1858 - Political Events

Political Events

Austrian field marshal Joseph Radetzky, Graf Radetzky von Radetz, dies at Milan January 5 at age 91. An assassination attempt on France's Napoleon III and his wife as they enter the Paris Opéra January 14 kills 10 and injures 150, but the bomb explosions leave the emperor and Eugènie untouched. The French execute Italian revolutionist Felice Orsini, 39, and his accomplice Joseph Pieri March 13, but only after Orsini has appealed to Napoleon from prison for help in freeing Italy from Austrian rule.

Napoleon meets secretly with Count Cavour at Plombières July 10, agrees to join Piedmont in a war against Austria provided that the war can be provoked in a way that will make it appear justified in the public opinion of Europe, sends Prince Jérome on a mission to Warsaw in order to assure himself of Russian goodwill, and signs a formal treaty with Cavour December 10 (see 1859).

Britain's Princess Royal Victoria is married at London January 25 at age 18 to Prussia's Crown Prince Frederich Wilhelm.

Prussia's Friedrich Wilhelm IV is declared insane a year after suffering two paralytic strokes. His brother Wilhelm, 61, is made regent October 7.

Ottoman forces suffer a humiliating defeat May 1 as a 5,800 man Montenegrin army headed by Prince Danilo II and his older brother, the 38-year-old volvode (grand duke) Mirko Petrovic, inflicts heavy losses on the Turks in the Battle of Grahovo. A European commission gives de facto recognition in November to Montenegro's independence, demarking the frontier between Turkey and Montenegro, whose territory grows as a result.

Serbians depose their prince Aleksandr Karageorgevic December 23 after a weak 16-year reign. Now 52, he is succeeded by Milos Obrenovic, now 79, who was deposed in 1836 and will reign until his death in 1860.

The Ottoman grand vizier Mustafa Reshid dies December 17 at age 58, having helped to westernize his country in six terms as chief viceroy and two as foreign minister.

Russian diplomat Nikolai Pavlovich, Graf Ignatiev, 26, leads a mission to Central Asia and concludes a treaty of friendship and trade with the khan of Bukhara (see China, 1859).

The Treaties of Tienjin (Tientsin, or T'ien-ching) signed between June 26 and June 29 end the first part of the Second Opium War that began with the Arrow incident in 1856 (see 1857). China agrees to open 11 more ports to Britain, France, the United States, and Russia (two ports on Taiwan—Tainan [Tai-nan] and Dan Shui [Tan-shui] are designated treaty ports); the Russians obtain the north bank of the Amur by the Treaty of Aigun, forced upon the Chinese general I-shan by explorer Nikolai Nikolaivich Muravyov, 48, who has obtained plenipotentiary powers from the czar and greatly expands Russia's Siberian territories. The emperor Xianfeng (Hsien-feng) initially refuses to ratify the treaties, Anglo-French forces begin an advance on Beijing (Peking), and the emperor flees the city before the Europeans reach it in October; he will remain at Rehe (Jeho) while his ministers sign the Beijing Convention signifying acceptance of the treaties (see 1859).

Japan's feeble shōgun Iesada Tokugawa dies of beriberi at age 34 without an heir, the last Tokugawa shōgun of any consequence. Reformer Nariaki Tokugawa, now 57, tries to gain the shōgunate for his seventh son, Keiki, 20, but Iesada has appointed Iemochi, 12, as his successor through the influence of Prime Minister Ii Naosuke, 43, the feudal lord of Hikone who has won appointment as tairo under the shōgun Iesada. Nariaki and Keiki are placed under house arrest, and Iemochi will reign until 1866. The courtier Tomomi Iwakura, 32, suggests a reconciliation by having the emperor's sister married to the young shōgun, but other supporters of the emperor revile Iwakura for not standing up to Iesada, and he will lose his position in the court (see 1862).

A U.S.-Japanese commercial treaty is signed July 29 through the influence of Prime Minister Ii Naosuke. U.S. consul Townsend Harris has pointed out the fate that China has met at the hands of European imperialists and persuaded the Japanese that a treaty with the United States will be on favorable terms and serve to protect Japan from more rapacious Western powers. Commodore Matthew G. Perry has died at New York March 4 at age 63, having opened Japan to the West 5 years ago. The treaty covers tariffs, provides for an exchange of diplomats, and is followed by similar treaties—with the Netherlands August 18, Russia August 19, Britain August 26, France October 27. Japan's emperor refuses to ratify the U.S. treaty on the advice of courtier Tomomi Iwakura and reformer Nariaki Tokugawa (who considers the Tokugawa shōguns to be usurpers who cannot conclude treaties without the emperor's consent), his refusal angers Prime Minister Naosuke, and the emperor's supporters back off.

