Famous Men and Great Events of the Nineteenth Century

What was for many centuries known as "The Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation" was a portion of the great imperial domain of Charlemagne, divided between his sons on his deat...

Since civilization began nations have endeavored to extend their dominions, not alone by adding to their territory by the conquest of adjoining countries, but also by sending ou...

The nineteenth century saw the modern world in its making. At its opening the long mediæval era was just ceasing to exist. The French Revolution had brought it to a sudden and v...

The peace of Amiens, which for an interval left France without an open enemy in Europe, did not long continue. England failed to carry out one of the main provisions of this tre...

Science by no means belongs to the nineteenth century. It has been extant upon the earth ever since man began to observe and consider the marvels of the universe. We can trace i...

In no direction has the nineteenth century been more prolific than in that of invention, and its fame in the future is likely to be largely based on its immense achievements in...

If the reader will look at any map of Africa he will see on the northern coast, defining the southern limits of the Mediterranean, four States, Morocco, Algeria, Tunis, and Trip...

In several of the preceding chapters the causes which led the United States into its great fratricidal war have been given. In the present we propose to deal with the war itself...

Asia, the greatest of the continents and the seat of the earliest civilizations, yields us the most remarkable phenomenon in the history of mankind. In remote ages, while Europe...

Ambition, unrestrained by caution, uncontrolled by moderation, has its inevitable end. An empire built upon victory, trusting solely to military genius, prepares for itself the...

It has been already told how the capitulation of the French army at Sedan and the captivity of Louis Napoleon were followed in Paris by the overthrow of the empire and the forma...

During the first half of the nineteenth century a number of great questions came up in American politics and pressed for solution. There was abundance of hostilities--wars with...

It is a fact of much interest, as showing the growth of the human mind, that William Ewart Gladstone, the great advocate of English Liberalism, made his first political speech i...

By their first war with Great Britain our forefathers asserted and maintained their right to independent national existence; by their second war with Great Britain, they claimed...

Industry in the past centuries was a strikingly different thing from what it has been in the recent period. For a century it has been passing through a great process of evolutio...

The relation of the American people to the Indians, since the first settlement of this country, has been one of conflict, which has been almost incessant in some sections of the...

For nearly twenty years went on the stupendous struggle between Napoleon the Great and the powers of Europe, but in all that time, and among the multitude of men who met the for...

At the beginning of the nineteenth century, long as man had previously existed upon the earth, much more than half its surface was unknown to the most civilized nations. Of the...

For ages the world has swarmed with writers. Almost since man first began to think he has been actively engaged in literary labor; long, indeed, before he had learned the art of...

The name of Napoleon is a name to conjure with in France. Two generations after the fall of Napoleon the Great, the people of that country had practically forgotten the misery h...

Among the men who have filled the office of President of the United States two stand pre-eminent, George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, both of them men not for the admiration...

Occupying the northern section of the western hemisphere lies Great Britain's most extended colony, the vast Dominion of Canada, which covers an immense area of the earth's surf...

When, over two hundred and eighty years ago (it is in doubt whether the correct date is 1619 or 1620) a few wretched negroes, some say fourteen, some say twenty, were bartered f...

In 1775, when the British colonies in America struck the first blow for independence, they were of dwarfish stature as compared with the present superb dimensions of the United...

The terrific struggle of the "Hundred Days," which followed Napoleon's return from Elba and preceded his exile to St. Helena, made a serious break in the deliberations of the Co...

As the century draws toward its end, and men make careful survey of the work it has wrought in the many and varied fields of human activity, it is natural that each observer sho...

At the close of the nineteenth century, not the least important among the international questions that were disturbing the nations was the controversy between the English and th...

From the time of the fall of the Roman Empire until late in the nineteenth century, a period of some fourteen hundred years, Italy remained disunited, divided up between a serie...

In scarcely any department of human industry are the changes produced by the progress of civilization more strikingly seen than in the navy. When America was discovered the gall...

We have spoken, in Chapter xxiii, of the revolt of Texas from Mexico and the annexation of the newly formed republic to the United States. In the present chapter it is proposed...

After its long career of triumph and disaster, glory and shame, the world stands to-day at the end of an old and the beginning of a new century, looking forward with hope and ba...

A third of a century passed after the great struggle of the United States for the existence of the Union, and then, in almost the closing year of the nineteenth century, came an...

