1815

1811 1812 1813 1814 1815 1816 1817 1818 1819 1820

political events

The Battle of New Orleans January 8 gives Americans their chief land victory in the War of 1812. It follows by 2 weeks the Treaty of Ghent that supposedly ended the war last December but neither side is aware of the treaty. British ships have landed more than 10,000 redcoats at Chalmette some five miles below New Orleans under the command of the duke of Wellington's brother-in-law General Sir Edward Packenham, 36, who offers French pirate-smuggler Jean Laffite, 34, £30,000 to help him. Lafitte reveals the British plans to General Andrew Jackson, whose aide-de-camp, interpreter, and confidential adviser is New York-born New Orleans lawyer Edward Livingston, 50. Laffite's two brothers and many of his men join in the battle on the American side, using artillery skills learned while fighting with Napoleon's forces, and although outnumbered nearly two to one, the Americans take a deadly toll on the advancing British, who lack ladders to scale Jackson's defenses and retire after losing more than 700 dead (including General Packenham), 1,400 wounded. U.S. losses are eight dead, 13 wounded, bringing total battle casualties in the War of 1812 to 2,260 dead, 4,505 wounded. Ratification of the Treaty of Ghent February 17 formally ends the war.

Delegates to the Congress of Vienna that opened late last year begin scheming against each other. Only delegates from the four major powers are allowed to participate in the discussions, France's foreign minister Talleyrand has been instructed by Louis XVIII not to accept rule by an Austrian prince over Sardinia, to obtain the restoration of Spain's Ferdinand IV, to keep Russia from annexing Poland, and to keep Prussia from annexing Saxony. Robert Stewart, Viscount Castelreagh, proposes a secret alliance in January with Austria and France against Prussia; Talleyrand has won foreign support for the French monarchy, sets himself up as defender of the minor German states, and agrees to Castlereagh's proposal, even though barring Prussia's claims to Saxony gives Friedrich Wilhelm III a pretext to claim the Rhineland, which would put France's Alsace region in jeopardy.

The former emperor Napoleon hears of discontent under France's restored Bourbon monarchy, leaves Elba, and lands at Cannes with 1,500 men March 1, attracting thousands to his cause as he marches on Paris (see 1814). News of the march reaches Vienna the night of March 6 and delegates to the Congress of Vienna stop wrangling over the disputes that have set them at odds. Louis XVIII sends Marshal Ney to oppose the Little Corporal, who has the support of Dominique-René Vandamme, comte d'Unebourg, who was forbidden to enter Paris at the end of hostilities last year. Marshal Ney also goes over to the side of Napoleon, who reaches Paris March 20, and begins a new reign of 100 days; Louis XVIII flees to Ghent, and a new alliance mobilizes to oppose Napoleon's renewed threat to peace. Austria, Prussia, Russia, and Britain raise a million men, with Marshal Barclay de Tolly heading the Russian army.

The Congress of Vienna continues its discussions. It confirms the kingdom of the Netherlands March 23, with Willem I, Prince of Orange, as king of a nation that includes what later will be Belgium (see 1830) and grand duke of the 999-square-mile (2,586-square-kilometer) grand duchy of Luxembourg (see 1839). Spain's Ferdinand VII is restored to his throne, which he will hold until 1833. Austria regains Lombardy, Milan, Venetia, the Illyrian provinces (Carinthia, Camiola, and Trieste), the Tyrol, and Salzburg under terms of a "Second Treaty of Paris" and aside from a brief interruption in 1848 will rule Milan and most of the Italian peninsula until 1859 (see 1861). The Congress of Vienna restores legitimate dynasties in Sardinia, Tuscany, Modena, and the Papal States, the Bourbons are reinstated at Naples, and Switzerland is established as an independent confederation of 22 cantons (see 1848). The heads of Bavaria, Saxony, and Württemberg retain their royal titles; Prussia receives the left bank of the Rhine, but Denmark receives Schleswig-Holstein; Sweden retains Norway, which she received last year in the Treaty of Kiel (the Norwegians will not gain independence until 1905 but gain a separate constitution under terms of a June 8 act of the Congress). Russia retains Finland (see 1808) and Bessarabia, which Russian forces took from the Ottoman Empire in 1812. The kingdom of Poland is created from the grand duchy of Warsaw, but Russia's Aleksandr I is made king of Poland and Russia receives a large part of the country, but Austria retains eastern Galicia and Kraków becomes a free city under the protection of Austria, Prussia, and Russia. The Poles will not gain independence until 1919 (see insurrection, 1863). Prussia obtains part of the grand duchy of Warsaw not included in the new kingdom of Poland; Prussia also obtains Danzig and other territories. The act of Confederation signed June 8 creates a Germanic confederation to replace the Holy Roman Empire that was ended in 1806 (see 1820).

