1791 1792 1793 1794 1795 1796 1797 1798 1799 1800
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General Napoleon Bonaparte is married March 9 at Paris to the city's society leader Josephine de Beauharnais, widow of the late Vicomte de Beauharnais, who was blamed for the fall of Mainz to the Prussians in 1793 and went to the guillotine in July 1794. Now 33, she has for more than a year been mistress to the comte de Barras; she accompanies her husband as he invades Italy April 11 with 40,000 men, but soon returns to Paris as he defeats the Austrians in April at Millesimo and the Piedmontese at Modovi.
General Bonaparte concludes a treaty with the king of Piedmont at Cherasco April 28 and wins a brilliant victory against professional Austrian troops May 10 at Lodi Bridge, despite the fact that he lacks the money to pay his citizen soldiers or the provisions to feed them. Lombardian patriots rise up against the French May 12 and nearly take Milan, but Bonaparte enters Milan May 15, obtains Savoy and Nice from Piedmont by treaty that day, and sets up the Lombard republic. French troops who sought refuge in the citadel at Pavia are massacred by the city's people May 23, but Bonaparte signs an armistice with Ferdinand IV of Naples June 5 and signs another at Bologna June 23 with Pope Pius VI. The Battle of Castiglione August 5 gives him another victory (General Pierre-François-Charles Augereau, 38, distinguishes himself in the encounter), and he conquers all of Lombardy as far as Mantua, obtaining large sums of money and many art treasures from the pope, Ferdinand IV of Naples, and the dukes of Parma and Modena in return for truce agreements (see Naples, 1798).
Babeuf's Conspiracy to overthrow the Directory that rules France is aborted May 10 by the arrest of socialist François Noel Babeuf, 35, whose song "Dying of Hunger, Dying of Cold" ("Mourant de jaim, mourant de froid") is popular in Paris cafés. "Nature has given to every man the right to the enjoyment of an equal share in all property," Babeuf has said on posters headed "Analyse de la doctrine de Babeuf, tribun du peuple." He has tried to incite soldiers to revolt, attracted ex-Jacobins to his cause, but will be executed next year along with an associate, and some of his followers will be exiled.
Baden, Württemberg, and Bavaria conclude truces in August with General Jourdan, but he resigns his command after being defeated at Amberg and at Würzburg by the archduke Charles, 25, brother of the emperor Franz II, who forces General Moreau to retreat through the Black Forest to the upper Rhine. Charles Maurice de Talleyrand has arrived at Hamburg in January after 30 months in America; he travels to Paris in September and will become foreign minister next year (see 1793; 1803).
British forces under the command of General Sir Ralph Abercromby arrive at Jamaica in January and proceed to take the Caribbean islands of St. Lucia, Demerara, St. Vincent, and Grenada (see 1795). Sir Ralph orders that his men's uniforms be altered to make them more suitable for the warm climate, forbids parades in the heat, discharges dishonest and inefficient officers, and rewards regular soldiers with bonuses and small civil posts, thereby restoring discipline in the ranks (see 1797).
Spain's Carlos IV decrees April 20 after an inconclusive trial that explorer Alejandro Malaspina be demoted from his naval rank of fleet-brigadier and confined in the isolated fortress of San Antón at La Coruna in Galicia, where Malaspina will remain until late 1802 (see 1795).
The Treaty of San Ildefonso negotiated by Manuel de Godoy and signed August 19 aligns Spain with France against the British; Spain abandons her opposition to France and declares war on Britain October 5 (see 1804).
Russia's Catherine II (the Great) dies of apoplexy (or a stroke) while sitting on her commode at Czarskoye Selo, near St. Petersburg, November 17 (November 6 Old Style) at age 67 after a 34-year reign. She is succeeded by her 42-year-old son, who is mentally unbalanced but will reign until 1801 as Paul I.
General Bonaparte drives the Austrians back to Arcole after scoring another major victory November 17. General Baron Josef Alvintzy has defeated an exhausted French forces under General André Masséna, 38, earlier in the month at Bassano, and those of General Augereau at Caldiso, endangering the entire French position in Italy, but Bonaparte has moved his men across the Alpone River on pontoon bridges after 2 days of heavy fighting and attacks the enemy from its rear.
A French fleet of 43 ships and 15,000 men assembles to invade Ireland in support of Irish rebels and leaves Brest December 15 under the command of General Louis Lazare Hoche, 28 (see Camden, 1795). The British-controlled Irish government has earlier in the year passed an Insurrection Act and suspended the Habeas Corpus Act; the British have allowed "Adjutant-general Smith" (T. W. Tone) to emigrate to America (see 1791), and he accompanies the fleet, having proceeded from America to Paris in quest of support from General Bonaparte, but although he has succeeded, and some ships reach Bantry Bay, a storm disperses the French armada off the coast of Kerry and no landing is made (see 1798).
British forces take Malacca and seize all Dutch property in the Far East except Java (see 1780; 1795; Dutch East India Company, 1799).
