — 4 years earlier
- 1869 First transcontinental railroad — 2 years earlier
- 1876 Invention of the telephone — 5 years later
- 1879 Edison's incandescent lamp — 8 years later
Oceania
- 1851 The Australian gold rushes — 20 years earlier
- 1893 New Zealand women win the vote — 22 years later
- 1893 Overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom — 22 years later
Alive at the time
- Charles Darwin (aged 62)
- Karl Marx (aged 53)
- Queen Victoria (aged 52)
- Fyodor Dostoevsky (aged 50)
- Leo Tolstoy (aged 43)
- Dmitri Mendeleev (aged 37)
- Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (aged 31)
- Thomas Edison (aged 24)
- Vincent van Gogh (aged 18)
- Nikola Tesla (aged 15)