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
• Benjamin Disraeli, novelist and politician
• Abraham Lincoln, American president
• Karl Marx, political philosopher and economist
• Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens), author