1860 - Political Events
Political Events
Piedmont annexes the Central Italian League (Modena, Parma, Romagna, and Tuscany) in January with help from Luigi C. Farini (see 1859). Victor Emmanuel II appoints Gen. Manfredo Fanti minister of war in recognition of his successes at Palestro, Magenta, and San Martino.
Sicilian authorities abort an uprising against the Bourbon monarchy in April, but Giuseppe Garibaldi organizes an army of 1,000 "Redshirts" at Genoa and sails May 5 for Marsala (see 1857). He lands May 11, gathers recruits as he marches inland, defeats the Neapolitans May 15 at Calatafimi, and takes Palermo June 6. Patriot-historian Giuseppe La Farina has helped Garibaldi raise funds in Sicily for his campaign, but he loses favor by circulating a paper (L'Annessione) at Palermo calling for annexation; arrested in July, he is deported to Genoa. Garibaldi crosses the Straits with British connivance August 22, takes Naples September 7, and supports Victor Emmanuel II of Piedmont as king of a united Italy. Victor Emmanuel has sent his minister of war Manfredo Fanti south, Fanti wins victories in the papal lands, the king himself takes command of an army that enters Neapolitan territory, Fanti scores further successes, and by November Garibaldi is back on the island of Caprera looking after his donkeys Pius IX, Napoleon III, Oudinot, and the Immaculate Conception (see 1861).
The Kingdom of the Two Sicilies is annexed to the new Kingdom of Italy December 17; richest and most industrialized of the Italian states, she will see her industry moved closer to sources of coal and iron in the north, but her 24-year-old Bourbon king Francesco II protests the annexation and holds the fortress of Gaeta (see 1861).
Montenegro's prince Danilo II Petrovic is assassinated August 13 as he boards a ship at Kotor. Having tried to reform and modernize the Balkan state in his 9-year reign, he is succeeded by an 18-year-old nephew who will reign as prince (Nikola I) until 1910 and as king until 1918.
Serbia's Milos Obrenovic dies at Belgrade September 27 at age 80 after taking cruel vengeance on the enemies who deposed him in 1839. He is succeeded by his 37-year-old son, who reigned briefly from 1839 to 1842 and will rule until his assassination in 1868 as Michael III Obrenovic. Michael will abolish the oligarchic constitution of 1839 and work to consolidate the Balkan states under Serbian leadership.
Former British general and historian Sir William F. P. Napier dies at Clapham Park, Surrey, February 10 at age 75.
The French Navy's steam-powered ironclad La Gloire completed at Toulon in August is a 5,630-ton ship whose outer hull is sheathed with four inches of iron, making wooden warships obsolete and challenging the Royal Navy for domination of the seas (see H.M.S. Warrior, 1861). Former French prime minister Elie, duc Decazes dies at Decazeville October 24 at age 80 (the town in the Aveyron region was renamed in his honor 31 years ago).
Former Royal Navy admiral Thomas Cochrane, 10th earl of Dundonald, dies at London October 30 at age 84 and is buried in Westminster Abbey. He inherited his father's title in 1831 and was reinstated in the navy the following year; former Royal Navy (and Portuguese Navy) admiral Sir Charles Napier, conde Napier de São Vicente, dies near Catherington, Hampshire, November 6 at age 74; former prime minister George Hamilton-Gordon, Viscount Gordon of Aberdeen, at London December 14 at age 76.
Napoleon III increases the powers of the French Parlement in November in an effort to regain support lost by last year's war with Austria. A new commercial treaty with Britain has further weakened his support.
New Zealand's First Taranaki War begins as Maori chieftain Wiremu Kingi, 65, leads his warriors early in the year against Governor Gore Browne, who last year accepted the offer of a Taranaki subchief and purchased the tribal Waitara land block on the North Island in violation of Maori land customs and despite Kingi's objections. Hostilities will continue until next year (see 1861).
Opponents of Japan's 44-year-old prime minister Ii Naosuke ambush him March 24 on his way to the shōgun's castle at Edo, his retainers and bodyguards are unable to protect him, and his attackers cut off his head. Reformer Nariaki Tokugawa dies at Mito in Hitachi Province September 29 at age 60.
British infantry under the command of Gen. Sir James Hope Grant land in China August 1 as the Second Opium War continues (see 1859). The world's first breech-loading rifled artillery pieces go into action August 12 as British forces employ Armstrong 18-pounders to bombard Sinho in an effort to force Beijing (Peking) to comply with the 1858 Treaties of Tianjin (Tientsin) and admit foreign diplomats (William G. Armstrong has produced the cannon at his Elswick works in Northumberland; see 1847). The Taku forts opposite Hong Kong fall to the British August 21; French troops under the command of Charles Cousin-Montauban, 64, defeat a large Chinese army at Palikao outside Beijing September 21 (see 1842; 1853); the Anglo-French force reaches Beijing September 26, some 17,000 French and British soldiers occupy the city October 6, and they later burn the Summer Palace to punish the Chinese for seizing Harry Parkes, 52, the diplomat who has been virtual governor of Guangzhou (Canton) and was taken prisoner despite his flag of truce. Russian diplomat Nikolai, Graf Ignatiev, helps to draft the Convention of Beijing; ratified by the emperor October 18, it recognizes Russian dominion over all territory on the left bank of the Amur River as well as those lands between the Ussuri River and the Pacific, adds part of the Kowloon peninsula to the British colony of Hong Kong, grants foreigners travel rights throughout China, and affirms legalization of the opium trade. A new peace treaty signed October 25 gives the British rights to opium trading in seven-eighths of the country. Beijing yields under pressure to some Western demands, increases its indemnities, and gives Christians the right to hold property and continue proselytizing; Cousin-Montauban becomes a French national hero (see 1864; Hong Kong, 1898).
