Centuries: Year in Review 19th Century (18th century - 19th century - 20th century)
Decades: 1800s 1810s 1820s 1830s 1840s 1850s 1860s 1870s 1880s 1890s
Events:
- Napoleon conquers much of Europe, is ultimately defeated (1814) and the old European regimes are restored.
- Final phase of the Industrial Revolution, including Rail Transport, telegraph, and telephone.
- Discovery of the relationships between magnetism and electricity and light by Hans Christian Ørsted and James Maxwell. See History of Science and Technology.
- Mass migration from Europe to the United States.
- Political revolution and constitutional reform across Europe severely limits powers of monarchs, advances democracy.
- Slavery ended in British colonies and in America. See American Civil War. End of global slave trade enforced by British navy.
- Charles Darwin revolutionizes biology with his theories of evolution, 1858.
- Europeans colonize large parts of Africa and Asia
- Karl Marx writes the Communist Manifesto, encouraging workers to revolt against owners
- Meji Restoration in 1868 opens Japan to modern influences and returns the emperor to power
- Germany and Italy are formed as nations.
Significant persons:
- Otto von Bismarck, German politician
- Napoleon Bonaparte, French emperor
- Charles Darwin, biologist
- Ludwig van Beethoven, composer
- Charles Dickens, author
- Benjamin Disraeli, novelist and politician
- Abraham Lincoln, American president
- Karl Marx, political philosopher and economist
- Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens), author