Italy remains broken up into seven states, with all of Piedmont and Naples remaining under Austrian control. Spain's Ferdinand IV is recognized as king of the Two Sicilies, Tuscany is given as a duchy to the Austrian emperor's uncle Ferdinand, Modena to the Hapsburg prince François d'Este, Parma, Piacenza, and Guastella to the Empress Marie Louise for life, Genoa to the kingdom of Sardinia, Bologna and most of Ferrara to the pope. Britain retains Malta, Heligoland, some former French and Dutch colonies, and a protectorate over the Ionian islands under terms of a treaty signed November 5. The Congress of Vienna awards the Spice Islands to the Dutch, Ceylon and the Cape of Good Hope to Britain, which receives Mauritius from France, Trinidad in the Caribbean from Spain, Tobago and Santa Lucia from France.

The final act of the Congress is signed June 9 in the only session with every delegate present; its decisions have all been made without regard to the national aspirations or liberties of the Belgians, Germans, Italians, Poles, Spaniards, and others whose lives it has affected.

The hard-fought Battle of Quatre Bras 25 miles south of Brussels June 16 pits Marshal Ney against Friedrich Wilhelm, duke of Brunswick, and Britain's duke of Wellington. Wellington's stout resistance (combined with a confusion over orders) prevents Ney from sending reinforcements to help Napoleon, who is fighting the Prussians eight miles away at Ligny. Marshal Ney has about 22,000 men in his command, and Wellington's force of 7,800 soon rises to 31,000. Brunswick is killed at age 43, and Napoleon wins his battle, but not decisively.

The Battle of Waterloo June 18 near the Belgian town of that name takes place amidst blinding smoke and choking fumes, with the 70,000-man French army facing a 70,000-man Allied army of British, Dutch, and German troops from Brunswick, Hanover, and Nassau under the command of the duke of Wellington. General Rowland Hill, Baron Hill of Almaraz and of Hawkestone, now 42, commands one of Wellington's two corps, leads the charge of Sir Frederick Adams's brigade against the Imperial Guard, and is lost for a while in the confusion after his horse is shot down. Marshal Ney commands the French center, his horses balk at charging the standing squares of British infantrymen, a Prussian army under General von Blücher (who was injured by his own cavalry at Ligny) arrives with vital reinforcements before dark and scatters the French, Paris capitulates, and Wellington dissuades von Blücher from sacking the city.

Napoleon abdicates once more June 22. Taken as a prisoner of war to the island of St. Helena in the South Atlantic, he will live there until his death in 1821. France's royal authorities imprison Marshal Ney, General Vandamme, and others who have supported the Napoleonic cause. Lazare Carnot, now 62, is exiled from France in July, leaves Paris in October, and will settle first at Warsaw, then at Magdeburg.

The former king of Naples Joachim Murat sails for Calabria September 28 in a bid to recover the throne he held from 1808 to 1814, four of his six ships are scattered by a storm and one deserts, he lands at Pizzo with 30 men, is captured soon after, court-martialed, and executed by a firing squad October 13 at age 48 (see 1808). The Carbonari who opposed Murat's regime have recruited members from the nobility, officeholders, and small landowners, opening lodges that begin to proliferate beyond the Marches and the Romagna as dissatisfaction grows among the middle classes, who were favored by the French.

A second Treaty of Paris signed November 20 deprives France of Savoy and Nice, allows her to hold Avignon, but requires her to support a 150,000-man army of occupation, and return all works of art taken in the past 20 years.

Marshal Ney, duc d'Elchingen and Prince de la Moskowa, is convicted of high treason by the new Bourbon regime and executed by firing squad in the Luxembourg Gardens at Paris December 7 at age 46. Dominique-René Vandamme, comte d'Unebourg, is released from prison and sent into exile; he travels to the United States, where he will remain until 1820. Bertrand Barère takes refuge in Belgium after being placed on the police list for having served as a deputy last year during Napoleon's Hundred Days; now 60, he will remain abroad until 1830.

The Wahhabi chief Abd Allah I sues for peace with Egypt, whose forces withdraw from Nejd on the Arabian Peninsula after 4 years of hostilities between the Saud family and Egypt's Ottoman viceroy (vizier) Muhammad Ali Pasha (but see 1818).

The Hartford Convention that met in mid-December of last year ends January 5 after adopting a strong states' rights position and expressing grievances in a series of resolutions opposing military conscription and commercial regulations. Federalist delegates from Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont have met in secret to vent their anger against President Madison's mercantile policies and the War of 1812, but news arrives that the Treaty of Ghent was signed 9 days after the convention began, discrediting its work and beginning the demise of the Federalist Party.

