Age of Victoria Part Two-Political 1868-1901

 

Victorian Era Events 1861-1901

1861 Victor Emmanuel II proclaimed King of Italy. 

1862 Otto von Bismarck becomes Prime Minister of Prussia. 

1863-67 France occupies Mexico. Homestead Act.

1864 Danish-Prussian War results in quick Prussian victory. Prussia and Austria respectively rule Schleswig and Holstein. 

1866 Austro-Prussian War breaks out over the Austrian administration of Holstein. Prussian victory in seven weeks. 3rd Māori War. 3rd Italian War for Independence.

1867 Dual Monarchy established in a compromise between Austria and Hungary. US purchases Alaska claims Aleutian Islands & annexes Midway Island. 

1869 Japanese Boshin War, Suez Canal completed. Transcontinental Railroad completed.

1870 the Italian state annexed Rome. Italian unification completed. France declares war on Prussia over Ems dispatch. France was defeated at Sedan and Emperor Napoleon III captured.  Third French Republic proclaimed. 

1871 Proclamation of the German Empire at Versailles.  

1873 3rd Anglo-Ashanti War.

1874 Benjamin Disraeli becomes the Conservative PM. Britain annexed Fiji Islands.

1875 Britain took control of the Suez Canal, creating a British protectorate over Egypt. Dakota Gold Rush.

1876 Victoria proclaimed Empress of India. Belgium claimed the African Congo. 

1877 Reconstruction ends. 

1878-79 2nd British-Afghan War.

1879 Zulu War. 

1880 France claims Tunis. 1st Boer War. Art Nouveau style appears

1882 Anglo-Egyptian War, France controlled Algeria, claiming French Somaliland. Chinese Exclusion Act.

1884 Sudan Mahdi War. 

1884-1885 Germany established a protectorate over Southwest Africa, Togoland, Cameroons and East Africa. Britain claims British Somaliland, Sino-Franco War.

1885 Berlin Conference-Bismarck establishes “ground rules” for dividing Africa. 3rd Burma War. Serbo-Bulgarian War

1886 Britain made Burma a province of India after winning the 3rd Anglo-Burma War.  Haymarket Riot, American Federation of Labor formed. 

1887 Britain claims Nigeria. 

1888 Kaiser Wilhelm II ascends to the throne of the German Empire. 

1889 Italy claimed Italian Somaliland, Britain claimed Northern and Southern Rhodesia’s. 

1890 Kaiser Wilhelm II “retires” Otto von Bismarck, 1st Fanco-Dahomean War, Britain established the colony of Uganda, Ghost Dance War, Sherman Anti-trust Act.

1892 2nd Franco-Dahomean War.

1893 Franco-Siamese War, France takes Laos, with Cambodia & Vietnam the area is called French Indochina. 

1893-94 1st Matabelle-Spanish War.

1894 Britain claims Zimbabwe. 1st Sino-Japanese War, Japan takes Taiwan from China, becoming a European style colonial power.

1895 Britain established the colony of Kenya, 1st Italian-Abyssinian War. 

1896 Anglo-Zanzibar War.

1895-96 4th Anglo-Ashanti War.

1896-99 English Sudanese War, England claims the entire Sudan.

1897 Greco-Turkish War

1898 Britain obtains a 99-year lease for Hong Kong from China. Spanish American War-US “liberates” Cuba, takes Puerto Rico, Guam & Philippines. US annexes Hawaii. Fashoda Incident-France and Britain divide all unclaimed North Africa. 

1899-1902 2nd Boer War, Britain invents the concentration camp.

1899 'Open Door Policy' in the Far East, 1st Hague Peace Conference. US annexes Wake Island. 

1899-1913 Philippine-American War

1900 5th Anglo-Ashanti War (War of the Golden Stool), Boxer Rebellion-united armies of Europe & Japan crush the Chinese, capturing & looting Peking. US annexes American Samoa. 

1901 Death of Victoria age 81. Aside from Ethiopia, Japan, Persia, Siam and parts of China the entire world is under European control. 

By 1910 Queen Victoria’s grandchildren were on the thrones of the following states:

Wilhem II, Kaiser of the German Empire, George V King of Great Britain, Emperor of India, Nikolai II Aleksandrovich, Tsar of All the Russia's, Maud Queen Consort of King Haakon VII of Norway

Age of Victoria Part One- Political 1818-1867

 

19th Century World Events 1819-1867 Age of Victoria Begins

1819 Birth of Victoria. US annexes Florida. 

1820 "Missouri Compromise"
1823 "Monroe Doctrine."

1825 Erie Canal.

1828 Greece gains its independence (lost in 338 B.C.). 
1833 Great Britain Abolishes Slavery

1836 Texas gains its independence from Mexico. 

1837 William IV dies, accession of Queen Victoria. age 18; Britain refuses to grant more home rule in Canada, leading to the Rebellions of 1837.

1840 Britain claims New Zealand, 1st Opium War (Britain vs China).

1841-42 1st British-Afghan War (total destruction of the invading English Army of 16,000).

1843 Britain claims Natal, 1st Māori War. 

1845 US forces Japan to open to foreign trade, Japanese chose to copy European concepts, & technologies-especially military. US annexes Texas.

1845-1850 Potato Famine in Ireland 1/3 of the population dies 1/3 immigrates (largely to the USA).

1846-48 Mexican American War. 

1848 Year of Revolutions, French 2nd Republic proclaimed, California Gold Rush.

1848-1864 Taiping Rebellion kills between 25 and 30 million Chinese.

1849 England annexes Punjab.

1850 "1850 Compromise."

