page_title: 19th century
section_title: 1851–1900
hierarchical_section_title: 19th century / Events / 1851–1900
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: Barricade de la Chaussée Ménilmontant, le 18 mars 1871, pendant la Commune de Paris. English: A barricade in the Paris Commune, March 18, 1871.
context_page_description: The 19th century was a century that began on January 1, 1801, and ended on December 31, 1900.
  The 19th century saw large amounts of social change; slavery was abolished, and the First and Second Industrial Revolutions led to massive urbanization and much higher levels of productivity, profit and prosperity. The Islamic gunpowder empires were formally dissolved and European imperialism brought much of South Asia, Southeast Asia and almost all of Africa under colonial rule.
  It was marked by the collapse of the Spanish, Zulu Kingdom, First French, Holy Roman and Mughal empires. This paved the way for the growing influence of the British Empire, the Russian Empire, the United States, the German Empire, the Second French Empire, the Kingdom of Italy and Meiji Japan, with the British boasting unchallenged dominance after 1815. After the defeat of the French Empire, and its Indian allies in the Napoleonic Wars, the British and Russian empires expanded greatly, becoming the world's leading powers. The Russian Empire expanded in the Caucasus, central and far eastern Asia.
context_section_description: 1851: The Great Exhibition in London was the world's first international Expo or World Fair.
  1852: Frederick Douglass delivers his speech "The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro" in Rochester, New York.
  1857: Sir Joseph Whitworth designs the first long-range sniper rifle.
  1857–1858: Indian Rebellion of 1857. The British Empire assumes control of India from the East India Company.
  1858: Construction of Big Ben is completed.
  1859–1869: Suez Canal is constructed.
  1860: Giuseppe Garibaldi launches the Expedition of the Thousand.
  1861: Russia abolishes serfdom.
  1862–1877: Muslim Rebellion in north-west China.
  1863: Formation of the International Red Cross is followed by the adoption of the First Geneva Convention in 1864.
  1865–1877: Reconstruction in the United States; Slavery is banned in the United States by the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.
  1868: Michael Barrett is the last person to be publicly hanged in England.
  1869: The Suez Canal opens linking the Mediterranean to the Red Sea.
  1870: Official dismantling of the Cultivation System and beginning of a 'Liberal Policy' of deregulated exploitation of the Netherlands East Indies.
  1870–1890: Long Depression in Western Europe and North America.
  1871–1872: Famine in Persia is believed to have caused the death of 2 million.
  1871: The Paris Commune briefly rules the French capital.
  1872: Yellowstone National Park, the first national park, is created.
  1874: The Société Anonyme Coopérative des Artistes Peintres, Sculpteurs, and Graveurs, better known as the Impressionists, organize and present their first public group exhibition at the Paris studio of the photographer Nadar.
  1874: The Home Rule Movement is established in Ireland.
  1875: HMS Challenger surveys the deepest point in the Earth's oceans, the Challenger Deep
  1876: Battle of the Little Bighorn leads to the death of General Custer and victory for the alliance of Lakota, Cheyenne and Arapaho
  1876–1914: The massive expansion in population, territory, industry and wealth in the United States is referred to as the Gilded Age.
  1877: Great Railroad Strike in the United States may have been the world's first nationwide labour strike.
  1881: Wave of pogroms begins in the Russian Empire.
  1881–1882: The Jules Ferry laws are passed in France establishing free, secular education.
  1883: Krakatoa volcano explosion, one of the largest in modern history.
  1883: The quagga is rendered extinct.
  1886: Construction of the Statue of Liberty; Coca-Cola is developed.
  1888: Founding of the shipping line Koninklijke Paketvaart-Maatschappij (KPM) that supported the unification and development of the colonial economy.
  1889: Eiffel Tower is inaugurated in Paris.
  1889: Brazil A republican military coup established the Brazilian republic.  The parliamentary constitutional monarchy is abolished.
  1890: First use of the electric chair as a method of execution.
  1892: The World's Columbian Exposition was held in Chicago celebrating the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the New World.
  1892: Fingerprinting is officially adopted for the first time.
  1893: New Zealand becomes the first country to enact women's suffrage.
  1893: The Coremans-de Vriendt law is passed in Belgium, creating legal equality for French and Dutch languages.
  1894: Lombok War The Dutch looted and destroyed the Cakranegara palace of Mataram. J. L. A. Brandes, a Dutch philologist discovered and secured Nagarakretagama manuscript in Lombok royal library.
  1896: Philippine Revolution ends declaring Philippines free from Spanish rule.
  1898: The United States gains control of Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines after the Spanish–American War.
  1898: Empress Dowager Cixi of China engineers a coup d'état, marking the end of the Hundred Days' Reform; the Guangxu Emperor is arrested.
  Exposition Universelle held in Paris, prominently featuring the growing art trend Art Nouveau.
  Eight nations invaded China at the same time and ransacked Forbidden City.
caption: A barricade in the Paris Commune, 18 March 1871. Around 30,000 Parisians were killed, and thousands more were later executed.
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