The Mexican–American War led to the redrawing of national boundaries in North America. In the United States, mass migration to the new West Coast occurred, following the annexation of California from Mexico with the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo,
and the California Gold Rush beginning, following the discovery of gold there, both in early 1848. On its northern border, the United States settled the Oregon boundary dispute with the United Kingdom in 1846, thereby solving a domestic political crisis in the former nation. Meanwhile in Ireland, the Great Famine began in 1845, causing the deaths of one million Irish people and forcing over a million more to emigrate. In 1848, the women's rights movement began with the Seneca Falls Convention in New York.
The last living person from this decade was Robert Early, who died in 1960.
On July 3, 1844 the United States signed the Treaty of Wanghia with the Qing Empire.[1] The treaty established five U.S. treaty ports in China with extraterritoriality and was the first unequal treaty that the United States imposed on the dynasty.
Japan
The 1840s comprised the end of the Tenpō era (1830–1844), the entirety of the Kōka era (1844–1848), and the beginning of the Kaei era (1848–1854). The decade saw the end of the reign of Emperor Ninko in 1846, who was succeeded by his son, Emperor Kōmei.
Southeastern Asia
Siam and Vietnam
The Siamese-Vietnamese War (1841–1845) in Cambodia erupted between Vietnam (then under the rule of the Nguyễn dynasty) and Siam (under the House of Chakri). In the increasingly confrontational rivalry between Vietnam and Siam, the conflict was triggered by Vietnam's absorption of Cambodia and the demotion of the Khmer monarchs. Siam under Rama III seized the opportunity to intervene as the tide of Khmer discontent rose against Vietnamese rule.[2]
Emperors Minh Mạng, Thiệu Trị and Tự Đức ruled Vietnam during the 1840s under the Nguyễn dynasty.
First signing of the Treaty of Waitangi on 6 February 1840, at Waitangi, United Tribes of New Zealand (modern-day Northland Region, New Zealand), between Māori rangatira (chiefs and rulers) and representatives of the British Crown. The treaty between is considered the founding point of modern New Zealand. There were substantial differences between the Māori and English versions of the text, with the vast majority of rangatira signing the Māori version.[3] Perhaps the most prominent was that the Māori version (Te Tiriti o Waitangi) gave Queen Victoria 'kāwanatanga', a transliteration of the English word 'governorship', whereas the British version said Māori who signed the Treaty were ceding sovereignty. Other notable differences included a right of pre-emption clause in the English version, but not in the Māori version. In the Māori version of the Treaty, the use of the words 'kawanatanga' and 'tino rangatiratanga' (meaning 'absolute sovereignty') contributed to later differences of view between the Crown and Māori over how much authority rangatira would retain.[4] The British subsequently declared they had sovereignty over the islands in May, and later proclaimed the Colony of New Zealand in 1841, despite Māori retaining de facto substantive sovereignty.[5] This would lead to the New Zealand Wars between Māori and the British.
The First Anglo-Afghan War had started in 1838, started by the British as a means of defending India (under British control at the time) from the Russian Empire's expansion into Central Asia.[citation needed] The British attempted to impose a puppet regime on Afghanistan under Shuja Shah, but the regime was short lived and proved unsustainable without British military support. By 1842, mobs were attacking the British on the streets of Kabul and the British garrison was forced to abandon the city due to constant civilian attacks. During the retreat from Kabul, the British army of approximately 4,500 troops (of which only 690 were European) and 12,000 camp followers was subjected to a series of attacks by Afghan warriors. All of the British soldiers were killed except for one and he and a few surviving Indian soldiers made it to the fort at Jalalabad shortly after.[7] After the Battle of Kabul (1842), Britain placed Dost Mohammad Khan back into power (1842–1863) and withdrew from Afghanistan.
The Sikh Empire was founded in 1799, ruled by Ranjit Singh. When Singh died in 1839, the Sikh Empire began to fall into disorder. There was a succession of short-lived rulers at the central Durbar (court), and increasing tension between the Khalsa (the Sikh Army) and the Durbar. In May 1841, the Dogra dynasty (a vassal of the Sikh Empire) invaded western Tibet,[8] marking the beginning of the Sino-Sikh war. This war ended in a stalemate in September 1842, with the Treaty of Chushul.
