1783-1815: World Events: Selected Occurrences Outside the United States

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1783-1815: Chapter One: World Events: Selected Occurrences Outside the United States

MAJOR POWERS AND LEADERS

Austria-Hungary (Holy Roman Empire)—Joseph II (1780–1790); Leopold II (1790–1792); Francis II (1792–1835)

China —Emperors Qian-lung (1735–1796) and Jia-qing (1796–1820)

France —King Louis XVI (1774–1792; beheaded 1793); National Convention (1792–1795); Committee of Public Safety (1793–1795), Maximilien Robespierre, president (1793–1794); Directorate, five members (1795–1799); Napoleon Bonaparte, first consul (1799–1804), emperor (1804–1814; 1815); King Louis XVII (1814–1815; 1815–1824)

Great Britain —King George III (1760–1820); George, Prince of Wales (later George IV) regent, (1811–1820); Prime Ministers William Petty, second Earl of Shelburne (1782–1783), William Henry Cavendish Bentinck, third Duke of Portland (1783; 1807–1809), William Pitt the Younger (1783–1801; 1804–1806), Henry Addington (1801–1804), William Wyndham Grenville, first Baron Grenville (1806–1807), Spencer Perceval (1809–1812), and Robert Banks Jenkinson, second Earl of Liverpool (1812–1827)

Japan —Emperor Kokaku (1779–1816); Shoguns Ieharu (1760–1786) and Ienari (1786–1837)

Ottoman Empire (Turkey)—Abdulhamid I (1774–1789); Selim III (1789–1807); Mustafa IV (1807–1808); Mahmud II (1808–1839)

Prussia —Frederick II, the Great (1740–1786); Frederick William II (1786–1797); Frederick William III (1797–1840)

Russia —Czarina Catherine II, the Great (1762–1796); Paul I (1796–1801); Alexander I (1801–1825)

Spain —Charles III (1759–1788); Charles IV (1788–1808); Ferdinand VII (1808; 1813–1833); Joseph Bonaparte (brother Napoleon I of France, 1808–1813)

MAJOR CONFLICTS

1767–1799 —Mysore Wars: Britain and Mughals versus Mysore, a southern Indian state

1775–1782; 1803–1805; 1817–1818 —Mahratta Wars: Britain and allied Indian states versus Maharashtra

1788–1791 —Russian-Turkish War

1791–1802 —Wars of the French Revolution: Britain and Austria versus France

1792–1804 —War for Haitian independence

1797–1799 —Quasi-War: United States versus France

1801–1805 —Tripolitan War: United States versus Tripoli

1803–1815 —Napoleonic Wars: Britain, Austria, and Russia versus France

1804–1810 —West African Jihad

1809–1826 —Wars for Latin American Independence: Spain versus Mexico, Paraguay, Ecuador, Bolivia, Venezuela, and Guatemala

1812–1815 —War of 1812: United States versus Britain

1813–1814 —Creek War: United States versus the Creek

WORLD EVENTS 1783-1815

1783

The Kingdoms of Kartli and Kakheti in Georgia ask Russia to protect them against the Ottomans.
The army of Oyo, a powerful state in West Africa, is defeated by an army from neighboring Borgu; this event will lead to the weakening of the Oyo state.
Russia annexes Crimea and expels the Turks.
A famine begins in Japan which will kill nearly one million people in ten years.
4 Feb. An earthquake in Calabria, Italy, kills thirty thousand people.
6 Feb. Spain ends its siege of Gibraltar, allowing the British to maintain a fortress there.
1 Mar. Olaudah Equiano, a former slave living in London, informs British philanthropist Granville Sharp of an incident on the slave ship Zong. Sharp unsuccessfully tries to prevent the ship’s owners from collecting insurance for drowned slaves, and public outcry leads to a campaign against the slave trade.
9 Apr. Tipu Sultan of India captures Bedmore from the East India Company.
1 June The Order of Saint Patrick is founded in Ireland.
3 Sept. The United States and Great Britain sign a peace treaty, ending the Revolutionary War and establishing American independence. British and French land claims in Africa are also recognized.

1784

The University of Lemberg in Austria-Hungary is founded.
Immanuel Kant publishes Notion of Universal History in a Cosmopolitan Sense and “What is Enlightenment?”
Bodawpaya, the king of Burma, conquers Arakan and begins a war with Thailand, envisioning the conquest of Southeast Asia.
Serfdom is abolished in Denmark.
The first school for the blind opens in Paris.
Antoine Lavoisier and Pierre Simon measure the oxygen consumed and the carbon dioxide produced by breathing and burning.
6 Jan. In the Treaty of Constantinople, Turkey accepts the Russian annexation of Crimea.
28 Feb. John Wesley, the father of Methodism, organizes chapels and preachers.
11 May The British East India Company makes peace with Tipu Sultan.
4 July Joseph II abrogates Hungary’s constitution, suppressing the courts and taking the crown jewels to Vienna.
13 Aug. Parliament passes the India Act, making the directors of the East India Company answerable to a board appointed by the king.
Oct. Mughal emperor Shāh ‘Alam II appoints Sindhia, leader of Marāthās, to be regent, helping to secure Delhi against revolt.

1785

Sweden declares war on Russia; Denmark attacks Sweden.
The Emerald Buddha chapel is completed in Bangkok.
John Molson of Montreal opens a beer brewery, which his family will run for the next six generations.
The Boulton and Watt rotating steam engine is installed for the first time in an English textile mill.
7 Jan. John Jeffries and François Blanchard make the first aerial crossing of the English Channel in a hot-air balloon.
1 May Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s opera, The Marriage of Figaro, premieres in Vienna.
23 May Benjamin Franklin publishes a description of bifocal glasses, which he invented.
July Swedish and Russian naval fleets battle off Hogland.
23 July Frederick II of Prussia forms the Fürstenbund, a league of German princes, against Joseph II of Austria-Hungary; England joins the alliance.

