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History of the World in Objects and Art
Timeline |
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1821
The Independence of Greece |
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1821
The Independence of Greece |
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1825
The First Railroad |
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Joseph Mallord William Turner
(1775—1851)
Rain, Steam and Speed The Great Western Railway |
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1830
The July Revolution |
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The Revolution of 1830
With Brush and
Palette on the Barricades
Victor Hugo stayed at home. Busy
researching for his novel, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, he did not
wish to leave his wife alone, who had given birth to a daughter just
four days before. The young Alexandre Dumas, on the other hand —
later to achieve world renown for his swashbuckling The Count of
Monte Cristo — bravely shouldered a double-barrelled musket, ready
to risk his life for freedomwith thousands of students, merchants,
workers and actors.
Paris was once again on the brink of a revolution. The streets were
full of agitated citizens confronting the royal guards with pistols
and wooden cudgels, rifles and knives. The cause of the uproar was
the citizens' fear that the old system of royal oppression, which
had been abolished, was on the rise again. As early as 1814 the
royal house of Bourbon had regained its former power. Lotus XVIII,
younger brother to Louis XVI, who had been executed during the
Revolution, had been summoned from exile to rule France after the
fall of Napoleon. Moderate and cautious, he had pursued liberal
policies, combining the modern feeling for liberty with
the principles of the ancien regime. When Louis XVIII died in 1824,
Charles X, the youngest of the three brothers, had himself crowned
at Reims with medieval pomp and circumstance. Forward-looking
contemporaries found him both reactionary and foolish. Desirous of
reviving pre-Revolutionary France, he intended to restore the
ancient titles and privileges to the aristocracy as well as one
billion francs in reparations for the property lost by the nobility
during the Revolution. After Charles X issued a series of repressive
decrees on 25 July 1830, abolishing freedom of the press, dissolving
the legislature and depriving the majority of citizens of suffrage,
things came to a head. On 28 July 1830 revolt broke out not far from
Eugene Delacroix's studio. While mercenaries deployed by Charles X
fought their way through the narrow streets, supporters of the
revolutionaries hurled furniture, wash-tubs, rooting tiles and tool
chests down on them from windows, finally dumping entire cartloads
of melons on the heads of the advancing royal troops to stop their
progress. The street battles raged for three days. Painter and
caricaturist Honore Daumier suffered a sabre-slash across his face
during the fighting. On 3 August 1830 the citizens were victorious,
forcing Charles X to abdicate and flee into exile.
Delacroix, who had observed the revolt at a safe distance, took up
his brushes and palette. In aletter to his brother written in
October 1830, he confessed: "Although I didn't fight, I'll at least
paint for our country!" And the result was Liberty Leading the
People, the archetype of the Revolution. |
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Eugene Delacroix
(1798-1863)
Liberty leading
the People (28 July 1830)
1830 |
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1830
The Revolution in Belgium |
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THE RACE FOR AFRICAN EMPIRES
At the start of the 19th century, Africa was a continent with a wide
variety of peoples living in a range of societies, from large-scale
kingdoms and empires to small-scale villages and bands of
hunter-gatherers. By the end of the century, almost the entire
continent had been brought under direct or indirect European rule. |
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Before the colonial era, one of the
major European influences on West Africa and the western coastal
areas of central Africa, including Angola, was exerted through the
Atlantic slave trade. By the late 18th century, around 100,000
Africans were being forcibly transported to the Americas every year
to be bought by traders in Britain, France, Spain Portugal, the,
Dutch Empire, and the United States. In 1807, Britain banned the
slave trade, but it continued on a large scale into the second half
of the 19th century. The trade generated conflict, since kingdoms
such as the Asante fought wars to obtain prisoners for sale to the
Europeans. However, wars also resulted from shifts in a turbulent
continent. For example, in southern Africa, from the 1820s the Zulu
created a large empire by conquering neighboring peoples, and in
West Africa Muslim rulers launched wars to extend the reach of
Islam.