The British East India Company began to build up its military strength on the borders of the Punjab. Eventually, the increasing tension goaded the Khalsa to invade British territory, under weak and possibly treacherous leaders. The hard-fought First Anglo-Sikh War (1845–1846) ended in defeat for the Khalsa. With the Treaty of Lahore,[9] the Sikh Empire ceded Kashmir to the East India Company and surrendered the Koh-i-Noor diamond to Queen Victoria.
Emir Bashir Shihab II controlled the Mount Lebanon Emirate at the beginning of the 1840s. Bashir allied with Muhammad Ali of Egypt, but Muhammad Ali was driven out of the country. Bashir was deposed in 1840 when the Egyptians were driven out by an Ottoman-European alliance, which had the backing of Maronite forces. His successor, Emir Bashir III, ruled until 1842, after which the emirate was dissolved and split into a Druze sector and a Christian sector.
The revolutions were essentially bourgeois-democratic in nature with the aim of removing the old feudal structures and the creation of independent national states. The revolutionary wave began in France in February, and immediately spread to most of Europe and parts of Latin America. Over 50 countries were affected, but with no coordination or cooperation among the revolutionaries in different countries. Six factors were involved: widespread dissatisfaction with political leadership; demands for more participation in government and democracy; demands for freedom of press; the demands of the working classes; the upsurge of nationalism; and finally, the regrouping of the reactionary forces based on the royalty, the aristocracy, the army, and the peasants.[10]
The uprisings were led by ad hoc coalitions of reformers, the middle classes and workers, which did not hold together for long. Tens of thousands of people were killed, and many more forced into exile. The only significant lasting reforms were the abolition of serfdom in Austria and Hungary, the end of absolute monarchy in Denmark, and the definitive end of the Capetian monarchy in France. The revolutions were most important in France, the Netherlands, Germany, Poland, Italy, and the Austrian Empire, but did not reach Russia, Sweden, Great Britain, and most of southern Europe (Spain, Serbia,[11] Greece, Montenegro, Portugal, the Ottoman Empire).[12]
The Great Famine of the 1840s caused the deaths of one million Irish people and over a million more emigrated to escape it.[15] It is sometimes referred to, mostly outside Ireland, as the "Irish Potato Famine" because one-third of the population was then solely reliant on this cheap crop for a number of historical reasons.[16][17][18] The proximate cause of famine was a potato disease commonly known as potato blight.[19] A census taken in 1841 revealed a population of slightly over 8 million.[20] A census immediately after the famine in 1851 counted 6,552,385, a drop of almost 1.5 million in 10 years.[21]
The period of the potato blight in Ireland from 1845 to 1851 was full of political confrontation.[22] A more radical Young Ireland group seceded from the Repeal movement and attempted an armed rebellion in the Young Irelander Rebellion of 1848, which was unsuccessful.
June 22, 1848 – The French government dissolves the national workshops in Paris, giving the workers the choice of joining the army or going to workshops in the provinces.
November 4, 1848 – France ratifies a new constitution. The Second Republic of France is set up, ending the state of temporary government lasting since the Revolution of 1848.
September 3, 1843 – Popular uprising in Athens, Greece, including citizens and military captains, to require from King Otto the issue of a liberal Constitution to the state, which has been governed since independence (1830) by various domestic and foreign business interests.
August 10, 1845 – The French Consul in Zanzibar (M. Broquant) receives the final letter sent by Eugène Maizan during his expedition into tropical Africa.[23]
June 4, 1842 – In South Africa, hunter Dick King rides into a British military base in Grahamstown to warn that the Boers have besieged Durban (he had left 11 days earlier). The British army dispatches a relief force.
January 23, 1845 – The United States Congress establishes a uniform date for federal elections, which will henceforth be held on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November.
Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce was predicted to have been born in the 1840s.