1786

Thomas Clarkson publishes On the Slavery and Commerce of the Human Species, an attack on the slave trade.
Russian navigator Gavril Pribylov discovers and names Pribilof Islands (Fur Seal Islands) in the Bering Sea.
The English Committee for the Relief of the Black Poor is formed to organize the settlement of free blacks in Sierra Leone.
Scottish millwright Andrew Meikle develops a threshing machine to harvest grain.
The Ottoman Turks send a fleet to restore authority in Egypt.
11 May Starving Japanese peasants break into rice warehouses in Osaka, and within a week they will raid warehouses in thirty other cities.
25 May Pedro III of Portugal dies and is succeeded by Maria I.
14 July British subjects start evacuating the Mosquito Coast of Nicaragua.
11 Aug. The British establish a trading post at Penang, Malaya Peninsula.
17 Aug. Frederick the Great of Prussia dies and is succeeded by his nephew, Frederick William II.

1787

The Central University of Ecuador is founded in Quito.
A plague in Algiers kills seventeen thousand people.
The Society for the Abolition of the Slave Trade is formed in England.
The first balloon ascension using hydrogen occurs in France.
Jan. Joseph II of Austria-Hungary, Holy Roman Emperor, provokes rebellions by clergy in the Netherlands by abolishing feudal and clerical courts.
13 Feb. The French foreign minister Charles Gravier de Vergennes dies.
22 Feb.-12 May France’s Assembly of Notables convenes and rejects reform proposals.
4 Apr. Robert Burns publishes Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect.
May Catherine the Great inspects the Russian fleet being built in the Crimea and meets with Joseph II of Austria-Hungary.
13 May The British government sends 756 convicts to New South Wales, Australia, to establish a colony.
15 May Four hundred former slaves from British colonies establish the “Province of Freedom” at Saint George’s Bay, West Africa; disease and hostility of natives lead to the colony’s abandonment three years later.
June Dutch republicans arrest Princess Wilhelmina, wife of Dutch Stadtholder William V, and niece of Frederick the Great.
8 Aug. Austria and Russia declare war on Turkey.
17 Aug. Riots occur in Paris.
5 Sept. The Mughal emperor Shāh ‘Alam II appoints Ghulam Qadir regent after Ghulam drives Sindhia’s forces from Delhi, India.
13 Sept. The Prussians invade the Netherlands, and the British prepare a fleet to support them.
10 Oct. A Dutch rebellion ends with William V returning to power.
29 Oct. The premiere in Prague of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Don Giovanni.
15 Nov. Christoph Willibald Gluck, imperial composer to the Holy Roman Emperor, dies at age seventy-three; Joseph II appoints Mozart to succeed him.

1788

The Marylebone Cricket Club is founded in England and codifies the rules of the game.
Great Britain, Holland, and Prussia form the Triple Alliance.
University of King’s College, now Windsor University, Canada, is founded.
British abolitionists mount a petition drive to end the slave trade; by May tens of thousands of signatures are collected. Olaudah Equiano presents the petition to Queen Charlotte, and he writes his autobiography, Interesting Narrative of Olaudah Equiano.
In France the antislavery Société des Amis des Noirs is formed.
1 Jan. The first issue of The Times of London appears.
18 Jan. The British convict fleet reaches Botany Bay, Australia; after finding it unsuitable for colonization, it moves to Port Jackson and renames the settlement Sydney.
Feb. Austria declares war against Turkey.
June The African Association is formed in London to promote exploration of central Africa.
July Gustavus III of Sweden invades Finland.
30 July In Delhi, Ghulam Qadir deposes Shāh Alam II.
22 Aug. King Naimbanna of Sierra Leone confirms a grant of land from Frenchman’s Bay to white settlers.
6 Oct. The Polish Diet meets to revise the national constitution.
Dec. The Nguyen Family usurps power and seizes Hanoi, Vietnam, but a Chinese army quickly recaptures the city.
14 Dec. Carlos III of Spain dies after ruling twenty-nine years and is succeeded by Carlos IV.

1789

Jan. While Chinese troops celebrate the new year, Nguyen forces attack and drive them from Hanoi; Hung-li recognizes Nguyen Quang Trong as the legitimate king of Annam.
29 Jan. The Duc de Lauzan of France captures Saint Louis, Senegal.
7 Apr. Selim III becomes the Ottoman sultan.
28 Apr. Sailors on H.M.S. Bounty, in the South Pacific gathering breadfruit trees, mutiny and cast Capt. William Bligh and eighteen others adrift in a lifeboat. The mutineers marry Tahitian women and land on Pitcairn Island. Bligh and eleven men survive forty-five days in the open boat, crossing thirty-six hundred miles of ocean; they reach Timor and ultimately return to England. The mutineers are not discovered until 1808.
11 July Louis XVI dismisses finance minister Jacques Necker, leading to popular demonstrations against the king.
14 July A Parisian mob storms the Bastille, seizing weapons and releasing prisoners.
4 Aug. The French Assembly abolishes feudal privileges, declaring legal and fiscal equality.
4 Aug. The English Privy Council issues a report on the slave trade recommending strict regulation of the traffic.
26 Aug. The French Assembly adopts the Declaration of the Rights of Man.
10 Sept. The French Assembly decides to create a unicameral legislature and to give the king veto power.
1 Oct. An uprising occurs in the Austrian Netherlands, which proclaims its independence as the Belgian Republic.
9 Oct. Ottoman forces in Belgrade surrender to the Russians and Austrians.
2 Nov. The French Assembly nationalizes church property.
14 Dec. The French Assembly allows communes to elect municipal officials and replaces the former provinces with eighty-three departments which are divided into districts.

