The History Book

THE EARLY MODERN ERA 199

under his reign many Protestants Korea remained independent until their own language—Afrikaans—
were imprisoned and many others 1910, after which there was a and played a central role in the
fled from the country. 35-year period of Japanese rule. history of South Africa.

THE SPANISH ARMADA THE SIEGE OF DROGHEDA THE OTTOMAN SIEGE
OF VIENNA
(1588) (1649)
(1683)
In 1588, the Catholic monarch England’s parliamentarian leader
Philip II of Spain attempted to Oliver Cromwell launched his By 1683, the Turkish Ottoman
conquer Protestant England by campaign to conquer Ireland in Empire was at its greatest extent
sending a fleet of 130 ships to 1649, after Irish Catholics took and included large areas of North
invade the country. After the control of the country from its Africa, the Middle East, and
English succeeded in destroying English administrators in 1641. Eastern Europe. Austria was on
part of the fleet using fire ships, Once Cromwell had taken Dublin, the empire’s western border, and
a defeat at Gravelines sent the Drogheda became a base for Irish the Turks had already attempted
remains of the Spanish Armada Catholic leaders. Cromwell laid to conquer Vienna. In 1683 they
retreating northward toward siege to the town, massacring the besieged the city for the last time:
Scotland, where many more ships people inside its walls when they the forces of the Habsburg-ruled
were wrecked by storms. Only 86 refused to surrender. Most of the Holy Roman Empire and of Poland
vessels made it back to Spain. The garrison of about 2,500 men, came to defend Vienna, and the
defeat was a blow to Spain, ending plus many civilians, were killed. Ottomans were vanquished. From
this campaign to capture England Although the killings did not this point on, the Ottomans’ power
for Catholicism and confirming break the military code of the declined. No longer a threat to
England’s status as a secure time, their ruthlessness and the Christian Europe, they steadily
Protestant nation under Elizabeth I. sheer number of victims were lost their European territories.
both unprecedented, and they
THE JAPANESE INVASIONS embittered future relations between THE BATTLE OF CULLODEN
OF KOREA ARE DEFEATED the English and the Irish Catholics.
(1746)
(1592–98) THE DUTCH ESTABLISH A
COLONY AT CAPE TOWN At the Battle of Culloden, Scotland,
The Japanese samurai leader an army being led by the Duke of
Toyotomi Hideyoshi launched (1650) Cumberland, son of the Hanoverian
attempts to conquer Korea in king George II, defeated a smaller
1592 and 1597, part of a larger Although Portuguese explorers force of Jacobites (including many
campaign that was intended to were the first Europeans to from the Highland clans) under
culminate with an invasion of discover the Cape of Good Hope Prince Charles Edward Stuart.
China. Both times, Japan made in the 15th century, it was the The Stuart prince had hoped to
major advances, but the Koreans, Dutch who founded Cape Town. restore his bloodline to the British
with the support of Chinese forces, In 1652, a group from the Dutch throne, but Culloden effectively
managed to fight back. However, East India Company under Jan put an end to his campaign. It
they were unable to expel the van Riebeeck established a colony also led to the disarming of the
Japanese completely, which led there, creating a stopping point Scottish Highlands, where Jacobite
to a stalemate on land, although for Dutch ships on their way to support was strongest, the
Korea’s Admiral Yi inflicted and from Asia. The settlement dismantling of the clan system
frequent naval defeats on Japan. became the center of a large there, and a ruthless suppression
Beaten at sea and confined to community of people of Dutch of Highland culture that included
a few fortresses on land, Japan origin, who dominated trade and bans on wearing Highland dress
abandoned its attempts to invade. agriculture in the region, evolved and speaking Gaelic.

SCOHCAINEGTIINE

1776–1914

SG

202 INTRODUCTION

The Declaration of The Slave Trade Abolition Simon Bolívar Revolts occur all over
Independence is signed. Act is passed in Britain, establishes Gran Europe as demands for
It asserts basic human Colombia, a new South liberalism, socialism,
outlawing trading American republic
rights and creates a in slaves; however, independent of Spanish and national self-
new nation: the United slavery itself is not rule; it lasts until 1830. determination grow; all
banned until 1833. are suppressed by force.
States of America.

1776 1807 1819 1848
1789 1815 1830 1856

The storming of the Bastille Napoleon is defeated George Stephenson’s The Second Opium
signals the start of the at the Battle of Rocket steam engine War is launched by
French Revolution, in powers the world’s first Western powers to
which the monarchy Waterloo by the commercial rail service, force China to give
is overthrown and a British, Dutch, and which links Liverpool access to Chinese
Prussians, ending 23 ports for trade.
republic is established. years of war in Europe. and Manchester.

F rom the late 18th century, 1 million in 1800 to 7 million in 1910. there was no economic equality.
history took on a perhaps Improvements in public health and Extremes of wealth and poverty
delusory air of “progress.” medicine increased life expectancy polarized the world’s wealthiest
Change accelerated and seemed in the most advanced countries. and most advanced societies, and
to have a clear direction. The world conditions of life for industrial
population exceeded 1 billion in Human rights and equality workers were often very miserable.
1804 and was approaching 2 billion Despite these advancements, it Artists and intellectuals of the
by 1914. This growth was made is debatable whether progress Romantic movement criticized the
possible by tremendous increases was detectable in the quality of life. impact of mechanized industry on
in economic output. Agriculture At the start of this period, political people and the environment, while
became more efficient and large revolutions in America and France socialist movements looked forward
areas of new land were put to enunciated principles of human to further revolutions that would
productive use. The exploitation of rights and equal citizenship that end the exploitation of man by man
new sources of energy—especially radically challenged the existing and create egalitarian societies.
steam power—the application of order of society. By the early 20th
new technology, and organized century, liberals and democrats in Western imperialism
industrial production in factories Europe and North America could The most obvious losers in the new
revolutionized the manufacture look with some complacency upon world order created by industrial
of commodities. Railways made it successes such as the widespread capitalism were the inhabitants of
possible for humans to travel faster expansion of voting rights, the countries at the periphery of the
than a horse for the first time and abolition of slavery, and freedom of global economy. The industrializing
cities expanded—for instance, the speech. However, women remained countries of the West, needing
population in London increased from mostly excluded from voting, and places to invest their excess capital,

CHANGING SOCIETIES 203

Charles Darwin During the American The Suez Canal opens, A coalition of various
publishes On the Origin Civil War, US president linking the Red and reform groups, known
Abraham Lincoln gives Mediterranean seas, and collectively as the Young
of the Species, in the Gettysburg Address, dramatically reducing Turks, overthrow the
which he introduces sailing times between authoritarian Ottoman
one of the greatest Europe and the East. sultan and attempt to rule.
his controversial speeches in history.
theory of evolution.

1859 1863 1869 1908
1860 1868 1892 1913

Giuseppe Garibaldi The Tokugawa Ellis Island opens in New Emily Davison steps
leads 1,000 volunteers shogunate is ousted and York Harbor to process out under King George
to overthrow the French V’s horse at the Derby
Bourbons in southern the Emperor Meiji arrivals of immigrants and is killed, raising
Italy and Sicily; Italy was becomes ruler of Japan; to the United States; the profile of women’s
unified one year later. suffrage worldwide.
the nation emerges as most become US citizens.
a major imperial power. The island closed in 1954.

raw materials for their factories, dominance. On the other hand, the but Europe remained a deeply
and markets for their new products, growing superiority of the West in divided continent. Militant
found them in Asia, Africa, and technology, science, military power, nationalism, unleashed by the
Latin America. They also sought and social organization led several French Revolution, was a threat to
land for their expanding populations non-European governments to try stability. By 1815, the Napoleonic
to settle in thinly populated zones to modernize based on the Western Wars had generated battles of
such as the North American plains model. In the Muslim world, Egypt, unprecedented scale. After the
and Australia. Peoples who stood Turkey, and Iran attempted, with wars of the mid-19th century
in their way were swept aside. The only partial success, to pursue a that created a unified Italy and
Europeans started expanding the modernizing agenda. In East Asia, Germany, the great powers
areas under their direct rule or Japan successfully transformed maintained large conscript armies
control. The British takeover of the itself into an efficient modern state, and formed mutually hostile
Indian subcontinent, more or less becoming an imperialist power in alliance systems. These armies
complete by the mid-19th century, its own right. China, by contrast, were equipped with high-explosive
was the most spectacular example experienced turmoil and invasion, shells and rapid-fire weapons.
of imperialism in action, and Sub- and imperial rule collapsed in the
Saharan Africa was divided among early 20th century. European military power, which
the European powers as if the local was supported by highly organized
population did not exist. Rising nationalism state systems and economies, was
Most Europeans and people of certainly one of the key elements in
The world’s response to Western European descent gloried in a sense European world domination. There
imperialism was mixed. Resistance of their own racial and cultural would be disaster when European
was widespread in the form of wars superiority to the rest of the world, states turned this power against
and uprisings against European one another. ■

204 IN CONTEXT

CSWTTRHREELUAEFTHAT-THOAEESLLVDDLITDEOTMEQHENBUENETAS,LAERE FOCUS
The American Revolution
THE SIGNING OF THE DECLARATION
OF INDEPENDENCE (1776) BEFORE
1773 Boston Tea Party
protests tax on tea imports.

1775 Armed clashes take
place between patriot militia
and British forces.

AFTER
1777 British defeat at Saratoga
persuades France to support
the American rebels.

1781 The British surrender
at Yorktown, Virginia.

1783 Britain recognizes
American independence.

1787 Drafting of the
Constitution begins.

1789 George Washington
is elected as the first president
of the United States.

1790 The US Constitution
is ratified.

T here has been no more
daring assertion of
statehood than that
proclaimed by the Declaration of
Independence, adopted by the
Second Continental Congress
on July 4, 1776 and signed by all
56 delegates present. What would
become the United States consisted
of 13 British colonies, steadily
established since the 17th century,
and scattered along the east coast
of North America. They were not
just geographically remote from
their mother country; most were
also geographically remote from
each other. Their economies were
fragile, and they had no coherent
political identity—citizens of

CHANGING SOCIETIES 205

See also: The Battle of Quebec 191 ■ The storming of the Bastille 208–13 ■ The Slave Trade Abolition Act 226–27 ■
The 1848 revolutions 228–29 ■ The Gettysburg Address 244–47 ■ The California Gold Rush 248–49

France and Britain’s new ideals of political loyal to the British crown to the end
liberty take hold in Britain’s American colonies. of the conflict, many subsequently
settling in Canada.
American colonists’ protests against taxes
imposed by Britain lead to conflict The conflict takes shape
with the British government. It would take a drawn-out and
bitterly fought war to make
The Declaration of Independence independence into reality. Britain
is issued. was determined to assert what it
saw as its legitimate rule, while
American victory in the war with the hastily assembled forces of the
the British government leads to the recognition nascent United States were no less
determined to assert what they
of independence. saw as their right to independence.
The two modest armies—Britain’s,
Virginia considered themselves rejected British authority, but because of the difficulties of sending
to be Virginians, for example, not they set about establishing an forces en masse to America; the
Americans—beyond an increasingly entirely new kind of state in which colonists’, because they consistently
strained loyalty to the British crown. government would derive from lacked the means to raise and equip
“the consent of the governed.” any substantial fighting force—
However, the colonies were also This explosively novel idea would confronted each other in a series of
remarkably self-aware and acutely lead to the creation of a new and minor engagements over six years.
conscious of Enlightenment notions enduring republican government.
of political liberty, and they were At their peak, the American
concerned that their freedom Support for a formal assertion forces numbered scarcely 40,000
would come under threat as a of American independence was and had almost no navy at all.
result of British rule. Unable to far from universal in the colonies, Britain deployed about the same
assert their own natural rights, and however. Five states in particular— number of soldiers but in addition
subjected to what they considered New York, New Jersey, Maryland, had a vastly greater number of
unreasonably imposed taxes, the Delaware, and Pennsylvania— ships. In 1778, however, France
colonists questioned why a distant feared it would damage trade and, declared support for the colonists
parliament and a distant king if unsuccessful, provoke harsh and sent 5,000 troops and a
should impose their will on them. reprisals from Britain. In the same substantial fleet. Facing certain ❯❯
Impelled by a series of exceptional way, as many as 500,000 of a
leaders, in 1776 they not only population of 2.5 million remained These United Colonies are,
and of Right ought to be Free

and Independent States.
Richard Henry Lee

Proposed resolution at the Second
Continental Congress (June 1776)

