Timeline and events of the 19th century

By verok

  • Thomas Jefferson elected President of the United States

    Thomas Jefferson elected President of the United States by the House of Representatives, following a tie in the Electoral College – United States.

  • The Kingdom of Great Britain and the Kingdom of Ireland merge to form the United Kingdom.

  • War breaks out between Britain and France.

    This is considered by some to be the beginning of the Napoleonic Wars.

  • Napoleon crowns himself Emperor of the French.

  • First steam locomotive begins operation

  • The Battle of Trafalgar eliminates the French and Spanish naval fleets.

    The Battle of Trafalgar eliminates the French and Spanish naval fleets and allows for British dominance of the seas, a major factor for the success of the British Empire later in the century.

  • Britain declares the Slave Trade illegal.

  • Beethoven performs his Fifth Symphony.

  • Most of the Latin American colonies free themselves.

    Most of the Latin American colonies free themselves from the Spanish and Portuguese Empires after the Latin American wars of independence.

  • The University of Berlin was founded.

    The University of Berlin was founded. Among its students and faculty are Hegel, Marx, and Bismarck. The German university reform proves to be so successful that its model is copied around the world

  • War of 1812 between the United States and Britain.

    War of 1812 between the United States and Britain; ends in a draw, except that Native Americans lose power

  • Jane Austen published Pride and Prejudice

  • Napoleon escapes.

    Napoleon escapes exile and begins the Hundred Days before finally being defeated at the Battle of Waterloo and exiled to St Helena. His defeat brings a conclusion to the Napoleonic Wars.

  • Independence of Argentina.

  • Mary Shelley publishes Frankenstein.

  • The modern city of Singapore is established by the British East India Company.

  • Regency period ends in the United Kingdom.

  • Mexico gains independence from Spain with the Treaty of Córdoba and Peru declares its independence from Spain.

  • Brazilian independence .

    Prince Pedro of Brazil proclaimed the Brazilian independence on 7 September. On 1 December, he was crowned as Emperor Dom Pedro I of Brazil.

  • Independence of Bolivia

  • 1825–1828: The Cisplatine War results in the independence of Uruguay.

  • The Stockton and Darlington Railway, the first public railway in the world, is opened.

  • Robert Peel founds the Metropolitan Police Service, the first modern police force

  • First electric motor built.

  • Opening of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway

  • 1831–1836: Charles Darwin's journey aboard HMS Beagle.

  • Slavery Abolition Act bans slavery throughout the British Empire.

  • Britain amends the Poor Law demanding that any paupers requesting assistance must go to a workhouse.

  • Charles Dickens publishes Oliver Twist.

  • 1837–1901: Queen Victoria's reign is considered the apex of the British Empire and is referred to as the Victorian era.

  • Telegraphy patented.

  • Civil war in the Federal Republic of Central America led to the foundings of Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica.

  • After the First and Second Opium Wars, France, the United Kingdom, the United States and Russia gain many trade and associated concessions from China resulting in the start of the decline of the Qing dynasty.

  • Railway Mania sweeps UK and Ireland.

  • Anaesthesia used for the first time.

  • The first wagon train sets out from Missouri.

  • The Irish Potato Famine leads to the Irish diaspora

  • The New Zealand Wars.

  • Ignaz Semmelweis proposes hand washing as a way to stop the spread of diseases.

  • Seneca Falls Convention is the first women's rights convention in the United States and leads to the battle for women's suffrage.

  • California Gold Rush.

  • The Communist Manifesto published

  • The Platine War ends .

    The Empire of Brazil has hegemony over South America.

  • Herman Melville publishes Moby-Dick.

  • Crimean War between France, the United Kingdom, the Ottoman Empire and Russia

  • Bessemer process enables steel to be mass-produced.

  • The British Empire assumes control of India from the East India Company.

  • American Civil War between the Union and seceding Confederacy.

  • Victor Hugo publishes Les Misérables

  • United States President Abraham Lincoln issues the Emancipation Proclamation.

    Lincoln issued a preliminary on September 22, 1862, warning that in all states still in rebellion (Confederacy) on January 1, 1863, he would declare their slaves "then, thenceforward, and forever free." The Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, ratified in 1865, officially abolished slavery in the entire country.

  • First section of the London Underground opens.

  • Formation of the International Red Cross is followed by the adoption of the First Geneva Convention in 1864.

  • The Chincha Islands War was an attempt by Spain to regain its South American colonies

  • Reconstruction in the United States; Slavery is banned in the United States by the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.

  • United States President Abraham Lincoln is assassinated by actor and Confederate sympathiser John Wilkes Booth, while attending a performance at Ford's Theater, Washington, D.C.. He dies approximately nine hours after being shot on 15 April 1865.

  • Gregor Mendel formulates his laws of inheritance.

  • Austro-Prussian War results in the dissolution of the German Confederation and the creation of the North German Confederation and the Austrian-Hungarian Dual Monarchy.

  • Alfred Nobel invents dynamite.

  • Canadian Confederation formed.

  • Ten Years' War between Cuba and Spain.

  • First Transcontinental Railroad completed in United States on 10 May. – United States

  • Dmitri Mendeleev created the Periodic table.

  • The Franco-Prussian War results in the unifications of Germany and Italy, the collapse of the Second French Empire and the emergence of a New Imperialism.

  • Second Industrial Revolution

  • The Panic of 1873 starts the "Long Depression"

  • The British East India Company is dissolved

  • The massive expansion in population, territory, industry and wealth in the United States is referred to as the Gilded Age.

  • Queen Victoria becomes Empress of India.

  • Chile battles with Peru and Bolivia over Andean territory in the War of the Pacific.

  • Thomas Edison tests his first light bulb.

  • Krakatoa volcano explosion, one of the largest in modern history.

  • Karl Benz produced first car with internal combustion engine.

  • Arthur Conan Doyle publishes his first Sherlock Holmes story, A Study in Scarlet.

  • Slavery banned in Brazil.

  • The Wounded Knee Massacre in South Dakota was the last battle in the American Indian Wars. This event represents the end of the American Old West.

  • Chilean Civil War.

  • New Zealand becomes the first country to enact women's suffrage.

  • France and the Russian Empire form a military alliance.

  • Cuban War for Independence results in Cuban independence from Spain.

  • Wilhelm Röntgen identifies x-rays

  • Olympic Games revived in Athens.

  • Bram Stoker writes Dracula.

  • The United States gains control of Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines after the Spanish–American War.