1790

Jacob Schweppe in Geneva manufactures the first carbonated beverages.
Planters suppress a mulatto uprising in Santo Domingo.
Gurkhas from Nepal attack Tibet.
30 Jan. Prussia and the Ottoman Empire form an alliance.
13 Feb. Monastic institutions in France are dissolved.
20 Feb. Joseph II of Austria-Hungary dies and is succeeded by Leopold III.
29 Mar. Prussia and Poland form a defensive alliance.
July England and Spain resolve their dispute over Nootka Sound.
12 July The French Assembly passes the Civil Constitution of Clergy, making religious dioceses subordinate to civil government.
15 Aug. Russia and Sweden make peace.
Nov. Edmund Burke writes Reflections on the Revolution in France.
27 Nov. The French Assembly requires all clergymen to take oaths to support the Civil Constitution of the Clergy; half of the clergy, and all but seven bishops, refuse to do so.
Dec. The Belgian Republic is suppressed.

1791

An Oyo army is defeated by Nupe.
The University of Stuttgart is founded.
The Society of United Irishmen forms to push for Irish independence.
Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate is completed and is copied from the Propylea at Athens.
Parliament rejects the abolition of the slave trade.
Thomas Paine writes Vindication of the Rights of Man in response to Edmund Burke’s Reflections on the Revolution in France.
Mar. Robert Burns publishes his poem “Tam O’Shanter” in Edinburgh Magazine.
21 Mar. Lord Charles Cornwallis captures Bangalore, India.
13 Apr. Pope Pius VI condemns the Civil Constitution of Clergy.
3 May A new Polish constitution is proclaimed, converting the elected monarchy into a hereditary monarchy. Russia opposes the constitution, and Frederick Augustus III of Saxony declines an offer to the Polish throne.
15 May The French Assembly grants the right to vote to free mulattoes in the French West Indies.
15 May Lord Charles Cornwallis defeats Tipu Sultan at Arikera.
24 May The papal nuncio leaves France.
6 July Leopold II of Austria-Hungary calls on all monarchs to resist revolution.
22 Aug. A slave revolt breaks out in Santo Domingo.
30 Aug. Austria-Hungary and Turkey sign the Treaty of Sistova.
14 Sept. Louis XVI accepts a new French constitution.
30 Sept. The premiere of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s opera The Magic Flute in Vienna. The French National Assembly is dissolved.
5 Dec. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart dies at age thirty-five.
15 Dec. The U.S. Bill of Rights is ratified.
21 Dec. The British take the Indian fortress of Savandroog.
26 Dec. The Canada Act takes effect, dividing the country at the Ottawa River into primarily English Upper Canada and primarily French Lower Canada.

1792

French revolutionaries open Louvre Palace as an art museum.
Cao Xueqin’s novel Dream of the Red Chamber is published.
Mary Wollstonecraft publishes Vindication of the Rights of Woman.
The Russian ship Ekaterina sails to the Kurile Islands from Okhotsk, unsuccessfully seeking trade with Japan.
Over ten thousand Japanese die as Mount Unzen-Dake erupts.
The New York Stock Exchange is formed.
The Chinese army drives the Nepalese Gurkhas out of Tibet.
Nepal and India sign a commercial treaty; a British Resident is sent to reside at Katmandu but is recalled two years later.
9 Jan. In the Treaty of Jassy, Turkey cedes to Russia all land east of the Dniester River and recognizes Russian suzerainty over Georgia.
Feb.-Mar. Approximately eleven hundred former British slaves arrive in Sierra Leone.
7 Feb. Leopold II of Austria and Frederick William II of Prussia form an alliance.
24 Feb. Tipu Sultan, after a defeat at Seringapatam, makes peace with the British. He cedes half of his territories and pays an indemnity of £ 3.3 million.
Mar. Freetown, Sierra Leone, is founded by freed American slaves who had been in Nova Scotia since the American Revolution.
1 Mar. Leopold II dies; his son, Francis II, succeeds as king of Austria-Hungary and Holy Roman Emperor.
Apr. Parliament votes to end the slave trade by 1796.
29 Mar. Gustavus III of Sweden dies two weeks after being shot in the back at the Stockholm Opera House; his son Gustavus, age thirteen, becomes king.
4 Apr. The French Assembly extends the right to vote to free blacks in the West Indies.
20 Apr. France declares war on Austria.
24 Apr. French army officer Rouget de Lisle writes “La Marseillaise,” a patriotic song celebrating France’s war against Prussia and Austria.
19 May Russia invades Poland.
20 June Angered by Louis XVI’s dismissal of Minister of the Interior Jean-Marie Roland, a Paris crowd invades the Tuileries palace.
11 July Francis II of Austria-Hungary leads an invasion of France.
27 July The Duke of Brunswick threatens to destroy Paris if King Louis XVI is harmed.
9 Aug. A Paris mob overthrows the municipal government and establishes a commune.
10 Aug. A French crowd storms the Tuileries and kills the Swiss Guard. The Assembly suspends the king and calls for a national convention to be elected by all adult men.
19 Aug. The Marquis de Lafayette defects from France to the Austrians.
Sept. France sends a six-thousand-man army to the West Indies.
2 Sept. Verdun falls to the Austrians. A Paris crowd slaughters twelve hundred prisoners.
20 Sept. A French army turns back the Austrians at Valmy.
21 Sept. The French Convention abolishes the monarchy.
22 Sept. The Convention declares France a republic. It abolishes the old calendar and installs a new calendar with twelve months of thirty days each, beginning 22 September, Year One; every tenth day is a holiday.
10 Nov. The French government prohibits the worship of God and creates a cult of Reason.
14 Nov. French troops occupy Brussels.
19 Nov. The French decree support to all people struggling for freedom.
11 Dec. The trial of Louis XVI starts.

