1815-1850: Chapter One: World Events: Selected Occurrences Outside the United States

MAJOR POWERS AND LEADERS

MAJOR CONFLICTS

IMPORTANT EVENTS OF 1815-1850

MAJOR POWERS AND LEADERS

Austria (Habsburg Empire)—Emperor Francis (1804–1835); Ferdinand (1835–1848); Francis Joseph (1848–1916)

China — Emperor Jia-qing (1796–1820); Tao Kuang (1820–1850)

France — Emperor Napoleon I (1804–1814, 1815); Napoleon II (1815); King Louis XVIII (1814, 1815–1824); Charles X (1824–1830); Louis Philippe (1830–1848); Louis Napoleon (later Emperor Napoleon III), president 1848–1852

Great Britain — King George III (1760–1820); George, Prince of Wales, regent (1811–1820), King George IV (1820–1830); William IV (1830–1837); Queen Victoria (1837–1901); Prime Ministers: Lord Liverpool (1812–1827): George Canning (1827); Lord Goderich (1827–1828); Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington (1828–1830); Charles, 2nd Earl Grey (1830–1834); Lord Melbourne (1834, 1835–1839, 1839–1841); Robert Peel (1834, 1841–1845, 1845–1846); Lord John Russell (1846–1852)

Japan — Emperor Kokaku (1779–1817); Ninko (1817–1846); Komei (1846–1867); Shoguns Ienari (1786–1837); Ieyoshi (1837–1853)

Ottoman Empire (Turkey)—Sultan Mahmud II (1808–1839); Abdul Mejid I (1839–1861)

Prussia — King Frederick William III (1797–1840); Frederick William IV (1840–1861)

Russia — Tsar Alexander I (1801–1825); Nicholas I (1825–1855)

Spain — King Ferdinand VII (1813–1833); Queen Isabel II (1833–1868)

Zulu Kingdom — Senzagakona (1781–1816); Sigujana (1816); Shaka (1816–1828); Dingane (1828–1840); Mpande (1840–1872)

MAJOR CONFLICTS

1809–1826 — Wars for Latin American Independence: Spain Versus Mexico, Paraguay, Ecuador, Bolivia, Venezuela, and Guatemala

1812–1815 — War of 1812: United States versus Britain

1815 — The Hundred Days: Britain, Austria, Prussia, and Russia versus France

1821–1829 — Greek War for Independence: Greece versus Turkey

1822–1831 — First Burmese War: Britain versus Ashanti people (of modern Ghana)

1824–1826 — First Burmese War: Britain versus Burma

1826–1828 — Russo-Persian War

1828–1829 — Russo-Turkish War

1830–1847 — French conquest of Algeria

1831–1832 — Black Hawk War: United States versus the Sac and Fox tribes

1832–1833 — Turko-Egyptian War

1834–1839 — Carlist Wars: Spain versus the forces of the pretender Don Carlos

1835–1842 — Seminole War: United States versus the Seminole tribe

1836 — Texas War of Independence: Texas versus Mexico

1838–1842 — First Afghan War: Britain versus Afghanistan

1839–1842 — First Opium War: Britain versus China

1844–1848 — Maori War: Britain versus natives of New Zealand

1845–1849 — Sikh Wars: Britain East India Company versus the Sikhs in India

1846–1848 — Mexican War: United States versus Mexico

1848 — Schleswig-Holstein War: Prussia versus Denmark

1848–1849 — Austro-Sardinian War

IMPORTANT EVENTS OF 1815-1850

1815

• Grimm’s Fairy Tales are published.
• 27 Feb. Napoleon escapes from exile on the Mediterranean isle of Elba.
• 20 Mar. Louis XVIII flees Paris; the “Hundred Days” begin as Napoleon assumes control of France.
• 18 June British and Prussian forces defeat the French at the Battle of Waterloo, ending Napoleon’s bid to regain power.
• 22 June Napoleon abdicates.
• 8 July Louis XVIII returns to Paris and is restored to power a second time.
• 2 Aug. Napoleon is exiled to the remote island of Saint Helena in the South Atlantic.
• 20 Nov. The Treaty of Paris impose an indemnity and allows the military occupation of France.

