1833 - Political Events

Political Events

The Compromise Tariff Act ends the threat of open conflict between the industrial North and the cotton-exporting South by defusing the nullification issue. The British cavalry officer Sir Banastre Tarleton who showed no mercy to Southern colonists in 1780 and 1781 has died in Shropshire January 25 at age 78. The House of Representatives votes February 26 by a margin of 119 to 85 to approve the bill submitted by Sen. Henry Clay (Ky.); the Senate approves March 1 by a vote of 29 to 16; and President Jackson signs it into law. But Clay introduces two measures of censure against the president in December, speaking for 3 days and going so far as to say, "The premonitory symptoms of despotism are upon us; and if Congress does not apply an instantaneous and effective remedy, the fatal collapse will soon come on, and we shall die—ignobly die—base, mean, and abject slaves; the scorn and contempt of mankind, unpitied, unwept, unmourned!" (see censure, 1834).

Secretary of State Edward Livingston resigns May 29 to become minister to France and heads a mission that tries to obtain payment of claims by U.S. citizens as provided for under the treaty signed in 1831, but a year of negotiations will prove futile (see 1834).

Virginia statesman and slave owner John Randolph dies at Philadelphia May 14 at age 59; former U.S. Navy commodore William Bainbridge at Philadelphia July 27 at age 59.

The Convention of Kütahya signed May 4 brings a temporary halt in hostilities between Cairo and Constantinople (see 1832). The Ottoman sultan Mahmud II agrees to let the Egyptian viceroy (vizier) Muhammad Ali have sovereignty over Syria and Cilicia (Adana), and Muhammad's son Ibrahim becomes governor general of the two provinces. Ruling from Damascus, Ibrahim will suppress the feudal regime, but the severe measures that he imposes will arouse sectarian opposition (see 1838).

The Treaty of Unkiar-Skelessi (Hünkar Iskelesi) signed outside Constantinople July 8 settles disputes between the Ottoman Empire and Russia, which in a secret clause gains the right to close the Dardanelles in time of war, thus making the empire a virtual protectorate of Russia. Austria, Britain, and France have rejected the Ottoman sultan Mahmud II's appeals for their help against his insurgent viceroy Muhammad Ali in Egypt, so he has turned to the Russians, whose foreign minister Karl Robert Vasilyevich, Graf Nesselrode, tries to maintain the Ottoman Empire's dependence on Russia (but see Straits Convention, 1841).

Spain's Ferdinand VII dies at Madrid September 29 at age 48 after a repressive 19-year reign in which he has spent 7 years as a prisoner of France. His 2-year-old daughter will reign until 1868 as Isabella II, dominated first by Ferdinand's fourth wife, Maria Cristina of Naples (who 3 years ago persuaded Ferdinand to abolish the Salic law in Spain by pragmatic sanction), and then by profligate courtiers. The former prime minister Manuel Godoy returns to Madrid in hopes of having his properties restored, but to no avail; civil war begins as Don Carlos Maria Isidro de Bourbon, 46, brother of the late Ferdinand, claims the throne. He gains support from Basques, Catalonians, the Church, and reactionary elements in Aragon and Navarre, but most notably from military tactician Tomás de Zumalacárregui y de Imaz, 44, who distinguished himself as a youth in the war of independence against Spain, joins the Carlists in December, and sets to work unifying a Carlist army in Navarre and the Basque provinces of northern Spain (see 1834).

A Portuguese loyalist fleet under the command of Scottish-born admiral Charles Napier, 47, destroys the fleet of the pretender Dom Miguel in a battle off Cape St. Vincent July 5 (Napier has served with the Royal Navy in the Peninsular War against Napoleon, in the War of 1812 against the United States, and in the war of Greek independence). Portugal's Maria II is restored to the throne by her father, Dom Pedro, who has returned from Brazil and defeated her brother Dom Miguel with French and British aid. A quadruple alliance of Britain, France, Spain, and Portugal will expel Miguel from Portugal at the end of May 1834 following the death of Dom Pedro, and Maria will reign until 1853 through two insurrections.

Brazilian authorities arrest former prime minister José Bonifácio de Andrada e Silva on charges of having intrigued against the government of the boy emperor Pedro II, now 7, whom Andrada has been tutoring. Andrada retires from public life (see Acto Adicional, 1834).

South American liberator Francisco de Santander takes office as president of New Granada April 1 under a new constitution promulgated last year (see 1828). Santander will remain president until 1837, despite a conspiracy to depose him for reasons related in part to his intolerance for followers of his former friend and ally Símon Bolívar.

Chile's dictator Diego Portales pushes through a constitution that creates a centralized state dominated by the clergy and the landed oligarchy (see 1830; war, 1836).

A British gunboat claims the Falkland Islands in the South Atlantic as crown territory. Also known as the Malvinas, the islands were claimed by Argentina in 1820 when she seceded from Spain (see 1982).

Mexicans hold presidential elections that end in victory for Antonio López de Santa Anna, now 39, who seized power after Anastasio Bustamante's coup d'état in 1830 but has little interest in running the country.

Vom Krieg (On War) by the late Prussian Army general and military strategist Karl Maria von Clausewitz is a study of the science of warfare that will be a classic. Clausewitz served with the Russians against Napoleon in 1812, was made a major general and director of the Allgemeine Kriegschule in 1818, but died in November 1831 at age 51 in Breslau's cholera epidemic. "War," he has written, "is an act of force to compel our enemy to do our will . . . Attached to force are certain self-imposed, imperceptible limitations hardly worth mentioning, known as international law and custom, but they scarcely weaken it" (see philanthropy, 1862).

The German foundling Kaspar Hauser dies December 17 at age 21 of stab wounds received from someone who called him to a rendezvous with promises of information regarding his parentage. Picked up by Nuremberg police 5 years ago, he was rumored to be of noble birth, possibly the prince of Baden, and has been adopted by Philip Henry, 28, earl of Stanhope.