From the Declaration of Independence to the German Empire — a century in which liberalism and nationalism toppled the old order in Europe and the Americas and built nation-states
Eugène Delacroix · Public domain · Source
| Year | Country | Event | Key points |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1776 | USA | Declaration of Independence | Natural rights; first republican constitution (1787) |
| 1789 | France | French Revolution | Rights of Man; old regime ended; republic |
| 1791–1804 | Haiti | Haitian Revolution | Slave revolt; first independent Latin American state |
| 1804 | France | Napoleon crowned | Napoleonic Code spreads revolutionary ideas |
| 1810–1825 | Latin America | Independence wars | Criollos; Bolívar and San Martín |
| 1814–1815 | Austria | Congress of Vienna | Legitimacy, balance of power; Metternich |
| 1821–1830 | Greece | Greek independence | Free from Ottomans; Vienna system cracks |
| 1823 | USA | Monroe Doctrine | Europe and Americas stay apart |
| 1830 | France | July Revolution | Charles X out; Louis Philippe’s July Monarchy |
| 1832–1848 | Britain | Reform Act; Chartism | Middle-class vote → workers’ Charter |
| 1848 | France | February Revolution | Second Republic; universal male suffrage |
| 1848 | Austria · Prussia | March Revolution | Metternich out; Vienna system ends |
| 1861 | Italy | Kingdom of Italy | Led by Sardinia; Cavour, Garibaldi |
| 1861 | Russia | Emancipation of serfs | Alexander II; reform from above |
| 1861–1865 | USA | Civil War | Lincoln; Emancipation Proclamation (1863) |
| 1871 | Germany | German Empire founded | Bismarck’s blood and iron; Lesser Germany |
Steam power and mechanised industry spread through Britain, transforming production and society.
Delegates of the thirteen colonies, meeting in Philadelphia, declared independence from Great Britain.
A popular revolution overthrew the absolute monarchy and founded a republic, spreading the ideals of liberty, equality and fraternity.
Parisians stormed the Bastille prison, the symbolic start of the French Revolution.
Enslaved Africans in French Saint-Domingue rose up, destroyed slavery and won independence as Haiti in 1804 — the first state founded by a slave revolt and the first independent country in Latin America.
The wars between Napoleon's France and coalitions of Britain, Austria, Russia and Prussia. France came to dominate most of the Continent but collapsed after the failed invasion of Russia.
Having seized power in a coup, Napoleon became emperor with the approval of a plebiscite and was crowned in Notre-Dame Cathedral (the First Empire). The same year he issued the Napoleonic Code.
With the Berlin Decree Napoleon banned trade between continental Europe and Britain, hoping to bring down by economics the country he could not defeat at sea.
With Spain occupied by Napoleon, criollos launched wars of independence. Led by Bolívar and San Martín, most of Latin America was independent by the mid-1820s.
Napoleon led a vast army to punish Russia for breaking the Continental System and reached Moscow, but scorched-earth tactics and the winter cold destroyed most of his army on the retreat.
After the Napoleonic Wars the European powers met in Vienna and agreed to restore the pre-revolutionary order. The conservative system led by Metternich (the Vienna system) suppressed liberal and nationalist movements.
Napoleon, who had escaped Elba and become emperor again, was defeated at Waterloo in Belgium by Wellington’s Anglo-allied army and Blücher’s Prussians. The Hundred Days and the Napoleonic era came to an end.
A war in which the Greeks rose against Ottoman rule. With intervention by Britain, France and Russia, Greece won recognition of its independence in 1830 — the first crack in the Vienna system.
President Monroe declared that Europe should not interfere in the Americas and that the United States would stay out of European affairs. It protected Latin American independence and became a principle of US foreign policy.
Parisians drove out the reactionary Charles X after three days of street fighting. Louis Philippe took the throne as the “Citizen King”, founding a constitutional monarchy (the July Monarchy).
The Reform Act of 1832 gave the vote to the middle classes, including industrial capitalists. Workers left out of the franchise launched the Chartist movement around the People’s Charter.
Marx and Engels published The Communist Manifesto in London as the programme of the Communist League. It saw history as class struggle and called on workers to unite in revolution.
Parisians and workers demanding a wider franchise overthrew the July Monarchy and founded the Second Republic. Universal male suffrage was introduced, and revolution spread across Europe.
News of the February Revolution sparked the March revolutions in Vienna and Berlin, driving out Metternich and ending the Vienna system. The Frankfurt Parliament debated German unity, but the revolutions were eventually crushed.
When Russia, seeking to expand southward, went to war with the Ottoman Empire, Britain, France and Sardinia sided with the Ottomans. Russia lost Sevastopol and the war, and its southward drive was checked.
Cavour of the Kingdom of Sardinia joined the north and centre through diplomacy and war, and Garibaldi brought in the south; the Kingdom of Italy was proclaimed in 1861. Venice was added in 1866 and Rome in 1870, completing unification.
After defeat in the Crimean War, Alexander II issued the Emancipation Manifesto granting serfs personal freedom. But they had to buy their land at a high price through the mir, the village commune.
A civil war between the North and South, divided over slavery and the Union. The North under Lincoln won, preserving the Union and abolishing slavery.
Lines built from east and west met at Promontory Summit, Utah, linking the Atlantic and Pacific sides of the United States by rail.
Bismarck's Prussia defeated France and in 1871 proclaimed the German Empire in the Hall of Mirrors at the Palace of Versailles. France lost Alsace-Lorraine.
A self-governing city government set up by the people and workers of Paris against the government that had surrendered to Prussia. It was crushed after two months, and huge numbers died in the “Bloody Week”.
Louis-Napoléon, nephew of Napoleon I, elected president in 1848, who made himself emperor (1852–1870) by a coup but was captured in the Franco-Prussian War and deposed
Emperor of Russia (1801–1825) who defeated Napoleon's invasion, attended the Congress of Vienna in person and proposed the Holy Alliance
Arthur Wellesley, British general and statesman who drove the French out of the Iberian Peninsula and defeated Napoleon at Waterloo in 1815; later prime minister
Russian field marshal who fought Napoleon's army at Borodino in 1812, gave up Moscow and then pursued and shattered the retreating French
Austrian foreign minister and chancellor who presided over the Congress of Vienna and suppressed liberal and nationalist movements (the Vienna system) until the 1848 revolution drove him out
The “Citizen King” of France (1830–1848) placed on the throne by the July Revolution; his July Monarchy rested on the wealthy bourgeoisie and fell in the February Revolution of 1848
German philosopher and economist who wrote The Communist Manifesto with Engels and published Capital, founding scientific socialism (Marxism)
Emperor of Russia (1855–1881) who, after defeat in the Crimean War, emancipated the serfs and pursued reform from above, but was assassinated by revolutionaries
16th US president (1861–1865) who preserved the Union in the Civil War and issued the Emancipation Proclamation; assassinated just after the war ended