1816

• Gioacchino Antonio Rossini Composes his opera Il barbiere di Siviglia (The Barber of Seville).
• Jane Austen writes Emma.
• Kubla Kban by Samuel Taylor Coleridge is published.
• French physician René Laënnec perfects the stethoscope.
• Much of the world experience an unusually cold summer, caused by dust from a massive volcanic eruption in the East Indies a year earlier.
• The British Museum buys the Elgin Marbles.
• 16 Jan. Brazil declares itself an empire, led by the prince regent of Portugal.
• 5 May The first German state constitution is granted by Carl August of Saxe Weimar.
• 9 July The United Provinces of La Plata (Argentina) declare their independence.

1817

• David Ricardo writes Principles of Political Economy and Taxation.
• George Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel publishes Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
• The first exhibition of John Constable’s landscape paintings is held.
• 28 Apr. The Rush-Bagot Treaty between Britain and the United States limits naval forces on the Great Lakes.
• 18 Oct. Revolutionary German students gather at the Wartburg Festival.

1818

• Franz Huber writes lyrics to the Christmas carol “Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht” (silent Night).
• Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley writes Frankenstein.
• Jane Austen’s Persuasion and Northanger Abbey are published posthumously.
• George Gordon, Lord Byron, begins writing Don Juan, which he will complete in 1823.
• Shaka established the Zulu empire.
• The Prado Museum is founded in Madrid.
• 6 Jan. The Treaty of Mundoseer gives Britain control of the dominion of the Holkar of Indore and the Rajputana States in India.
• 5 Feb. Jean Bernadotte, former marshal in Napoleon’s army, succeeds Charles XIII as king of Sweden.
• 12 Feb. Chile declares independence from Spain.
• 3 June Britain gains control of the dominions of the Peshwa of Poona in the Bombay Presidency.
• 27 Sept.–21 Nov. At the Congress of Aix-la-Chapelle, France joins the four Great Powers in the Quintuple Alliance; allied troops leave France.
• 20 Oct. Britain and the United States establish the United States–Canada border along the forty-ninth parallel, and agree to the joint occupation of Oregon.
• 20 Nov. Simón Bolivar declares independence for Venezuela, formerly a Spanish possession.

1819

• Théodore Géricault completes his painting Raft of the Medusa.
• Sir Walter Scott writes Ivanboe.
• Franz Peter Schubert composes the Trout Quintet.
• Sikh leader Ranjit Singh conquers Kashmir.
• The Savannah is the first steamship to cross the Atlantic, completing the trip in twenty-six days.
• 6 Feb. Sir Stamford Raffles of the British East India Company founds Singapore.
• 16 Aug. In the Peterloo Massacre, British soldiers charge a political gathering in St. Peter’s Fields, Manchester, killing several of the audience.
• 20 Sept. The Frankfurt Diet issues the Carlsbad Decress, curtailing political freedom in order to suppress revolutionary tendencies in the German states.
• Oct. A Prussian trade treaty with Schwarzburg-Sonderhausen marks the beginning of the formation of a pan-German Zollverein (customs union).
• 7 Dec. A constitution is granted in Hanover.
• 17 Dec. Simón Bolivar becomes president of an independent Colombia.

1820

• Percy Bysshe Shelley writes Prometheus Unbound.
• Thomas Robert Malthus publishes Principal of Political Economy.
• John Keats writes Ode to a Nightingale.
• Aleksandr Sergeyevich Pushkin writes Ruslan and Lyudmila.
• Egypt begins a two-year campaign to conquer the Sudan.
• The Venus de Milo is discovered on the Aegean island of Melos.
• 1-Jan.–7 Mar. Revolution in Spain forces King Ferdinand VII to restore the 1812 constitution.
• 29 Jan. George III dies; George IV assumes the throne of Great Britian.
• 23 Feb. The Cato Street Conspiracy attempts (unsuccessfully) to assassinate British cabinet ministers.
• 2 July Revolt begins in Naples; government officials promise a constitution.
• 24 Aug. A revolution in Portugal begins.