206 THE SIGNING OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE

defeat, in October 1781, the British It was the work of a distinctly In Declaration of Independence, by
surrendered at Yorktown, Virginia. patrician Virginian, a haughty, John Trumbull, the drafting committee
The war would not formally end for wealthy slave-owner named is shown presenting its work to
another year, but in every important Thomas Jefferson. He was one of Congress. Thomas Jefferson can be
respect, the colonists—and their a committee of five charged with seen standing in a red waistcoat.
French allies—had dealt a huge writing the Declaration, yet the two
blow to their British masters. drafts it went through in June 1776 British and French Enlightenment
were almost entirely his own. It is thinkers, led to the creation of the
The French involvement in the hard to overstate the importance of first modern state and, in doing so,
creation of this new nation owed the Declaration of Independence. It changed the world.
everything to a desire to reverse made, for the time, an astonishing
the humiliations of the Seven Years’ claim: “that all men are created The destiny of America
War. But the debts incurred would, equal.” It further claimed “that Jefferson remains an enigma.
ironically, be among the many governments are instituted among He loathed monarchy yet loved
causes of the bankruptcy of the men deriving their just powers from pre-Revolutionary France, where
French crown that led to the French the consent of the governed.” he was the United States’ first
Revolution in 1789. There was a ambassador, delighting in its
profound irony, too, in absolutist These were actively seditious civilized elegance. He claimed to
France seeking to win Americans sentiments that neither George III despise high office yet served two
the freedoms that it was unwilling of England nor Louis XVI of France terms as President of the United
to accord its own citizens. could have any sympathy with. States. And, as president, in 1803
They nonetheless formed the he drove through the Louisiana
Revolutionary ideals bedrock of what would become Purchase, which saw a vast area
At the heart of the American the United States and, indeed, west of the Mississippi transferred
Revolution was the new political liberal political systems across at a bargain price from France, its
philosophy encapsulated by the the Western world. These political nominal ruler, to the United States.
Declaration of Independence. creeds, derived from the work of

CHANGING SOCIETIES 207

The god who gave us be bad for both slaves and white until June the following year, and
life, gave us liberty Americans—unless they were then only after prolonged disputes.
at the same time. returned to Africa. The result was an assertion of a new
Thomas Jefferson form of government. It was both a
A new constitution bill of rights and a blueprint for an
He understood that the destiny of Although Jefferson can readily be ideal government, whose three
the US lay in its colonization of the considered the guiding spirit behind branches—executive, legislative,
vast lands to the west, he assented the Declaration of Independence, he and judiciary—would keep each
to the notion that its indigenous played no formal role in the drawing other in check. It would have a
inhabitants should be driven off, up of the next great document that profound influence on that issued
and he owned slaves. “Blacks,” he shaped the nation: its Constitution. in Revolutionary France in 1791
asserted, “are inferior to the whites The United States was legally able and remains a model of its kind.
in the endowments both of body to assert its independence from
and mind.” Whereas George Britain in 1783. But for the next four “Unfinished business”
Washington, also a patrician years, it existed in an increasingly The founding fathers were rightly
Virginian, freed his slaves, unstable political vacuum, its fate optimistic about the United States’
Jefferson opted not to. decided by an ever-more divided potential, but they had failed to
Confederation Congress, meeting resolve one crucial question.
None of this, though, can variously in Pennsylvania, New Jefferson’s first draft of the
diminish Jefferson’s significance in York, and New Jersey. Declaration of Independence called
articulating notions of liberty that slavery “an execrable commerce”
resonate today. And even though he There were serious reasons to and “a cruel war against human
felt slavery was wrong, his personal believe the new nation might fail, nature itself.” However, to placate
belief was that emancipation would torn apart by those arguing for the slave states of the south and the
the primacy of the rights of the slave traders of the north, these
individual states over the central radical statements were later
government, and those in favor dropped. Almost 90 years later, it
of a strong central government or would take a civil war and 620,000
even the creation of an American dead to end the practice and
monarchy. In the spring of 1787, a complete what Abraham Lincoln
Constitutional Convention took saw as the “unfinished business”
place in Philadelphia. The written, of the Declaration of Independence
formalized Constitution proposed and the Constitution. ■
would not be provisionally ratified

George Washington Born in 1732, George Washington exceptionally harsh winter
served the British crown with in 1777–78 at Valley Forge in
distinction during the Seven Pennsylvania. From 1783,
Years’ War (1754–61) against Washington sought to establish
France. He represented Virginia a constitutional government for
in the House of Burgesses and in the new nation. The nation’s
the Continental Congresses of first president, he served two
1774 and 1775. With the outbreak terms, retiring in 1797 in the
of the Revolutionary War, he was face of increasing disputes
the unanimous choice to lead between Jefferson’s Democratic
the Continental Army, which he Republicans and the Federalists,
did with imagination and great who were led by the quick-
fortitude, especially in the very tempered Alexander Hamilton.
difficult early years of the conflict: Washington died in 1799 and
his “skeleton of an army,” under- was buried at his Virginia
equipped and close to starving, plantation, Mount Vernon,
was forced to endure an overlooking the Potomac River.

RSEIRVEOLIUTT’SIOAN

THE STORMING OF THE BASTILLE (1789)



210 THE STORMING OF THE BASTILLE

IN CONTEXT O n July 14, 1789, an enraged The French Revolution was
Parisian mob, seeking the greatest step forward
FOCUS weapons to defend their in the history of mankind
The French Revolution city from a rumored royal attack, since the coming of Christ.
stormed the crumbling fortress
BEFORE known as the Bastille and murdered Victor Hugo
May 1789 Louis XVI its governor and guards. This
summons the States General. violent defiance of royal power Les Misérables (1862)
In June, the commons forms has become the symbol of the
the National Assembly, taking French Revolution, a movement régime, and a new world that
effective power in the name that not only engulfed France struggled, often violently, to
of the people. but also reverberated around the create a coherent new order.
world. The ideas articulated in the
AFTER revolution spelled the beginning A country in disarray
April 1792 The Legislative of the end for Europe’s absolute The French king, Louis XVI, well
Assembly declares war on monarchies and inspired their meaning but indecisive, was
Austria and Prussia. The first eventual replacement by more hardly the man to confront any
French Republic is declared. democratic governments. crisis, let alone one as grave as
that facing France in 1789. In the
January 1793 Louis XVI The French Revolution originally previous century, his great-great-
is executed. set out to sweep away aristocratic great-grandfather Louis XIV,
privilege and establish a new the Sun King, had established
March 1794 The Terror is at state based on the Enlightenment France as an absolute monarchy,
its peak. In July, Robespierre, principles of liberté, égalité, and with all power concentrated in the
its prime exponent, is executed. fraternité. But although it was king’s hands, and his palace at
introduced by a surge of optimism,
October 1795 Napoleon the revolution soon degenerated
forcibly restores order to a into a violence that played out
turbulent Paris. over several years and that would
be brought to an end only by the
November 1799 Napoleon dictatorship of Napoleon Bonaparte.
effectively becomes the ruler It remains a story of confusion and
of France. chaos, of a collision between a
privileged old order, the ancien

Enlightenment A political crisis The Bastille prison
thought establishes a arises in France, and is attacked by a
belief in a new political the overthrow of the violent mob.
order based on liberty.
old order seems
suddenly possible.

The underpinning belief A sustained period Attempts are made to
in liberté, égalité, of instability, rioting, construct a new society:
the monarchy is abolished
fraternité changes not civil war, and and a republic declared.
just France, but the world. state-sanctioned
executions follows.

CHANGING SOCIETIES 211

See also: Louis XIV begins personal rule of France The Battle of Quebec 191 ■ Diderot publishes the Encyclopédie 192–95 ■
The signing of the Declaration of Independence 204–07 ■ The Battle of Waterloo 214–15 ■ The 1848 revolutions 228–29

The storming of the Bastille
symbolized the start of the French
Revolution. The prison held only seven
prisoners in July 1789, but its fall had
great importance.

Versailles as the most sophisticated semi-parliamentary body that had royal family to Paris, ransacking the
court in Europe and a bastion of last assembled in 1614. It consisted palace for good measure. In what
aristocratic privilege. of clergy, the first estate; nobles, the would become an unnerving
second; and the commons foretaste of the violence to come,
Louis XVI thus ruled over a (essentially a kind of bourgeoisie, the severed heads of the guards at
country where nobles refused to lawyers predominating), the third. Versailles were paraded on stakes
surrender any privileges, and taxes The States General met at Versailles as Louis and his family were
were paid almost exclusively by an on May 5, 1789. Almost instantly, escorted to the capital.
oppressed peasantry: France was the nobles and clerics tried to assert
effectively bankrupt. In the late that their votes should be worth It had been comparatively easy
18th century, France’s population more than those of the commons. In to overthrow the existing royal
was expanding rapidly, but unlike response, on June 17, the commons government, but it would prove
England, France had not had an declared itself a National Assembly, infinitely harder to establish a new
agricultural revolution and remained vesting power in itself instead of the government. It was presumed that
particularly vulnerable to any failure crown. In August, with peasant a kind of constitutional monarchy
of the harvest, as happened in uprisings across rural France, the would be the most obvious solution.
1787 and, again, in 1788. These Assembly abolished feudal taxes In the event, France found itself
desperate summers were followed and aristocratic privileges and wrenched between those arguing
in 1788–89 by a bitterly harsh issued what it called the Declaration for this more or less moderate option,
winter, leading to mass starvation. of the Rights of Man, a statement and those in favor of a much more
asserting fundamental freedoms. radical republican alternative.
The king’s response
The financial crisis critical, Louis In October 1789, events were The First Republic
was desperate to raise further suddenly accelerated when a vast Although in most important respects
funds while preserving his crowd, outraged by the lack of Louis’s reign seemed by now to be
authority, so he summoned what bread in Paris, descended on doomed, the king had not entirely ❯❯
was called the States General, a Versailles and forcibly removed the
Terror is nothing more
than speedy, severe, and
inflexible justice; it is thus
an emanation of virtue.
Maximilien Robespierre,

February 1794

212 THE STORMING OF THE BASTILLE

abandoned hope of reasserting his a constitutional monarchy was So, legislators, place Terror
authority. Large numbers of French proclaimed. Similarly, the church’s on the order of the day!…
aristocrats—emigrés—had already privileged position was forcibly The blade of the law should
fled France, fearing the revolution ended, though this, too, provoked hover over all the guilty.
had made it unsafe. In trying to lasting upheaval and violence. Committee of General
persuade other European regimes— Equally critically, the freedom of Security, September 1793
Austria above all, whose emperor the press was asserted.
was the brother of the French queen its first act was to put Louis XVI on
Marie-Antoinette—they stirred up At the same time, revolutionary trial as a traitor. In January 1793, he
opposition to the revolution, but France faced an external threat was executed, an early victim of the
their principal impact was to from Austria and Prussia, both guillotine, championed as a humane
reinforce a determination in France determined to reassert the primacy and egalitarian means of death.
to see the revolution succeed. of hereditary monarchy and to
forestall revolutionary tendencies The sense of crisis continued to
In June 1791, Louis attempted to in their own countries. In April grow. In April 1793, the Committee
escape, but was intercepted near 1792, France declared war on both, of Public Safety was created to safe-
the border with the Low Countries a war that would continue, in guard the revolution. For a year or
and brought back to Paris to the different guises, for 23 years. By more, under the chairmanship of
jeers of the increasingly violent, August, the combined Austrian a provincial lawyer, Maximilien
politicized common folk, the sans- and Prussian forces were within Robespierre, the most influential
culottes, their name a reference to 100 miles (160km) of Paris. of the now-dominant Jacobins,
their striped, baggy trousers. There it would effectively become the
was an increasingly hostile stand-off A kind of hysteria gripped the government of France. Its impact
between political factions in Paris, city. A mob stormed the Tuileries, on France, however short-lived, was
such as the Girondins and more where the royal family was held, devastating. This was the Terror.
extremist Jacobins, which attracted slaughtering its Swiss Guards. The Counter-revolutionary movements
the support of the sans-culottes, following month, a further round of across the country were ruthlessly
and the French government. killings, the September Massacres, suppressed, most obviously in the
was unleashed against anyone Vendée region of the southwest,
An external threat suspected of royalist sympathies. where up to 300,000 died. Churches
Whatever the obvious instability, September 1792 also marked the proved particularly rich targets. The
progress toward a new social order establishment of the directly Terror’s victims were less likely to
was being made. In September 1791, elected National Convention and of be remaining aristocrats and more
the First French Republic. Almost anyone Robespierre suspected of
impure thoughts, including almost
all of his political opponents.

Louis XVI was executed in 1793.
Using the guillotine as the only means
of execution for all people—royals and
paupers alike—was meant to reinforce
the revolutionary principle of equality.

CHANGING SOCIETIES 213

The French Revolution set out with the idea of building
a new state that would take the Enlightenment principles
of liberty, equality, and brotherhood as its foundation.

Liberté Égalité

A new understanding This idea asserted that
of liberty suggested that all people were equal
all were free to behave as
under the law and
they chose if they did ended aristocratic
no harm to others.
privilege.

