1830s

The 1830s (pronounced "eighteen-thirties") was a decade of the Gregorian calendar that began on January 1, 1830, and ended on December 31, 1839.
In this decade, the world saw a rapid rise of imperialism and colonialism, particularly in Asia and Africa. Britain saw a surge of power and world dominance, as Queen Victoria took to the throne in 1837. Conquests took place all over the world, particularly around the expansion of the Ottoman Empire and the British Raj. New outposts and settlements flourished in Oceania, as Europeans began to settle over Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the United States.
China was ruled by the Daoguang Emperor of the Qing dynasty during the 1830s. The decade witnessed a rapid rise in the sale of opium in China, despite efforts by the Daoguang Emperor to end the trade. A turning point came in 1834, with the end of the monopoly of the East India Company, leaving trade in the hands of private entrepreneurs. By 1838, opium sales climbed to 40,000 chests. In 1839, newly appointed imperial commissioner Lin Zexu banned the sale of opium and imposed several restrictions on all foreign traders. Lin also closed the channel to Guangzhou (Canton), leading to the seizure and destruction of 20,000 chests of opium. The British retaliated, seizing Hong Kong on August 23 of that year, starting what would be known as the First Opium War. It would end three years later with the signing of the Treaty of Nanking in 1842.
The Padri War was fought from 1803 until 1837 in West Sumatra between the Padris and the Adats. The latter asked for the help of the Dutch, who intervened from 1821 and helped the Adats defeat the Padri faction. The conflict intensified in the 1830s, as the war soon centered on Bonjol, the fortified last stronghold of the Padris. It finally fell in 1837 after being besieged for three years, and along with the exile of Padri leader Tuanku Imam Bonjol, the conflict died out.
The British government appointed a series of administrative heads of British India in the 1830s ("Governor-General of India" starting in 1833): Lord William Bentinck (1828–1835), Sir Charles Metcalfe, Bt (1835–1836), and The Lord Auckland (1836–1842). The Government of India Act 1833 was enacted to remove the East India Company's remaining trade monopolies and divested it of all its commercial functions, renewing the company's political and administrative authority for another twenty years. It invested the Board of Control with full power and authority over the company.
The English Education Act by the Council of India in 1835 reallocated funds from the East India Company to spend on education and literature in India. In 1837, the British East India company replaced Persian with local vernacular in various provinces as the official and court language. However, in the northern regions of the Indian subcontinent, Urdu instead of Hindi was chosen to replace Persian.
In 1835, William Henry Sleeman captured "Feringhea" in his efforts to suppress the Thuggee secret society. Sleeman's work led to his appointment as General Superintendent of the operations for the Suppression of Thuggee. In February 1839, he assumed charge of the office of Commissioner for the Suppression of Thuggee and Dacoity. During these operations, more than 1400 Thugs were hanged or transported for life.
In 1830, William IV succeeded his brother George IV as King of the United Kingdom. Upon his death in 1837, his 18-year-old niece, Princess Victoria. Under Salic law, the Kingdom of Hanover passed to William's brother, Ernest Augustus, Duke of Cumberland, ending the personal union of Britain and Hanover which had existed since 1714. Queen Victoria took up residence in Buckingham Palace, the first reigning British monarch to make this, rather than St James's Palace, her London home.
Britain had four prime ministers during the 1830s. As the decade began, Tory Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington led parliament. Wellington's government fell in late 1830, failing to react to calls for reform. The Whigs selected Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey to succeed him, who led passage of many reforms, including the Reform Act 1832, the Slavery Abolition Act 1833 (abolishing slavery throughout the British Empire), and the Factory Acts (limiting child labour).
In 1834 Grey retired from public life, leaving Lord Melbourne as his successor. Reforms continued under Lord Melbourne, with the Poor Law Amendment Act in 1834, which stated that no able-bodied British man could receive assistance unless he entered a workhouse. King William IV's opposition to the Whigs' reforming ways led him to dismiss Melbourne in November and then appoint Sir Robert Peel to form a Tory government. Peel's failure to win a House of Commons majority in the resulting general election (January 1835) made it impossible for him to govern, and the Whigs returned to power under Melbourne in April 1835. The Marriage Act 1836 established civil marriage and registration systems that permit marriages in nonconformist chapels, and a Registrar General of Births, Marriages, and Deaths.