1821

• Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel publishes Philosophy of Right.
• Carl Maria Friedrich Ernst von Weber composes the opera Der Freischütz.
• Heinrich Heine publishes Poems.
• Michael Faraday demonstrates the working of magenetic force fields, the basic principal of the electric motor.
• The Rosetta Stone is used to decipher Egyprian hieroglyphics.
• 13 Feb. Austria agress to use military forces to suppress a revolt in Naples.
• 24 Feb. All Parties complete the ratification of the Adams-Onís Treaty, under which Spain cedes Florida to the United States.
• Mexico declares its independence from Spain.
• 6 Mar. The Greek war for independence from Turkey begins.
• 5 May. Napoleon Bonaparte dies on Saint Helena.
• 24 June Simón Bolivar defeats a Spanish army at Carabobo, securing Venezuela’s independence.
• 28 July Peru declares its independence from Spain.
• 15 Sept. Guatemala declares its independence from Spain.
• 28 Nov. Panama declares its independence from Spain.
• 1 Dec. The Republic of Santo Domingo is founded, inunded, independent of Spain.

1822

• Franz Peter Schubert Composes Symphony No. 8 in B Minor.
• Aleksandr Sergeyevich Pushkin begins writing Evgeni Onegin; he will complete it ten years later.
• Liberia is founded in West Africa as a colony for freed slaves.
• 27 Jan. Greece declares its independence from Turkey.
• 12 Aug. Lord Castleragh, the British foreign secretary, commits suicide.
• 7 Sept. Brazil declares its independence from Portugal; the next month Dom Pedro is proclaimed emperor of Brazil.
• 20 Oct.–14 Dec. At the Congress of Verona, Britain refuses to intervence to suppress the Spanish revolution, while other nations refus to aid the Greek war of independence. These developments mark the end of the Congress system of European diplomacy.

1823

• Ludwig van Beethoven composes Missa Solemnis.
• “Home Sweet Home” is Composed by Henry R. Bishop.
• Charles Babbage begins developing a calculating machine.
• 19 Mar. Emperor Augustus de Iturbide of Mexico is forced to abdicate.
• 7 Apr. France invades Spain; Ferdinand VII is removed from the Spanish throne.
• 31 Aug. French troops restore Ferdinand VII to the throne after crushing Spanish rebels.
• 2 Dec. U.S. president James Monroe issues a warning to world powers not to intervene in the Western Hemisphere (later known as the “Monroe Doctrin”).

1824

• Ludwing van Beethoven composes the Ninth Symphoney.
• Leopold von Ranke completes History of the Roman and Teutonic People, 1494-1535.
• 11 May Britain, at war with Burma, takes Rangoon.
• 16 Sept. Louis XVIII dies, Charles X becomes king of France.
• 12 Dec. The last Spanish army in South America surrenders.

1825

• Aleksandr Sergeyevich Pushkin Completes Boris Godunov.
• Britain allows trade unions to form.
• In England the first public steam railway opens.
• 6 Aug. The Republic of Bolivia declares its independence from Peru.
• 25 Aug. Uruguay declares its independence from Brazil.
• 29 Aug. Portugal recognizes Brazil as an independent country.
• 1 Dec. Tsar Alexander I of Russia dies and is succeeded by Nicholas I.
• 26 Dec. The Decembrist revolt in Russia is quickly suppressed.

1826

• Felix Mendelssohn composes Overture to A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
• Nguan Nguan edits Comfucius’s writings.
• A global cholera epidemic begins in India.
• 24 Feb. The First Burmese War ends with the Treaty of Yandabu.

1827

• George Ohm formulates Ohm’s Law, the relationship of corrent and voltage in electrical circuits.
• Joseph Ressel of Austria invents the screw propeller.
• 26 Jan. Peru secedes from Colombia.
• 6 July Britain, France, and Russia guarantee Greek independence in the Treaty of London.
• 20 Oct. Naval intervention by the London Treaty powers destroys the Ottoman fleet at Navarino Bay in the Black Sea.