Fraternité Maximilien
Robespierre
This was the hope that
the revolution would Robespierre (1758–94), a
usher in a newfound, lawyer and a member of the
rational spirit of third estate in 1789, was
brotherhood. the chief architect of the Terror
that gripped France between
Robespierre’s single-minded pursuit reinforced its assertion of what it September 1793 and July 1794.
of revolutionary purity reached an claimed were its “natural frontiers” He was a consistent champion
improbable climax with his creation on the Rhine, which in reality of the dispossessed, as well as
in 1794 of a new religion, the Cult of meant an audacious extension of a remarkable orator, capable of
the Supreme Being. It was intended French rule into Germany. By 1797, astonishingly intense speeches
as a focus of, and spur to, patriotic it had inflicted crushing defeats that electrified his supporters
and revolutionary virtues, the over Austria in the Low Countries and opponents alike. He was
superstition of the Catholic Church and in northern Italy. France was also a fierce opponent of the
replaced by a belief dedicated to ready to re-assert what it saw as Revolutionary Wars, believing
reason celebrating the natural laws its natural primacy in Europe. that a strengthened army
of the universe. The megalomania it risked becoming a source of
suggested contributed significantly Historical significance counter-revolutionary fervor.
to his sudden downfall, and at the Whatever the importance of the Initially, at least, he was also
end of July 1794, Robespierre was French Revolution, it remains the opposed to the death penalty.
put to the guillotine. subject of continuing and intense His change of mind was
historical debate. Its notional goals startlingly absolute. When
Order restored were clear: the ending of repressive persuaded that terror was
With the end of the killings—more monarchy and entrenched privilege; the most effective means
particularly with the establishment the establishment of representative of preserving the revolution,
of yet another government, the government; and the championing he embraced it implacably,
Directory, at the end of 1795—order of universal rights. But the reality arguing that it was the natural
of a sort was restored. Tellingly, was confused and often violent. handmaiden of the virtue
it was achieved in part by the he felt should drive the
Directory’s willingness to use force Furthermore, by 1804 Napoleon revolution. He remains the
against the Paris mob, ordered by had effectively swapped one form original, chilling model for
Napoleon Bonaparte, then a young of absolutism for his own, albeit all those who have since
general in the revolutionary army. one vastly more effective than any championed state violence in
France had known since Louis XIV. the interests of a supposed
Furthermore, France’s armies, Yet the revolution’s consequences greater good.
boosted by mass conscription, were reverberated well into the 20th
reversing early defeats, apparently century. It remains a pivotal moment
poised to carry the revolution into in the belief that freedom should
new territories. Emboldened, France underpin the civilized world. ■

214

IPPCEEMAOOPUIPPSTLLTAEELMS, OAAONFKFDETEHOOUEFFRWPOAAPLORELRISLOTDHNTEEHE

THE BATTLE OF WATERLOO (1815)

IN CONTEXT France institutes Napoleon becomes
mass conscription, emperor and vows
FOCUS creating armies of an to restore France’s
Revolutionary and unprecedented size. dominant role in Europe.
Napoleonic Wars 
The invasion of Sweeping conquests
BEFORE Russia leaves Napoleon create the largest
1792 The Revolutionary overextended and French
Wars against Republican European empire since
France begin. manpower depleted. Charlemagne’s time.

1799 Napoleon seizes power The rate of Napoleonic Napoleon is
in a military coup. conquest becomes finally defeated
unsustainable.
1804 Napoleon names himself at Waterloo.
Emperor of the French. N apoleon’s defeat at the
Battle of Waterloo, south Prussian forces finally prevailed
1805 The British are victorious of Brussels, on June 18, over a French army of 73,000,
against France and Spain in 1815 marked his final overthrow hastily assembled by Napoleon.
the naval Battle of Trafalgar. as Emperor of the French, ending
23 years of European warfare. It France’s Revolutionary Wars,
1807 France invades Portugal. was an epic encounter, fought on which began in 1792, had been
rain-soaked ground, in which launched to extend Revolutionary
1809 Austria is defeated in 118,000 British, Dutch, and principles to neighboring states
Napoleon’s last major victory. and to defend France against
its enemies. Under Napoleon,
1814 A series of defeats lead
to Napoleon’s abdication.

AFTER
1815 Napoleon is exiled for the
final time, and the Bourbon
monarchy is restored.

1830 The Bourbon monarchy
is overthrown.

CHANGING SOCIETIES 215

See also: Louis XIV begins personal rule of France 190 190 ■ The Battle of Quebec 191 ■
Diderot publishes the Encyclopédie 192–95 ■ The signing of the Declaration of Independence 204–07 ■
The storming of the Bastille 208–13 ■ The 1848 revolutions 228–29

Napoleon Bonaparte Born in Ajaccio, on the island as he would subsequently
of Corsica, to a family with dominate Europe. He was
claims to minor Italian nobility, as brilliant and tireless an
Napoleon Bonaparte (1769–1821) administrator as he was a
was commissioned in the French soldier. His most enduring
army in 1785 and was an reform was the introduction,
enthusiastic supporter of the in 1804, of the Napoleonic
Revolution. In 1796, at the age Code, which is still the basis
of 26, he was appointed to of French law. Forced to resign
command the Army of Italy, in 1814, Napoleon was exiled
winning a series of impressive to the island of Elba in the
victories. Two years later, Mediterranean, from where he
Napoleon led an unsuccessful escaped before his final defeat
French invasion of Egypt. at Waterloo. In 1815, he was
despatched to St. Helena in the
Increasingly convinced of his South Atlantic, where he died
destiny, by 1800, having staged a six years later.
coup d’état, he dominated France

they became, in effect, wars of Only Britain, protected by the traumatic for the nation. Of the
conquest, despite being waged English Channel, remained 450,000 men he led against Russia
in the name of the Revolution. undefeated, its position as the in 1812, barely 40,000 survived.
world’s leading maritime power
A continent reshaped underscored by victory at Trafalgar, Napoleon had overreached
During the Revolutionary Wars, off southern Spain, in 1805. But himself. At Leipzig, Germany, in
France had established sister maritime muscle alone was not 1813, outnumbered three to one by
republics in northern Italy and the enough to beat Napoleon. Britain’s forces from Austria, Prussia, Russia,
Low Countries; under Napoleon, most significant role was financing and Sweden, he suffered his first
many of these were reformed into the endlessly shifting alliances major defeat. By Waterloo, his forces
kingdoms, whose monarchs came confronting the French. had recovered slightly, and the ratio
from the Emperor’s family. States was only two to one, but Napoleon’s
across Germany were carved up, at In response, Napoleon imposed military genius failed to redress the
the expense of Prussia, to become the Continental System, which balance and his imperial ambition
a French puppet state, while the forbade trade between continental ended in the Waterloo mud. ■
800-year-old Holy Roman Empire Europe and Britain. However,
was abolished. From 1807, much of Portugal and Russia continued All Frenchmen are in
Poland was controlled by the French to trade with Britain, prompting permanent requisition for
as the Grand Duchy of Warsaw. Napoleonic invasions in 1807 the services of the armies.
These were states recast on French and 1812 respectively.
lines: clerical power was reduced, Declaration of
serfdom abolished, and aristocratic Resistance to Napoleonic rule Conscription, 1793
privilege ended. But such reforms was mounting; the Spanish began
provoked inevitable resentments. a brutal guerrilla war that drained
French resources and came to be
Napoleon’s conquests were the referred to by Napoleon as the
result not just of military genius “Spanish ulcer.”
but also of greatly enlarged French
armies. Conscription, introduced The final defeat
in 1793, swelled the French army Napoleon had bred a sense of
from 160,000 men to 1.5 million. French invincibility, and this made
his eventual defeat all the more

216 IN CONTEXT

ILCWTASEOMOITTRTEHOHNUREOESIPSCRUEILATSTRANATIYFTSOFEEHTNRAHEEREE.ODFOM FOCUS
Latin American
BOLÍVAR ESTABLISHES GRAN COLOMBIA (1819) independence

BEFORE
1807–08 Napoleonic invasion
of Iberia leads to governmental
crisis in the Iberian colonies
of South America.

1819 Spain is expelled from
its former province of New
Granada, and the Republic
of Colombia is declared.

AFTER
1822 Portugal assents to Brazil
becoming a constitutional
monarchy under Pedro I.

1824 The Spanish capitulate
in Peru, and their New World
empire ends.

1830 Break up of the Republic
of Colombia. Ecuador,
Colombia, and Venezuela
emerge as independent states.

T he establishment in
1819 of the Republic
of Colombia, or Gran
Colombia as it came to be known,
by Simón Bolívar, the self-styled
Libertador, marked a pivotal
moment in the emergence of an
independent Latin America.

By 1825, the continent had
successfully ended almost 300 years
of Spanish and Portuguese rule. In
Brazil, which won its independence
in 1822, the process was relatively
easy and also largely bloodless.
Elsewhere, it was complex, long,
drawn out, and violent. It was a
reflection of societies comprising a
teeming range of classes and
races—ruling Europeans, native

CHANGING SOCIETIES 217

See also: The signing of the Declaration of Independence 204–07 ■
The storming of the Bastille 208–13 ■ The Slave Trade Abolition Act 226–27 ■
The Mexican Revolution 265 ■

Notions of political liberation spread across the territories
colonized by the Spanish and Portuguese in South America.

These ideas destabilize the Spanish
administration on the continent.

Bitter wars against colonial powers in Simón Bolívar
South America lead to the creation of
a newly independent Gran Colombia. Born in Caracas, Venezuela,
in 1783, Simón Bolívar came
The new state faces divisions and instabilities. from one of the oldest and
Hopes of unity are undermined by political infighting. wealthiest noble families in
the city. His education was
South America, racially and socially dislocated, consistently completed in Europe, where
struggles to assert itself economically and politically. he absorbed the republican
ideals of the American and
Indians, black people, and those of the kind of social change—society French revolutions. The idea
mixed race—that were never likely recast on liberal principles—that of independence for Hispanic
to produce coherent political underpinned the French Revolution. America accordingly took
wholes. Plagued by bitter disputes, That said, this drive was also root in his imagination.
the short-lived republic of Gran significantly affected by the
Colombia would break up in 1830. Napoleonic Wars. Napoleon’s His revolutionary career
invasion of Portugal in 1807 forced began with an abortive
Brazilian independence the Portuguese king, João VI, and uprising in Caracas in 1810. In
Though partly influenced by the his court to flee to safety in its 1814, the charismatic Bolívar
liberal doctrines of the American Brazilian colony. João remained declared himself “liberator”
and French revolutions, the drive there even after the fall of Napoleon and head of state of the new
to independence in South America in 1815, returning to Portugal only in republic of Venezuela. In 1817,
was seldom the product of a desire 1821. However, his son and heir, he staged a daring invasion
for social justice or representative Pedro, stayed in Brazil. of Colombia and went on to
government. Aside from two complete the conquests of
abortive Mexican revolutions in As in Spain’s Latin American Ecuador and Peru in 1824.
1810 and 1813, it was a struggle for colonies, Brazil was dominated by Bolívar’s dream was to unite
supremacy between ruling elites, a land-owning elite, a great many all of South America—except
none of which had much interest in of whom, over many generations, Argentina, Brazil, and Chile—
had been born in South America. ❯❯ in a single great republic.
However, his dictatorial
tendencies and the brutality
of his armies eventually led
to dissent and the fracturing
of Gran Colombia in 1830,
the year of his death.

218 BOLÍVAR ESTABLISHES GRAN COLOMBIA

Pedro I of Brazil, whose coronation
is illustrated in this painting by
Jean-Baptiste Debret, was the son
of the king of Portugal. He had been
left in Brazil to rule as regent.

