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19th century

Millennium: 1st millennium - 2nd millennium - 3rd millennium
Centuries: 18th century - 19th century - 20th century
Decades: 1800s 1810s 1820s 1830s 1840s 1850s 1860s 1870s 1880s 1890s
For the periodical, see Nineteenth Century (periodical).

The 19th century lasted from 1801 through 1900 in the Gregorian calendar.

Historians sometimes define a "Nineteenth Century" historical era stretching from 1815 (The Congress of Vienna) to 1914 (The outbreak of the First World War); alternatively, Eric Hobsbawm defined the "Long Nineteenth Century" as spanning the years 1789 to 1914.

During this century, the Spanish, Portuguese, and Ottoman empires began to crumble and the Holy Roman and Mughal empires ceased.

Following the Napoleonic Wars, the British Empire became the world's leading power, controlling one quarter of the World's population and one third of the land area. It enforced a Pax Britannica, encouraged trade, and battled rampant piracy.

Slavery was greatly reduced around the world. Following a successful slave revolt in Haiti, Britain forced the Barbary pirates to halt their practice of kidnapping and enslaving Europeans, banned slavery throughout its domain, and charged its navy with ending the global slave trade. Slavery was then abolished in Russia, America, and Brazil (see Abolitionism).

Electricity, steel, and petroleum fueled a Second Industrial Revolution which enabled Germany, Japan, and the United States to become Great Powers that raced to create empires of their own. However, Russia and Qing Dynasty China failed to keep pace with the other world powers which led to massive social unrest in both empires.


Contents

Events

19th century:Map of the world from 1897. The British Empire (marked in pink) was the superpower of the 19th century.
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Map of the world from 1897. The British Empire (marked in pink) was the superpower of the 19th century.

1800s

1810s

19th century:1816: Shaka rises to power over the Zulu kingdom
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1816: Shaka rises to power over the Zulu kingdom

1820s

1830s

1840s

1850s

19th century:The Charge of the Light Brigade during the Crimean War
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The Charge of the Light Brigade during the Crimean War

1860s

19th century:The first vessels sail through the Suez Canal
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The first vessels sail through the Suez Canal

1870s

1880s

1890s

Significant people

Anthropology

19th century:Franz Boas one of the pioneers of modern anthropology
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Franz Boas one of the pioneers of modern anthropology

Painters

19th century:Monet's Impression, Sunrise, which gave the name to Impressionism
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Monet's Impression, Sunrise, which gave the name to Impressionism

The Realism and Romanticism of the early 19th century gave way to Impressionism and Post-Impressionism in the later half of the century, with Paris being the dominant art capital of the world. 19th century painters included:

Music

19th century:Ludwig van Beethoven
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Ludwig van Beethoven

Sonata form matured during the Classical era to become the primary form of instrumental compositions throughout the 19th century. Much of the music from the nineteenth century was referred to as being in the Romantic style. Many great composers lived through this era such as Ludwig van Beethoven, Franz Liszt, Frédéric Chopin, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and Richard Wagner. Others included:

Literature

Main article: 19th century in literature
19th century:Charles Dickens
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Charles Dickens
19th century:Mark Twain in 1894
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Mark Twain in 1894
19th century:Jane Austen
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Jane Austen
19th century:Daguerreotype of Edgar Allan Poe
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Daguerreotype of Edgar Allan Poe

On the literary front the new century opens with Romanticism, a movement that spread throughout Europe in reaction to 18th-century rationalism, and it develops more or less along the lines of the Industrial Revolution, with a design to react against the dramatic changes wrought on nature by the steam engine and the railway. William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge are considered the initiators of the new school in England, while in the continent the German Sturm und Drang spreads its influence as far as Italy and Spain.

French arts had been hampered by the Napoleonic Wars but subsequently developed rapidly. Modernism began.