1852 2nd Burma War. Napoleon III becomes Emperor of France. 

1853-1856 Crimean War: Britain, France and the Ottoman Empire vs. Russia. Russia's expansion into the Balkans is blocked and the 'Concert of Europe' destroyed.

1856 The Treaty of Paris ends the Crimean War, 2nd Opium War (GB & Fr vs China), Britain vs Persia War. 

1857-59 Sepoy or Indian Mutiny. 

1858 Victoria proclaims permanent British rule of India. Colorado gold & silver finds.

1859 War of Piedmont and France against Austria. 

1860 Garibaldi lands his forces in Sicily invades southern Italy. These southern states join the northern union forged by Piedmont under the direction of Camillo Cavour. 2nd Maori War. 

1861-1865 American Civil War.

1861 Victor Emmanuel II proclaimed King of Italy. 

1862 Otto von Bismarck becomes Prime Minister of Prussia. 

1863-67 France occupies Mexico. Homestead Act.

1864 Danish-Prussian War results in quick Prussian victory. Prussia and Austria respectively rule Schleswig and Holstein. 

1866 Austro-Prussian War breaks out over the Austrian administration of Holstein. Prussian victory in seven weeks. 3rd Māori War. 

1867 Dual Monarchy established in a compromise solution between Austria and Hungary. US purchases Alaska claims Aleutian Islands & annexes Midway Island.  

Pathans-Bane of Imperial Britain

 

For much of the 19th and early 20th centuries, the fanatic Pathan (Afghani Pashtun Tribes) warriors of the Northwest Frontier of the Raj (British Imperial India), Pathans were a constant menace to Imperial control. Raids, wars, punitive expeditions, threats, bribes and the like were commonplace events as these warlike tribesmen resisted Imperial authority. 

Rather armed with flintlock rifles like these men or more modern rifles as time progressed, no British officer took lightly the thought of fighting these warriors, not if they wanted a long life that is. Many a great career in Imperial service was started, or cut short, during these conflicts on the Northwest Frontier-including that of a young Winston Churchill in the late 1890's. Never fully conquered, the Pathans remained a thorn in the side of Imperial Britain until the end of the Raj in 1947, when it became a problem for other nations well into the 21st century. 

Imperial Nippon the Colonial Power

After Commodore Perry's fateful trip to Nippon in the 1850's the Nation of Nippon choose to embrace every aspect of the Modern World, including the European concept of Colonialism and overseas empires. Starting in the 1870's with dozens of Pacific islands, by the 1890's Nippon had turned its attention to the dying Qing Dynasty of China. After a swift victorious war, the Imperial Army and Navy annexed Formosa (Taiwan) and Korea (although the Europeans forced the technical return of the latter to the tender care of the Russian Empire).

By 1905, tensions had run their course between the empires of Russia and Nippon. The Imperial Navy used a lightning strike, before declaring war, on the Russian East Asia fleet in Korea. The Surprise attack destroyed Russian Naval power in Korean waters and allowed the unfettered movement of the Imperial Army as they systematically destroyed the Russian forces in Korea. The overwhelming victory of the Imperial Navy over the Russian reinforcement fleet in the Battle of Tushima sealed the Russian defeat and added Korean to the growing Empire of Nippon. By the 1930's, the Imperial Staff had made plans for the dismemberment of China, starting with Manchuria. This path was to directly lead to the final expansion of the Empire with the early conquests of much of East Asia in the opening victories of World War II.

The Japanese entry into World War II began as it had in the Russo-Japanese War, with a surprise attack upon the naval forces of the Japanese enemy, before a declaration of war.

The Empire's massive victory was also its greatest mistake.  The sneak attack on this "Day of Infamy" while the two governments were engaged in peace negotiations, would so enrage the American public that only total destruction of the Empire would satisfy the cry for revenge.

The Empire Nippon had reached its zenith of size and power and yet it had but four years left to live.

Meiji Restoration, Japan Modernizes into a World Power

The few ships of the Tokugawa Shogunate "Navy" before Commodore Perry's visit in 1853, were coastal junks with no effective armament.

By the 1880's, the Imperial Japanese Navy contained warships of the latest design such as the protected cruiser Naniwa armed with machine guns,and breech loading cannons.

After the United States opened Japan to the Modern World, a massive culture shock shook the country to its core. The Tokugawa Shogunate wanted to keep the status-quo while the Young Emperor Meiji wanted to modernize the whole of Japanese society, without the Shogunate and Samurai Feudalism. This led to brief, but bloody civil war. The modern Imperial Army and Imperial Navy won. Under Emperor Meiji's reform government, a crash modernization program that touched every aspect of Japanese life was instituted. By the 1890's the new Japan had defeated the Chinese and in 1905-06 Japan won the Russo-Japanese War. For the first time in history an Asian nation had defeated a Major European Power. In less than fifty years Japan had advanced from 17th Century technology to that of the Modern World. Under the Meiji Restoration Japan had arrived as a Major World Power.

Meiji, the 122nd Emperor of Nippon, in traditional robes of state.
Emperor Meiji in the modern clothing of a European Imperial Head of State.
Samurai officers of the Tokugawa Shogunate circa 1866.
Officers and men of the modern Imperial Army of Japan circa 1890. They are equipped with the latest weapons, trained in the most current European tactics, and confident in the power of Modern Japan.
Emperor Meiji and his Imperial Consort Shoken in European dress befitting their station.



After the modernization of his nation, Emperor Meiji said, "I dreamed of a unified Japan. Of a country strong and independent and modern… Now we have railroads and cannon and Western clothing. But we cannot forget who we are. Or where we come from."