They came to resent the fact that of Spain’s restrictive control of Miguel Hidalgo, appalled at the
ultimate authority was exercised South American trade and punitive obvious inequalities of Mexico,
by a distant monarchy, and saw no taxation policies, both to the led a popular revolution that
reason why they should submit to it. disadvantage of the colonies. In ended the following year in its
the short term, however, it was a brutal suppression and Hidalgo’s
There are clear parallels with reaction to Napoleon’s invasion of execution. Another popular
the American Revolution. But Spain in 1808 and his deposition of uprising led by a second Catholic
while in North America it was the Spanish king, Ferdinand VII, in priest, José Morelos, between
the fundamental liberties of free- favor of Napoleon’s brother, Joseph. 1813 and 1815 was similarly put
born men that were disputed, in In effect, Spain’s colonies no longer down. When, in 1821, Mexico
Brazil the issue was narrower— had a legitimate ruler of their own, did gain independence, it was by
it was simply a question of who so it was their plain duty to become force against more or less token
would govern. rulers themselves, at least until the Spanish resistance, and under the
monarchy could be restored. leadership of Augustín de Iturbide,
In 1822, to protect the interests a Mexican general who proclaimed
of the native-born elite, Pedro While South American liberals himself emperor of Mexico the
declared Brazil an independent saw Joseph as the harbinger of a following year. His rule lasted less
constitutional monarchy and new, more just social order in place than a year. By 1838, Mexico had
himself its emperor. This was a of the absolutism of Ferdinand VII, lost all its Central American
revolution only in the sense that it monarchists in the colonies saw territories, and by 1848, it had lost
produced Brazilian independence any such liberalizing tendencies all its North American territories.
in the interests of those already as inherently destabilizing. The
ruling it. One of the more obvious seeds of internal conflict were Gran Colombia
consequences was that, with no being sown. Events in Spanish South America—
change to the social or economic which included the triple Vice-
order, slavery remained legal Social revolution in Mexico Royalties of New Granada, Peru,
in Brazil until 1888, later than At the time, Mexico, which was and Rio de la Plata—followed a very
anywhere else in the Western world. known as the Vice-Royalty of different course. The key figure here
New Spain, encompassed an was Simón Bolívar. Born in modern-
Governing Spain’s colonies immense area that extended
In Spain’s colonies, the drive for almost from present-day Wyoming For my blood, my honour,
independence stemmed partly to Panama and that included my God, I swear to give
from the desire of the native-born most of Texas. Events there took
ruling class—the creoles—to assert a different turn. In 1810, a priest, Brazil freedom.
their interests, not least in the face Prince Pedro

Future Emperor Pedro I
of Brazil (1822)

CHANGING SOCIETIES 219

May slavery be banished movement in the Central Andes— This lack of direction resulted in
forever together with the proved impossible to translate into instability and a social inequality
distinction between castes. enduring and stable states. that would persist for a century
or more. It would also produce a
José Morelos Bolívar was an idealist and series of authoritarian military
a passionate opponent of slavery. leaders acting in the interests of
Leader of the failed He considered that so disparate the landowners. An inevitable
Mexican Revolt of 1813–15 a land and a people could only consequence was a persistently
be ruled by a strong central oppressed underclass, urban
day Venezuela, he was a creole, government. Seeing himself as and agricultural, black and
aristocratic, and highly educated. its natural leader, he proposed white. The hacienda—vast acres
He had visited Europe several himself as the lifelong president inefficiently worked by armies
times and was an enthusiastic of Gran Colombia. This provoked of peasants in the interests of a
supporter of modern nation- predictably bitter opposition. complacently cruel, land-owning
building on the model established elite—dominated.
by the French Revolution. He Gran Colombia breaks up
believed, in particular, that the By 1830—the year Bolívar died, In 1910, Mexico descended into
diverse peoples and interests of aged 47, of tuberculosis—Gran another revolution. This was partly
South America could be brought Colombia had already broken up. a result of being wrenched between
together by the assertion of a Arguably, it was the result of ineffectual liberal regimes that
shared South American identity, the kind of nationalism already sought to alleviate the obvious
expressed by the creation of a vast surfacing in Europe, with the suffering of the poor but did little
new South American state. This independence of Greece and, the to address fundamental economic
was to be Gran Colombia, which following year, of Belgium. More weaknesses and self-serving
embraced an immense area of particularly, it was due to a failure authoritarian regimes that cared
northern South America, essentially to agree on the future of Gran more for bombast than real reform.
the modern states of Ecuador, Colombia. There were disputes
Colombia, Venezuela, and Panama. over whether its government Bolívar’s visions of a recast,
was to be liberal, conservative, independent South America could
Bolívar’s vision of an or authoritarian. Venezuela, in never contend with the reality of
independent South America particular, was subjected to bitter an unequal society that shared no
consistently fell foul of a series wars throughout the 19th century common belief in its own destiny
of political realities. His military that cost the lives of an estimated and that was consistently the
successes—for example, in 1824, 1 million people. victim of competing, mostly violent
the routing of the remaining efforts to assert special interests. ■
Spanish strongholds in Peru,
when his armies attacked from
the north and the south in a pincer

The Battle of Ayacucho (1824) saw
the defeat of the Spanish army at the
hands of the South American liberation
troops. It marked the end of Spanish
rule in Peru and in South America.

IILNSIFDEGUWSUITTHIOLRUTYT

STEPHENSON’S ROCKET ENTERS
SERVICE (1830)



222 STEPHENSON’S ROCKET ENTERS SERVICE

IN CONTEXT A scientific revolution in the West creates a sense that the
world can be better understood and better exploited.
FOCUS The development of steam-powered machinery encourages
The Industrial Revolution the growth of factory-based mass production.

BEFORE Stephenson’s Rocket heralds a new form
1776 Adam Smith’s The of faster, more reliable transport.
Wealth of Nations is published.
The West imposes itself across the rest of the globe,
1781 Watts’s first rotating creating interlocked global markets.
steam engine is invented; the
world’s first iron bridge is built Industrial societies’ dependence on fossil fuels
at Coalbrookdale, England. leads to a strain on the natural environment.

1805 The Grand Junction
Canal, between Birmingham
and London, is completed.

1825 The world’s first
commercial steam-powered
railway, linking Stockton and
Darlington, opens.

AFTER
1855 The Bessemer furnace
is introduced.

1869 The first transcontinental
railroad is completed in the US.

1885 The first practical petrol-
driven internal-combustion
engine is installed in a motor
vehicle, in Germany.

O n September 15, 1830, the an agricultural society that relied imported to Britain: more readily
world’s first commercial on windmills, watermills, horses, available credit helped boost
passenger rail service to and other beasts of burden, to an entrepreneurial activities. It had
be powered by a steam engine— industrial one, in which steam never been easier for members of
George Stephenson’s Rocket— engines were capable of generating the increasingly wealthy middle
was opened. This was the Liverpool reliable power on a scale that was class, looking for ways to invest
and Manchester Railway, which previously unimaginable. their money, to support new
was 35 miles (56km) long and inventions and technologies.
served by locomotives, also The background
designed by Stephenson, that The industrialization process that A third factor was an agricultural
were capable of reaching speeds started in Britain around the mid- revolution, which began in the
approaching 30 mph (48km/h). to late 18th century was initiated Netherlands and Britain, where
by the scientific revolution in Europe farmers realized that crop rotation
Stephenson’s Rocket symbolized in the late 17th century. Of similar made it unnecessary to leave land
what remains the key development importance were financial changes fallow every third year. In both of
in world history over the past pioneered in the Netherlands, then these countries, land reclamation
250 years: the transformation from increased the acreage available

CHANGING SOCIETIES 223

See also: The opening of the Amsterdam Stock Exchange 180–83 ■ Newton publishes Principia 188 ■
Diderot publishes the Encyclopédie 192–95 ■ The construction of the Suez Canal 230–35 ■
Darwin publishes On the Origin of Species 236–37 ■ The opening of the Eiffel Tower 256–57

for farming. Crop yields were thus underpinned what was becoming A hundred years ago
boosted, just as selective breeding known as political economy, and business was limited in
produced larger and more profitable the central role of the profit motive area, now it is world-wide.
domesticated animals—sources and of competition in increasing
of food and wool alike. With any efficiencies and lowering prices. Frank McVey
likelihood of famine now receding,
the population of Britain grew, This economic transformation Modern Industrialism (1903)
between 1750 and 1800, from also contributed to and was, in
6.5 million to over 9 million. This, turn, boosted by the emergence time, it would revolutionize Britain,
in turn, meant new markets and of global markets—a consequence making it the world’s first industrial
an expanded workforce. of burgeoning European colonial power, and ultimately transform the
empires, which offered greater world. Even so, it might never have
Finally, in Britain, an improved access to raw materials and also had its dramatic global impact had
transport network allowed goods, provided markets for finished Britain not had huge reserves of the
produced on an ever-larger scale, goods. A better-mapped world, fuel needed to make it work: coal.
to be transported faster and more and improvements in ship The replacement of wood as the
reliably. Between 1760 and 1800, types and position-finding at prime source of fuel was critical to
as many as 4,250 miles (6,840km) sea, also facilitated global trade. industrial development. In exactly
of canals were built in England. the same way, the development of
Steam power coke (processed coal that burns at
Thinkers sought to understand The overriding force behind the much higher temperatures than
the impulses behind these societal economic transformation, though, coal) at the beginning of the 18th
changes. The publication in 1776 was the development of the steam century would make the production
of The Wealth of Nations by the engine. In an astonishingly short of iron—the indispensable core
Scottish philosopher Adam Smith material of the new technologies—
faster and simpler.

Steam engines of varying
degrees of reliability had been
developed as early as 1712, when
Thomas Newcomen built an
“atmospheric engine.” But it was
only with James Watts’s first rotating
steam engine in 1781 that the
extraordinary potential of machine ❯❯

Stephenson’s Rocket was the steam
engine on the world’s first passenger
railway, which linked Liverpool and
Manchester. This photograph shows
it outside the Patent Office in London.

224 STEPHENSON’S ROCKET ENTERS SERVICE

power became clear. The earliest the workforce, many of whom were The Bessemer process, devised by
steam engines had been used children. This influx led to the the English engineer of the same name
mainly as pumps. Watts’s rotating creation of an urban underclass. It to convert iron into steel, improved the
engine, on the other hand, could took a long time before the workers efficiency of all industries—from
power machinery. The engineering saw any improvement in their lives, transport to the military.
company he and Matthew Boulton and the realization that they should
established in Birmingham in 1775 share in the rewards of this social However, the most startling
produced over 500 steam engines. and economic transformation, rather developments came in the United
than simply be exploited as mere States, where there were around
When Watts’s patents expired drudges, came very slowly. In the 3,300 miles (5,300km) of railway
in 1800, others started producing meantime, however, the increasingly in 1840, almost all in the northeast.
their own steam engines. The wealthy factory owners emerged as By 1860, this had increased to
textile industries in the northwest a significant political voice. 32,000 miles (51,500km), and by
benefited in particular from the 1900 it had soared to 193,000 miles
increased availability of steam The wider world
power, and large-scale, almost As late as 1860, Britain was, by
entirely mechanized, factory some way, still the world’s leading
production soon replaced small, industrial and mercantile power, but
home-based manufacturing. By other Western nations were quick to
1835, there were more than 120,000 see how they too could benefit. In
power looms in textile mills. No continental Europe, industrialization
longer dependent on rivers as was initially uncertain, inhibited
power sources, factories could be by the kind of political instability
built anywhere, and they came to Britain had managed to avoid, such
be concentrated in towns in the as the revolutions of 1848. Later, the
north and Midlands of England that pace of its development would rival
rapidly grew into major industrial Britain’s. In 1840, Germany and
centers as the century progressed. France each had around 300 miles
(480km) of railway lines; in 1870,
Social changes both had 10,000 miles (16,000km).
Huge numbers of workers were Similarly, pig-iron output from each
drawn to these new cities, which rose from about 125,000 tons in
became synonymous with poor 1840 to 1 million in 1870.
living and working conditions for

Isambard Kingdom No figure better encapsulates formed Great Western Railway,
Brunel the determination, ambition, and which by 1841 linked London
vision that drove the first phase of directly with Bristol, whose
the Industrial Revolution in Britain docks he had rebuilt from 1832.
than the prodigiously hard- Believing it should be possible
working Isambard Kingdom to travel directly from London to
Brunel (1806–59). He was New York, Brunel also designed
responsible for an extraordinary the world’s first practical ocean-
series of firsts: the world’s longest going steamship, the Great
bridge (the Clifton Suspension Western. He followed this with
Bridge), the world’s longest tunnel the screw-driven iron-built Great
(Box Tunnel in Wiltshire), and the Britain. Despite his great vision,
world’s largest ship (the Great delays and cost overruns dogged
Eastern). In 1827, still only 21, he many of Brunel’s projects, but
was appointed chief engineer of his works include some of the
the Thames Tunnel. In 1833, he grandest feats of engineering
became engineer to the newly the world had yet seen.