Presidents
The United States had five different Presidents during the decade. Only the 1880s would have as many. Martin Van Buren was president when the decade began, but was defeated by William Henry Harrison in the U.S. presidential election of 1840. Harrison's service was the shortest in history, starting with his inauguration on March 4, 1841, and ending when he died on April 4, 1841.
Harrison's vice president, John Tyler, replaced him as President (the first such Presidential succession in U.S. history), and served out the rest of his term. Tyler spent much of his term in conflict with the Whig party. He ended his term having made an alliance with the Democrats, endorsing James K. Polk and signing the resolution to annex Texas into the United States.
In the Presidential election of 1844, James K. Polk defeated Henry Clay. During his presidency, Polk oversaw the U.S. victory in the Mexican–American War and subsequent annexation of what is now the southwest United States. He also negotiated a split of the Oregon Territory with Great Britain.
The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, signed in February 1848, marked the end of the Mexican–American War. By the terms of the treaty, Mexico formally ceded Alta California along with its other northern territories east through Texas, receiving $15,000,000 in exchange. This largely unsettled territory constituted nearly half of its claimed territory with about 1% of its then population of about 4,500,000.[28][29]
The discovery of gold in Northern California (and subsequent discourse about that discovery in 1848) led to the California Gold Rush. In October 1848, the SS California left New York Harbor, rounded Cape Horn at the tip of South America, and arrived in San Francisco after the 4-month-21-day journey. Thereafter, regular steamboat service continued from the west to the east coast of the United States. During 1848, only an estimated 6,000 to 6,500 people traveled to California to seek gold that year.[30] By the beginning of 1849, word of the Gold Rush had spread around the world, and an overwhelming number of gold-seekers and merchants began to arrive from virtually every continent. In 1849, an estimated 90,000 people arrived in California in 1849—of which 50,000 to 60,000 were from the United States.[31][32] In 1850, California joined the union as the 31st state.
The Republic of Texas had declared independence in 1836, as part of breaking away from Mexico in the Texas Revolution. The following year, an ambassador from Texas approached the United States about the possibility of becoming an American state. Fearing a war with Mexico, which did not recognize Texas independence, the United States declined the offer.[33]
In 1844, James K. Polk was elected the United States president after promising to annex Texas. Before he assumed office, the outgoing president, John Tyler, entered negotiations with Texas. On February 26, 1845, six days before Polk took office, the U.S. Congress approved the annexation. The Texas legislature approved annexation in July 1845 and constructed a state constitution. In October, Texas residents approved the annexation and the new constitution, and Texas was officially inducted into the United States on December 29, 1845, as the 28th U.S. state.[34] Mexico still considered Texas to be a renegade Mexican state, and never considered land south of the Nueces River to be part of Texas. This border dispute between the newly expanded United States and Mexico triggered the Mexican–American War.
When the war concluded, Mexico relinquished its claim on Texas, as well as other regions in what is now the southwestern United States. Texas' annexation as a state that tolerated slavery had caused tension in the United States among slave states and those that did not allow slavery. The tension was partially defused with the Compromise of 1850, in which Texas ceded some of its territory to the federal government to become non-slave-owning areas but gained El Paso.
Combat operations lasted a year and a half, from the spring of 1846 to the fall of 1847. U.S. forces quickly occupied the capital town of Santa Fe de Nuevo México along the upper Rio Grande and began the Conquest of California in Mexico's Alta California Department. They then invaded to the south into parts of central Mexico (modern-day northeastern Mexico and northwest Mexico). Meanwhile, the Pacific Squadron of the United States Navy conducted a blockade and took control of several garrisons on the Pacific coast farther south in lower Baja California Territory. The U.S. Army eventually captured the capital Mexico City, having marched west from the port of Veracruz, where the Americans staged their first amphibious landing on the Gulf of Mexico coast.
