War of the Pacific
A war over nitrates left Bolivia landlocked
A dispute over taxes on nitrate mining in the Atacama Desert pitted Chile against Bolivia and its ally Peru in 1879. Chile's navy won control of the sea, and in 1881 its army entered Lima. Chile took the nitrate-rich provinces, and Bolivia lost its coastline, a loss it still regards as a national wound.
Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 19th century
Meanwhile around the world (±25 years)
Europe
- 1861 Unification of Italy — 18 years earlier
- 1874 First Impressionist exhibition — 5 years earlier
- 1878 Congress of Berlin — 1 year earlier
- 1886 Benz's first automobile — 7 years later
- 1889 Eiffel Tower — 10 years later
Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1861 Emancipation of the serfs in Russia — 18 years earlier
- 1867 Alaska Purchase — 12 years earlier
- 1869 Tolstoy's War and Peace — 10 years earlier
- 1877 Premiere of Swan Lake — 2 years earlier
- 1895 Popov's radio receiver — 16 years later
Middle East
- 1876–1878 The first Ottoman constitution — 3 years earlier
Africa
- 1869 Opening of the Suez Canal — 10 years earlier
- 1879 Battle of Isandlwana — same year
- 1885 The Mahdists take Khartoum — 6 years later
- 1885–1908 The Congo Free State — 6 years later
- 1886 The Witwatersrand Gold Rush — 7 years later
Asia
- 1868 Meiji Restoration — 11 years earlier
- 1876–1878 Great Famine in India — 3 years earlier
- 1883 Eruption of Krakatoa — 4 years later
- 1885 Founding of the Indian National Congress — 6 years later
- 1891 Discovery of Java Man — 12 years later
Oceania
- 1893 New Zealand women win the vote — 14 years later
- 1893 Overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom — 14 years later
Alive at the time
- Charles Darwin (aged 70)
- Karl Marx (aged 61)
- Queen Victoria (aged 60)
- Fyodor Dostoevsky (aged 58)
- Leo Tolstoy (aged 51)
- Dmitri Mendeleev (aged 45)
- Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (aged 39)
- Thomas Edison (aged 32)
- Vincent van Gogh (aged 26)
- Nikola Tesla (aged 23)