China's senile Qing (Manchu) emperor Qianlong (Chien-lung) abdicates February 9 (the Chinese new year) at age 85 after a 60-year reign in which he has enlarged the empire, established Chinese control over Tibet, sanctioned trade relations with the United States at Guangzhou, invaded Burma and Nepal, and encouraged literature and the arts, especially pottery (see 1795). His onetime bodyguard He Shen, now 45, has married Qianlong's youngest (and favorite) daughter and used his position to enrich himself with graft and kickbacks in the form of gold, silver, and furs, even going so far as to steal funds earmarked for feeding imperial troops. The emperor's 35-year-old fifth son Yu Yan will reign until 1820 as the emperor Jiaqing (Chia-ching), but Qianlong will continue to direct the nation's affairs until his death in 1799. The ascetic White Lotus Society has been fomenting rebellion against government repression in the countryside; famous for having driven the Mongols out of China in the 14th century, its members believe that a "future Buddha" will usher in a new era of peace and prosperity; they take up arms against rapacious local officials, establishing bases in fortified mountain villages and raiding towns in the valleys below for recruits and supplies.
Cambodia's king Eng dies with his country dominated by Siam (see 1782). His 5-year-old son will gain recognition from the Siamese in 1802, he will be crowned at Bangkok in 1806, and he will be titular king under the name Chan II until his death in 1835, with his advisers trying to keep the country from being overrun either by the neighboring Siamese or Vietnamese (but see 1811).
President Washington appoints Senator Oliver Ellsworth, now 50, to succeed John Jay as chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, replacing the unconfirmed John Rutledge (see 1795). (Justice Cushing, now 64, has declined the appointment for reasons of health.) Having been the chief proponent of the Judiciary Act of 1789 that will remain the basis of the nation's judicial structure for more than 200 years, Ellsworth gains quick Senate confirmation and will preside over the court until 1800.
Tennessee is admitted to the Union as the 16th state June 1. It has been part of North Carolina.
Continental Army engineer Richard Gridley dies at his home outside Boston June 21 at age 86. When the city celebrated the end of the war in 1783 he had become a Universalist and was not invited to participate; when asked why, he was told, "Because, General, you are no longer considered a Christian." "It is our true policy to steer clear of permanent alliance with any portion of the foreign world," President Washington says in his farewell address September 17.
Former Continental Army officer and postwar justice of the peace Charles Lynch of "lynch law" fame dies at his Staunton River, Virginia, estate October 29 at age 60.
John Adams of Massachusetts is elected to succeed George Washington as president after a bitter contest with Thomas Jefferson, who wins 68 electoral votes to 71 for Adams. Only white male landowners are permitted to vote; Jefferson is elected vice president under the prevailing rules and will oppose Adams on almost every issue.
President Washington writes to the collector of customs at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, September 1 to request help in recovering his fugitive slave Oney Judge, 23 (see Fugitive Slave Act, 1793). The light-skinned Oney was one of seven household slaves that he and his wife, Martha, brought with them to New York in 1789, and although he has begun to replace the slaves in his Philaelphia house with German indentured servants he has kept Oney and two others, but Martha told Oney she was to be given as a wedding present to the first lady's eldest granddaughter, Elizabeth Custis, who married an English expatriate March 20, and Oney disappeared in May or June and was put aboard a ship for New York or Portsmouth by friends. Washington asks Joseph Whipple to "seize her and put her on board a Vessel bound immediately to this place [Philadelphia], or to Alexandria," promising to reimburse him for any costs. He writes again November 28, but cautions Whipple not to take any action that might "excite a mob or riot," and athough Whipple says he will try to comply he expresses doubt that it can be done without stirring up "anti-slavery sentiments." Judge will meet and marry a free black man in January of next year and survive as a free woman at Greenland, New Hampshire, until her death in 1848.
Cleveland has its beginnings in the town of Cleaveland founded at the mouth of the Cuyahoga River on Lake Erie by Connecticut-born General Moses Cleaveland, 42, a Continental Army veteran and Yale graduate who has been sent out by the Connecticut Land Company to make treaties with the natives and survey about 3 million acres of territory that the company has purchased in Connecticut's Western Reserve. Cleaveland's party of 52 includes boatmen, laborers, surveyors, a physician, and two men who have brought their wives and children; he has met June 21 with six Indian chiefs around a council fire at Buffalo, New York, plied them with whiskey, offered them $1,000 to give up title to their land in the Reserve (they turned it down) and wound up paying only $500 plus two beef cattle, provisions to see them home, and 100 gallons of whiskey. The Cleaveland party arrives July 22.
The first permanent white settlement in Oklahoma Territory is established at what later will be called Salina. French explorer Jean Pierre Laclede, 28, founds the settlement (his father founded St. Louis in 1763).
The first U.S. ship to enter California waters sails into Monterey Bay. The ship Otter is under the command of Yankee skipper Ebenezer Dorr.
Scottish physician-explorer Mungo Park, 24, reaches the Niger June 21, becoming the first European to reach the West African interior.
