1840s

The 1840s decade ran from January 1, 1840, to December 31, 1849.

Politics and wars

Wars

Mexican-American War

• Mexican-American War (1846–1848) was fought between Mexico and the United States of America. The latter emerged victorious and gained undisputed control over Texas while annexing portions of Arizona, California and New Mexico.
• On August 29, 1842, the first of two Opium Wars ended between China and Britain with the Treaty of Nanking. One of the consequences was the cession of modern day Hong Kong Island to the British. Hong Kong would eventually be returned to China in 1997.

Internal conflicts

• Wave of revolutions in Europe. Collectively known as the Revolution of 1848. This led to mass immigration of these refugees into industrial cities of the United States as well as to other locations around the world.

Prominent political events

• First signing of the Treaty of Waitangi (Te Tiriti o Waitangi) on February 6, 1840 at Waitangi, Northland New Zealand. The treaty between the British Crown and Māori made New Zealand colony and is considered the founding point of modern New Zealand.
• The Webster-Ashburton Treaty, signed August 9, 1842, settled the dispute over the location of the Maine-New Brunswick border between the United States and Canada.
• Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels write The Communist Manifesto, first published on February 21, 1848.
• Seneca Falls Convention (first convention for women's rights) in Seneca Falls, New York; 1848
• The United States had five different Presidents during the decade (see below). Only the 1880s would have as many.

Technology

• First use of general anesthesia in an operation, by Crawford Long.
• The first electrical telegraph sent by Samuel Morse on May 24, 1844 from Baltimore to Washington, D.C..

Economics

• In the mid 1840s several harvests failed across Europe, which caused famines. Especially the Great Irish Famine (1845–1849) was severe and caused a quarter of Ireland's population to die or emigrate to the United States, Canada and Australia.
• The Panic of 1837 triggered by the failing banks in America is followed by a severe depression lasting until 1845.
• Introduction of the postage stamp. The first of them is Penny Black, issued by the United Kingdom on May 1, 1840.
• The California Gold Rush follows on the heels of the Mexican-American War, bringing tens of thousands of immigrants to California and eliminating the United States' dependence on foreign gold.

Popular culture

Literature and arts

This section requires expansion.

Søren Kierkegaard publishes his famous philosophical book "Either/Or" in 1843.

Edgar Allan Poe releases his famous "The Raven" in 1845, earning $10 for the piece. Charlotte Bronte wrote her second novel, Jane Eyre, in 1847

The American Transcendentalism movement was in full form mostly during this decade.

Charles Dickens publishes The Old Curiosity Shop, Barnaby Rudge, A Christmas Carol, Martin Chuzzlewit, Dombey and Son and David Copperfield.

William Makepeace Thackeray publishes Vanity Fair.

Music

• Invention of the saxophone by Belgian instrument maker Adolphe Sax.

Fashion

This section requires expansion.

People

World leaders

• Emperor Ferdinand I (Austria)
• Chancellor Klemens Wenzel von Metternich (Austria)
• Emperor Franz Josef (Austria-Hungary)
• King Louis-Philippe (July Monarchy France)
• King Frederick William IV of Prussia (Prussia)
• King Leopold I of Belgium (Belgium)
• Pope Gregory XVI
• Pope Pius IX
• Emperor Nicholas I (Russia)
• Bahadur Shah Zafar (Mughal Empire)
• Queen Isabella II (Spain)
• King Charles XIV John (Sweden)
• King Oscar I (Sweden)
• Queen Victoria (United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland)
• Prime Minister Lord Melbourne (United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland)
• Prime Minister Sir Robert Peel (United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland)
• Prime Minister Lord John Russell (United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland)
• President Martin Van Buren (United States)
• President William Henry Harrison (United States)
• President John Tyler (United States)
• President James K. Polk (United States)
• President Zachary Taylor (United States)
• President Sam Houston (Republic of Texas)
• President Anson Jones (Republic of Texas)
• Sultan Abd-ul-Mejid I (Ottoman Empire)
• Shahs of Persia (Qajar dynasty)

1. Mohammad Shah Qajar, (b. 1810 – d. 1848) Shah from 1834 to 1848
2. Nasser-al-Din Shah, 1848–1896

Sources

• Robert Sobel Conquest And Conscience: The 1840s (1971)