CHANGING SOCIETIES 225

(310,600km) of rail track. The Total world steamship tonnage in never seen before. An enduring
production of pig iron rose similarly: 1870 was 1.4 million. By 1910, it irony of industrialization is that the
in 1810, it was a little less than had reached 19 million. nations that benefited most from it
100,000 tons a year; in 1850, it was turned it against themselves in two
approaching 700,000 tons; in 1900, Winners and losers world wars, deploying weapons of
it was over 13 million. The benefits of industrialization extraordinarily destructive power.
were unevenly spread. Southern
The role of steel Europe was slow to react to it, and The Industrial Revolution laid
By about 1870, in both Europe Russia also struggled to catch up. the foundations for the modern
and the United States, a second The Chinese and Indian empires world. Fueled by an enormous
wave of industrialization began, proved unwilling or unable to sense of new possibilities, in
in which oil, chemicals, electricity, industrialize, Latin America did so some places it raised living
and steel became increasingly only intermittently, and Africa standards across all sections of
important. The production of steel was dominated by technologically society in ways unimaginable
had been transformed after 1855, superior powers. By contrast, in earlier ages. However, in the
when English engineer Henry after 1868, Japan’s single-minded wealthy West, it also produced
Bessemer devised a way to make pursuit of industrialization made a sense that material superiority
the metal lighter, stronger, and it a world power. was equivalent to a kind of moral
more versatile; from that point superiority, one that not merely
forward, steel would prove the Industrialization also made made it possible for the West to
linchpin for industry. In 1870, possible a new kind of warfare, one dominate the world, but demanded
total world steel production capable of bringing death on a scale that it do so. ■
was 540,000 tons, but within
25 years it had risen to 14 million Industrialization
tons, and railways, armament was made possible by
production, and the shipbuilding a scientific revolution
industry all benefited from its that began in the late
ready availability. 1600s and transformed
understanding of the
While Germany was beginning natural world.
to threaten Britain’s industrial
preeminent position in Europe, Steam-powered The Industrial Mass production
quadrupling its industrial output ships were Revolution was driven cost companies less,
between 1870 and 1914, the United bigger and faster, by several factors, chief and the ability to
States was rapidly becoming the and they made a produce more goods
world’s largest industrial power. genuinely global among them science, also meant higher
In 1880, Britain was still producing market a reality. agriculture, finance potential sales.
more steel than the United States, (cost and reward), and
but by 1900 the United States was transport networks.
producing more steel than Britain
and Germany together. Improved crop
yields wiped out
At the same time, steam- famine in much of
powered ships were also being Europe and directly
introduced. Sailing times, no longer contributed to the
dependent on the vagaries of the growing populations.
wind, became more controllable,
and journey times were shortened.
The ships were significantly larger,
too. While the largest wooden ships
rarely exceeded 200ft (60m) in
length, the Great Eastern, launched
in 1858, was 689ft (210m) long.

226

CTYYOOHANUUE ONMDTIEADHVYEENCRROHTAWOGKOAANYSIOENBWTSUOATYLYOOOUK

THE SLAVE TRADE ABOLITION ACT (1807)

IN CONTEXT Radical notions of Merchants and plantation
freedom in Britain owners resist calls for an
FOCUS combine with the religious
Abolitionism belief that slavery is end to slavery.
an abomination.
BEFORE
1787 The Society for the After several parliamentary defeats, the
Abolition of the Slave Trade Slave Trade Abolition Act is passed
is founded in London. by an overwhelming majority.

1791 Slaves revolt in the Britain campaigns Slavery is abolished in
French Caribbean island vigorously to persuade the British Empire in 1833.
of Haiti (St. Domingue). other nations to oppose
Independence is successfully the shipping of slaves. It does not finally end in
declared in 1804. the US until 1865.

AFTER T he passing in 1807 of the the newly created United States,
1823 The Anti-Slavery Society Act Prohibiting Importation “conceived in liberty,” and the
is founded. It campaigns to of Slaves in the United European colonies in the Caribbean
abolish slavery throughout States and the Abolition of the depended on slave labor that was
the British Empire. Slave Trade Act in Britain marked relatively easily obtained in West
a radical shift in Western thinking. Africa. Portuguese-ruled Brazil was
1833 Slavery is outlawed Even as late as the 1780s, the trade even more dependent on slaves.
throughout the British Empire. in slaves was still regarded as a Yet Britain in particular found itself
“natural” economic activity. Both in an uncomfortably anomalous
1848 Slavery is abolished in
France’s colonies.

1865 The Thirteenth
Amendment outlaws slavery
in the United States.

1888 Brazil abolishes slavery,
the last country in the
Americas to do so.

CHANGING SOCIETIES 227

See also: The formation of the Royal African Company 176–79 ■ The signing of the Declaration of Independence 204–07 ■
The storming of the Bastille 208–13 ■ The Siege of Lucknow 242 ■ Russia emancipates the serfs 243 ■ The Gettysburg
Address 244–47 ■ The Second Opium War 254–55

William Wilberforce, portrayed here Even so, Britain was also, by The state of slavery is
by Karl Anton Hickel, was a fervent some margin, the West’s leading repugnant to the principles of
Christian and the British politician slave-trading nation. It was this the British constitution and
who campaigned most vociferously contradiction that offended both
against the slave trade. religious and Enlightenment of the Christian religion.
political sensibilities alike. Thomas Fowell Buxton
position. Not only had slavery never
been legal there—a point critically Global changes British politician (1823)
reinforced in 1772 in what was To a number of high-minded and
called the Somersett case, which unusually active campaigners newly independent states that
ruled that any slave was free once such as William Wilberforce and emerged in Latin America after
on British soil—but Britons prided Thomas Clarkson, the abolition of 1810 likewise outlawed slavery.
themselves on their robust defense slavery became an imperative. A
of such fundamental freedoms. remarkably effective campaign was It wasn’t until 1833 that slavery
launched that, despite entrenched itself, as opposed to the trade, was
The Haitian Revolt opposition, rapidly won wide public made illegal in the British Empire.
and parliamentary support. For Whatever the efforts of a new set of
Few uprisings illustrate the much of the 19th century, the Royal campaigners, not least Elizabeth
contradictions of the revolutions Navy would be at the forefront of Heyrick, the motive was not entirely
that swept across the late 18th- the campaign to intercept those humanitarian. The Haitian slave
century Western world better still engaged in slave trading. revolt, which began in 1791 and led
than that in Haiti (1791–1804). to the emergence of an independent
This French Caribbean colony, While Britain took the lead, Haiti in 1804, had left the West
known as St. Domingue, owed the movement had important uncomfortably aware that any such
its enormous prosperity to slave supporters elsewhere. The uprisings might prove difficult to
labor. The revolt, led by a freed revolutionary French National suppress. A slave revolt in British-
slave, Toussaint L’Ouverture, Convention outlawed slavery in ruled Jamaica in 1831 reinforced
was inspired by the American 1794 (though this would partially the point: in the longer term,
and French revolutions. Yet be overturned by Napoleon in 1802). freeing slaves might prove less
neither country supported it: Brazil aside, where slavery would trouble than enslaving them.
The US was concerned it might not be banned until 1888, all the
inspire similar revolts in its slave The United States, forward-
states; France, despite its pledge looking and expansive, remained
to abolish slavery, was wary of the great troubling sore. The more
the damage to its trade. Spain, abolitionists in its industrializing
which ruled the eastern half of northern states denounced slavery,
the island, also opposed it, as the more its southern states, their
did Britain, fearing it would agrarian economies dependent on
spread to its own colonies. Even slave labor, were determined to
the South American colonies retain it. It would take a four-year
seeking independence refused civil war and 670,000 dead to
to back it, fearful of its impact settle the question. ■
among their substantial slave
populations. Yet the occasional
combined resources of all these
states were unable to quell the
uprising. This was the only slave
revolt to result in the emergence
of an independent state.

228

SCOUCTIIENTYTWWOAS

THE 1848 REVOLUTIONS

IN CONTEXT O n February 24, 1848, Louis- 1821—was elected president. In
Philippe of France, the 1851, he staged a coup, and the
FOCUS “Citizen King,” abdicated following year he was proclaimed
Labor movements, as Paris erupted in protest at the as Emperor Napoleon III.
socialism, and revolution government’s refusals to initiate
reforms—demanded by the middle France was plagued by political
BEFORE and working classes alike—to instability throughout the 19th
1814–15 The Congress of introduce political liberalization century. The 1848 revolution came
Vienna restores the French and to end inequalities. In his after a similar upheaval in 1830,
monarchy. place, a Second Republic was and it would be followed by an
declared. In June, fearful that one even more violent uprising 23 years
1830 Charles X of France is authoritarian government had later, in 1871.
overthrown. Greece obtains been exchanged for another, the
its independence from the Parisian working classes rose The spark for the revolution
Ottoman Empire. again, but the uprising was savagely of 1848 was a famine during
put down. In December, Louis- the previous two winters. This
1834 An uprising of French Napoleon Bonaparte—nephew provoked widespread unrest
silk-weavers is suppressed. of Napoleon, who had died in among the dispossessed urban
poor, along with demands from a
AFTER burgeoning bourgeoisie for liberal
1852 The Second French political reforms. The ardor of
Republic, established in 1848, the revolution sparked similar
is dissolved. Louis-Napoleon revolts across continental Europe,
is proclaimed Napoleon III. most obviously in the German
Confederation, in multi-ethnic
1861 Victor Emmanuel II is Austria, and in Italy. Every single
declared king of a united Italy. revolt was subdued, in most
instances by force.
1870–71 The Franco-Prussian
War ends with the unification This painting by Horace Vernet shows The rise of socialism
of Germany under Prussia. The the barricades at Rue Soufflot, Paris. In Before and after the final defeat of
Paris Commune is overthrown, June 1848, fighting erupted between Napoleon in 1815, and concerned
and a Third Republic declared. the liberal republican government and about citizens rising up elsewhere,
Parisian workers seeking social reform. Europe’s statesmen met in Vienna
to try to create a political order that
would stifle such an occurrence.

CHANGING SOCIETIES 229

See also: The signing of the Declaration of Independence 204–07 ■ The storming of the Bastille 208–13 ■
The Expedition of the Thousand 238–41 ■ Russia emancipates the serfs 243 ■ The Gettysburg Address 244–47 ■
France returns to a republican government 265

Workers of the world, Just as important was the The Congress of
unite! You have nothing emergence of a new political Vienna attempts to stifle
to lose but your chains! creed—socialism—that sought to nationalism and the threat
end the inequalities accelerated by
The Communist the Industrial Revolution and led of future revolt.
Manifesto to impoverished workers being The promise of
exploited by factory owners. liberalism proves
Their goal was the preservation of impossible to extinguish.
aristocratic ruling elites, sustaining The old order is restored Demands for national
the old order, and holding frontiers. In the feverish atmosphere of self-determination grow.
1848, however, these aims would France, in particular,
This desire, however, was to be prove irreconcilable. As chaos after the restoration of
countered by a new political reality threatened, the liberally minded the monarchy, sees
informed by a number of factors, middle classes sided much more violent uprisings.
including the desire to ensure that naturally with existing political
the liberties championed by the elites in restoring order than with The French
French Revolution were upheld. This the radicals seeking to rebuild Revolution of 1848
new reality was also the result of societies and create new nations. spawns rebellions
what came to be called nationalism: in Germany, Austria,
the right of peoples, however they The ultimate beneficiaries of the and Italy. All are
were defined, to determine their revolutions were the monarchies in
own futures as independent nations. Italy and Germany, which would suppressed
exploit a kind of popular nationalism by force.
to unify their countries. But at
the same time, as economic shifts Conservative elites
brought social change in their exploit nationalism to
wake, the gradual emergence of drive the unifications
trade unions—at least in Western of Italy and Germany.
European liberal democracies—led
to improving standards of living for
the previously dispossessed. ■

The Communist Manifesto

The Communist Manifesto was French group, the League of the
published in London in 1848, Just, which later re-emerged,
the same year as the revolutions in London, as the Communist
that engulfed Europe. Although League. Engels subsequently
its impact on those upheavals financed Marx’s seminal work,
was negligible, its resonance in Das Kapital, its first volume
years to come on social thought published, again in London, in
almost everywhere would be 1867. It was a detailed attempt
overwhelming. The pamphlet to demonstrate how what Marx
was the work of two Germans: called capitalism contained
Friedrich Engels, son of a textile the seeds of its own downfall,
manufacturer, and the similarly and the inevitability of the
privileged Jewish academic proletarian revolution that
Karl Marx. In 1847, both men would create a classless society
had joined a semi-subversive free of exploitation or want.

IRTWMHEIISLMWLENRETAEENRRTPUSDRRISSENE

THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE
SUEZ CANAL (1859–1869)



232 THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE SUEZ CANAL

IN CONTEXT The Industrial Revolution allows the rapid
development of Western economies.
FOCUS
Imperial economies New industries New classes of
are hungry for workers hanker for
BEFORE more resources. consumer goods.
1838 The first Atlantic
crossing under steam power Developed countries build empires and use their
alone is made. colonial muscle to feed their industries.

1858 The first transatlantic Technology and transport develop
telegraph cable is laid. to support this new global economy.

AFTER The Suez Canal is constructed,
1869 The Suez Canal opens, facilitating global trade by shortening
slashing sailing times
between Europe and the East. shipping routes substantially.

1878 The Gold Standard is
adopted in Europe; the US
follows suit in 1900.

1891 The Trans-Siberian
railway is begun. It is
completed in 1905.

1899–1902 Britain aims to
secure control of South Africa
in the Second Boer War.