Cambodia's king Duong dies at Oudong October 19 at age 64 after a 12-year reign in which he has tried to revitalize his realm, gaining assistance from Singapore authorities to resist raids by pirates along his coast and reasserting his country's national identity after decades of dominance by neighboring Siam and Vietnam. Chams and Malays living in the southeastern part of his country have revolted in recent years, his sons have been squabbling, and although his eldest son Norodom has been chosen as his successor, the new king will remain uncrowned (see 1861; France, 1863).
The Tukolor leader Umar Tal in West Africa accepts the Sénégal River as a boundary between his territory and that of the French under terms of a treaty signed with the French colonial administrator Louis Faidherbe, now 42 (see 1858). Despite opposition from Paris, Faidherbe has subjugated Moorish tribes in the north and driven Umar Tal's forces off the lower Senegal River as he extends control southward toward the Gambia and builds an array of scattered trading posts into a major West African military and political power (see Timbuktu, 1863).
Peru adopts a constitution that will remain in force until 1920 (see 1844; Castilla, 1855). Supported by the nation's dictatorial president Ramón Castilla, it establishes a republic, gives broad powers to the chief executive, narrows the franchise, and recognizes the Roman Catholic Church as the state religion.
Argentine president Justo José de Urquiza uses armed force to incorporate Buenos Aires but agrees under pressure to a constitutional revision that emphasizes the federal character of Argentina's government (see 1853; 1861).
Adventurer William Walker lands in Honduras in August, having evaded British and U.S. naval forces sent to thwart him (see 1857). He sets out with his followers along the coast for Nicaragua, but Capt. Norvell Salmon, Royal Navy, captures him September 3 and turns him over to Honduran authorities. Court martialed, he is found guilty and executed by a firing squad at Trujillo September 12 at age 36.
Illinois lawyer Abraham Lincoln arrives at New York February 26, stays at the Astor House, attends services at Brooklyn's Plymouth Church to hear a sermon preached by Henry Ward Beecher, and visits the Five Points on the Lower East Side. Campaigning for the Republican Party presidential nomination February 27, he receives a new silk hat from Knox's Great Hat and Cap Establishment at Broadway and Fulton Street, has his photograph taken at Matthew B. Brady's studio (643 Broadway), is introduced by William Cullen Bryant that evening to an audience of about 1,500 in the Great Hall of the Cooper Union (admission: 25¢), and gives an address that ends, "Let us have faith that right makes might, and in that faith let us to the end dare to do our duty as we understand it." Now 51, Lincoln does not attend the Republican Convention at Chicago May 16, but his supporters pay "shriekers" on the convention floor to push for his nomination; Sen. William H. (Henry) Seward, 59, (R. N.Y.) has spoken about the "irrepressible conflict" between North and South, but although he is the front runner, his anti-slavery views are considered too extreme and delegates choose Lincoln on the third ballot.
The Democratic Party convention at Charleston nominates Stephen A. Douglas, but Southern party members break away to nominate Senate majority leader John C. (Cabell) Breckenridge, 37 (D. Ky.), who runs on the Alabama Platform drafted 12 years ago by slavery advocate William L. Yancey.
The United States becomes less united following the election of Abraham Lincoln as president November 6 with 41 percent of the popular vote. Lincoln has received 180 electoral votes, his Democratic Party opponent Sen. Stephen A. Douglas 12 (30 percent of the popular vote), and Breckenridge 72 (18 percent of the popular vote). Sen. John Jordan Crittenden, 73, (D. Ky.) introduces the Crittenden Compromise in December, proposing six constitutional amendments that would avert a civil war (e.g., extend the Missouri Compromise of 1820 to the Pacific, have the federal government indemnify owners of fugitive slaves, sanction "squatter sovereignty" as a way of deciding where slavery shall exist, and protect slavery in the District of Columbia from congressional action). Lincoln has pledged not to interfere with slavery where it already exists, but Southerners have depicted him as a radical abolitionist, he has not carried a single Southern state, and South Carolina adopts an Ordinance of Secession December 20 to protest the election. Mary Chesnut (née Boykin), 37, returns to the Chesnut family plantation at Camden and begins keeping a diary; her husband, James, has been one of South Carolina's two U.S. senators (see 1861).
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