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Napoleon's rise to power and latent despotism encouraged him to claim the title of Emporer and begin to launch a variety of campagins against the extant European monarchies.
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After Napoleon's defeat at Waterloo, the powers of Europe had to attempt to redistribute land taken by France and restore stability.
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The end of the Napoleonic wars when Napoleon was defeated by a coalition of forces in Waterloo, then part of the Netherlands.
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Revolutions swept through Spain, Portugal, Russia, and Italy in this year.
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The first railway to rely exclusively on steam power, no horses included.
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Revolutions begin in Belgium, the Netherlands, Poland, and France.
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Greece finally achieves independence from the Ottomans after eleven years of fighting.
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Queen Victoria begins her regin, which would last longer than any other British Monarch before or since.
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The famine in Ireland hits, causing 20-25% of the Irish population to starve or emigrate over the course of seven years.
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Economist Karl Marx, author of Das Kapital, publishes his work with co-author Friedrich Engles
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Revolution begins in Sicily and spreads to France, Germany, Italy, and the Austrian Empire
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The Crimean War, a conflict mainly between Russia and the Ottoman Empire begins; it would last until 1856.
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The process of improving the smelting of pig iron into steel.
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The rule of the East India Company was transferred to the British Raj.
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Charles Darwin publishes his controversial treatise on the Theory of Evolution based on his studies of the biodiversity of the Galapagos island chain.
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Czar Alexander, the Last Great Czar, abolishes serfdom in the Russian empire.
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Alfred Nobel took out his patent for dynamite after an explosive period of development.
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Britain allows Canada to be governed by its own Parliament, yetretains control of foreign policy through a stipulation of the confedracy act.
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The establishment of the Dual Monarchy, as Franz Joseph I is named King of Hungary.
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The waterway between the Red Sea and the Mediterranian, built and operated by the French opens to ships.
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The war between the French and the Prussians begins over the issue of German unification. It would last until 1871
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Italy unifies into a single nation.
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Germany unifies as a result of the Franco-Prussian war.
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Czar Alexander is assasinated in the street outside the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg.
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The Scramble for Africa occurs as imperial powers begin to divy up the continent.
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The Dreyfus Affair ends with the conviction of Alfred Dreyfus, an Jewish artillery officer in France of treason.