1860s

From the top to the left, in the sense of the needles of the clock: the Scottish physicist James Clerk Maxwell formulates the classical theory of electromagnetic radiation, uniting for the first time electricity, magnetism and light as different manifestations of the same phenomenon; the Meiji Restoration leads to huge changes in the political and social structure of Japan; the International Workers Association formed in 1864, destined to unite a variety of different The Suez Canal is opened in 1869; Victor Emmanuel is with Garibaldi near Teano in 1860, at the end of the thousand Expedition.

The 1860s was a decade that began on January 1, 1860 and ended on December 31, 1869. It was a very different decade with numerous cultural, social, and political changes in Europe and America. Revolutions were frequent in Germany and the Ottoman Empire. The abolition of slavery in the United States led to the breakdown of the Atlantic slave trade, which was already suffering from the prohibition of slavery in most of Europe in the late 1820s and 30s.

In the Americas, the American Civil War between the Southern Confederacy and the Northern states led to massive destruction on an industrial scale, signaling a host of wars to come in the next century. Sherman's March to the Sea was one of the first times the United States experienced all-out war, and advances in military technology, such as iron and steel warships, and the development and initial deployment of early machine guns came together. to destruction. After the Civil War, the United States entered the stage known as Reconstruction.

On the other hand, in this decade in South America the War of the Triple Alliance took place, disputed between 1864 and 1870, between Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay against Paraguay, producing great economic, territorial and human losses, especially in the latter country.

Events

• Northern German Confederation
• Hispanic-South American War
• II Mexican Empire
• 1860 Lebanon. Confrontation between Druze and Maronites and massacres are carried out on both sides.
• 1861 Abraham Lincoln becomes the sixteenth president of the United States.
• 1861 The war of secession or civil war begins.
• 1862 France gains control of the commercial port of Obock in northern Yibouti (East Africa).
• 1864 The International Workers' Association (ILO) or First International Workers' Association is founded in London.
• 1864 The war of the Triple Alliance or the war of Paraguay begins (which would last until 1870).
• 1865 Abraham Lincoln is killed by John Wilkes Booth during a theatrical work at the Washington D.C. Ford Theatre.
• 1865 The End of the War of Secession.
• 1866 Alfred Nobel invents dynamite.
• 1867 1 April: in Paris, France, the Universal Exhibition of Industries and Fine Arts was inaugurated, with which Napoleon III intends to enhance his Empire.
• 1868 January 3: In Japan, Emperor Meiji regains the power of the country (Meiji Restoration). Cae el shogunato Tokugawa.
• 1869 January 15: In Spain the first elections are held with universal male suffrage, for the election of Constituent Courts.

Important characters

• Otto von Bismarck, architect of the German unification and key piece of international relations of the second half of the centuryXIX.
• Camilo Benso, Count of Cavour (Italian politician).
• Abraham Lincoln (16th President of the United States).
• Benito Juárez, President of Mexico
• Jefferson Davis (president of the Confederate States of America).
• Ulysses Simpson Grant (American military and political).
• Robert E. Lee (Confederate American military).
• Maximilian I of Mexico (Mexican Emperor).
• Henrik Ibsen, (dramaturgo and Norwegian poet).
• Pius IX, Pope