1859 - Political Events

Political Events

Napoleon III warns the Austrian ambassador January 1, thus leaking the secret of his alliance with Count Cavour (see 1858). Piedmont calls up reserves March 9, Austria mobilizes April 7, Piedmont rejects an Austrian ultimatum April 23 to demobilize within 3 days, and Cavour has the provocation that he has desired. Austria invades Piedmont April 29, but General Franz Gyulai's slow advance gives France time to mobilize.

France declares war on Austria May 12 pursuant to her 1858 alliance, the Piedmontese defeat Austrian forces May 30 at Palestro after peaceful revolutions have driven out the rulers of Tuscany, Modena, and Parma. Piedmont's Victor Emmanuel II appoints historian-statesman Luigi C. Farini dictator of Modena, and he establishes a league of central states (Modena, Parma, Romagna, and Tuscany) for mutual protection (the league will vote for annexation by Piedmont next year). French and Piedmontese forces cross the Ticino into Lombardy, and they engage the Austrians June 4 in the Battle of Magenta 14 miles west of Milan; Marshal MacMahon has 49,517 troops, the Austrians under General Count Eduard von Clam-Gallas have 53,183, but Italian general Manfredo Fanti, 51, helps MacMahon carry the day, which ends with the French and Piedmontese having lost 4,000 killed and wounded plus 600 missing while the Austrians have lost 5,700 killed and wounded, 4,500 missing. Clam-Gallas withdraws, and Napoleon III enters Milan in triumph with Piedmont's Victor Emmanuel II at his side.

The 10-hour Battle of Solferino in northern Italy June 24 pits an Austrian army of 151 infantry battalions, 52 cavalry battalions, and 451 guns under the personal command of the emperor Franz Josef against a Franco-Italian army of 217 infantry battalions, 88 cavalry battalions, and 320 guns under the command of Napoleon III and Victor Emmanuel II. General Achille (-François) Bazaine, 48, captures Solferino but the outcome is indecisive; the French and Piedmontese lose 2,491 killed, 12,512 wounded, 2,292 missing and taken prisoner, while the Austrians lose 3,000 killed, 10,807 wounded, 8,638 missing or taken prisoner. Both sides suffer cruelly, and the carnage is sickening (see medicine, 1862).

Prince Metternich dies at Vienna July 11 at age 86 and the emperor Franz Josef meets with Napoleon III that day at Villafranca to make peace. Franz Josef is short of funds and faced with revolution in Hungary, Napoleon has become alarmed at all the bloodshed and at the revolutions that have been fomented by nationalists in the papal legations of Bologna, Ferrara, and Ravenna as well as in Tuscany, Modena, and Parma. The two emperors come to an agreement that Lombardy is to be ceded to France, which cedes it in turn to Piedmont in exchange for Nice and Savoy, the Italian princes are returned to their thrones, but Italians had hoped that Austria would have to give up Venetia and are disappointed (see Garibaldi, 1860).

Former British prime minister Frederick J. Robinson, 1st earl of Ripon, dies at Putney, Surrey, January 28 at age 76.

The king of the Two Sicilies Ferdinand II dies in his still incomplete palace at Caserta May 22 at age 49 after a 19-year reign in which he has won the epithet "King Bomba" by having Messina and Palermo bombarded to enforce his reactionary control. Opposed even be fellow reactionaries (Britain and France withdrew 3 years ago to protest his inhuman treatment of at least 15,000 political prisoners), he is succeeded by his son Francesco, 13, who will reign for less than 2 years.

Sweden's Oskar I dies July 8 at age 60 after a 15-year reign. He is succeeded by his 33-year-old son, who will reign until 1872 as Karl XV.

Russian forces in the north Caucasus take the Chechen-Dagestan fortress of Vedeno by storm in April, forcing the Sufi imam Shamil and several hundred of his followers to take refuge on Mount Gunib, where they are surrounded (see 1857). With his men exhausted and completely outnumbered, Shamil surrenders September 6 (August 25 Old Style) and is taken to St. Petersburg as the Russians complete their subjugation of the Caucasus. Shamil will be exiled to Kaluga, south of Moscow.

Sepoy Mutiny leader Tantia Topi is betrayed and executed April 18 at age 39 (approximate) (see 1858). Rebel leader Nana Sahib is driven into Nepal and dies there at age 38 (year approximate).

Saigon falls to French forces under the command of Vice Admiral Charles Rigault de Genouilly (see 1858). He takes the Vietnamese city February 17 with help from Spanish troops, but General Nguyen Tri Phuong, 53, puts up a stout defense at Tourane (later Da Nang); Rigault de Genouilly cannot force the Vietnamese to surrender, loses men to disease, runs short of supplies, and asks to be relieved October 20. Nguyen has become one of Vietnam's most powerful ministers, partly by arranging the marriage of one of his daughters to the young emperor Tu Duc, and has joined with Tu Duc in working to keep the country closed to Western technology (which has made made it vulnerable to conquest; see 1861).

Chinese authorities refuse to let the Western powers set up legations at Beijing (Peking) (see 1858); their refusal inititates a second phase of the Second Opium War, and London gives Sir James Hope Grant of Sepoy Rebellion fame commmand of British land forces in an Anglo-French expedition against China (see 1860).

St. Petersburg sends Russian diplomat Nikolai, Graf Ignatiev to Beijing (Peking) on a mission to conclude a treaty defining the eastern Sino-Russian border (see 1857). His initial efforts are unsuccessful (but see 1860).

Queensland in Australia is separated from New South Wales and becomes a separate colony with its capital at Brisbane (see 1901).

A Haitian military coup led by General Fabre Geffrard deposes the emperor Faustin I (Faustin-Elie Soulouque), who has reigned since 1849 and tried on several occasions to conquer the neighboring Dominican Republic. Fausti escapes, goes into exile, and will die abroad in August 1867 at age 85 (approximate). Geffrard will make efforts to reduce repression, encourage educated mulattoes to join his government, and establish foreign respect for Haiti (see 1915).

Oregon enters the Union February 14 as the 33rd state.

Rep. Daniel E. Sickles murders the son of "Star Spangled Banner" composer Francis Scott Key at Washington, D.C., February 27 for what he calls "improper attentions" to his beautiful young wife, Teresa. Now 39, Sickles has been notoriously unfaithful, Teresa has begun an affair with the handsome widower Philip Barton Key, who serves as U.S. attorney for Washington, he has been pointed out to Sickles across the street from the congressman's house in Lafayette Square, Sickles shoots him three times at point-blank range and is arrested, he goes on trial in early April with eight lawyers to represent him, and they make a case against Teresa and Key, pleading temporary insanity, a novel defense at the time; the jury deliberates for 1 hour April 26 and returns a verdict of not guilty.

Former secretary of state Richard Rush of 1817 Rush-Bagot Treaty fame dies at his native Philadelphia July 30 at age 78; former House Speaker Lynn Boyd is elected lieutenant governor of Kentucky but dies at Paducah December 17 at age 59; former Republic of Texas president Mirabeau B. Lamar dies of a heart attack at his Richmond, Texas, plantation December 19 at age 61, having returned in September from his post as U.S. minister to Costa Rica and Nicaragua.