19th century

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The 19th century of the Common Era began on January 1, 1801 and ended on December 31, 1900, according to the Gregorian calendar.

During the 19th century, the Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, and Ottoman empires began to crumble, the Holy Roman Empire was dissolved, and the Mughal empire collapsed.

Antoine-Jean Gros, Surrender of Madrid, 1808. Napoleon enters Spain's capital during the Peninsular War, 1810

After 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. During this time the 19th century was an era of widespread invention and discovery, with significant developments in the understanding or manipulation of mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, electricity, and metallurgy largely setting the groundworks for the comparably overwhelming and very rapid technological innovations which would take place the following century.

railroads provided the first major advancement in land transportation for centuries, and their placement and application radically altered the ways people could live and rapidly and reliably obtain necessary commodities, fueling major urbanization movements in countries across the globe. Numerous cities worldwide surpassed populations of 1,000,000 or more during this century. The last remaining undiscovered landmasses of Earth, largely pacific island chains and atolls, were discovered during this century, and with the exception of the extreme zones of the Arctic and Antarctic, accurate and detailed maps of the globe were available by the 1890s.Modest advances in medicine and the understanding of human anatomy and disease prevention were also applicable to the 1800s, and were partly responsible for rapidly accelerating population growth in the western world. The introduction of

Jean-Leon Gerome, The Slave Market c.1884

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. Britain abolished slavery in 1834, America's 13th Amendment following their Civil War abolished slavery there in 1865, and in Brazil slavery was abolished in 1888 (see Abolitionism). Similarly, serfdom was abolished in Russia.

The 19th century was remarkable in the widespread formation of new settlement foundations which were particularly prevalent across North America and Australasia, with a significant proportion of the two continents' largest cities being founded at some point in the century.

[edit] Eras

[edit] Events

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

[edit] 1800–1809

[edit] 1810s

1816: Shaka rises to power over the Zulu kingdom

[edit] 1820s

[edit] 1830s

Samuel Morse

[edit] 1840s

[edit] 1850s

The Charge of the Light Brigade during the Crimean War

[edit] 1860s

The first vessels sail through the Suez Canal

[edit] 1870s

Alexander Graham Bell speaking into prototype model of the telephone

Thomas Edison, 1878

[edit] 1880s

[edit] 1890s

[edit] Significant people

Abraham Lincoln in 1863, 16th President of The United States, presided during the American Civil War, assassinated in April 1865

Sitting Bull, 1885

Franz Boas one of the pioneers of modern anthropology

[edit] Show business and Theatre

Sarah Bernhardt, 1877

Ellen Terry, c.1880

[edit] Athletics

Main articles: Baseball Hall of Fame, Major League Baseball, List of bare-knuckle boxers, List of heavyweight boxing champions, and Olympic Games

John L Sullivan in his prime, c.1882.

[edit] Business

Main articles: Robber baron (industrialist) and business magnate

[edit] Famous and infamous personalities

Jesse and Frank James, 1872

Deputies Bat Masterson and Wyatt Earp in Dodge City, 1876