1793

Jan. The Catholic Relief Act removes restrictions from Irish Catholics, though they still cannot hold public office.
14 Jan. The French Convention unanimously finds Louis XVI guilty of treason and by a vote of 361–321 sentences him to death.
21 Jan. King Louis XVI is executed on the guillotine.
1 Feb. The Convention declares war on England and Holland.
Mar. France annexes Belgium, the Rhineland, and Basel.
23 Apr. President George Washington declares American neutrality.
1 Aug. France adopts the decimal system.
5 Sept. The beginning of the Reign of Terror in France, in which forty thousand will be executed by July 1794.
7 Oct. The emperor orders Earl George Macartney to leave China and decides neither to establish diplomatic relations with England nor allow British merchants to trade anywhere but Canton.
16 Oct. Marie-Antoinette is guillotined.

1794

On a twenty-three-week voyage from London to Madras, a British naval squadron successfully tests the theory of James Lind that citrus fruits will prevent scurvy. The Royal Navy thereafter will carry limes to prevent the vitamin deficiency linked to the disease as well as mix lime juice with rum rations.
10 Feb. In London the first performance of Joseph Haydn’s Symphonies 99 and 100 occurs.
Mar. Thaddeus Kosciusko leads a Polish uprising.
May France outlaws slavery in its colonies and extends citizenship to all adult males. Toussaint L’Ouverture, a former slave fighting for the Spanish, joins French forces on Santo Domingo to oppose a British invasion and a possible re-establishment of slavery.
8 May French chemist Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier is guillotined.
19 July A revolt occurs in Geneva in support of the French Revolution.
28 Sept.-13 Oct. The French Navy attacks the British colony at Freetown.
7 Nov. The Russians capture Warsaw.

1795

After a mob attacks King George III’s carriage, Parliament passes the Treason and Sedition Bills, punishing by deportation anyone whose writing or speaking excites hatred of the king or constitution and forbidding meetings of more than fifty people without a magistrate’s permission.
Āghā Mohammad Khān, founder of the Persian Qajar dynasty, occupies Tbilisi, Kakheti, and Kartli Catherine II of Russia sends troops to retake the area.
A second maroon war breaks out in Jamaica.
22 May British explorer Mungo Park sails for West Africa to map the Niger River; he returns to London two years later.
22 July France and Spain make peace.
16 Sept. The British take Cape Colony, South Africa, from the Dutch.
21 Sept. A riot between Catholics and Protestants occurs in Armagh, Ireland.
1 Oct. Belgium is incorporated into France.
5 Oct. Napoleon crushes an uprising in Paris.
15 Oct. Hung-li, the longest-reigning monarch in China’s history (since 1736), abdicates in favor of his son Yung-yen, but continues to hold power.
25 Nov. King Stanislaw II Augustus Poniatowski of Poland abdicates. Poland is partitioned among Russia, Prussia, and Austria.

1796

Edward Jenner uses a cowpox vaccination against smallpox.
The House of Commons defeats a bill abolishing the slave trade.
Tehran becomes the capital of Persia.
12 Feb. A British treaty with the king of Kandy establishes a British protectorate over Ceylon.
16 Feb. British authorities expel Dutch colonists from Ceylon and make it part of Madras, but a rebellion occurs and Ceylon becomes a royal colony instead.
31 Mar. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s Egmont premieres in Weimar.
19 Aug. France and Spain make an alliance.
5 Oct. Spain declares war on England.
Nov. With Spain and France allied, England withdraws its fleet from the Mediterranean.
16 Nov. Catherine II of Russia dies and is succeeded by her son, Paul I.
15 Dec. Forty-three French ships embark fifteen thousand men for an invasion of Ireland.

1797

The Persian ruler Āaghā Mohammad Khān is assassinated and is succeeded by his nephew, Fath ‘Ali Shāh.
Toussaint-Louverture, leading Haiti’s blacks, drives the British from the island.
26 Jan. Another partition of Poland occurs.
4 Feb. An earthquake in the Andes kills forty-one thousand in Peru and Ecuador.
Mar. The British begin suppressing the United Irish revolt.
9 Mar. The doge of Venice, Luigi Manin, is deposed, and Venice is annexed by Austria.
Aug. Toussaint-Louverture expels French representatives from Santo Domingo.
16 Apr. British sailors mutiny at Spithead.
2 May British sailors at The Nore in the Thames estuary mutiny.
Oct. France prepares for an invasion of England.
31 Oct. The Directory bans British goods from countries France controls.
Nov. Frederick William II of Prussia dies and is succeeded by his grandson, Frederick William III.

