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Home / Periods / Long Nineteenth Century

Period

Long Nineteenth Century

1789–1914 CE

The Long Nineteenth Century runs from the French Revolution in 1789 to the outbreak of the First World War in 1914. Revolutionary politics, the Napoleonic Wars and the settlement of 1815 reshaped Europe, while industrialisation, urbanisation, expanding print culture, nationalism and new technologies transformed states and societies across the following century.

The period was also defined by global imperial expansion and resistance. European empires extended political, military and economic power across Africa and Asia, while Japan modernised rapidly, Korea faced mounting external pressure and colonial rule reshaped societies around the world. The chronology therefore overlaps with regional histories that did not follow a purely European political timetable.

Revolution, unification, mass politics, labour movements, financial crises and imperial rivalry all intensified before 1914. The period links the post-Enlightenment revolutionary world to the industrial and imperial systems whose tensions culminated in the First World War.

Related people for Long Nineteenth Century

Abraham Lincoln1809–1865 Adolf Hitler1889–1945 Ahmed ‘Urabi1841–1911 Alexander II of Russia1818–1881 Alexandre Dumas1802–1870 Alfred Dreyfus1859–1935 Alfred Milner, 1st Viscount Milner1854–1925 Alum Bhegd. 1858 Anne Brontë1820–1849 Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria1863–1914 Arthur Maurice Hocart1883–1939 Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington1769–1852 Bahadur Shah Zafar1775–1862 Barghash bin Said of Zanzibarc. 1837–1888 Beatrix Potter1866–1943 Belle Elmorec. 1873–1910 Benjamin Disraeli1804–1881 Bernard Montgomery1887–1976 Branwell Brontë1817–1848 Cecil Rhodes1853–1902 Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord1754–1838 Charles Dickens1812–1870 Charles George Gordon1833–1885 Charles Pearson1793–1862 Charlotte Brontë1816–1855 Charlotte Canning1817–1861 Christiaan de Wet1854–1922 Dabulamanzi kaMpande1839–1886 David Livingstone1813–1873 David Lloyd George1863–1945 Diana, Princess of Wales1961–1997 Dick Turpin1705–1739 Dic Penderyn1807/1808–1831 Dingane kaSenzangakhona1795–1840 Dost Mohammad Khan1793–1863 Douglas Haig, 1st Earl Haig1861–1928 Edward VII1841–1910 Edward VIII1894–1972 Elizabeth Barrett Browning1806–1861 Elizabeth Blackwell1821–1910 Elizabeth II1926–2022 Emily Brontë1818–1848 Empress Elisabeth of Austria1837–1898 Empress Myeongseong1851–1895 Erwin Rommel1891–1944 Ethel Le Neve1883–1967 Evelyn Wood1838–1919 FitzRoy Somerset, 1st Baron Raglan1788–1855 Frank Pick1878–1941 Franz Joseph I of Austria1830–1916 Frederick Roberts, 1st Earl Roberts1832–1914 Frédéric Chopin1810–1849 Fulgence Bienvenüe1852–1936 Garnet Wolseley, 1st Viscount Wolseley1833–1913 Gavrilo Princip1894–1918 George III1738–1820 George IV of the United Kingdom1762–1830 George Pomeroy Colley1835–1881 George V1865–1936 George VI1895–1952 George Washington1732–1799 Giuseppe Garibaldi1807–1882 Gojong of the Korean Empire1852–1919 Gonville Bromhead1845–1891 H. H. Asquith1852–1928 Haile Selassie1892–1975 Harry Beck1902–1974 Hawley Harvey Crippen1862–1910 Hector Guimard1867–1942 Henry Montgomery Lawrence1806–1857 Henry Morton Stanley1841–1904 Henry Pulleine1838–1879 Henry Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston1784–1865 