1828

• Franz Peter Schubert composes C Major Symphony.
• Karl Baedeker publishes his first travel guide.
• 22 Feb. Persia cedes part of Armenia to Russia.
• 26 Apr. Russia Declares war on Turkey.
• 23 June Regent Dom Miguel overthrows the government of Portugal, initiating a six year struggle.
• 22 Sept. The Zulu king Shaka is assassinated; under his leadership the Zulu grew from a minor tribe to the dominant military power in southern Africa.
• 11 Oct. Russia takes Varna from Turkey.

1829

• Gioacchino Antonio Rossini composes the opers William Tell.
• Suttee, the practice of burning widows with the bodies of their late husbands, is abolished in British India.
• 13 Apr. Legislation allows Catholics to hold public office in Britain.
• 14 Sept. The Treaty of Adrianople ends the Russo-Turkish War; the Turks grant Greece independence.
• 29 Sept. Robert Peel creates the first modern police force, known as “Bobbies” in London (or “Peelers” in Ireland, where they are less popular.)

1830

• Alfred Tennyson publishes Poems, Chiefly Lyrical.
• Auguste Comte begins Course of Positive Philosophy, completing it twelve years later.
• Hector Berlioz composes Symphonie Fantastique.
• Marie-Henri Beyle, more commonly known as Stendhal, writers Le Rouge et le Noir.
• Eugène Delacroix paints Liberty Leading the People.
• The British East India Company annexes Mysore and Cachar in India.
• 26 June George IV dies; William IV assumes the throne of Britain.
• 5 July France captures Algiers, but guerilla resistance to French rule in North Africa will continue for seventeen years.
• 27–29 July The July Revolution breaks out in Paris.
• 2 Aug. Charles X abdicates the French throne.
• 7 Aug. “Citizen King” Louis Philippe is elected to replace Charles X.
• 25 Aug. Belgium rebels against Dutch rule and declares independence in November.
• Sept. Uprisings in Brunswick, Hesse, and Saxony lead to a constitutional government in place of hereditary rulers.
• 29 Nov. An uprising against Russian rule begins in Warsaw.
• 10 Dec. Simón Bolivar dies.

1831

• Victor Hugo writes Notre-Dame de Paris.
• Michael Faraday discovers electromagnetism and builds the first dynamo.
• Charles Darwin begins his five-year voyage as volunteer naturalist aboard the Beagle.
• Egypt conquers Syria, detaching it from the Ottoman Empire.
• Constitutions are established in Saxony, Hesse-Cassel, Mooldavia, and Wallachia.
• The French Foreign Legion is formed to protect Ferance’s colonial interests.
• 25 Jan. Poland declares independance from Russia.
• Feb. Austria suppresses rebellions in Modena, Parma, and the Papal States.
• 4 June Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg becomes Leopold I, king of the Belgians.
• 8 Sept. Following a two-day battle, Russia recaptures Warsaw, crushing the Polish revolt.
• 9 Oct. Greek president Augustinus Capodistrias is assassinated.
• 15 Nov. Britain and France guarantee Belgian independance.
• 17 Nov. Greater Colombia separates into Venezuela, Ecuador, New Granada, and Colombia.

1832

• Johann Wolfgang von Goethe finishes his dramatic work Faust Part II.
• Waterloo Bridge is painted John Constable.
• Ando Hiroshige paints Fifty- three stages of the Tokaido.
• Robert Brown describes the cell nucleus in Fecundation in Orchidae.
• Guiseppe Mazzini founds “Italian Youth,” an organization dedicated to Italian unity.
• Britain occupies the Falkland Islands in the South Atlantic.
• 15 Apr. Turkey declares war on Egypt. Egyptian forces led by Mohammed Ali defeat the Turks in Syria.
• 4 June. The First Reform Act passes in Britain; it makes Parliament more representative by expanding the franchise and abolishing “rotten boroughs” (districts with few inhabitants.)
• 8 Aug. Prince Otto of Bavaria is elected Otto I, the first king of the newly independent Greece.
• Nov. French forces seize Antwerp to force Dutch recognition of independent Belgium.

