1857 | Political Events
Political Events
Giuseppi Garibaldi founds the Italian National Association to work for unification of the country (see 1849). Garibaldi returned 3 years ago after 5 years at Staten Island, New York, where he worked as a candle maker, and he has attracted supporters who include patriot-historian Giuseppe La Farina (see 1860).
The Irish Republican Brotherhood is founded (see Fenians, 1867).
Afghan independence gains recognition March 4 in the Treaty of Paris, forced by the British upon Persia's Nasir-ad-Din (see 1856; 1863).
St. Petersburg sends a large army to the north Caucasus in a determined effort to suppress the Chechen and Dagestan resistance led since 1834 by the Sufi imam (political-religious leader) Shamil, now nearly 60 (see 1845). The well-equipped army attacks from all sides under the command of generals N. I. Evdokimov and A. I. Baryatinsky, forcing the surrender of many tribes and villages (see 1859).
The Sepoy Mutiny (Sepoy Rebellion) that begins May 9 at Meerut ends control of India by the East India Company. Sepoys (natives) make up 96 percent of the 300,000-man army that controls a population of 210 million; some are Muslims, some Hindus, and the actions of the former viceroy, Lord Dalhousie, has raised fears that the British are trying to break the caste system. Incidents have occurred since January 22, including fires and mutinies. Many historians will blame the uprising on a cartridge used in a new Enfield rifle adapted from designs by Samuel Colt following appearances by Colt before a Parliamentary Committee on Small Arms at London. The cartridges are partially coated with grease and must be bitten open before being loaded; caste Hindus in the Bengal Army insist that the grease is beef fat from the sacred cow, Muslims insist that it is pork fat from flesh forbidden by the Koran, but the British have been levying oppressive taxes and trying to impose Western ways on the people, prompting other historians to cite long-simmering and deep-seated resentment as the root cause. Indian troops at Meerut shoot British officers May 10, they rescue comrades who have been clapped in irons for refusing to accept the new cartridges, and local chiefs encourage scattered revolts in hopes of regaining lost privileges.
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The Sepoy Rebellion ended the East India Company's century-old control of the Indian subcontinent.
The 22-year-old Brahmin patriot Lakshmibai (née Manikarnika Tambe) joins up with the rebels, trains an army of women, and defends the fortress at Jahnsi (she was married at age 8 to the rajah of Jahnsi and buried him 4 years ago). The rani gains support from rebel general Tantia Topi, 37, and although British troops prevail there is a massacre of British forces at Delhi May 11. Gen. Sir Hugh Wheeler receives a warning from sepoy leader Dhondu Pant, 36, who is known as Nana Sahib, that native regiments at Cawnpore (Kanpur) will revolt, and they do so June 5; Wheeler is forced to surrender, and although Nana Sahib promises the British safe conduct to Allahabad for their women and children, sepoys fire on the party June 27 as its members pile aboard boats; those left unhurt, including 15 young women, are later slaughtered (the massacre at Cawnpore July 15 takes the lives of 211 British women and children in one of several atrocities perpetrated by both sides), and news of their fate brings horror to Charlotte Canning and her husband at Calcutta (Kolkata) as they await the outcome of the siege of Lucknow. Scottish-born general Sir Colin Campbell, 65, distinguished himself in the Second Sikh War and has been appointed commander in chief of British forces at the outbreak of the mutiny; his administrator in the Punjab, John Nicholson, 35, pacifies that part of the country, is promoted to brigadier general, arrives at Delhi in early August with loyal Ghurka forces from the Punjab, and defeats rebel forces at Najafgarh.
Karl Marx publishes an article in the New York Tribune August 28 citing the official Blue Books entitled "East India (Torture), 1855-57" that have been presented to the House of Commons to show "that the British rulers of India are by no means such mild and spotless benefactors of the Indian people as they would have the world believe." General Nicholson leads an attacking column against Delhi's Kashmir Gate September 14. Few in India want to restore the Mughal Empire, the rebellion is disorganized, Nicholson's Ghurkas recapture Delhi September 20 to turn the tide against the rebels, but the fighting takes 3,835 British and Indian lives (plus those of hundreds of horses), Nicholson is wounded, and he dies at Delhi September 23. Fresh British troops arrive in September; Scottish-born brigadier of cavalry James Hope Grant, 49, also distinguished himself in the Second Sikh War and directs the march of cavalry and horse artillery in the direction of Cawnpore to open up communication with Campbell, who has given him command of the force marching on Lucknow to relieve the residency there. Grant's men relieve Lucknow November 17, Tantia Topi takes command of rebel forces in Gwalior and drives General C. A. Windham into the trenches at Cawnpore November 27 to 28, but Sir Colin Campbell defeats the rebels December 6 (see 1858).
British and French forces seize Guangzhou (Canton) late in the year under the command of 55-year-old Rear Admiral Sir Michael Seymour, Royal Navy (see 1856). The French have used the execution of missionary August Chapdelaine in February of last year as a pretext to join with the British in prosecuting the Second Opium War (see 1858).
Mexico's La Reforma culminates in February with the issuance of a liberal constitution, incorporating many of the reforms put through by Valentin Gómez Farías in the 1830s but rescinded soon thereafter (see 1856); Ignacio Comonfort is elected president, and the new Congress appoints Benito Juárez to preside over the Supreme Court, making him effectively the nation's vice president (see 1858).
Nicaragua's dictatorial president William Walker seizes overland transportation properties belonging to the New York-based Accessory Transit Company, which operates between Atlantic Coast ports and San Francisco by way of Nicaragua (see 1856). New York shipping magnate Cornelius van Derbilt has gained control of the company, beating out a rival group that Walker had supported, and sends agents to other Central American nations to help finance a coalition against Walker, who escapes capture by surrendering himself May 1 to Commander Charles H. (Henry) Davis, U.S. Navy, who has intervened in an effort to avoid bloodshed. Returned to the United States, Walker eludes federal authorities, hatches plans for a second expedition, slips out of Mobile, and lands with his followers near Grey Town, where he is arrested in November by Commodore Hiram Paulding and returned once again to the United States (see 1860).
Former Uruguayan president Manuel Ceferino Oribe dies at his native Montivideo November 12 at age 65, having returned from exile in Europe 2 years ago. Civil war continues, as it will for the next 8 years, with Argentina and Brazil interfering, but the liberal Colorado (Red) faction of José Fructuoso Rivera will triumph and rule Uruguay for nearly a century.