1798

London hatter John Hetherington makes a top hat of silk, thus contributing to the reduced demand for beaver pelts.
The Persian emperor leases the islands of Hormuz and Qeshm to Muscat.
Thomas Robert Malthus publishes Essay on Principles of Population, arguing that the world’s population increases faster than the capacity to feed it. Accordingly, the world will ultimately face starvation.
A typhoid epidemic in England kills thousands. In addition, poor harvests and rising food prices lead to mass starvation.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge publishes “‘Rime of the Ancient Mariner” and “Kubla Khan.”
9 Jan. The last meeting of the Irish Parliament occurs.
15 Feb. With a French army outside Rome, Italian revolutionaries proclaim the Roman Republic. Pope Pius VI is driven into exile, and French officers loot the Vatican treasury.
19 Feb. The premiere in Paris of the opera Leonore, with an overture by Ludwig van Beethoven.
30 Mar. Martial law is proclaimed in Ireland.
20 Apr. A British fleet is sent to the Mediterranean to protect Naples.
24 May Rebellion breaks out in Ireland.
June British sailors riot in the Mediterranean.
21 June British forces suppress the Irish rebellion.
2 July Napoleon and forty thousand French troops occupy Alexandria, Egypt.
3 July Dr. Francisco de Lacerda of Portugal begins exploring the Zambezi River in southern Africa. He journeys as far inland as Cazembe, where he dies in October.
1–2 Aug. A British fleet under Horatio Nelson defeats the French at the Battle of the Nile.
Sept. The Russian czar sends a fleet to the Mediterranean to cooperate with Turkey.
21 Oct: The British East India Company enters an agreement with the imam of Muscat to exclude French traders.
Oct. Frederick North arrives in Ceylon as the first British governor.
21–24 Oct. Two thousand die in an uprising in Cairo as sheiks and the elite resist the reforming efforts of the French.
4 Dec. France declares war against Naples.
29 Dec. Russia and England form an alliance.

1799

Scottish explorer Mungo Park publishes Travels in the Interior of Africa.
The Second Coalition of Britain, Austria, Russia, Naples, and Ottoman Porte is formed.
9 Jan. The first British income tax is enacted.
Feb. Napoleon invades Syria, but a plague forces the French army back to Egypt.
7 Feb. The Emperor Qian-lung, China’s longest ruling monarch, dies.
12 Mar. France declares war on Austria.
19 Mar. The first performances of Franz Joseph Haydn’s Die Schöpfung (The Creation) and Ludwig van Beethoven’s Sonata Pathetique.
6 May Tipu Sultan is killed storming Seringapatam, and the Hindu royal family resumes power in Mysore.
5 July Sierra Leone becomes an independent British colony.
12 July The British Parliament suppresses corresponding and debating societies and reading rooms, requires printing presses and type foundries to register with the government, and forbids meetings of workers.
25 July At Abukir Napoleon defeats a Turkish army supported by England.
24 Aug. Napoleon leaves Egypt for France.
29 Aug. Pope Pius VI, pope since 1775 and exiled by Napoleon since 1798, dies.
26 Sept. A French victory at Zurich forces the Russians to sue for peace.
Nov. Naples recaptures Rome from the French.
9–10 Nov. Napoleon dissolves legislative councils and becomes First Consul of the French Republic.
25 Dec. A new constitution for France provides a ten-year term for the First Consul.

1800

Colonists in Freetown rebel against the Sierra Leone Company.
Toussaint-Louverture defeats a mulatto army, gains control of the French half of Hispaniola, and invades the Spanish area of the island.
Italian physicist Allessandro Volta invents the “voltaic cell,” the prototype of the electric battery.
Feb. France ratifies the new constitution.
13 Feb. The Banque de France is founded.
13 Mar. Gregorio Barnabo Chiaramonte becomes Pope Pius VII.
20 Mar. The French defeat the Turks at Heliopolis.
20 Mar.-21 Apr. Pashas in Egypt lead a revolt against the French.
5 Apr. The British capture the island of Gorée off Senegal from France.
14 June Napoleon defeats the Austrians at Marengo.
5 Sept. The French garrison on Malta surrenders to the English.
1 Oct. In the secret Treaty of San Ildefonso, Spain cedes the Louisiana Territory to France.
3 Dec. French forces defeat the Austrians at Hohenlinden.

1801

Jan. The Act of Union creates the United Kingdom of Great Britain. England and Ireland are to be governed by one parliament.
26 Jan. Toussaint-Louverture captures the Spanish capital of Santo Domingo. France sends an army to recapture the colony.
9 Feb. Austria and France sign the Treaty of Lunéville in which France is to control Italy west of Venice.
11 Mar. Russia’s insane Czar Paul I is murdered and replaced by his son, Alexander I; the new czar withdraws from the war against France.
21 Mar. At the Battle of Alexandria a British and Turkish army defeat a French force.
2 Apr. A British fleet defeats the Danes at the Battle of Copenhagen.
10 June Tripoli declares war on the United States.
July Toussaint-Louverture sends a constitution to France for Napoleon’s approval.
15 July Napoleon and Pius VII reach an agreement by which the French government will nominate bishops to be consecrated by the pope. Meanwhile, the pope is restored to Rome.
Aug. French forces in Egypt capitulate.
18 Nov. Ten Freetown settlers are killed and forty-two, including the governor, wounded when Temnes warriors attack the settlement.
24 Dec. Richard Trevithick in England uses a steam engine to power a carriage.