Jahnsi falls in April to British forces as Sir Hugh Ross conducts mopping up operations in India's continuing Sepoy Rebellion, but the rajah's widow, Lakshmibai, escapes with most of her troops (see 1857). Tantia Topi welcomes Lakshmibal at Kalpi and makes a successful escape to Gwalior June 1. Lakshmibal manages to gain control of 300 horsemen but is unable to impress upon the male rebel leaders that their situation is perilous; despite her own careful preparations for battle, the swift attack of the British overwhelms her men and she is killed in battle. The British take savage revenge on the rebels in various places, shooting hundreds of sepoys from cannon. Tantia Topi's forces are broken up June 19, although he continues guerrilla resistance in the jungle (see 1859). Peace is declared officially July 8, George Canning is elevated from governor general to viceroy, General Sir Colin Campbell is raised to the peerage as Baron Clyde, and the East India Company is abolished November 1 as Canning announces Queen Victoria's proclamation to "The Princes, Chief, and Peoples of India," initiating a new British policy of perpetual support for the "native princes" and nonintervention in matters of religious belief or worship, reversing Lord Dalhousie's policy of political unification through annexation of princely states. The British crown rules most of India directly, taking over the duties and treaty obligations of the East India Company and assuming responsibility for India's "protected" states (see 1861).

A French naval force of 14 ships and 2,500 men under the command of Vice Admiral Charles Rigault de Genouilly, 50, lands at the Vietnamese city of Tourane (later Da Nang) in August, storms the harbor's defenses September 1, and occupies the town September 2 (see religion, 1857). Rigualt de Genouilly assumed command of French naval forces in the Far East last year and held Guangzhou (Canton) with the British (see Saigon, 1859).

French forces under the command of Colonel Louis Faidherbe end Moorish domination over lower Senegal in what later will be Mauritania. French colonists have long since settled at Saint-Louis at the mouth of the Sénégal River, and Faidherbe, now 40, has been governor of Senegal since 1854 (see 1860).

The warrior king Glele ascends the throne of Dahomey (Benin) in West Africa and will prove invincible in battle.

Former Republic of Texas president Anson Jones commits suicide at his plantation on the Brazos River outside Houston January 9 at age 59, having twice failed to gain appointment as U.S. senator.

"Cotton is king," says Sen. James Henry Hammond, 41, (D. S.C.) in a speech March 4 taunting critics of the South (the phrase was used 3 years ago as the title of a book by David Christy): "You dare not make war upon cotton! No power on earth dares make war upon it. Cotton is king."

Minnesota enters the Union May 11 as the 32nd state. It incorporates a small part of the old Northwest Territory lying between the St. Croix and Mississippi rivers.

"A house divided against itself cannot stand," says former congressman Abraham Lincoln June 16 at Springfield, Illinois, in accepting nomination as the Republican candidate for U.S. senator. "I believe this government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved—I do not expect the house to fall—but I do expect that it will cease to be divided." Lincoln loses to the five-foot-four Stephen A. Douglas after a series of seven debates in which the Democratic incumbent has argued that the country can endure half slave and half free, that people in the territories have a democratic right to choose; Lincoln has called that argument morally bankrupt, and although he outpolls Douglas the state legislature at Springfield is controlled by Democrats and chooses Douglas (but see 1860; railroads, 1854; railroads, 1856).

Mexican reactionaries overthrow President Comonfort in January with support from the clergy (see 1857); Vice President Juárez is supposed to become president under terms of the constitution promulgated nearly a year ago, but he has no troops to enforce his claim and retires to Veracruz, where he proceeds to nationalize all Church property except buildings actually used for religious instruction and worship, nationalizes all cemeteries, separates Church and state, guarantees religious freedom to people of all faiths, and puts registration of births and deaths under civil control rather than that of the Church. The reforms bring condemnation from Pope Pius IX at Rome (see 1862; Juárez, 1861). Revolutionary leader Valentin Gómez Farías dies at Mexico City July 5 at age 77, having seen his reforms embodied in the nation's new constitution.

The Dominican Republic has a coup d'état that ousts President Buenaventura Báez, whose second term began 2 years ago and has been marked by corrupt financial transactions (see 1844). Báez invites Spain to occupy his country, Madrid accepts, and the Spaniards finance his retirement to a comfortable life in Europe (see 1865).

Former U.S. Minister to Mexico James Gadsden dies at his native Charleston, South Carolina, December 26 at age 70.