The Century's Wonderful Stages--Progress in Education--The Education of Women--Occupation and Suffrage for Women--Peace Proposition of the Emperor of Russia--The Peace Conferenc...

In the preceding chapter mention was made of two regions in which the spirit of revolt triumphed during the period of reaction after the Napoleonic wars--Greece and Spanish Amer...

Among the most interesting phases of nineteenth-century history is that of the conflict between Russia and Turkey, a struggle for dominion that came down from the preceding cent...

In 1756, in the town of Calcutta, the headquarters of the British in India, there occurred a terrible disaster. A Bengalese army marched upon and captured the town, taking priso...

The first fifteen years of the nineteenth century in Europe yield us the history of a man, rather than of a continent. France was the centre of Europe; Napoleon, the Corsican, w...

Time was when Ireland was free. But it was a barbarian freedom. The island had more kings than it had counties, each petty chief bearing the royal title, while their battles wer...

The revolution of 1830 did not bring peace and quiet to France nor to Europe. In France the people grew dissatisfied with their new monarch; in Europe generally they demanded a...

Hitherto our attention has been directed to the Eastern Hemisphere, and to the stirring events of nineteenth century history in that great section of the earth. But beyond the o...

Modern democracy is often looked upon as something peculiarly secular, unreligious, or even irreligious in its origin. In truth, however, it has its origin in religious aspirati...

At the close of the last chapter we depicted the miseries of the people of Great Britain, due to the revolution in the system of industry, the vast expenses of the Napoleonic wa...

On the western edge of the continent of Europe lies the island of Great Britain, in the remote past a part of the continent, but long ages ago cut off by the British Channel. Di...

England and France on Land and Sea--Nelson Discovers the French Fleet in Aboukir Bay--The Glorious Battle of the Nile--The Fleet Sails for Copenhagen--The Danish Line of Defence...

Great Preparations for the Invasion of England--Rapid March on Austria--The Surrender of General Mack--The Eve Before Austerlitz--The Dreadful Lake Horror--Treaty of Peace With...

The Causes of the Rise and Decline of Napoleon's Power--Aims and Intrigues in Portugal and Spain--Spain's Brilliant Victory and King Joseph's Flight--The Heroic Defence of Sarag...

A War of Humanity--Bombardment of Matanzas--Dewey's Wonderful Victory at Manila--Disaster to the "Winslow" at Cardenas Bay--The First American Loss of Life--Bombardment of San J...

Ohio Admitted in 1802--Louisiana Purchased From French 1803--Admission of the States--Florida Transferred to the United States 1819--The First Railway in 1826--Indians Cede Thei...

A Quarter Century of Revolution--Europe After Napoleon's Fall--The Work of the Congress--Italy, France and Spain--The Rights of Man--The Holy Alliance--Revolution in Spain and N...

Anglo-Saxon Activity in Invention--James Watt and the Steam Engine--Labor-Saving Machinery of the Eighteenth Century--The Steamboat and the Locomotive--The First Steamboat Trip...

The Area and Population of Canada--Canada's Early History--Upper and Lower Canada--The War of 1812--John Strachan and the Family Compact--A Religious Quarrel--French Supremacy i...

The Age We Live in and its Great Events--True History and the Things Which Make It--Two of the World's Greatest Events--The Feudal System and Its Abuses--The Climax of Feudalism...

A Remarkable and Wonderful Career--The Enemies and Friends of France--Movements of the Armies in Germany and Italy--Napoleon Crosses the Alps at St. Bernard Pass--The Situation...

Grant a Man for the Occasion--Lincoln's Opinion--"Wherever Grant is Things Move"--"Unconditional Surrender"--"Not a Retreating Man"--Lee a Man of Acknowledged Greatness--His Dev...

Ignorance of the Earth's Surface at the Beginning of the Century--Notable Fields of Nineteenth Century Travel--Famous African Travelers--Dr. Livingstone's Missionary Labors--Dis...

Former Cloud of Mystery Surrounding These Two Nations--Ancient Civilizations--Closed Territory to the Outside World--Their Ignorance of Other Nations--The Breaking Down of the W...

Lincoln's Increasing Fame--Comparison With Washington--The Slave Auction at New Orleans--"If I Ever Get a Chance to Hit Slavery, I Will Hit it Hard"--The Young Politician--Elect...