There were protests and significant unrest during the decade. In May and June 1831 in Wales, coal miners and others rioted for improved working conditions in what was known as the Merthyr Rising. William Howley Archbishop of Canterbury has his coach attacked by an angry mob on his first official visit to Canterbury in 1832. In 1834, Robert Owen organized the Grand National Consolidated Trades Union, an early attempt to form a national union confederation. In May 1838, the People's Charter was drawn up in the United Kingdom, demanding universal suffrage. Chartism continued to gain popularity, leading to the Newport Rising in 1839, the last large-scale armed rebellion against authority in mainland Britain.
In 1835, James Pratt and John Smith were hanged outside Newgate Prison in London after a conviction of sodomy, the last deadly victims of the judicial persecution of homosexual men in England.
The French Revolution of 1830 was also known as the July Revolution, Second French Revolution or Trois Glorieuses in French. It saw the overthrow of King Charles X, the French Bourbon monarch, and the ascent of his brother Louis, Duke of Orléans (who would in turn be overthrown in 1848). The revolution ended the Bourbon Restoration, shifting power to the July Monarchy (rule by the House of Orléans). Duc de Broglie briefly served as State Minister, with many successors over the course of 2 years.
The first two Canut revolts occurred in the 1830s. They were among the first well-defined worker uprisings of the Industrial Revolution. The word Canut was a common term to describe to all Lyonnais silk workers.
The First Canut revolt in 1831 was provoked by a drop in workers' wages caused by a drop in silk prices. After a bloody battle with the military causing 600 casualties, rebellious silk workers seize Lyon, France. The government sent Marshal Jean-de-Dieu Soult, a veteran of the Napoleonic Wars, at the head of an army of 20,000 to restore order. Soult was able to retake the town without any bloodshed, and without making any compromises with the workers. The Second Canut revolt in 1834 occurred when owners attempted to impose a wage decrease. The government crushed the rebellion in a bloody battle, and deported or imprisoned 10,000 insurgents.
In 1830, France invaded and quickly seized Ottoman Regency of Algiers, and rapidly took control of other coastal communities. Fighting would continue throughout the decade, with the French pitted against forces under Ahmed Bey at Constantine, primarily in the east, and nationalist forces in Kabylia and the west. The French made treaties with the nationalists under 'Abd al-Qādir, enabling them to capture Constantine in 1837. Al-Qādir continued to give stiff resistance in the west, which lasted throughout the decade (and well into the 1840s, with Al-Qādir surrendering in 1847).
The 1830s for Mexico saw the end of the First Mexican Republic and saw General Santa Anna move in and out of the presidency in a 30-year span now known as the "Age of Santa Anna". In 1834, President Antonio López de Santa Anna dissolved Congress, forming a new government. That government instituted the Centralist Republic of Mexico by approving a new centralist constitution ("Siete Leyes"). From its formation in 1835 until its dissolution in 1846, the Centralist Republic was governed by eleven presidents (none of which finished their term). It called for the state militias to disarm, but many states resisted, including Mexican Texas, which declared independence in the Texas Revolution of 1836. During the 1840s, other provinces separated. The Republic of the Rio Grande in 1840, and the Republic of Yucatán declared independence in 1841.
Many key discoveries about electricity were made in the 1830s. Electromagnetic induction was discovered independently by Michael Faraday and Joseph Henry in 1831; however, Faraday was the first to publish the results of his experiments. Electromagnetic induction is the production of a potential difference (voltage) across a conductor when it is exposed to a varying magnetic field. This discovery was essential to the invention of transformers, inductors, and many types of electrical motors, generators and solenoids.
In 1834, Michael Faraday's published his research regarding the quantitative relationships in electrochemical reactions, now known as Faraday's laws of electrolysis. Also in 1834, Jean C. A. Peltier discovered the Peltier "effect", which is the presence of heating or cooling at an electrified junction of two different conductors. In 1836, John Daniell invented a primary cell in which hydrogen was eliminated in the generation of the electricity.
Historians believe that the first cholera pandemic had lingered in Indonesia and the Philippines in 1830. The second cholera pandemic spread from India to Russia and then to the rest of Europe claiming hundreds of thousands of lives. It reached Moscow in August 1830, and by 1831, the epidemic had infiltrated Russia's main cities and towns.
Russian soldiers brought the disease to Poland during the November Uprising. "Cholera riots" occurred in Russia, caused by the anti-cholera measures undertaken by the tsarist government.
The epidemic reached western Europe later in 1831. In London, the disease claimed 6,536 victims; in Paris, 20,000 died (out of a population of 650,000), with about 100,000 deaths in all of France. In 1832 the epidemic reached Quebec, Ontario, and Nova Scotia, Canada; and Detroit and New York City in the United States. It reached the Pacific coast of North America between 1832 and 1834.