1802

Portuguese traders begin the first successful crossing of the African continent from Angola to the Zambezi River, reaching Tete in 1811.
Italian inventor Gian Domenico Romagnosi observes an electric current moving through a wire.
Marie Grosholtz Tussaud, a Swiss wax modeler who had been commissioned in 1793 to make death masks of guillotine victims, opens a wax museum in London.
The British Parliament passes the Factory Act to protect apprentices in textile mills.
Nathaniel Bowditch of Salem, Massachusetts, publishes New American Practical Navigator, correcting eight thousand errors in an earlier English text on navigation.
Thomas Wedgwood, son of British potter Josiah Wedgwood, produces the first photographic image on paper coated with silver nitrate; however, the image fades quickly.
27 Mar. England and France sign the Treaty of Amiens. England accepts France’s conquests in Europe and gives up Malta, Elba, Minorca, and Cape Colony, but keeps Ceylon and Trinidad.
11 Apr. Freetown settlers repulse Temnes warriors.
1 June Nguyen Phuc Anh proclaims himself Emperor Gia Long, changes the name of his country from Annam to Vietnam, and establishes the capital at Hue.
10 June Toussaint-Louverture is arrested and taken to France.
14 June Napoleon orders slavery to be reestablished in Santo Domingo and other French colonies.
2 Aug. A French plebiscite elects Napoleon Consul for life.
1 Nov. Gen. Victor-Emmanuel Leclerc, sent to Santo Domingo to restore slavery and French power, dies of yellow fever.

1803

King Kamehameha I unites the eight islands of Hawaii.
Wahhabi fundamentalists capture Mecca.
Maryland farmer Thomas Moore patents the icebox.
English chemist John Dalton arranges a table of atomic weights.
Cotton becomes the leading export of the United States.
20 Feb. The British seize Kandy, Ceylon, and leave a small force to protect their puppet king.
7 Apr. Toussaint-Louverture dies in a French prison.
16 May After Britain refuses to surrender Malta, France and England resume war.
23–24 June British troops are massacred after an uprising in Kandy, Ceylon.
23 July An uprising in Ireland fails.
23 Sept. At the Battle of Assaye, British forces defeat the Mahrathas.
Dec. British capture Pondicherry from the Mahrathas.

1804

The Universities of Kazan and Kharkov in Russia are founded.
The first vacuum-bottling factory, or cannery, is opened near Paris.
Feb. French authorities discover a plot by royalists to depose Napoleon.
21 Feb. In West Africa Uthman dan Fodio accuses Hausa kings of laxity in Islamic observance and declares a jihad, or holy war. By 1810 he will control all of the Hausa territory and form the Sokoto Empire.
17 Mar. Johann Schiller’s play Wilhelm Tell premieres.
21 Mar. The Code Napoleon, civil laws based on Roman statutes and egalitarian concepts of the French Revolution, is promulgated.
Oct. The Russian warship Nadezhda enters the harbor at Nagasaki, Japan, but is told to leave.
Oct. British seize the Spanish treasure fleet carrying gold valued at $3 million.
8 Oct. Jean-Jacques Dessalines proclaims himself Emperor Jacques I of Santo Domingo.
2 Dec. The Pope crowns Napoleon emperor of France.

1805

Kebbi and Zaria fall to Uthman’s forces.
The British House of Lords defeats a bill to abolish the slave trade.
In Arabia, Wahhabi capture Medina.
7 Apr. The premiere of Ludwig van Beethoven’s Third Symphony in Vienna. Beethoven had dedicated this “heroic” symphony to then-consul and antimonarchist Napoleon, but tore up the dedication when Napoleon was crowned emperor of France.
11 Apr. Russia allies itself with England.
26 May Napoleon is crowned king of Italy.
4 June The United States and Tripoli sign a peace treaty.
26 July An earthquake kills thousands in Naples.
9 Aug. Austria and England become allies.
9 Oct. France and Naples agree to neutrality.
15–20 Oct. A French army captures an Austrian force at New Ulm.
21 Oct. At Trafalgar the Royal Navy under Horatio, Lord Nelson destroys two-thirds of the French and Spanish fleets.
13 Nov. Napoleon occupies Vienna.
19 Nov. Natives kill Mungo Park while he is on a second exploration of the Niger River.
20 Nov. Premier of the opera Fidelio, music by Ludwig van Beethoven, in Vienna.
2 Dec. Napoleon defeats Russians and Austrians at Austerlitz.
26 Dec. Francis II of Austria cedes Venetia, Istria, and Dalmatia to France.

1806

12 Jan. French forces leave Vienna.
19 Jan. British forces arrive in South Africa to take Cape Colony.
23 Jan. A French army forces King Ferdinand of Naples to flee; Joseph Bonaparte becomes king of Naples the next month.
16 May British foreign minister Charles James Fox orders a naval blockade of the European continent.
27 June A British force from the Cape of Good Hope captures Buenos Aires.
July A Sepoy mutiny occurs at Velore, India, and one thousand are killed or wounded.
10 July A peace treaty between settlers at Sierra Leone and Temnes King Tom and King Firama, who cede lands to the colony.
13 Sept. The Prussian army moves into Thuringia.
Aug. A Spanish force from Montevideo recaptures Buenos Aires.
6 Aug. Napoleon has German states withdraw from the Holy Roman Empire and form the Confederation of the Rhine. In addition, he forces Francis II of Austria to abdicate the title of Roman Emperor.
17 Oct. Jacques I of Santo Domingo is assassinated; Henri Christophe takes control of the northern part of the island; and Alexandre Pétion captures the southern part.
19 Oct. The French win a stunning victory over the Prussians at Jena and Auerstadt.
27 Oct. Napoleon occupies Berlin.
21 Nov. Napoleon’s Berlin Decree closes the European continent to British trade and bars British subjects from Europe. The Prussian army and Frederick William III flee to East Prussia.
Dec. Russia and Turkey go to war.
27 Dec. The Russians capture Bucharest.