France suffers ruinous inflation as the paper assignats issued in 1790 decline in value. A bushel of flour sells for the equivalent of $5, up from 40¢ in 1790; a cartload of wood for $250, up from $4; a pound of soap for $8, up from 18¢; a dozen eggs for $5, up from 24¢ (see 1792; franc, 1795; Bonaparte, 1800).
A Public Land Act passed by Congress May 18 authorizes the sale of U.S. government lands in minimum lots of 640 acres each at $2 per acre with payments to be made under a credit system (see 1800; Land Ordinance, 1785; farmers, 1820).
Geologist James Hutton dies at Edinburgh March 26 at age 70; astronomer-instrument maker (and first director of the U.S. Mint) David Rittenhouse at Philadelphia June 26 at age 64.
English physician Edward Jenner, 47, pioneers the use of vaccination against smallpox (see inoculation, 1760). Dairymaids are remarkable for having clear complexions at a time when most people are scarred with pock marks (which men as well as women cover with makeup); cowpox leaves only small marks on the hands, and Jenner is not the first to believe that having cowpox will avert smallpox, but he is the first to test the theory: he takes some of the lymph from cowpox pustules on the hands of dairymaid Sarah Nelmes at Berkeley in Gloucestershire, scratches the lymph matter into the skin of 8-year-old schoolboy James Phipps, and 6 weeks later inoculates the boy with matter from the smallpox pustule. Young Phipps does not develop even a mild case of smallpox, encouraging Jenner, who will continue such experiments for 2 years (see 1798).
The Boston Dispensary is founded to provide medical care for the poor in their homes and in clinics.
Bishop Samuel Seabury dies at New London, Connecticut, February 25 at age 66. The first bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States, he became rector of St. James's Church at New London in 1785, having been a Loyalist during the War of Independence.
Royal Technical College is founded at Glasgow.
France restores freedom of the press.
Nonfiction: The Influence of the Passions (De L'Influence des Passions) by Mme. de Staël, who fled to the Necker family estate at Coppet on Lake Geneva to escape the Reign of Terror. Her mother, Suzanne, died at Beaulieu, near Lausanne, in May 1794 at age 54, and Mme. de Staël has borne two children by her lover Vicomte Louis de Narbonne, begun an affair with the Lausanne-born courtier (Henri-) Benjamin Constant de Rebecque, 28, who has left his wife to join her, and returned to Paris to establish a salon; The Science of Rights by philosopher Johann Fichte, now 34, who writes, "In an uncorrupted woman the sexual impulse does not manifest itself at all, but only love; and this love is the natural impulse of a woman to satisfy a man."
Philosopher Thomas Reid dies at Glasgow October 7 at age 86.
The literary journal Müsenalmanach founded by Friedrich von Schiller will publish Schiller's articles "Das Ideal und das Leben," "Die Macht des Gesanges," "Würde der Frauen," "Der Spaziergang," "Der Ring des Polykrates," "Der Handscuch," "Der Taucher," and "Das Lied von der Glocke."
Fiction: Hildegard of Hohenthal (Hildegard von Hohenthal) by Wilhelm Heinse; Life of Quintus Fixlein and Siebenkäs by Jean-Paul Richter; The Monk by London-born novelist Matthew Gregory Lewis, 21, whose erotic Gothic novel (strongly influenced by those of Ann Radcliffe) draws universal condemnation but wins overnight success. Quickly nicknamed "Monk" Lewis, the author is elected to Parliament, where he will serve until 1802.
Poetry: Joan of Arc by English poet Robert Southey, 22; "My love is like a red red rose" by Robert Burns; "Auld Lang Syne" by Burns begins, "Should auld acquaintance be forgot,/ And never brought to mind?/ Should auld acquaintance be forgot,/ And auld lang syne?"
Poet Robert Burns dies at Dumfries July 21 at age 37 of endocarditis brought on by rheumatism.
Painting: George Washington ("Athenaeum Head") by Rhode Island-born painter Gilbert (Charles) Stuart, 40, who studied at London during the American Revolution under the émigré master Benjamin West and returned to the United States 3 years ago. His Athenaeum Head will be the most popular of all Washington portraits, and he completes also his Lansdowne portrait of Washington; The Victor of Arcole by French painter Antoine Jean Gros, 25, who has studied with Jacques Louis David and attracted the notice of General Bonaparte; Portrait of Chevalier Alexandre-Marie Lenoir and Portrait of Adelaïde Binard (Mme. Lenoir) by Marie Geneviève Bouliar; Mother of Alcibiades by Pauline Auzou; Portrait of Christian-Georg von Schantz (a Swedish sea captain) by French painter Gabrielle Capet, 35; Interior of the Atelier of a Woman Painter (a tribute to Elisabeth Vigée Le Brun; oil on canvas) by French painter Marie Victoire Lemoine, 42.
Theater: Egmont by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 3/31 at Weimar's Hoftheater.
Dublin's Four Courts are completed by James Gandon.
Architect Sir William Chambers dies at London March 8 at age 72 and is buried in Westminster Abbey.
1791 1792 1793 1794 1795 1796 1797 1798 1799 1800
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