NEW MOTIVES
In the early 19th century, European explorers and missionaries began
to penetrate deep into Africa. A mixture
of motives, from humanitarianism to a desire for new markets for
their goods and a search for raw materials drew the European powers
into a race to carve up the continent.
By the end of the century, Britain, France, Portugal, Belgium,
Germany, and Italy had claimed large territories. With the exception
of Ethiopia, which fought off the Italians, no African state was
strong enough to keep its independence. A slow transformation of
African life began, in some places brutally imposed, in others
negotiated by compromise with existing rulers. |
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ART AND CULTURE |
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BELIEFS AND RITUALS |
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PACIFIC EXPLORATION AND EXPANSION
The first explorers in the Pacific were ocean voyagers in outrigger
canoes, who lived on the islands of Micronesia, Melanesia, and
Polynesia between 1300 все and 1200ce. The arrival of European
sailors much later, especially from the later 18th century, posed a
grave challenge to the islanders' traditional way of life. |
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Probably originating from Asia, the
Oceanic peoples developed a diversity of societies and cultures on
their far-flung island homes. Political organization was generally
on a small scale, although some chiefs, such as the kings of Tonga
and the Samoan Tui Manu'a, established control over substantial
confederacies or empires.
The Polynesians first came into contact with European sailors in the
17th century. But it was not until the voyages of exploration by
British Captain James Cook and French Admiral Louis-Antoine de
Bougainville in the 1760s and 1770s, that links with the wider world
began to affect the Polynesian way of life in a serious way.
COLONIZATION
The Europeans undermined the health and stability of Polynesian
societies by trading firearms and alcohol, and by inadvertently
introducing diseases that decimated the local populations.
Missionaries arrived, dedicated to replacing traditional beliefs
with Christianity. They were set on reforming established codes of
dress and behavior. Competition between imperialist powers led to
the sharing out of islands through the 19th century. Tahiti became a
French protectorate in 1842, Fiji was declared a British colony in
1874, and Hawaii was annexed as a US territory in 1898. But
traditional rulers sometimes retained considerable authority over
internal affairs—in Tonga, the same royal line ruled from before a
British protectorate was established in 1900 through to full
independence in the post-imperial era. |
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1833
The Abolition of Slavery in the British Dominions |
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SETTLERS IN AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND
The first Aboriginals arrived in Australia 40,000-60,000 years ago.
The peopling of New Zealand was more recent, the first Polynesian
Maori probably arriving by sea around 1300ce. In the 19th century,
both Australia and New Zealand became flourishing British colonies,
opening the door to extensive European settlement. |
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European sailors had come across
Australia and New Zealand in the 17th century, but it was not until
1770 that British explorer Captain James Cook, sailing along
Australia's east coast, claimed it for Britain. The first European
settlers were British convicts, deported to Botany Bay in New South
Wales in 1788.
Free settlement began in the 19th century, especially after the
discovery of gold in the 1850s, which brought with it a large influx
of immigrants. No major European settlement occurred in New Zealand
until 1839, but colonization gained momentum in the mid-19th
century. The vast majority of early colonists, both in Australia and
New Zealand, were from the British Isles.
A HOSTILE TAKEOVER
The Aboriginal population of Australia was unable to resist the
British takeover and the distribution of land among settlers for
sheep farming. By the end of the 19th century, newly introduced
diseases, loss of vital resources, and localized violence had
decimated the natives. Small numbers survived, living mostly on the
margins of white Australian society. The Maori of New Zealand, on
the other hand, adopted firearms and fought against colonization.
Although ravaged by disease—as were the Aborigines—a series of
conflicts and compromises eventually left the Maori in possession of
some land and rights.
The Australian colonies and New Zealand grew into liberal
democracies, forming self-governing states within the British
Empire, but the treatment of their native populations remains a
stigma on their histories. |
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BATTLE AND CONFLICT |
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CONTENTS |
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