The 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, forced onto the remnant Mexican government, ended the war and specified its major consequence, the Mexican Cession of the northern territories of Alta California and Santa Fe de Nuevo México to the United States. The U.S. agreed to pay $15 million compensation for the physical damage of the war. In addition, the United States assumed $3.25 million of debt already owed earlier by the Mexican government to U.S. citizens. Mexico acknowledged the loss of their province, later the Republic of Texas (and now the State of Texas), and thereafter cited and acknowledged the Rio Grande as its future northern national border with the United States. Including Texas, Mexico ceded an area of approximately 2,500,000 square kilometres (970,000sqmi) – by its terms, around 55% of its former national territory.[36]
The 1840s for Mexico were the end of the centralist government and the waning years the "Age of Santa Anna". In 1834, President Antonio López de Santa Anna dissolved Congress, forming a new government. That government instituted the new Centralist Republic of Mexico by approving a new centralist constitution ("Siete Leyes"), From its formation in 1835 until its dissolution in 1846, the Centralist Republic was governed by eleven presidents (none of which finished their term). It called for the state militias to disarm, but many states resisted, including Mexican Texas, which won its independence in the Texas Revolution of 1836.
The Republic of the Rio Grande declared its independence from Mexico in January 1840. However, the border with Texas was never determined (whether the Nueces River or the Rio Grande). The new Republic fought a brief and unsuccessful war for independence, returning to Mexico late in the year.
In 1846, President Paredes and the Congress of Mexico declared war at the beginning of the Mexican–American War. Paredes' presidential successor was deposed in a coup, replaced by José Mariano Salas. Salas issued a new decree that restored the Constitution of 1824, ending the Centralist Republic and beginning the Second Federal Republic of Mexico. After the conclusion of the Mexican–American War, José Joaquín de Herrera became the second president of Mexico to finish his term (Mexico's first president completed his in 1829). It was during this time that Yucatán reunited with Mexico. A decisive factor for the reunion was the Caste War of Yucatán (a revolt by the indigenous Maya population) for which Yucatán initially sought help from Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States, but ultimately reunited with Mexico for help.
Herrera peacefully turned over the presidency to the winner of the Federal Elections of 1850, General Mariano Arista. Despite being exiled from Mexico in 1848, Santa Anna would return to the presidency one last time during the 1850s.
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Photography
The 1840s saw the rise of the Daguerreotype. Introduced in 1839, the Daguerreotype was the first publicly announced photographic process and came into widespread use in the 1840s. Numerous events in the 1840s were captured by photography for the first time with the use of the Daguerreotype. A number of daguerreotypes were taken of the occupation of Saltillo during the Mexican–American War, in 1847 by an unknown photographer. These photographs stand as the first ever photos of warfare in history.
Electricity
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1840 – Louis Agassiz publishes his Etudes sur les glaciers ("Study on Glaciers", 2 volumes), the first major scientific work to propose that the Earth has seen an ice age.
May 15, 1840 – Discovered by several workmen, the Cuerdale Hoard becomes one of the largest haul of Viking-period jewellery, coins and other items totalling 8,600 finds.[45]
1840s – The Wenham Lake Ice Company, in collaboration with Frederic Tudor, played a pioneering role in the mass production and commercial distribution of ice on an industrial scale. This laid the groundwork for the eventual standardization of ice as a commonplace commodity for domestic and everyday use.[48]
Widespread interest to invest in rail technology led to a speculative frenzy in Britain, known there as Railway Mania. It reached its zenith in 1846, when no fewer than 272 Acts of Parliament were passed, setting up new railway companies, and the proposed routes totalled 9,500 miles (15,300km) of new railway. Around a third of the railways authorised were never built – the company either collapsed due to poor financial planning, was bought out by a larger competitor before it could build its line, or turned out to be a fraudulent enterprise to channel investors' money into another business.
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.
Baseball – During the 1840s, "town ball" evolved into the modern game of baseball, with the development of the "New York game" in the 1840s. The New York Knickerbockers were founded in 1845, and played the first known competitive game between two organized clubs in 1846. The "New York Nine" defeated the Knickerbockers at Elysian Fields in Hoboken, New Jersey, by a score of 23 to 1.
Fashion in European and European-influenced clothing is characterized by a narrow, natural shoulder line following the exaggerated puffed sleeves of the later 1820s fashion and 1830s fashion. The narrower shoulder was accompanied by a lower waistline for both men and women.