1833

• Felix Mendelssohn composes Symphony No. 4 in A.
• 12 Études is composed by Frédéric Chopin.
• The Factory Act limits child labor in England.
• Parliament provides for the abolition of slavery in all British colonies, with compensation to owners.
• 22 Mar. The Zollverein (customs union) includes most German states, led by Prussia but excluding Austria.
• 4 May The Convention of Kutahia makes Mohammed Ali ruler of independent Egypt and Syria.

1834

• Honoré de Balzac writes Le Père Goriot.
• Louis Braille develops a system of raised characters that can be read by the blind.
• After five centuries the Spanish Inquisition is abolished.
• 22 Apr. The Quadruple Alliance of Britain, France, Spain, and Portugal is formed to secure the governments of Spain and Portugal.
• July An attempt by Don Carlos, pretender to the Spanish throne, to gain power initiates the Carlist Wars, lasting until 1839.
• 1 Aug. Slavery is abolished in the colonies of the British Empire.
• 2 Aug. The South Australia Association is chartered and begins to send settlers to Australia within two years.

1835

• Hans Christian Andersen begins work on his Fairy Tales, completing it in 1861.
• Nikolay Vasilyevich Gogal starts writing Dead Souls, and finishes it seven years later.
• Halley’s Comet is visible.
• Baden joins the Zollverein.
• The Great Trek of the Boers begings; farmers leave British rule the moving north from Cape Colony in South Africa to start new republics (Transvaal, Natal, Orange Free State).
• 2 Mar. Emperor Francis I of Austria dies and is succeeded by Ferdinand I.

1836

• Charles Dickens begins writing Pickwick Papers.
• The Arc de Triomphe is completed in Paris.
• 21 Apr. Texas wins its independence from Mexico by defeating Santa Anna’s army at San Jacinto.
• 16 June The working-class Chartist movement starts in Britain with the formation of the London Working Men’s Association.
• 29 Oct. Louis Napoleon’s unsuccessful coup d’état results in his exile to America.

1837

• Thomas Carlyle publishes French Revolution.
• Charles Dickens starts writing Oliver Twist.
• June Trekking Boers establish the Natal Republic.
• 20 June The death of William IV separates the royal houses of Britian and Hanover; Victoria assumes the British throne.
• Nov. Papineau’s Rebellion breaks out in Lower Canada.
• Dec. William Mackenzie leads a rebellion in Upper Canada.

1838

• Charles Dickens begins writing Nicholas Nickleby.
• Jenny Lind debuts in Der Freishütz.
• 5 Jan. Canadian rebels are defeated at Toronto.
• 8 May The Chartists’ “People’s Charter” calls for universal suffrage in Britian.
• 24 Sept. The Anti-Corn Law League is formed to end laws enforcing high wheat prices in Britian.
• 1 Oct. The First Afghan War begins; Britian seeks to secure the northwest frontier of India against possible Russian incursions.
• 30 Nov. France declares war on Mexico.
• 16 Dec. At the Battle of Blood River, trekking Boers defeat the Zulu nation.

1839

• Karl Leberecht Immermann finishes the novel Münchhausen.
• La Chartreuse de Parme is Written by Stendhal.
• Modern cell theory is formalized in Theodor Schwann’s Microscopical Researches into the Accordance in the Structure and Growth of Animals and Plants.
• Mar. Lousi Daguerre invents photography by perfecting a system for capturing images on copper plates.
• 21 Apr. Turkey invades Syria.
• July The Opium War starts as Britian attempts to force the opium trade on China.

1840

• Charles Dickens begins writing Old Curiosity Shop.
• Pierre-Joseph Proudhon writes Qu’est-ce-que la Propriété? … c’est le vol (What is Property? Property is Theft.).
• 6 Feb. The Treaty of Waitangi makes New Zealand a British colony.
• 10 Feb. Queen Victoria marries Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha.
• 6 June The Carlist Wars in Spain end with the Surrender of Carlist forces.
• 7 June Frederick William III of Prussia dies; he is succeeded by Frederick William IV.
• 15 July The Treaty of London Between Britain, Russia, Prussia, and Austria protects Turkey against the further expansion of Egypt.
• 23 July An act of Parliament unites Upper and Lower Canada.
• Aug. Louis Napoleon is imprisoned after his second attempt to seize power in France.
• 15 Dec. Napoleon I is buried in Les Invalides, Paris.