1807

Katsina falls to Uthman’s forces.
Russians attack Japanese settlements on Sakhalin Island and Hokkaidō.
William Wordsworth publishes Poems in Two Volumes.
7 Jan. England joins the war against Turkey.
7–8 Feb. Russian and Prussian forces halt Napoleon’s advance at Eylau.
19 Feb. A British fleet breaks through Turkish defenses at the Dardanelles.
25 Mar. Parliament bars British subjects from participating in the slave trade.
31 Mar. The British attempt to invade Egypt but are defeated at Rosetta.
29 May Janissaries in Turkey depose and kill Sultan Selim III, installing Mustapha IV as sultan.
14 June Napoleon’s troops defeat the Russians at Friedland.
7–9 July Prussia cedes west Elbean possessions to France’s German satellites and yields Polish territories to Grande Duchy of Warsaw; Frederick August of Saxony becomes Grand Duke of Warsaw; Prussia joins the Continental System and remains garrisoned by Napoleon; and Czar Alexander recognizes French conquests.
Aug. A truce occurs between Russia and Turkey.
16 Aug. Gaslights are used on London streets for the first time.
7 Sept. A Danish fleet surrenders to the British after a bombardment of Copenhagen.
17 Dec. Napoleon issues the Milan Decree on seizing ships.

1808

The Imperial University, or University of France, and the Universities of Lyon and Rennes are founded.
1 Jan. Sierra Leone becomes a royal British colony.
19 Mar. Carlos IV of Spain abdicates in favor of Ferdinand, who relinquishes the crown to Napoleon in May.
17 Apr. In the Bayonne Decree, Napoleon orders the seizure of American ships entering French, Italian, or Hanseatic ports; French will eventually seize $10 million of American ships and cargo.
2 May A Spanish uprising starts against the French.
June Muhammad Ali begins the conquest of upper Egypt.
15 July Joachim Murat becomes king of Naples after Joseph Bonaparte abdicates to become king of Spain.
20 July French troops occupy Madrid but are driven out by the Spanish.
28 July Mahmud II becomes Sultan of Turkey.
Sept.-Oct. The Franco-Russian alliance is reaffirmed at Erfurt.
Nov. Napoleon leads two hundred thousand men into Spain.
2 Dec. Napoleon occupies Madrid, and the royal family is imprisoned three days later.
22 Dec. The first performance of Ludwig van Beethoven’s Symphonies 5 and 6 occur in Vienna.

1809

Uthman dan Fodio takes Kano in northern Nigeria. He founds the city of Sokoto and establishes control of the Islamic movement over the entire Hausa region.
Finland becomes an autonomous grand duchy of the Russian empire.
Economist David Ricardo publishes High Price of Bullion a Proof of the Depreciation of Bank Notes.
Samuel Somering invents the electric telegraph.
Jan. Parliament learns that the mistress of the Duke of York is selling army commissions.
12 Mar. England and Persia form an alliance.
13 Mar. A coup d’état in Sweden deposes King Gustavus IV.
5 June The duke of Sudermania becomes King Charles XIII of Sweden.
Apr. Austrians invade Bavaria and are defeated by Napoleon.
25 Apr. The East India Company signs a treaty with Ranjit Singh, ruler of Lahore.
1 May Napoleon annexes the Papal States to France.
3 May Russia declares war on Austria.
12 May Napoleon captures Vienna.
21–22 May Napoleon is defeated at Aspern.
12 June Napoleon is excommunicated by the Catholic Church.
5–6 July At Wagram the French army defeats the Austrians, with high casualties on both sides: 23, 000 French dead or wounded, 7, 000 missing; 19, 110 Austrians dead or wounded, 6, 740 missing.
5 July Napoleon imprisons Pope Pius VII.
14 July The British seize Saint-Louis, Senegal, from France.
27–28 July A British army under Sir Arthur Wellesley defeats Joseph Bonaparte’s Spanish army at Talevera de Reina, and as a result Wellesley becomes Viscount Wellington of Talavera.
26 Sept. The Turks defeat the Russians at Silisteria.
14 Oct. Austria and France make peace.
16 Dec. Napoleon divorces Josephine.

1810

The University of Berlin is founded.
Portugal agrees to gradual abolition of the slave trade.
The German Rudolph Ackermann invents the differential gear, a steering mechanism to allow carriages to turn sharp corners.
French chemist Louis-Nicolas Vauquelin identifies nicotine as the active chemical in tobacco.
6 Jan. Peace between France and Sweden is declared.
17 Feb. Rome is declared the second city of the French Empire.
11 Mar. Napoleon marries Maria Luisa, an eighteen-year-old Austrian archduchess.
6 Apr. Rioting in England occurs after the reformer Sir Francis Burdett is committed to the Tower of London for criticizing the government.
15 June The first performance of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s play Egmont, with music by Ludwig von Beethoven.
9 July Napoleon annexes Holland.
25 Aug. Muhammad ‘Alī Pasha asks the Ottoman Empire to grant Egypt autonomy.
16 Sept. Don Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, a priest in Dolores, Mexico, begins a rebellion against the Spanish government.
16 Dec. Representatives of New Spain present grievances to the Spanish Cortes.
31 Dec. Czar Alexander withdraws from the Continental System.

1811

The University of Christiania, Norway, is founded.
Spain debates abolishing the slave trade; Cuban planters object and defeat the move.
English engineer John Blenkinsop invents a two-cylinder steam locomotive.
Jane Austen publishes Sense and Sensibility.
5 Feb. The Prince of Wales is appointed regent for King George III, who has gone completely mad.
Mar. “Luddite” riots occur in Nottingham, England, as unemployed workers destroy textile machinery which has put them out of work.
1 Mar. Muhammad ‘Alī Pasha, Ottoman viceroy in Egypt, massacres rebellious Mamluks.
21 Mar. Father Miguel Hidalgo is captured in Mexico.
7 Jul A general congress in Venezuela declares independence.
31 July Father Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla is executed at Chihuahua.
14 Aug. Paraguay declares independence.
18 Sept. The Dutch surrender Java to the British.