U.S. Navy Commodore Stephen Decatur, now 36, leaves New York May 20 with a fleet of 10 vessels bound for the Mediterranean (see 1804; Marines, 1805). He signs a treaty June 30 with the Ottoman dey of Algiers, follows it up with treaties with the sovereigns of Tunis and Tripoli, and all three Barbary States agree to exact no further ransoms or tributes from U.S. merchant ships and restrain their pirates from attacking U.S. vessels (the Barbary fleet is commanded by Glasgow-born officer Peter Lisle, who has converted to Islam, adopted the name Murat Reis, and married the daughter of the pasha of Tripoli). Decatur proposes a toast at a banquet given to celebrate his return from the Mediterranean: "Our country! In her intercourse with foreign nations may she always be in the right; but our country, right or wrong!" (see 1816).

The Royal Navy dismisses 100,000 sailors whose services are no longer needed now that the Napoleonic wars are over, but many of the navy's 6,000 officers have political connections and cannot so easily be laid off.

A force of 10,000 seasoned Spanish troops released by the peace in Europe lands in Venezuela (see 1811). Led by Pablo Morillo, the Spaniards defeat the revolutionary armies in New Granada, restore royal authority, and force Simón Bolívar to flee to Jamaica (see 1818).

Ferdinand VII's repeal of the 1812 Cádiz Constitution increases Creole opposition to repressive Spanish rule in Central America, notably that of José de Bustamante y Guerra, but the Creoles fear Indian uprisings and are reluctant to attempt rebellions such as those in South America; the constitution will be restored in 1820.

Spanish royalist forces capture Mexican independence fighter José María Morelos, who is defrocked and shot as a traitor by authorities at San Cristóbal December 22 at age 50 (see 1814). He has fought a rearguard action which has enabled most of the revolutionary government to escape, but the radical independence movement will have been almost entirely eliminated by 1820 (see 1817; Iturbide, 1821).

The Zulu in southeast Africa remain a clan of barely 1,500 but will soon conquer their neighbors. Chief Senzangakona's son Shaka, 28, has devised a more effective assegai (spear), a shield that can serve as a weapon, and new military tactics. When his father dies next year, Shaka will begin a 12-year reign in which his army will increase from fewer than 400 men to more than 40,000, and he will rule with mercurial cruelty over the Zulu nation.

human rights, social justice

Slaves on the French island of Martinique stage an uprising as they did in 1789; France promises to end her slave trade by 1819, limiting it meanwhile to her own colonies.

commerce

A Corn Law enacted by Parliament March 23 helps British landlords to maintain prices by restricting grain imports. The law permits wheat to enter the country duty-free only when the average domestic price exceeds a "famine" level of 80 shillings per bushel, but unemployment reduces demand, and the price of wheat falls to 9 shillings per bushel, down from a record 14 shillings 6 pence in 1812 (see 1838).

London banker Nathan Mayer Rothschild, now 37, receives carrier pigeon reports from Belgium advising him of Napoleon's defeat at Waterloo. Feigning gloom, he depresses the price of British consols by selling short, then has his agents buy them up at distress prices, and when news of Wellington's victory sends prices sky-high, Rothschild sells, reaping a great fortune on the London Exchange (see consols, 1751; Rothschild family, 1812).

Britain suffers economic depression as demand for military supplies abruptly ceases and as Continental markets are unable to absorb backlogged inventories of English manufactured goods. Prices fall, thousands are thrown out of work, and 400,000 demobilized troops add to the problems of unemployment.

The British income tax ends and will not be resumed until 1842 (see 1802).

Irish-born St. Louis merchant John Mullanphy, 57, sells huge quantities of cotton at a vast profit. Having served with the Irish Brigade in France before the Revolution, he came to Philadelphia with his wife and the first of his 15 children in 1792, moved to Baltimore, opened a frontier store in Kentucky, relocated to the French settlement of St. Louis after 1804, purchased a log cabin, and began acquiring real estate. He was back in Baltimore 3 years ago and has been at New Orleans with General Jackson during the battle in January, bought up cotton at low prices, and benefits from the upsurge in prices.

energy

Reciprocating compound steam engine inventor Jonathan C. Hornblower dies at Penryn, Cornwall, in March at age 61, having amassed a fortune from inventions that have included a rotative engine.

transportation

Steamboat pioneer Robert Fulton catches a chill and dies of pneumonia at New York February 24 at age 49, just 2 months after the launching of his steam-powered warship U.S.S. Fulton the First, or Demologus—a mobile floating fort which he has designed for the defense of New York Harbor.