1841

• Robert Browning writes the verse play Pippa Passes.
• Robert Alexander Schumann composes Symphony No. 1 in B flat Major.
• Louis Kossuth leads a Hungarian nationalist movement.
• Adolphe Sax invents the saxophone.
• Travel agent Thomas Cook arranges his first excursion.
• 13 Feb. The Convention of Alexandria makes Mohammed Ali hereditary ruler of Egypt.
• 13 July The Straits Convention, signed by Britain, Austria, Russia, Prussia, and France, closes the Dardanelles and Bosporus Straits between the Black Sea and the Mediterranean to warships.

1842

• Alfred Tennyson writes Morte d’Arbur and Other Idylls.
• Charles Dickens publishes American Notes.
• Boers establish the Orange Free State.
• 1 Jan. The British garrison retreating from Kabul is wiped out by Afghan guerillas.
• 9 Aug. The Webster-Ashburton Treaty settles border issues between the United States and Canada.
• 29 Aug. The Treaty of Nanking ends the Opium War, confriming the cession of Hong Kong from China to Britain and opening other Chinese ports to British trade.

1843

• Richard Wagner composes Flying Dutchman.
• Thomas Babington Macaulay writes Critical and Historical Essays.
• A Christmas Carol is written by Charles Dickens.
• 12 May Britain annexes Natal, a Boer republic in southern Africa.
• July A revolt in Spain removes the military leader Baldomero Espartero and puts Isabel II on throne in November.
• Aug. Britain annexes Sind, in India.

1844

• Alexander Dumas père writes Three Musketeers.
• Joseph Mallord William Turner paints Rain, Steam, and Speed.
• Silesian weavers revolt against low wages and are suppressed.
• Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels meet in Paris.
• The Young Men’s Christian Association is founder in London.
• 6 Aug. France opens hostilities against Morocco, which end with the Treaty of Tangier on 10 September.

1845

• Alexandre Dumas père publishes The Count of Monte Cristo.
• Richard Wagner composes the opera Tannhäuser.
• Friedrich Engels writes Situation of the Working Classes in England.
• Britain annexes the Punjab in northwest India.
• Blight destroys most of the Irish potato crop; in the resultibng famine approximately one million Irish will die, and two million leave the country, many to the United States.
• May British explorer Sir John Franklin starts an expedition of two ships to seek a Northwest Passage; the ships become icebound, and all hands are lost.

1846

• George Grote begins to write History of Greece and finishes it ten years later.
• Edward Lear writes Book of Nonsense.
• Damnation of Faust is composed by Hector Berlioz.
• The potato blight continues in Ireland.
• 13 May The United States declares war on Mexico.
• 26 May The Corn Laws are replaced in Britain, largely in response to Irish famine, to reduce the price of bread.
• 15 June The signing of the Treaty of Washington resolves the status of Oregon as an American territory.

1847

• Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels write The Communist Manifesto.
• Emily Brontë writes Wuthering Heights; her sister Charlotte writes Jane Eyre.
• 24 Aug. Liberia becomes independent.
• Oct.–Nov. The Sonderbund War begins in Switzerland.