Herbert Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener1850–1916 Horatio Nelson1758–1805 James Brooke1803–1868 James Broun-Ramsay, 1st Marquess of Dalhousie1812–1860 James Brudenell, 7th Earl of Cardigan1797–1868 James McNeill Whistler1834–1903 James Young Simpson1811–1870 Jan Smuts1870–1950 Jean-Martin Charcot1825–1893 Jean Maximilien Lamarque1770–1832 Jennie Churchill1854–1921 Jim Driscoll1880–1925 John Chard1847–1897 John Frost1912–1993 John Frost (Chartist)1784–1877 John Lawrence, 1st Baron Lawrence1811–1879 John Ruskin1819–1900 Jomo Kenyatta1893–1978 Joseph Chamberlain1836–1914 Klemens von Metternich1773–1859 Lachlan Macquarie1762–1824 Leander Starr Jameson1853–1917 Leopold II of Belgium1835–1909 Lobengula1845–1894 Lola Montez1821–1861 Lord Byron1788–1824 Lord Randolph Churchill1849–1895 Louis-Philippe I1773–1850 Louis Botha1862–1919 Louis XVIII of France1755–1824 Ludwig I of Bavaria1786–1868 Mahatma Gandhi1869–1948 Majid bin Said of Zanzibar1834–1870 Manfred von Richthofen1892–1918 Mangal Pandey1827–1857 Margaret Murray1863–1963 Margaret Thatcher1925–2013 Menelik II1844–1913 Mohammad Akbar Khan1816–1845 Muhammad Ahmad1844–1885 Nana Sahib1824–c. 1859 Napoleon1769–1821 Napoleon III1808–1873 Napoléon, Prince Imperial1856–1879 Nedeljko Čabrinović1895–1916 Neville Chamberlain1869–1940 Nicholas II of Russia1868–1918 Nicholas I of Russia1796–1855 Otto von Bismarck1815–1898 Patrick Brontë1777–1861 Paul Kruger1825–1904 Percy Bysshe Shelley1792–1822 Pierre Louis Napoleon Cavagnari1841–1879 Pierre Savorgnan de Brazza1852–1905 Ranavalona I1788–1861 Rani Lakshmibai1828–1858 Ranjit Singh1780–1839 Richard Wellesley, 1st Marquess Wellesley1760–1842 Robert Baden-Powell1857–1941 Robert Browning1812–1889 Robert Clive1725–1774 Robert Napier, 1st Baron Napier of Magdala1810–1890 Robert Peel1788–1850 Samori Ture1830–1900 Shah Shujah Durrani1780–1842 Shaka1787–1828 Siegfried Sassoon1886–1967 Sigmund Freud1856–1939 Simón Bolívar1783–1830 Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg1868–1914 Taytu Betul1851–1918 Tewodros II1818–1868 Theodore Roosevelt1858–1919 Thomas Cochrane, 10th Earl of Dundonald1775–1860 Thomas Stamford Raffles1781–1826 Tipu Sultan1751–1799 Ulysses S. Grant1822–1885 Victor Emmanuel II of Italy1820–1878 Victoria1819–1901 Vladimir Lenin1870–1924 Walter Dew1863–1947 Walter Hamilton1856–1879 Wilfred Owen1893–1918 Wilhelm II1859–1941 William Blake1757–1827 William Bligh1754–1817 William Brydon1811–1873 William George Keith Elphinstone1782–1842 William Halse Rivers Rivers1864–1922 William II of the Netherlands1792–1849 William Pitt the Younger1759–1806 William Wordsworth1770–1850 Winston Churchill1874–1965 Woodrow Wilson1856–1924 Émile Zola1840–1902

Series

Series about Long Nineteenth Century (1 series)

Spangle in Order

by Gary Jennings 3 books 4.7(63)

Spangle follows Florian’s Flourishing Florilegium of Wonders from the devastated American South at the end of the Civil War to the courts, capitals and battlefields of Europe. Former Confederate colonel Zachary Edge and veteran Obie Yount join a struggling travelling circus whose performers become a surrogate family. As…

Books

30 Best Novels About Nineteenth-Century Europe

Non-Fiction

30 Best Non-Fiction Books About Nineteenth-Century Europe

Histories, biographies and reference works are listed separately from the historical novels above.