1872 - Political Events

Political Events

The Spanish pretender Don Carlos, 24, enters Navarre in May (see 1871), but the new king Amadeo I routs his forces at Oroquista and forces him to take refuge in the Pyrenees. Spanish voters elect a cortes (see 1873).

The Ballot Act passed by Parliament July 18 provides for secret ballots in all British parliamentary and municipal elections (see Australian ballot, 1856). Conservatives have generally opposed the measure but will soon support it with enthusiasm (see New York State, 1889).

Anarchist followers of Mikhail Bakunin virtually end the First International (Workingmen's Association) by splitting off from Marxists at the Hague Conference. Bakunin is outvoted and expelled, but the 8-year-old First International founders over the issue of whether communism's classless society can be achieved only by what Bakunin calls a "withering away" of the state.

Sweden's Karl IV dies at Malmö September 18 at age 46 after a 13-year reign. His 43-year-old brother succeeds to the throne and will reign until 1907 as Oskar II.

Theological students at Constantinople stage demonstrations against the reactionary rule of the new grand vizier Mahmud Nedim (see 1871). The 49-year-old official Midhat who serves as Ottoman governor of Baghdad secures an interview with the sultan Abdul Aziz, expresses opposition to Nedim's policies, and is appointed grand vizier in Nedim's place, but Midhat proves too independent for the court and holds power for only 3 months (see 1875).

A fanatic Muslim convict stabs the viceroy of India Richard Southwell Bourke, 6th earl of Mayo, February 8 while he is visiting a penal colony at Port Blair in the Andaman Islands in the Bay of Bengal. The earl dies at age 49.

Chinese military leader and administrator Zeng Guofan (Tseng Kuo-fan) dies at Nanjing (Nanking) March 12 at age 60 after a career in which he has delayed the collapse of China's imperial regime by suppressing both the Taiping and Nian rebellions.

Japan institutes universal military service despite objections from those who favor continuing the monopoly enjoyed for centuries by the samurai class (see 1871); members of the government who have visited Europe have insisted that universal military training is essential, and they have received at least tacit support from General Takamori Saigo (see 1874).

British diplomat-author Sir John Bowring dies at Claremont, near Exeter, November 23 at age 79.

Ethiopia's late emperor Theodore is succeeded by the ruler of Tigre, who will reign until 1889 as the king of kings Johannes IV.

British diplomat Frederick Temple, earl of Dufferin, arrives at Ottawa to begin 6 years as governor-general of Canada.

Mexico's president Benito Juárez dies of a heart attack at Mexico City July 18 at age 66 after a career in which he has tried to save his nation from foreign enemies, suppress feudalism, and turn Mexico into a democratic, federal republic free of Church control; revolts that have raged since his election to a fourth term last year after an acrimonious campaign are finally suppressed, and Juárez's vice president, Sebastián Lerdo de Tejada, now 45, succeeds to the presidency, which he will hold until 1876 despite opposition from the Church, progressives (who criticize his failure to undertake public works), and provincial chiefs, who resent his centralized government (see 1876).

General Henry W. Halleck dies at Louisville, Kentucky, January 9 at age 66; former secretary of state William H. Seward at his Auburn, New York, home October 10 at age 71; former Union Army general George G. Meade of his old battle wounds complicated by pneumonia at Philadelphia November 6 at age 56.

Radical Republicans renominate President Grant despite the manifest corruption of his administration; liberal Republicans nominate New York publisher Horace Greeley of the Tribune. Greeley gains support from civil service reformer Carl Schurz, from Republican malcontents who have not shared in the spoils of war and of politics, and from Democrats, but Grant wins reelection with 56 percent of the popular vote (and 286 electoral votes to Greeley's 66). Greeley, exhausted, dies at Pleasantville, New York, November 29 at age 61.

Kamehameha V dies December 11, ending an Hawaiian dynasty. His kinsman William Charles Lanalilo, 37, will be elected early next year to succeed him (see 1874).