1848

• William Makepeace Tharckeray finishes the novel Vanity Fair.
• Honoré de Balzac completes Comédie Humaine.
• John Stuart Mill writes Principles of Political Economy.
• Jean-François Millet paints The Winnower.
• The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood is founded.
• Nasr-ed-Din becomes the new shah of Persia.
• Jan. A revolution occurs in Sicily.
• 21–24 Feb. A revolution occurs in Paris; Louis Philippe abdicates and the Second Republic is proclaimed.
• Mar. Revolutions begin in Vienna, Venice, Berlin, Milan, and Parma.
• 13 Mar. Prince Metternich of Austria resigns.
• 14 Mar. Pope Pius IX agres to a constitution for the Papal States.
• 20 Mar. The Second Sikh War begins.
• 21 Mar. Although he has agreed to allow a constitutional government, Frederick William IV is paraded through the streets of Berlin by revolutionaries.
• 23 Mar. Sardinia declares war on Austria.
• 10 Apr. Chartists present a “monster petition” of at least two million signatures to the British Parliament.
• 13 Apr. Sicily declares independence from Naples.
• 23 Apr. A Polish revolt in Warsaw is suppressed.
• 2 May Prussia invades Denmark to resolve the issue of control of the provinces of Schleswig and Holstein.
• 11 May Austrian troops suppress a Polish revolt in Krakow.
• 15 May A second revolution breaks out in Vienna.
• A Communist uprising in Paris establishes a workers’ government, which soon collapses.
• 18 May The German National Assembly meets in Frankfurt to discuss German unification.
• 30 May Mexico ratifies the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo and cedes California and New Mexico to the United States.
• 2 June A Pan-Slav Congress meeting in Prague leads to a Czech revolt.
• 10 June Austrian troops defeat a Sardinian army at Vicenza.
• 17 June Austria suppresses the Czech revolt in Prague.
• 23–26 June During the “June Days” in Paris, the workers’ uprising is put down by the government with great force.
• 25 July Austrian troops defeat the Sardinians at Custozza.
• 26 Aug. A truce ends the brief war between Prussia and Denmark.
• 29 Aug. In South Africa rebellious Boers are defeated by the British at Boomplatz and retreat across the Vaal River to Transvaal.
• 7 Sept. Serfdom is abolished in Austria in response to revolutionary pressure.
• 12 Sept. A new Swiss constitution provides for a federal structure with a strong central government.
• 6 Oct. A third revolution breaks out in Vienna in responses to efforts to crush a Hungarian revolt.
• 15 Nov. Roman revolutionaries assassinate Papal premier Count Rossi.
• 24 Nov. Pope Pius IX flees Rome.
• 2 Dec. Austrian emperor Ferdinand abdicates in favor of his nephew Francis Joseph.
• 10 Dec. Louis Napoleon (nephew of Napoleon I) is overwhelmingly elected president of France.

1849

• Charles Dickens starts writing David Copperfield.
• David Livingstone becomes the first European to find Lake Nagmi in Africa.
• 9 Feb. A republic is declared in Rome, under the leadership of Giuseppe Mazzini.
• 12 Mar. After British victories at Chillianwalla and Gujarat, Sikh forces surrender at Rawalpindi to end the Second Sikh War.
• 23 Mar. At Novara, Austrian forces defeat a Sardinian army; Sardinian king Charles Albert abdicates in favor of Victor Emmanuel II.
• 28 Mar. Frederick William IV of Prussia is elected “Emperor of the Germans” in a bid to unify Germany under Prussian leadership.
• 30 Mar. Britain annexes Punjab though a treaty with the Maharajah of Lahore.
• 3 Apr. Frederick William IV rejects the imperial title.
• 14 Apr. Hungary declares independence, with Lajos Kossuth as president.
• 25 Apr. French troops intervene in the Papal States.
• 3–13 May Revolts occur in Dresden and Baden.
• 11 May Forces of Giuseppe Garibaldi enter Rome.
• 5 June Denmark establishes a constitution.
• 18 June The German National Assembly at Frankfurt is forcibly dispersed, ending efforts to unify Germany under a parliamentary government.
• 3 July French troops crush the Roman Republic and restore Pius IX.
• 6 Aug. The Peace of Milan ends the war between Austria and Sardinia.
• 22 Aug. Venice yields to Austrian control.

1850

• Alfred Tennyson writes In Memoriam.
• Gregor Mendel, Austrian botanist, discovers the principles of heredity.
• 20 Mar. Frederick William IV of Prussia summons a German parliament to form an anti-Austrian coalition.
• 12 Apr. Pius IX returns to Rome and revokes the constitution granted in 1848.
• 19 Apr. The Clayton-Bulwer Treaty between Great Britain and the United States renounces exclusive control of the Isthmus of Panama by either country.
• 31 May. The French government imposes suffrage restrictions.
• Sept. Pius IX reasserts a hierarchy of Roman Catholic bishops in Great Britain.
• Oct. The Taiping Rebellion in China breaks out.