1869 | Political Events
Political Events
The world grows smaller with the completion of the Suez Canal and a transcontinental U.S. rail link.
Chiefs of Japan's four great clans surrender their territories to the Meiji emperor in March (see 1868). Mitsuhito makes the Satsuma, Choshu, Tosa, and Hizen daimyo governors of their former provinces in July but with only one tenth of their old revenue (see 1871). Scholar Masujiro Omura is appointed minister of military affairs and draws up plans that would completely eliminate the samurai as a warrior class and substitute a French-style military system with conscription for the new Imperial Army. He is attacked by some samurai while talking with friends in his Kyoto hotel room September 5 after inspecting sites for military schools, shuts himself up in a bathhouse, but dies of blood poisoning November 5 at age 45.
Hyderabad's Mahbub Ali Pasha begins a 42-year reign as Nizam of a country as large as France in central India's Deccan plateau. A benevolent Muslim despot, the Nizam will order his nobles and landlords to stop collecting rents when times are bad and will offer state grain reserves when harvests are poor so that none will starve, whether Hindu or Muslim.
General Hugh Gough, 1st Viscount Gough, dies at St. Helens, near Dublin, March 2 at age 89, having led the British to victories that resulted in the annexation of the Punjab; former Conservative Party three-time prime minister Edward Stanley, 14th earl of Derby, dies at London October 23 at age 70, having helped to abolish slavery in Britain's colonies and guided the transfer of India's administration from the East India Company to the crown, passage of the Reform Bill of 1867, and removal of discrimination against Jews for membership in Parliament.
Greece agrees to evacuate Crete following a Turkish ultimatum (see 1908). Former grand vizier Mehmed Fuad dies at Nice February 12 at age 63.
Opposition to France's Napoleon III grows in response to his autocratic rule and failures in foreign affairs. His government receives 4,438,000 votes in the national election, but when he sees that his opponents have received 3,355,000 he recognizes a need for change (see 1870).
Cuban insurgents continue the uprising that began in October of last year. The revolutionary government elects Carlos de Céspedes president in April, a new constitution adopted in April emancipates the island's slaves, but Spanish troops arrive in force to quell the movement, and slavery will continue until 1886 (see 1873).
President Grant assumes office March 4 and his supporter Elihu Washburne assumes office as secretary of state March 5, but Washburne resigns March 10 (his appointment was a courtesy designed to give him prestige at Paris), vacates the office March 16, is appointed minister to France March 17, and will serve as such until the fall of 1877.
Former U.S. presidential candidate John Bell dies near Dover, Tennessee, September 11 at age 73; former president Franklin Pierce in obscurity at his Concord, New Hampshire, retirement home October 8 at age 64, having drunk himself to death following the death of his wife, Lucretia; former secretary of war Edwin M. Stanton dies of a heart attack at Washington, D.C., December 24 at age 55—4 days after the Senate has confirmed his appointment to the Supreme Court.
Boston expands by annexing Dorchester, having annexed Roxbury 2 years ago. It will annex Charlestown in 1873 (see fire, 1872).
The Red River Rebellion led by Louis Riel, 25, captures Fort Garry (Winnipeg) and establishes a provisional government. A Canadian of mixed Irish and Indian blood, Riel has inherited from his father the leadership of Manitoba's Métis (half-breeds), who believe that the 2-year-old Dominion government has designs on their rights and land titles (the government has purchased 95 percent of the Northwest Territories from the 299-year-old Hudson's Bay Company for $1.5 million). The Blackfoot chief Crowfoot (Isapo Muxka) refuses to join in the rebellion and will be honored by Prime Minister Macdonald for his loyalty to the queen. Riel's government is short-lived but it will be revived (see 1885).