The Goncourts and Emile Zola in France and Giovanni Verga in Italy produce some of the finest naturalist novels. Italian naturalist novels are especially important in that they give a social map of the new unified Italy to a people that until then had been scarcely aware of its ethnic and cultural diversity. On February 21, 1848, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels published the Communist Manifesto.

There was a huge literary output during the 19th century. Some of the most famous writers included the Russians Leo Tolstoy, Anton Chekov and Fyodor Dostoevsky; the English Charles Dickens, John Keats, and Jane Austen; the Irish Oscar Wilde; the Americans Edgar Allan Poe and Mark Twain; and the French Victor Hugo, Honoré de Balzac, Jules Verne and Charles Baudelaire. Some others of note included:

Science

19th century:Charles Darwin
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Charles Darwin

The 19th century saw the birth of science as a profession; the term scientist was coined in 1833 by William Whewell. Among the most influential ideas of the 19th century were those of Charles Darwin, who in 1859 published the book The Origin of Species, which introduced the idea of evolution by natural selection. Louis Pasteur made the first vaccine against rabies, and also made many discoveries in the field of chemistry, including the asymmetry of crystals. Thomas Alva Edison gave the world light with his invention of the lightbulb. Karl Weierstrass and other mathematicians also carried out the arithmetization of analysis. Other important 19th century scientists included:

Philosophy and religion

19th century:Karl Marx
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Karl Marx
19th century:Friedrich Nietzsche
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Friedrich Nietzsche

The Latter-day Saint religious movement was founded during the 19th century by Joseph Smith, Jr. and Brigham Young, which led to the set of doctrines, practices, and cultures called Mormonism. In 1844 a young merchant from Persia proclaimed that he was the Báb ("the Gate" in Arabic), founding the Bábí Faith and proclaimed to be the forerunner of "He whom God shall make manifest." In 1863, Bahá'u'lláh (a title meaning "In the Glory of God"), himself a follower of the Báb, proclaimed His mission as the Promised One of all religions. He is the founder of the Bahá'í Faith. Nikolai of Japan was a religious leader who introduced Eastern Orthodoxy into Japan.Other prominent religious figures and philosophers of the 19th century include:

Politics

19th century:Otto Von Bismarck, the Iron Chancellor
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Otto Von Bismarck, the Iron Chancellor
19th century:The last shogun Tokugawa Yoshinobu in French military uniform
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The last shogun Tokugawa Yoshinobu in French military uniform

Inventions, discoveries, introductions

Main articles: Timeline of invention#19th century and Timeline of scientific discoveries#1800s
19th century:One of the first photographs, produced in 1826 by Nicéphore Niépce
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One of the first photographs, produced in 1826 by Nicéphore Niépce

Research became institutionalized at research universities such as the University of Berlin and at corporate laboratories such as Edison's Menlo Park which accelerated the rate at which discoveries and innovations were made.

See also

Decades and years

1790s1790179117921793179417951796179717981799
1800s1800180118021803180418051806180718081809
1810s1810181118121813181418151816181718181819
1820s1820182118221823182418251826182718281829
1830s1830183118321833183418351836183718381839
1840s1840184118421843184418451846184718481849
1850s1850185118521853185418551856185718581859
1860s1860186118621863186418651866186718681869
1870s1870187118721873187418751876187718781879
1880s1880188118821883188418851886188718881889
1890s1890189118921893189418951896189718981899
1900s1900190119021903190419051906190719081909
Millennium Century
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2nd BC: 20th BC 19th BC 18th BC 17th BC 16th BC 15th BC 14th BC 13th BC 12th BC 11th BC
1st BC: 10th BC 9th BC 8th BC 7th BC 6th BC 5th BC 4th BC 3rd BC 2nd BC 1st BC
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2nd: 11th 12th 13th 14th 15th 16th 17th 18th 19th 20th
3rd: 21st 22nd 23rd 24th 25th 26th 27th 28th 29th 30th
4th: 31st 32nd 33rd 34th 35th 36th 37th 38th 39th 40th

Categories


19th century | Centuries | Romanticism

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