1914 The Panama Canal,
linking the Atlantic and
Pacific oceans, opens.

T he ceremonial opening, on principal beneficiaries. It was almost a British monopoly, a point
November 17, 1869, of the simultaneously a further boost further underlined when Britain
Suez Canal, linking the to Europe’s imperial ambitions. gained control of the Suez Canal
Mediterranean and the Red seas, in 1888 after having invaded and
was an emphatic declaration of The Suez Canal reduced the occupied Egypt six years earlier.
European—specifically, French – sailing route between London and This “gunboat diplomacy” proved
technological and financial Bombay by 41 percent, and the a remarkably effective means of
means. It was also a significant route between London and Hong protecting British interests.
illustration of a rapidly emerging Kong by 26 percent. The impact
and increasingly interdependent on trade was plain to see. However, The Panama Canal
global economy, featuring goods reduced sailing times also greatly The Suez Canal was just one
from all parts of the world being simplified the defense of India and of a number of similar massive
traded on an ever-larger scale. its crucial markets, Britain’s key engineering undertakings in the
This was a process dominated by imperial goal. By the end of the interests of imperial trade. An
Europe’s colonial powers and the 19th century, trade in the Indian even more challenging project
United States, overwhelmingly its Ocean, protected by no fewer than was the construction, begun in
21 Royal Navy bases, had become

CHANGING SOCIETIES 233

See also: Marco Polo reaches Shangdu 104–105 ■ The opening of the Amsterdam Stock Exchange 180–83 ■
Stephenson’s Rocket enters service 220–25 ■ The California Gold Rush 248–49 ■ The Meiji Restoration 252–53 ■
The opening of the Eiffel Tower 256–57

The Suez Canal opened in 1869 and
dramatically cut sailing times between
Europe and Asia. This provided a
massive boost for trade, which, in turn,
spurred technological advances.

Roosevelt’s successor, William Taft,
pursued a more legalistic variant
of the policy—Dollar Diplomacy –
by which American commercial
interests, chiefly in Latin America
and East Asia, were to be secured
by the full backing of the US
government, and huge overseas
investments encouraged.

1881, of the Panama Canal in was the largest and most expensive Trains and telegraphs
Central America, linking the engineering project in the world. It, At the same time, major new
Atlantic and Pacific oceans. It too, dramatically reduced sailing railways were constructed in
too was a French initiative, but times, shortening the Liverpool to both the US and Europe. The east
one dogged by controversy and a San Francisco route by 42 percent, and west coasts of the US were
consistently hostile climate that and the New York to San Francisco first linked by rail in 1869, with
cost the lives of 22,000 laborers. route by 60 percent. the opening of the 1,907-mile
The United States eventually (3,070-km) Central Pacific Railroad.
completed the Panama Canal in US involvement By 1905, there were eight more
August 1914, stepping in when the The fact that the United States transcontinental rail lines across the
French finally admitted defeat. It took over the construction of the United States and one in Canada.
Panama Canal underlines a crucial
May the Atlantic telegraph, shift in US attitudes: they were The building of the Trans-
under the blessing of Heaven, committing not just to expanding Siberian Railway in Russia, between
prove to be a bond of perpetual trade but also to advancing US 1891 and 1905, was undertaken in ❯❯
peace and friendship between overseas interests. This had begun
in 1898, when the US itself became The scheme in question
the kindred nations. a colonial power, taking over the is the cutting of
President Buchanan Philippines from Spain.
a canal through the
Telegram to Queen Victoria (1858) The process began to accelerate Isthmus of Suez.
under the presidency of Theodore
Roosevelt (1901–09). He actively Ferdinand de Lesseps
advocated US military involvement,
above all, in Latin America, to French diplomat on his proposals
ensure stability as a means of for the Suez Canal (1852)
advancing American interests.
One consequence of this was his
strengthening of the US Navy,
the Great White Fleet.

234 THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE SUEZ CANAL

the same spirit. A remarkable The Great Eastern Although gold and silver are
4,600 miles (7,400km) long and not by nature money, money
spanning seven time zones, it The ship responsible for laying the is by nature gold and silver.
remains the longest continuous transatlantic cable in 1866 was the
railway in the world. It played a key Great Eastern, designed by the Karl Marx
role not just in the settlement of most visionary engineer of the
Russia’s vast Siberian territories, first phase of the Industrial Das Kapital
but in Russia’s encroachment on Revolution, Isambard Kingdom
parts of northern China, too. Brunel. Designed to carry 4,000 in size in line with their own
passengers from England to populations. At the same time,
The impact of the telegraph Australia non-stop (and to return the number of people in Europe
was just as significant, allowing to England without refueling), was also increasing—for example,
messages to be communicated the ship was overly ambitious in Britain swelled from 28 million
along electrical lines. Samuel Morse concept and a commercial failure. to 35 million between 1850 and
devised the system in the United 1880. Feeding and clothing the
States in the 1830s, and the first However, it was indicative populations were important
telegraph line was inaugurated in of a trend toward larger, faster, priorities. Wool could be easily
May 1844. Within a decade, there and safer ships. Unlike the Great transported, but lamb and beef
were 20,000 miles (32,200km) Eastern, which was built of iron, could not be shipped because it
of telegraph cable in the US. later, steel-built, propeller-driven would rot en route—until 1877,
ships would prove more versatile. when 80 tons of frozen beef
The first telegraph cable across Their introduction coincided with were shipped from Argentina to
the Atlantic, laid in 1858, worked for the development of more powerful France on board the world’s first
only two weeks. But by 1866, a new and efficient steam engines. refrigerated ship. By 1881, regular
cable had been installed, capable of shipments of frozen meat were
transmitting 120 words per minute. Steamships and trade traveling between Australia and
By 1870, a telegraph link had been The decline of the sailing ship Britain. The first shipment of
established between London and further transformed imperial lamb from New Zealand was made
Bombay; this was then extended to trade. One notable result was the following year. There was a
Australia in 1872 and New Zealand the introduction of a series of vast increase in the export of
in 1876. By 1902, the United States ever-larger passenger ships. The meat from all three countries—
was linked to Hawaii. This was the transatlantic route saw the most New Zealand, for example,
first near-instant international obvious developments. In 1874, the exported 2.3 million frozen sheep
communications system. British steamer Britannic, capable in 1895, 3.3 million in 1900, and
of generating 5,500 horsepower, 5.8 million in 1910.
The RMS Mauretania, built at set a new east–west Atlantic
Wallsend, Tyne and Wear, UK, was the record of just under eight days. The demand for cotton—above
largest and fastest ship in the world. In 1909, the Mauretania, which all in the great textile mills of the
In 1909, it set a record, sailing across generated 70,000 horsepower and northwest of England, which by 1850
the Atlantic in less than five days. carried over 2,000 passengers, were producing up to 50 percent
set a new record of four days of the world’s cloth—led to an
and 10 hours, cruising at an enormous surge in cotton growing.
average speed of 26 knots, or In the southern states of the US, raw
30mph (48km/h). cotton production increased from

New types of merchant ships—
mainly refrigerated vessels—were
also being built. Such developments
show how technology helped drive
trade, making it possible to reach
global markets. The cattle and
sheep farms in South America
(especially Argentina), Australia,
and New Zealand were growing

CHANGING SOCIETIES 235

The Suez Canal greatly London the 19th century, the British
shortened travel times— pound sterling, its value pegged
and eased journeys— Mumbai at 113 grains of gold, was the
between parts of the currency against which all others
British Empire, such were measured.
as England and India.
That distance of 10,800 Western overseas investments
nautical miles was dramatically increased. By 1914,
cut by more than the United States had overseas
40 percent, to just assets worth $3.5 billion, Germany
6,200 nautical miles. $6 billion, France $8 billion, and
Britain almost $20 billion. Between
Suez Canal them, North America and northern
Route via Europe’s share of world income
Suez Canal in 1860 was about $4.3 billion a
Previous route year, 35 percent of the world’s
Countries ruled total. In 1914, it was $18.5 billion,
by British Empire 60 percent of the world’s total.

100,000 bales in 1800 to 4 million in Global finance Patterns of imperialism varied
1860. During the American Civil This complex trading network over the 19th century. In the
War, the southern, Confederate could not have grown without British Empire, for example, clear
states restricted exports of cotton developments in banking and and increasing distinctions were
in an attempt to force European financing. Throughout the late drawn between those colonies—
intervention in the war. However, 19th century, new banks were in Africa and Asia, above all—
the ploy failed, since Britain merely established, their capital used whose native populations were
increased its imports of raw cotton to support enterprises across governed by Europeans, and
from India. After weaving the the world. At the same time, those—such as Canada, South
cotton, it then exported it back to London emerged as the world’s Africa, Australia, and New
India at substantial profits. financial capital. By the end of Zealand—deemed capable of
self-government. By 1907, all four
had been granted dominion status.
It was not a privilege extended
to a single British African colony
or to India. ■

Working conditions in South The Great Mineral Rush Dutch settlers of what had
Africa’s gold mines were harsh, and become the British Cape Colony.
the work force—mainly young black The search for new sources of Their heightened economic
men—was exploited and underpaid. minerals, both precious and importance reinforced Britain’s
industrial, reached new heights determination to annex them,
toward the close of the 19th which they could do only after
century. Discoveries of diamonds the bitter Boer War (1899–
and gold in the US, Canada, 1902), which stretched Britain’s
Australia, and—most significantly military resources to their
of all—South Africa sparked a limits. The exploitation, both
frenzy of development. Diamonds before and after the conflict,
were discovered in South Africa’s of the mineral resources of
Orange Free State in 1867, and what in 1910 became the Union
gold in the Transvaal in 1886. of South Africa by armies of
Both were independent Boer underpaid black workers would
republics, established by the later prove to be critical in the
descendants of the original institutionalizing of Apartheid.

236

BEWANENODADNULADETRESIFERSUFBFLUEOLAIRNNHMGDASVMEEMVOOBOSLESTVETEND

DARWIN PUBLISHES ON THE
ORIGIN OF SPECIES (1859)

IN CONTEXT Geologists begin It became clear to
to understand that the scientists that the Earth
FOCUS Earth has existed for had undergone a series of
Scientific advance previously unimaginable immense changes and

BEFORE eons of time. extinctions.
1831–36 The voyage of the
HMS Beagle takes the young Darwin’s book explains Charles Darwin
naturalist Charles Darwin the diversity of publishes On the
around the world. Origin of Species.
animal species and
AFTER posits that all life on
1860 Thomas Huxley defends Earth is related to a
Darwin from an attack by the common ancestor.
established Anglican church.
Modern science decisively reinforces the evidence and
1863 Gregor Mendel conclusions presented in Darwin’s landmark text.
demonstrates how genetics
influence all plant life. P erhaps the most important The publication of his book On the
scientist of the 19th century, Origin of Species (1859) introduced
1871 Darwin’s The Descent Charles Darwin originally a new scientific understanding of
of Man advances the view of intended to follow his father into what gradually came to be known
sexual selection, whereby the medicine and was subsequently as evolution. In the book, Darwin
most successful members of a sent to Cambridge to train as an asked a fundamental question. The
species are naturally attracted Anglican cleric. Endlessly curious, world teems with plant and animal
to perpetuate the species. he was interested in almost any life: where and what had it come
scientific question. from? How had it been created?
1953 Discovery of DNA
demonstrates how traits are
passed on genetically.

CHANGING SOCIETIES 237

See also: The voyages of Captain Cook 189 ■ Diderot publishes the Encyclopédie 192–95 ■
Stephenson’s Rocket enters service 220–25

Darwin was far from the first to The finches on the Galapagos Islands a decisive contribution to the
propose that a process of change were key to Darwin’s work. The 13 understanding of the world. In
over vast periods had produced this species he found there all had different the process, the status of science
diversity, but he was the first to types of beaks, which had evolved to generally was immensely boosted.
suggest an explanatory theme, deal with the food available to the birds.
which he called “natural selection”. The primacy of science
been created intact and unchanging Despite everything, it was possible
Natural selection by a benevolent deity. Yet however for Darwinism to be warped. What
At the heart of Darwin’s idea was heated the initial debate, quite came to be called “the survival of
his contention that all animal life rapidly there was widespread the fittest” would later prove to be
was derived from a single, common acceptance of Darwin’s views and influential in justifying imperialism,
ancestor—that the ancestors of all a realization that he had made racism, and eugenics.
mammals, humans included, for
example, were fish. And in a natural On the Origin of Species was
world that was never less than published at a time when a growing
relentlessly violent, only those most understanding of the natural world
able to adapt would survive, in the and rapid technological progress
process evolving into new species. meant scientific study had a greater
practical worth than ever before.
These views were largely formed Darwin was one of the last amateur
by the around-the-world voyage he gentleman scientists in a discipline
made as the naturalist on the British that was becoming professionalized
survey vessel HMS Beagle between as society came to view science
1831 and 1836, most of it spent in more highly. Partly as a result of
South America. It would take him Darwin’s work, but also because of
10 years to work up his voluminous these changing attitudes, science
notes and to go through all the began to have a more central place
samples he collected on his voyage. in public life. By the end of Darwin’s
life, continual progress in scientific
Darwin’s book inevitably knowledge had become an almost
generated controversy, outraging standard expectation. ■
Christian views that the world had

Charles Darwin Charles Darwin (1809–82) was of persistent hard work—the
only the fifth choice for the model high-Victorian scientist,
position of naturalist on the aided by considerable private
voyage of the HMS Beagle in means and a notably happy
1831. However fortuitous his family life, despite the deaths
selection, it would transform of three of his ten children.
his life. Although he was Although his own health
constantly seasick during his time may effectively have been
aboard the craft, Darwin proved severely damaged by the time
himself an assiduous observer of he spent on the Beagle, his
the world around him. He would output remained prodigious, as
take as much amazed delight in did his level of intrigue at almost
the jungles of Brazil as he would any subject in the natural world.
in the pampas of Argentina or in In the absence of the exotic,
the arid wastes of the Galapagos he was as fascinated by pigeons
Islands. Upon returning to as by parasites, barnacles as
England, he settled into a life much as earthworms.