Literary Giants of Former Times--The Standing of the Fine Arts in the Past and the Present--Early American Writers--The Poets of the United States--American Novelists--American...

How Spain Treated Her Colonies--The Oppression of the People--Bolivar the Revolutionary Leader--An Attempt at Assassination--Bolivar Returns to Venezuela--The Savage Cruelty of...

Why the War of 1812 Was Fought--The Principles Involved--Impressing American Sailors--Insults and Outrages Resented--The "Chesapeake" and "Leopard"--Injury to Commerce--Blockade...

Scientific Activity of the Nineteenth Century--Wallace's "Wonderful Century"--Useful and Scientific Steps of Progress--Foster's Views of Recent Progress--Discoveries in Astronom...

First Foreign Difficulty--The Barbary States--Buying Peace--Uncle Sam Aroused--Thrashes the Algerian Pirates--A Splendid Victory--King Bomba Brought to Terms--Austria and the Ko...

Mediæval Industry--Cause of Revolution in the Labor System--Present Aspect of the Labor Question--The Trade Union--The International Workingmen's Association--The System of the...

The Power of a Great Name--The French People Love the Name Napoleon--Louis Napoleon's Personality--Elected President--The Tricks of His Illustrious Ancestor Imitated--Makes Hims...

A Newly Formed Country--Washington, the National Capital--Peace With France--Nations of State Sovereignty--State Legislatures and the National Congress--The Influence of Washing...

The Great Questions in American Politics in the First Half of the Century--The Great Orators to Which They Gave Rise--Daniel Webster--Henry Clay--John C. Calhoun--Clay's Comprom...

Corrupt Courts and Rulers--The Spirit of Liberty Among the People--Bourbonism--Revolutionary Outbreak in France--Spreads to Other Countries--The Struggle in Italy--In Germany--T...

Why England Went to India--Lord Clive and the East India Company--Sir Arthur Wellesley--Trouble With the Natives--Subjugation of Indian States--The Great Mutiny--Havelock--Relie...

The Origin of the American Navy--Sights on Guns and What They Did--Opening Japan--Port Royal--Passing the Forts--The "Monitor" and "Merrimac"--In Mobile Bay--The "Kearsarge" and...

Division of Labor--American Type of Christianity--Distinguishing Feature of American Life--The Sunday-school System--The Value of Religion in Politics--Missionary Activity--New...

Review of the Boers--Their Establishment in Cape Colony--The Rise and Progress of the Transvaal Republic--Diamond Mines and Gold Discoveries--England's Aggressiveness--The Caree...

The Sultan's Empire in 1800--Revolts in Her Dependencies--Greece Gains Her Freedom--The Sympathy of the Christian World--Russian Threats--The Crimean War and its Heroes--The War...

Commerce the Promoter of Colonization--England's Wise Policy--The Growth of Her Colonies Under Liberal Treatment--India--Australia--Africa--Colonies of France and Germany--Parti...

Texas as a Province of Mexico--Rebellion and War--The Alamo Massacre--Rout of Mexicans at San Jacinto--Freedom of Mexico--Annexation to the United States--The War With Mexico--T...

French Instability of Character--Modern Statesmen of France--Thiers--MacMahon--Gambetta--The New Republic--Leaders in Politics--Dangerous Powers of the Army--Moral and Religious...

Our Relations and Obligations to the Indian--Conflict between Two Civilizations--Indian Bureau--Government Policy--Treaties--Reservation Plan--Removals Under It--Indian Wars--Pl...

The Many Little States of Italy--Secret Movements for Union--Mazzini the Revolutionist--Tyranny of Austria and Naples--War in Sardinia--Victor Emanuel and Count Cavour--Garibald...

The Negro in America--The First Cargo--Beginning of the Slave Traffic--As a Laborer--Increase in Numbers--Slavery; its Different Character in Different States--Political Disturb...

The State of Prussia--Sudden Rise to Power--Bismarck Prime Minister--War With Denmark--With Austria--With France--Metz and Sedan--Von Moltke--The Fall of Paris--William I. Crown...

Sterling Character of the Man--His Steady Progress to Power--Becomes Prime Minister--Home and Foreign Affairs Under His Administration--His Long Contest With Disraeli--Early Con...

Ancient Ireland--English Domination--Oppression--Patriotic Struggles Against English Rule--Robert Emmet and His Sad Fate--Daniel O'Connell--Grattan, Curran and Other Patriots--T...