19th Century History - By Category

Timelines of the 1800s

Timelines of the 1800s

Glossary of the 1800s

In some ways the 19th century had its own language, as terms and events which would have been common knowledge 150 years ago have faded into history. On this page are links to definitions which will help to broaden your understanding of the times.

Major Figures

An impressive array of leaders, heroes, villains, and thinkers defined the 1800s. Napoleon Bonaparte, Queen Victoria, and President Lincoln exerted profound influence. Samuel Morse, Thomas Edison, and Alexander Graham Bell forever changed the world. And unique voices, such as Charles Dickens, Mark Twain, and Phineas T. Barnum, dazzled the world with storytelling, wit, and showmanship.

Transportation

Innovations in transportation in the 19th Century included sleek and speedy sailing ships known as clippers and steamships that eliminated a sailor's dependence on the wind. Steam locomotives made fast overland travel possible. Other milestones in transportation included the building of railroads, canals, steel bridges, and astonishing wonders of the age, enormous suspension bridges.

War & Diplomacy

Warfare, often on a colossal scale, marked the 1800s. The Napoleonic Wars roiled Europe, and the American Civil War threatened to permanently tear apart the young nation. Other conflicts included revolutions throughout Latin America, the Crimean War, wars in the western Pacific, and the Spanish-American War. The Monroe Doctrine and The Great Game were turning points in international affairs.

Exploration & Adventure

The 19th Century was a remarkable time for exploration. Lewis and Clark, dispatched by President Thomas Jefferson, trekked to the Pacific and back from 1804 to 1806. The search for a Northwest Passage inspired polar explorers, such as the doomed British sailors of the Franklin Expedition. And vast portions of the globe, such as the interior of Africa, were mapped by explorers and adventurers.

Science & Culture

Great minds transformed the world throughout the 1800s. Washington Irving, Charles Dickens, and Walt Whitman made their mark in literature, while Charles Darwin, Karl Marx, and Louis Pasteur shook up other disciplines. Impressionism startled the art world. Great museums and libraries flourished, books were made widely available, and literacy became widespread.

Industry and Invention

Modern industry emerged in the 19th Century thanks to such innovations as steam power, steel production, textile mills, and mass production based on the principles of inventor Eli Whitney. The whaling industry boomed for a time, and pumping oil from the ground became a colossal new business. People rushed to mine gold and copper, and banking powerhouses rose to prominence.

Slavery

Despite the great advances of the 19th century, the period will also be known for slavery. The slave trade was eventually eliminated, and in the United States the abolition movement became a great moral force. Conflict centered around slavery eventually led the United States into a tragic war between the states. On the other side of the world, in Russia, the serfs were liberated.

Immigration

Populations were on the move in the 1800s, and the population of the New World increased dramatically as millions of immigrants arrived. Starting with the Irish during the Famine, successive waves of immigrants arrived in the United States, and American cities swelled with their numbers. Immigration also populated Australia, which had been a distant penal colony.

Entertainment & Sport

In some ways the 1800s were defined by public entertainments such as traveling circuses, minstrel shows, and extravaganzas based on the thrills of the wild west. A top attraction was Barnum's American Museum. Sports such as horse racing and boxing rose to tremendous prominence. Football was refined in both American and European versions, and two major sports were born, basketball and baseball.

Expansion & Colonialism

The 19th Century was an age of expansion and colonialism. In the 1800s, as Americans explored the west and settled across the North American continent, Victorian Britain stood astride much of the world, and other great powers consolidated colonial holdings in Africa and Asia.

The Gilded Age

Mark Twain coined the term "The Gilded Age" to describe conditions in the late 1800s, when a new class of very rich people reveled in ostentatious displays of wealth while downtrodden workers organized for fair wages and safe factory conditions. The American south languished in the racist Jim Crow period, and the urban poor were chronicled by writers such as journalist Jacob Riis.

19th Century Crimes and Disasters

The 19th century was marked by crimes which ranged from notorious murders to rampant political corruption, and disasters that included cataclysmic fires, floods, and volcanic eruptions.