May 23, 1844 – PersianProphet The Báb privately announces his revelation to Mullá Husayn, just after sunset, founding the Bábí faith (later evolving into the Baháʼí Faith as the Báb intended) in Shiraz, Persia (now Iran). Contemporaneously, on this day in nearby Tehran, was the birth of `Abdu'l-Bahá; the eldest Son of Bahá'u'lláh, Prophet-Founder of the Baháʼí Faith, the inception of which, the Báb's proclaimed His own mission was to herald. `Abdu'l-Bahá Himself was later proclaimed by Bahá'u'lláh to be His own successor, thus being the third "central figure" of the Baháʼí Faith.
January 13, 1840 – The steamship Lexington burns and sinks in icy waters, four miles off the coast of Long Island; 139 die, only four survive.
May 7, 1840 – The Great Natchez Tornado: A massive tornado strikes Natchez, Mississippi, during the early afternoon hours. Before it is over, 317 people are killed and 109 injured. It is the second deadliest tornado in U.S. history.
April 25, 1847 – The brigExmouth carrying Irish emigrants from Derry bound for Quebec is wrecked off Islay with only three survivors from more than 250 on board.[69][70]
The third cholera pandemic happened during the 1840s, which researchers at UCLA believe may have started as early as 1837 and lasted until 1863.[72] This pandemic was considered to have the highest fatalities of the 19th-century epidemics.[73] It originated in India (in Lower Bengal), spreading along many shipping routes in 1846.[72] Over 15,000 people died of cholera in Mecca in 1846.[74] In Russia, between 1847 and 1851, more than one million people died in the country's epidemic.[75]
A two-year outbreak began in England and Wales in 1848, and claimed 52,000 lives.[76] In London, it was the worst outbreak in the city's history, claiming 14,137 lives, over twice as many as the 1832 outbreak. Cholera hit Ireland in 1849 and killed many of the Irish Famine survivors, already weakened by starvation and fever.[77] In 1849, cholera claimed 5,308 lives in the major port city of Liverpool, England, an embarkation point for immigrants to North America, and 1,834 in Hull, England.[78] In 1849, a second major outbreak occurred in Paris.
October 1, 1846 – Christ College, Tasmania, opens with the hope that it would develop along the lines of an Oxbridge college and provide the basis for university education in Tasmania. By the 21st century it will be the oldest tertiary institution in Australia.
Differences between the texts, URL: https://nzhistory.govt.nz/politics/treaty/read-the-Treaty/differences-between-the-texts, (Manatū Taonga — Ministry for Culture and Heritage), updated 5-Oct-2021
Vaughan, W.E; Fitzpatrick, A.J (1978), W. E. Vaughan; A. J. Fitzpatrick (eds.), Irish Historical Statistics, Population, 1821/1971, Royal Irish Academy
Donnelly, James S. Jr. (1995), Poirteir, Cathal (ed.), Mass Eviction and the Irish Famine: The Clearances Revisited", from The Great Irish Famine, Dublin, Ireland: Mercier Press
Romney, Paul (Spring 1989). "From Constitutionalism to Legalism: Trial by Jury, Responsible Government, and the Rule of Law in the Canadian Political Culture". Law and History Review. 7 (1): 128. doi:10.2307/743779. JSTOR743779. S2CID147047853.
Note: A new international boundary was drawn; San Diego Bay is one of the only two main natural harbors in California south of San Francisco Bay; the border was aligned from one Spanish league south of San Diego Bay east to the Gila River – Colorado River confluence, to include strategic San Diego and its harbor.
When the British decided they were going to bring Indians to Trinidad this year, most of the traditional British ship owners did not wish to be involved. The ship was originally named Cecrops, but upon delivery was renamed to Fath Al Razack. The ship left Calcutta on February 16.
First communicated to the Medico-Chirurgical Society of Edinburgh, November 10, and published in a pamphlet, Notice of a New Anæsthetic Agent, in Edinburgh, November 12.