1812

Russia and Sweden sign a secret alliance.
The University of Genoa is founded.
Swiss Orientalist J. L. Burckhardt begins an ascent of the Nile to Korosko, then travels through the desert to the Red Sea and eventually Mecca.
Dingiswayo, Zulu chief, begins consolidating military forces in southern Africa.
8 Jan. Nicaraguan rebels capture Fort San Carlos.
Mar. A devastating earthquake strikes Venezuela.
8 May The Spanish Cortes produces a democratic constitution.
11 May British Prime Minister Spencer Perceval is assassinated in the House of Commons lobby.
28 May In the Treaty of Bucharest, Turkey cedes Moldavian lands to Russia, grants amnesty to Serbian rebels, but maintains a garrison in Serbia.
18 June The United States declares war on Great Britain.
24 June Napoleon invades Russia.
12 July After Napoleon seizes Swedish Pomerania, Sweden allies itself with England.
9 Aug. Two thousand Muslim pilgrims returning from Mecca die in a windstorm in Arabia.
17 Aug. The French defeat the Russians at Smolensk Oblast.
7 Sept. A Russian army is defeated at Borodino, seventy-five miles west of Moscow.
14 Sept. Napoleon enters Moscow and waits for the czar to sue for peace.
15 Oct. The Russians burn Moscow.
19 Oct. Napoleon withdraws from Moscow.

1813

Muhammad Ali sends an army to Arabia to retake holy cities from Muslim fundamentalists.
17 Mar. Calling on all German people to rise up against Napoleon, Frederick William of Prussia allies with Russia and declares war against France.
Apr. Napoleon invades Germany.
4 June Napoleon agrees to an armistice that lasts until 10 August.
21 June Wellington occupies Madrid and begins fighting in northern Spain, preparing for an invasion of France.
27 June Austria agrees to support the allies if Napoleon does not accept conditions for peace.
14 Sept. The first Congress of Mexican rebels meets, elects José Maria Morelos y Pavón, priest from Caracuaro, general in chief.
8 Oct. Wellington’s army enters France through the Pyrenees.
14–19 Oct. The allies defeat Napoleon at Leipzig.
6 Nov. The Mexican Congress declares independence and emancipates slaves.
21 Dec. Leaders of the Guatemalan independence movement are arrested.

1814

The Mazrui dynasty in Mombasa, East Africa, appeals to the British in India for support against the sultan of Oman.
War begins between the British in India and Nepal.
Jan. Naples allies itself with Austria against Napoleon.
14 Mar. Ferdinand VII is restored to the Spanish throne.
31 Mar. The allies occupy Paris.
2 Apr. The Imperial Senate deposes Napoleon.
6 Apr. Napoleon abdicates, and the Imperial Senate calls on the younger brother of King Louis XVI to be king.
24 Apr. Louis XVIII arrives in Paris.
17 May Norway declares independence from Sweden.
30 May The First Treaty of Paris restores France to its 1792 borders and imposes mild indemnities. The English receive the Cape Colony.
4 June Louis XVIII grants a charter retaining legal equality, religious freedom, and revolutionary land settlements; it also makes parliament subordinate to the monarch.
16 July Swedish troops enter Norway.
7 Aug. Pope Pius VII returns to Rome and restores the Order of Jesus, dissolved by Clement XIV in 1773.
Sept. At the Congress of Vienna foreign ministers of allied powers meet to restore international order.
10 Oct. The Norwegian Diet elects Charles Frederick, Duke of Holstein, to be king, but he abdicates.
22 Oct. The Mexican Congress drafts a Constitution, creating a republic.
4 Nov. King Charles XIII of Sweden accepts the Norwegian constitution, guaranteeing Norway its independence as a free state united to Sweden; he is proclaimed king of Norway.

1815

The University of Groningen, Netherlands is founded.
An estimated twelve thousand people in Java die as volcano Mount Tamboro erupts.
Feb. Vikrama, king of Kandy, Ceylon, attacks British merchants.
14 Feb. The British take control of Kandy.
27 Feb. Napoleon escapes from exile on Elba.
1 Mar. Napoleon enters France and quickly advances north.
2 Mar. All chiefs on Ceylon submit to British rule.
15 Mar. Joachim Murat of Naples declares war on Austria.
20 Mar. Louis XVIII flees Paris, and Napoleon issues a new constitution for France before invading Belgium.
30 Apr. The central provinces of Poland are made into the Kingdom of Poland under the protection of the Russian czar.
22 May Joachim Murat of Naples flees to France; he attempts to return to Naples in October but is captured and shot.
18 June The allies defeat Napoleon at Waterloo, Belgium.
22 June Napoleon abdicates.
8 July Louis XVIII returns to Paris and begins the second restoration of monarchy.
20 Nov. The second Treaty of Paris imposes a 700-million-franc indemnity on France, removes border territories from French control, and initiates a military occupation of the country.
5 Nov. Royalist troops capture Mexican rebel José Maria Morelos y Pavan.
27 Nov. Cracow, Poland is declared a free republic.
Dec. The British and Nepalese sign the Treaty of Saguali, alowing the British envoy to live in Katmandu if he does not interfere with Nepalese affairs.
22 Dec. Morelos is executed by firing squad.