The New York State legislature approves a plan to finance an Erie Canal with state bonds pursuant to the proposal made by Mayor De Witt Clinton in 1811. Former president Thomas Jefferson has opposed the plan, but Mayor Clinton has persuaded New York bankers that the canal will be profitable and bring an economic boom to the city (see 1817).

The Congress of Vienna relaxes the 1648 rule against navigation on the Scheldt River.

Scottish road surveyor John Loudon McAdam, 59, employs stone broken into pieces to create a hard, smooth, water-resistant roadway that will be called Macadam paving. McAdam has spent some years in America.

New Jersey grants the first state charter for an American railroad to John Stevens and his associates (see 1804; T-rail, 1830).

technology

Sir Humphry Davy invents a safety lamp for miners that will prevent colliery accidents (see commerce, 1813). A metal gauze surrounds the flame to prevent any inflammable gas from being ignited. A similar lamp, the "Geordie," wins a public testimonial of £1,000 for its inventor, George Stephenson of 1814 locomotive fame.

science

Italian promoter Giovanni Battista Belzoni, 36, visits Cairo to offer the Egyptian vizier Muhammad Ali Pasha hydraulic engines for use in irrigation. The six-foot-seven-inch Belzoni has worked as a circus strong man in England but within 2 years will turn his efforts to locating and excavating ancient Egyptian tombs and temples. By the time he returns to England in 1819 he will have found the sculptured head of Ramses II at Thebes and the aragonite sarcophagus of Seti I in the Valley of the Tombs of the Kings, will have penetrated the pyramid of Khafre at Giza, will have cleared the entrance to the great temple of Ramses II at Abu Simbel, and will have explored Elephantine (Jazirat Aswan); many of the treasures he finds will wind up in the British Museum and Sir John Sloan's Museum, later archaeologists will view his work as pillage, and agents working for French interests will stop him at gunpoint from taking an obelisk that he will find on the Nile island of Philae (Jazirat Filah) near what later will be Aswan.

Chemist Smithson Tennant is killed in a horseback riding accident at Boulogne February 22 at age 53; scientist William Nicholson dies at Bloomsbury, London, May 21 at age 51.

A paper published anonymously in the Annals of Philosophy by London physician William Prout, 29, examines the relationship between the specific gravities of bodies in their gaseous states and suggests that the atomic weights of some elements are multiples of the atomic weight of hydrogen. Prout will expand on the hypothesis in a second paper next year, prompting other scientists to test its validity (see medicine [hydrochloric acid], 1823).

medicine

Physician Franz Anton Mesmer dies at Meersburg in his native Swabia March 5 at age 80, having pioneered what later will be called therapeutic hypnotism.

religion

The Holy Alliance founded at Paris September 26 is a loose confederation formed by Russia's Aleksandr I, Austria's Franz I, and Prussia's Friedrich Wilhelm III who are negotiating the Second Peace of Paris and express their determination to promote Christian principles in affairs of state. The Russian czar has taken the initiative in creating the religious alliance, which will eventually be joined by every European ruler except the prince regent of Britain, the Ottoman sultan, and the pope.

Jews at Berlin open what later will be called a Reform Temple, modeled on one that opened at Seesen in 1810. "Enlightened" worshipers try to bring their faith into harmony with the modern world, giving up Mosaic dietary laws, rules of dress, and other restrictions. Such Jews will remain a tiny minority for more than half a century.

communications, media

London's Morning Chronicle scoops the competition June 12 with news of Napoleon's defeat at Waterloo 4 days earlier.

The North American Review begins publication at Boston.

literature

Nonfiction: Elements of Ideology (Eléments d'idéologie) (fourth of four volumes) by French philosopher Antoine-Louis-Claude, comte Destutt de Tracy, 61, who was imprisoned for a year during the 1793 Reign of Terror and coined the word ideology 3 years later as a name for his "science of ideas." The word will later acquire pejorative meaning. Destutt de Tracy has corresponded with Thomas Jefferson.

Fiction: Guy Mannering and The Antiquary by Walter Scott; Adolphe by Benjamin Constant pioneers the modern psychogical novel.

Poetry: The Corsair by Lord Byron, who has been inspired by a newspaper account of pirate Jean Lafitte's heroism at the Battle of New Orleans in January but has set his account in the Aegean. His work has sales of 10,000 copies on the day it is published and goes through seven editions within a month; The English Dance of Death by William Combe, with illustrations by Thomas Rowlandson; Songs (Gedichte) by German poet (Johann) Ludwig Uhland, 21, of Tübingen, whose Songs of the Fatherland (Vaterländische Gedichte) will appear next year. "Der Güter Kamerad" and other nationalist ballads by Uhland will become German folk songs.