238 IN CONTEXT

FBLLOEERTTROTUUOHSSUERAFRIRSGMH.T FOCUS
Nationalism
THE EXPEDITION OF THE THOUSAND (1860)
BEFORE
1830 Greece obtains its
independence from the
Ottomans.

1848 Nationalist revolutions
sweeping across Central
Europe and Italy are crushed.

1859 Austria is driven out
of Lombardy, which is then
annexed by Piedmont.

AFTER
1861 The Italian kingdom is
established.

1866 Austria is forced to cede
Venetia in northeast Italy to
the new Italian kingdom.

1870 The Papal States are
incorporated within Italy.

1871 Germany is united under
Prussian control. Rome is
declared the capital of Italy.

O n May 11, 1860, the Italian
patriot and guerrilla fighter
Giuseppe Garibaldi landed
in Sicily, then part of the Bourbon-
ruled Kingdom of the Two Sicilies,
in southern Italy, leading a force of
volunteers drawn from across Italy
and just over 1,000 strong, hence
their name, I Mille (The Thousand).
Their goal was to overthrow the
Bourbons, but there was much
uncertainty as to what government
would replace the ruling family.

Like the other great 19th-century
stalwart of Italian liberty, Giuseppe
Mazzini, who in 1849 had briefly
established a Roman republic,
Garibaldi was committed to ending
royal, clerical, and aristocratic

CHANGING SOCIETIES 239

See also: The storming of the Bastille 208–13 ■ The 1848 revolutions 228–29 ■ Russia emancipates the serfs 243 ■
The opening of the Eiffel Tower 256–57 ■ The Young Turk Revolution 260–61 ■ France returns to a republican
government 265 ■ The October Revolution 276–79 ■ The Treaty of Versailles 280

privilege. He was also driven by the Ideas of national self-determination, inspired by the
goal of ending Austrian rule in the French Revolution, begin to proliferate across Europe.
north of the country and by the The Greek War of Independence epitomizes the struggles
idea of a united Italy. The desire to
form new political entities based on necessary to free nations from foreign domination.
common national elements such as The failed revolutions of 1848 illustrate the ruling
geography and history came to be elites’ resistance to notions of national independence.
known as nationalism.
Garibaldi lands in Sicily and overthrows
Reaching a compromise the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, but Italy
In 1859, much of Italy had already
been united under the state of remains a constitutional monarchy.
Piedmont-Sardinia, in the northwest
of Italy, a process directed by its
shrewd and pragmatic prime
minister Camillo Cavour and
critically boosted by French
military assistance in expelling
the Austrians.

For Cavour, unification meant
the creation not of a republican
Italy, but of a centralized state
under a constitutional monarchy. He
believed this was the only way that

German unification under Prussia reinforces conservative
nationalism at the expense of republican liberties.

Giuseppe Garibaldi, in the red shirt Italy could realize its potential— at his side, Victor Emmanuel II of
that symbolized his makeshift army, above all, to press ahead with Sardinia entered Naples. In March
managed to overthrow Bourbon rule in industrialization and compete with 1861, he was crowned king of Italy.
the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies but had the leading powers of Europe.
to compromise on governmental form. Divided goals
The Redshirts’ forces, swelled The difference between Garibaldi’s
by locals flocking to join them, soon and Cavour’s goals illustrates the
overcame the ineptly led armies contradictions at the heart of
of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. nationalism in 19th-century Europe.
Prompted by the notions of liberty
When it came to deciding upon and equal rights promised by the
a government for the newly united French Revolution, nationalism
Italy—Venice and Rome excepted, developed an idealistic view of a
though both would subsequently more just society. National groups
be incorporated, in 1866 and oppressed by alien rule believed
1870 respectively—Garibaldi they should be able to assert their
recognized the inevitability of independence as a natural right. ❯❯
Piedmontese domination. In
November 1860, with Garibaldi

240 THE EXPEDITION OF THE THOUSAND

Nationalism was furthermore which it was a province; the next The Ottoman army’s brutality in
characterized by a romantic view year, it secured its independence suppressing Greek revolts—as seen
of the right of peoples to lay claim with British support. Similar in Eugène Delacroix’s painting The
to their historic destinies and rule nationalist uprisings followed in Massacre at Chios—led to increased
themselves: independence. In place Poland in 1831 and in 1846, both support for the Greek cause.
of loyalty to an established ruling savagely repressed by Russia.
dynasty, new loyalties to national of Schleswig and Holstein, with
groups defined by language, culture, German nationalism Austrian support. In 1866, Prussian
history, and self-identity were Rising nationalism had momentous troops routed Austria itself; finally,
formulated. The idea of the nation- consequences, especially in the in 1870–71, an army from across
state became increasingly common, various states across Germany. Germany comprehensively and
and likewise a belief in the right to The country’s unification under humiliatingly defeated France,
national self-determination. the chancellorship of Otto von toppling Napoleon III’s government,
Bismarck of Prussia in 1871 and and starving Paris into submission.
The failure of the revolutions the declaration of a German empire These military victories underlined
of 1848 in central Europe and Italy, jolted Europe into a new era. For a seemingly irresistible German
intended to advance these very Bismarck, much as they had been destiny whose logical consequence
goals, made plain the resolve of for Cavour, the benefits of unification was a unified German empire
Europe’s ruling elites to oppose were clear. It would be the means under the Prussian king, now
such initiatives and to preserve the by which a common German emperor, Wilhelm I.
Europe created by the Congress nationality could be expressed,
of Vienna in 1814–15, after the allowing the country to fill the need Nationalist aspirations
defeat of Napoleon—a Europe of to underline an overarching German Nowhere were the conflicting
monarchs, multinational empires, character that the philosopher impulses of nationalism more
and pre-French Revolution frontiers. Georg Hegel had identified. It tangled than in the Habsburg
would also break the dominance of Austrian Empire, an immense
Metternich’s failures Habsburg Austria over the German- patchwork of ethnic groups across
The new Europe was far from speaking world—in particular, Central Europe under the nominal
stable, and the principal architect to lever the southern Catholic rule of Vienna. In 1867, following
of the Congress of Vienna, the German states, Bavaria above all, Austria’s defeat by Prussia the
Austrian Prince Metternich, would away from Austrian influence. previous year, Hungary was
later admit: “I have spent my life in able to secure almost complete
shoring up rotten buildings.” By In the interests of building this independence from Austria. The
1830, Belgium had revolted against great German state, Bismarck “dual-monarchy” that resulted—
the Kingdom of the Netherlands, of pressed into service a kind of the Austrian Empire, now the
conservative nationalism. The goal Austro-Hungarian Empire—not
A people destined to was not social or democratic reform
achieve great things for the to establish a more just or liberal
welfare of humanity must state; it was the creation of a country
to challenge the world. German
one day or other be nationalism under Bismarck
constituted a nation. translated into a determined
Giuseppe Mazzini, 1861 adoption of industrialization and
the creation of ever larger and more
efficient armed forces.

And it was military means that
Bismarck single-mindedly deployed
to create this new Germany. He
mounted three major campaigns.
The first, against Denmark in
1864, saw Prussia subsuming
the southern Danish territories

CHANGING SOCIETIES 241

The proclamation of Wilhelm I
as Emperor of Germany took place
in Versailles in 1871. It was heralded
by a series of military campaigns,
including one against France.

only greatly boosted an assertive civilization, a role that won them The consequences
sense of Hungarian self-identity but support from liberals across Europe, The notion that social justice could
also secured Hungary significant had secured their independence by be secured by peoples pursuing the
territorial concessions from Vienna, 1830 after a nine-year war. right to self-determination would
notably in Transylvania and Croatia. rarely be realized in the 1800s—
Yet whatever the continuing Both Austria and Russia Vienna would continue to rule over
tensions between Austria and competed to fill the void left by the its multi-ethnic empire until its
Hungary, the two warily preferred Ottomans. Austria’s provocative defeat at the end of World War I
to remain united precisely for fear occupation of Bosnia in 1878, which in 1918, for example. Likewise,
of further nationalist agitations it peremptorily annexed in 1908, the people of Poland were
from their own splintered ethnic would create tensions that led denied any means of exercising
populations. The Hungarians, for directly to the outbreak of World such nationalistic rights to self-
example, were notably reluctant to War I in 1914. The Balkan Wars of determination. And the Jews of
concede the kind of political rights 1912–13—in effect a bitter squabble Europe remained persistently
they demanded for themselves to for supremacy between Serbia, oppressed, whatever the promise of
their substantial Slovak, Romanian, Bulgaria, and Greece—were further Zionism from the 1890s to create a
and Serb populations. At the same evidence of the destabilizing effect Jewish nation in the Holy Land. ■
time, waning Ottoman control of the of nationalist-driven state building.
Balkans also encouraged nationalist
aspirations—Serbia, for example,
had emerged as a more or less
independent state as early as 1817.
Wallachia and Moldavia, essentially
modern Romania, could lay similar
claims to independence by 1829.
The Greeks, portraying themselves
as the legatees of ancient Greek

Otto von Bismarck Minister-president of Prussia the balance of power in Europe,
from 1862 and chancellor of a task in which, juggling
Germany 1871–90, Otto von competing interests, he was
Bismarck (1815–98), also known remarkably successful. He
as the Iron Chancellor, towered committed Germany to a huge
over continental Europe after program of industrialization,
engineering the unification oversaw the further growth
of Germany. Bismarck’s main of the German armed forces,
goals were to ensure Prussian and launched a program
leadership of the German world of colonization. Despite being
at the expense of Austria and to socially conservative, Bismarck
contain the threat of renewed also introduced the world’s
French hostility. A supreme first welfare system, though
opportunist, despite starting his motive was as much to
three wars, in 1864, 1866, outflank his socialist opponents
and 1870, Bismarck thereafter as to protect the interests of
worked tirelessly to maintain German workers.

242

DCTWHEOHAEMETSENHETAASORNAEADDNTSSHEOCENREYDNR?TEOOSWO, F

THE SIEGE OF LUCKNOW (1857)

IN CONTEXT T he Siege of Lucknow, it underlined the fact that India was
which took place between now entirely subservient to Britain,
FOCUS May and November 1857, both economically and politically.
British rule in India led to scenes that were duplicated
across much of north-central As the number of European-
BEFORE India during the Indian Mutiny educated Indian elites grew, they
1824 The British conquest of 1857–58: of British enclaves would challenge Britain’s rights over
of Burma is launched; it is enduring great suffering at the the subcontinent. Britain would
largely completed by 1886. hands of previously loyal local continue to assert its imperial
troops. When the British began to destiny, but increasingly had to
1876 Queen Victoria is restore order, the retribution was no confront the improbability that it
declared Empress of India. less severe. The violence from both could. If there was an enduring
sides shocked the public and led to truth, it was that British rule in India
May 1857 The first revolt by immediate calls for reform. was never as robust as it seemed. ■
Indian sepoy troops against
British rule occurs at Meerut. The mutiny began when the We hold ourselves bound to
Indian troops—sepoys—became the natives of our Indian
AFTER convinced that the cartridges of territories by the same
1858 The rule of the East India their new rifles had been greased obligations of duty which
Company in India is formally with cow and pig fat, offensive to
ended. Control of India passes Hindus and Muslims alike. But bind us to our other subjects.
directly to the British crown. its roots lay in the dislocation Queen Victoria
that many in India felt at British
1869 The Suez Canal control—the uprooting of traditional
is opened, dramatically rulers, the apparent threat to local
reducing sailing times to religions, and the aggressive
and from India. assertion of alien rule.

