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A meeting of European powers to discuss Europe after the defeat of Napoleon.
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Prussia and other German states united in an economic union, which brought Germany closer to unificiation.
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A war between the British and the Qing Government in China. The war was fought over Britain's refusal to stop selling opium to Chinese ports.
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The Qing Government signed the Treaty of Nanking, which ended the First Opium War and began the "spheres of influence" period of indirect imperialism in Chinese history.
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US Commodore Matthew Perry demands, with threat of force, that Japan allow the US ship to dock at Edo (Tokyo) Bay. This is later known as the opening of Japan after more than 250 years of economic and diplomatic isolation.
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Britain, allied with France and the Ottoman Empire, fought a war over Russian southward expansion. Britain feared that an aggressive Russia would eventually try to take over British India.
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Sepoys, Indian soldiers under British command, revolt due to long-standing resentment and cultural backlash to religious insensitivity.
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The Sardinian King, Victor Emmanuel, was declared king of a newly unified Italy by the new Italian Parliament. This became known as the Proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy.
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France and Prussia (the main state of Germany) fought a war over the territory of Alsace and Lorraine; Prussia won.
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Kaiser Wilhelm I of Prussia declared Germany a unified empire.
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Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy entered into an alliance.
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European nations, along with the United States, met in Berlin to agree to the division of the African continent into colonies.
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King Leopold II of Belgium, under the guise of humanitarianism and free trade, renamed a large are of Central Africa the "Congo Free State," which would be an unregulated free trade zone. Many human rights abuses followed.
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The British used Hiram Maxim's machine gun in their war against the Ndebele in South Africa during the First Matabele War.
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US Secretary of State John Hay sent major powers (Britain, France, Germany, Japan, Italy, and Russia) a letter asking them to uphold Chinese territorial integrity, to eliminate "spheres of influence," and to allow free trade throughout China.
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Japan surprises the world by holding off Russian expansion into Korea; Japan announces itself as a world power with its victory.
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Russia, Britain, and France entered into an alliance, in order to challenge Germany, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire, and Italy.
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Germany and the Ottoman Empire entered into an alliance shortly before the outbreak of World War I. This was helpful to Germany because it allowed safe access through the Mediterranean to colonies in Africa, and to British and French colonies.