Juvenile: Grimm's Fairy Tales (Kinder- und Hausmärchen) by German philologists Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, 30 and 29, respectively, who include "The History of Tom Thumb," "Little Red Riding-Hood," "Bluebeard," "Puss in Boots," "Hop o' my Thumb," "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs," "Goldilocks and the Three Bears," "The Princess and the Pea," "Thuberlina," "The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood," and "Cinderella" (see Perrault, 1697) (in the Grimms' version of "Cinderella" ["Aschenputtel," or "Ash Girl"] there is no fairy godmother and the stepsisters have their eyes pecked out by birds).

art

Painting: Self-Portrait by Francisco de Goya; Boulevard des Italiens by English painter John Crome, 46, who visited Paris last year to see Napoleon's art collection; Boatbuilding near Flatford Hill by John Constable; Mrs. Wolf by Thomas Lawrence, who is knighted by the prince regent. John Singleton Copley dies at London September 9 at age 77.

theater, film

Theater: France's Grand Guignol horror play theater has its beginnings in a puppet show theater started at Lyons by puppet maker Laurent Mourquet, 71, whose puppet hero Guignol is modeled on the popular Polichenelle (Punch) (see 1897).

Actress Fanny Abington dies at her native London March 4 at age 77, having left the stage in 1790 after a brilliant 34-year career to which she added 2 years beginning in 1797.

music

Popular songs: "Erlkönig" by Franz Schubert, who has been writing songs since age 14.

England dances the quadrille for the first time.

crime

England's Dartmoor Prison has a massacre of inmates April 6. A slight incident irritates the warden, he has his Somerset militiamen fire on the prisoners, killing hundreds of men—most of them American seamen convicted of privateering.

architecture, real estate

John Nash completes Brighton Pavilion in a pseudo-Oriental redesign for the prince regent.

St. Petersburg's Admiralty is completed to plans by the late Adrian Dmitrievich Zakharov, who died in 1811 at age 50.

Harvard's University Hall is completed in the Yard to designs by architect Charles Bulfinch, 52, who has used white Chelmsford granite for its exterior. He had designed a cupola for its roof and stairs for its east side but the plan has been altered because of expense.

New Haven's Trinity Church is completed to designs by Ithiel Town.

environment

The volcano Tambora on the island of Sumbawa in the East Indies erupts on the night of April 5, producing a column of volcanic dust that rises 28 miles high; rumbles are heard 1,000 miles away as 10,000 people die on the isolated island. Java's lieutenant governor Stamford Raffles sends out ships to investigate the possibility that a vessel in distress may have sent out signals, the captain of an East India Company armed cruiser in Macassar hears the noise 900 miles away, another 82,000 people die within a week of disease and famine as the explosions continue, creating tidal waves and whirlwinds that raise enormous clouds containing 1.7 million tons of talc-like dust that will remain in the air for months, blocking the sun and affecting climatic conditions throughout the world (see 1816; Krakatoa, 1883).

consumer protection

Parliament repeals the 1266 Assize Laws with regard to the price of bread. The standard-size loaves of bread remain, but without price controls (see 1822).

food and drink

Dutch chocolate and cocoa merchant Conrad J. Van Houten establishes a chocolate factory that will begin the use of chocolate as a food in addition to its use as a beverage. Cocoa was considered an aristocratic drink before the French Revolution and its popularity has waned since 1789, partly because coffee is considered more Protestant and businesslike, partly because of cocoa's association with courtiers and clergymen (especially Jesuits, who have been accused of trying to monopolize the cacao trade). Van Houten has been in business since 1806 (see 1828; Cailler, 1819).

Royal Doulton potteries are established in England.

restaurants

Russian soldiers bivouac in the Place de Concorde and under the trees of the Tuileries and the Champs Elysées at Paris following the Battle of Waterloo, and by some accounts they introduce the word bistro, meaning "café," by ordering waiters to bring orders "bystro, bystro" (quickly, quickly). French café owners cover their counters with zinc to protect them from fist marks and wine stains (the word zinc will become a French generic for café). German and British gastronomes and gourmands help France's economy by flocking to enjoy Gallic cuisine.

population

The population of the United States reaches 8.35 million, with 80 percent of it in New England and the Atlantic Coast states, the balance mostly in Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee, with scattered settlements in the Mississippi Valley.

Philadelphia is a city of 75,000 and the social capital of America, while New York now has well over 100,000 and is becoming the financial capital.

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