1885 The Indian National Britain’s initial response after
Congress is founded—the first the mutiny was intended to
pan-Indian political movement. reassure India of Britain’s peaceful
It later forms the core of a intentions toward it, but in reality
nationalist movement.
See also: The Battle of Quebec 191 ■ The construction of the Suez Canal 230–35 ■
The Second Opium War 254–55 ■ The Berlin Conference 258–59 ■ The Sikh
Empire is founded 264

CHANGING SOCIETIES 243

FBSTTRHOEEORTAATMFNBEDOTBROOLEMTILWSOOFHAWRAIIBOTTOMSFLEOAILSRBFHOITVE,

RUSSIA EMANCIPATES THE SERFS (1861)

IN CONTEXT A lexander II’s emancipation We must give the country
of Russia’s 20 million serfs such industrial perfection as
FOCUS (unfree laborers) in 1861
Tsarist Russia was not a humanitarian act. Its has been reached by the
goal was a further attempt to United States of America.
BEFORE modernize a Russia that, regardless
1825 The Decembrist of potential, was being left behind Sergei Witte
revolt against tsarist rule by the industrializing nations of
is suppressed. the West. To take what it saw as Russian minister
its rightful place in the world,
1853–55 Russia’s defeat Russia adopted wide-ranging showed greater willingness
by Britain and France in reforms across political, social, to embrace industrial reform but
the Crimea highlights its economic, and military areas. also created a kind of police state:
military weaknesses. introducing strict censorship,
The effects of these reforms suppressing protest, and making
AFTER were mixed at best. Emancipation trade unions illegal.
1881 Tsar Alexander II is did very little to improve the
assassinated by the People’s serfs’ well-being or agricultural Nonetheless, tsarist Russia was
Will, an underground terrorist productivity, and Alexander refused emerging into the industrialized
movement. to consider any real constitutional world. The country could lay claim
reform: he remained an autocrat to to substantial, if not always efficient,
1891 Work on the Trans- the last, convinced of his divine military means. Politically, however,
Siberian railway begins, right to rule as an absolute its unwillingness to reform would
leading to massive new monarch. However, his reforms ultimately ensure its complete
settlements in Siberia. had raised hopes that a degree of destruction in a Soviet revolution. ■
political liberalization might follow.
1894 The last tsar, Nicholas II,
allows finance minister Sergei A police state
Witte to launch further His assassination in 1881 provoked
industrialization. a predictably reactionary backlash.
His successor, Alexander III,
1905 Russian expansion
in East Asia is halted by a See also: The founding of St. Petersburg 196–97 ■ The 1848 revolutions 228–29 ■
humiliating defeat by Japan. The construction of the Suez Canal 230–35 ■ The Crimean War 265 ■
The October Revolution 276–79

244 IN CONTEXT

BFFSOGROYHFOORAVTTMLEHHTLREHETNNEHPPMOEEEPETOOEENPOPPATLLPEREELRTEIHSH FOCUS
The American Civil War
THE GETTYSBURG ADDRESS (1863)
BEFORE
1820 An attempt is made,
in the Missouri Compromise
statute, to restrict slavery in
the new states to a line south
of the Missouri border.

1854 The Kansas-Nebraska
Act sparks violence in Kansas.

1857 The Dred Scott Decision
rules that even in non-slave
states, slaves cannot be freed.

1861 The Confederate States
are declared (February); in
April, the Civil War begins.

1863 In July, the Confederates
are defeated at Gettysburg
and Vicksburg.

AFTER
1864 Lincoln is re-elected.

1865 General Lee surrenders;
Lincoln is assassinated.

O n November 19, 1863,
little more than halfway
through the American Civil
War, in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania,
US President Abraham Lincoln
gave what came to be known as
the Gettysburg Address. In it, he
characterized the Civil War as a
struggle both for national unity and
to guarantee equality for all people.

Lincoln was talking at the
dedication of the Soldiers’ National
Cemetery, which commemorated
the 7,058 soldiers killed at the Battle
of Gettysburg, an encounter fought
between July 1–3, the same year
that had left 27,224 more wounded.
Gettysburg had been the bloodiest
battle of the American Civil War, as

CHANGING SOCIETIES 245

See also: The signing of the Declaration of Independence 204–07 ■ The storming of the Bastille 208–13 ■
The 1848 revolutions 228–29 ■ The California Gold Rush 248–49 ■ The opening of Ellis Island 250–51

The Battle of Gettysburg took place
in 1863. After three days of fighting
and the death of more than 7,000
soldiers, the Confederate army was
forced to retreat.

well as a turning point in which to the proposition that all men are for slave-owning Southerners, it
the outnumbered, outgunned, yet created equal,” yet its Southern was a right. For them, “liberty” had
improbably successful Southern states had a population of almost an additional meaning: the liberty
army led by Robert E. Lee, the 4 million black slaves. Under the to possess slaves.
Army of Northern Virginia, suffered constitution of the United States,
its first major defeat. they were legally owned property. The disagreement underlined
For the abolitionists of the rapidly the question over States’ Rights—
The causes of the war industrializing north—always the extent to which the rights of
The American Civil War was not a minority, but still exceedingly individual states trumped the
simply a war about slavery; it was vocal—slavery was morally authority of the federal, or central,
a war about whether so divisive an repugnant and an outrage against government in Washington. This
issue could be allowed to break up their Christian sensibilities. question repeatedly resurfaced as
the United States. The United territories in the west were settled
States, as Lincoln said, was a nation However, slavery was not just and sought admission to the Union:
“conceived in liberty and dedicated the backbone of the agricultural would they be slave or “free” states?
prosperity of the Southern states;
The 1820 Missouri Compromise
stated that slavery would be allowed
only in new states south of a line
extending westward from the
southern border of Missouri. It
was later agreed that the settlers
of new states should decide for
themselves whether theirs would
be free or slave states—a decision
that was reinforced by the ❯❯

Abraham Lincoln When he arrived in Washington in of what would emerge as the
February 1861 for his presidential anti-slavery Republican party.
inauguration, Abraham Lincoln Despite having no military
(1809–65) was widely dismissed experience, Lincoln proved
in political circles as an ignorant, an increasingly shrewd judge
socially awkward backwoodsman. of how the Civil War should
By the time of his assassination best be fought, actively arguing
just four years later, he had come in favor of General Grant.
to dominate America. Lincoln He never lost sight of his
had not just won the Civil War, wider aims: the maintenance
but he had also established of American liberties and the
himself as a kind of irresistible essential dignity of humanity.
political oracle. He pushed on with the war
with unflinching determination,
Born in a log cabin in Kentucky, yet he understood precisely
Lincoln qualified as a lawyer what loss of life on the scale
by his late 20s. He became an of the Civil War meant.
increasingly articulate champion

246 THE GETTYSBURG ADDRESS

Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854. Since The United States is born as a beacon of liberty
both Kansas and Nebraska were to in which slavery is nonetheless permitted.
the north of Missouri’s southern
border, what followed, in Kansas The Southern states The industrial Northern
above all, was a sudden inrush of increasingly see slavery states are opposed to any
pro- and anti-slavery settlers, each
desperate to prevail. The two sides as a key part of their extension of slavery into
clashed repeatedly and violently. agrarian society. any new states.

The South breaks away These differences of opinion help spark the Civil War,
This conflict led to the founding bringing destruction on an unforeseen scale, with neither
of a new anti-slavery party, the
Republicans, on whose ticket the North nor the South able to best the other.
Abraham Lincoln, with practically
no support from any slave state, The Gettysburg Address is Lincoln’s most
was voted into office in November eloquent attempt to justify the war as the
1860. Lincoln’s victory prompted
the almost immediate decision by means to a more just United States.
South Carolina to secede, to leave
the Union. By February, a further The South’s defeat results in political paralysis
six Southern states had broken and institutionalized discrimination against its
away, and the seven declared black population that persists well into the next century.
themselves a new nation: the
Confederate States of America. By As free-born men, the citizens of the As a supreme political operator,
May, when Richmond in Virginia South had an “inalienable” right to Lincoln realized the need to proceed
was made the capital of the new shape their own destinies, just as with caution. Initially at any rate,
country, four more states had joined the founding fathers had when they his position was that he sought only
them. However, five slave states, rejected the tyranny of British rule. to restrict the expansion of slavery
the so-called Border States, opted In the minds of many Southerners, while preserving the Union. On
to remain within the original Union. the US government was guilty of the second point, Lincoln was
precisely the same kind of tyranny immovable; he felt the authority of
The Confederacy argued that in seeking to limit these freedoms. the federal government overrode
the Constitution had been freely that of individual states.
adopted, and as such any state It was a deeply held position. As
could legitimately break away Alexander Stephens, vice-president The United States, the only
from the Union if it felt oppressed. of the Confederacy, asserted, the fully democratic country on Earth,
cornerstone of this new state had been created as what Lincoln
I cannot raise my hand “rest[ed] upon the great truth that called “a great promise to the
against my birthplace, the negro is not equal to the white world,” so ensuring its survival was
my home, my children. man; that slavery… is his natural an absolute moral duty. By the time
and normal condition…”. of his Emancipation Proclamation
Robert E. Lee

On his resignation (April 1861)

CHANGING SOCIETIES 247

in January 1863, Lincoln felt more iron than the South, 38 times Grant stood by me when I
politically secure enough to order as much coal, and 32 times as many was crazy, and I stood by him
the freeing of all Southern slaves. firearms. The only area in which the when he was drunk, and now
But in the short term, the Civil War South exceeded the North was in
was fought to keep this “great cotton production, at 24 to 1. we stand by each other.
promise” intact. William Sherman
In the face of this superiority,
Eventual Northern victory the fact that the South was not only civilian property. “War is cruelty,”
The outcome of the American Civil able to resist the Union forces for Sherman asserted. “The crueler it
War was dictated ultimately by the four years but also to come close is, the sooner it will be over.”
human and material discrepancies to victory in 1862 and 1863 was a
between the North and the South. reflection of the Southern soldiers’ A new freedom
There were 21 Union states with profound belief in their cause. It was The US Civil War was the world’s
a population of 20 million, and 11 also the result of its plainly superior first major industrial war, the first to
Southern states with a population generals—the Virginian Robert E. make widespread use of railroads,
of 9 million, 4 million of whom were Lee above all. By contrast, at least and the first widely reported in a
slaves, and therefore not allowed until the emergence of Ulysses S. new kind of popular press. There
to bear arms. Despite the fact that Grant and William Sherman as the was concentrated death on a scale
by 1864, 44 percent of males in the two leading commanders of the never seen before: around 670,000
North between the ages of 18 and Union forces, the North had been dead, 50,000 of them civilians, in
60 were in military service, versus able to muster only a succession little more than four years.
90 percent in the Southern states, of timid and inept generals who
the North was still able to enlist frittered away the advantages they For Abraham Lincoln, the war
2.2 million men over the whole war, so abundantly possessed. represented what in the Gettysburg
compared to the South’s 800,000. Address he called “unfinished
Reinvigorated by Grant and business.” The Constitution had
The North was three times Sherman, the North prevailed. The left unresolved the question of
richer than the South. It had 2.4 razing of Atlanta in September 1864 how slavery could exist in a nation
miles (3.8km) of railroad to every was followed by Sherman’s “march “conceived in liberty.” Despite the
1 mile (1.6km) in the South. Its to the sea” at Savannah, Georgia. destruction and the huge death
factories manufactured 10 times Completed in December, it left a toll, the war brought a chance
more goods. It produced 20 times 60-mile- (96.5-km-) wide swathe of at “a new birth of freedom.” The
destruction, deliberately targeting end of slavery, confirmed by
the Thirteenth Amendment in
1865, represented an opportunity
for the US to be recast as a
genuinely free land for all its
citizens, black and white. ■

This Thomas Nast illustration
shows life for black Americans before
and after emancipation. Abraham
Lincoln is also portrayed.

248

DOOTHEVUSEERRTCMISNOAPYNNRTIIESFIANEDTESONTT

THE CALIFORNIA GOLD RUSH (1848–1855)

IN CONTEXT Knowledge of the lands in the American West
encourages an interest in settlement there.
FOCUS
American expansion The gold rush in California sparks a global
frenzy to share in the new riches, accelerating
BEFORE
1845 Texas, formerly part of the settlement of the West Coast.
Mexico, is incorporated into
the United States. Telegraph and railway lines American Indians
improve links between are forced away from
1846 Britain signs Oregon the east and west coasts. their ancestral lands.
over to the United States.
Better communications spur the development
1848 New Mexico and of industry in the United States.
California are annexed after
the Mexican–American War. T he belief by sometime reaction. Over the next five years,
journalist John L. O’Sullivan as many as 300,000 “49ers”—a
AFTER that the “manifest destiny” reference to the year in which the
1861 The first transcontinental of the United States lay in its influx began in earnest—were
telegraph line is completed; expansion to the west was boosted drawn to what, in 1850, would
the Pony Express mail service immensely by the discovery of become the 31st state of the US.
closes two days later. gold in a river in northern California The immediate consequence was
in January 1848. Even allowing both a wild lawlessness in the
1862 The Homestead Act for the inevitable difficulties of pursuit of instant riches and the
grants 160 acres of free land to communication and travel at the confirmation of America’s Pacific
anyone settling it. time, the find sparked a frenzied coast as a promised land. The

1869 The first transcontinental
railroad is completed.

1890 The US Census Bureau
closes the American frontier,
since no more large areas of
land are unsettled.