1879 - Political Events

Political Events

French Republicans gain 58 seats in the January 5 senatorial elections but face a hostile majority in the senate and chamber. President MacMahon resigns January 30 with 1 year of his 7-year term still left to go, and is succeeded by Conservative Republican Jules Grévy, 71.

Former Spanish prime minister and regent Baldomero Esparto, principe de Vergara, dies at Logroño January 8 at age 85.

Irish home rule advocate Sir Isaac Butt dies of a stroke at his Dublin home May 5 at age 65, but the Irish Land League founded at Dublin October 21 campaigns for independence from Britain (see 1870). Nationalist Michael Davitt, 33, lost his right arm in a cotton-mill accident at age 11, was sent to Dartmoor Prison at age 24 on treason-felony charges that he arranged to ship arms into Ireland, and has recently returned from visiting his American-born mother and his siblings in the United States. The Land League's president is Protestant landowner and nationalist Charles Stewart Parnell, 33, a member of Parliament since 1875 whose mother is American, and its chief objectives are to provide tenants with fair rents, fixed tenure, and free sale, with the ultimate objective of letting farmers own their own land (see 1880).

An Austro-German alliance treaty signed October 7 has been engineered by Germany's "Iron Chancellor" Bismarck after more than a year of tension between Berlin and St. Petersburg. Former Prussian Army officer Albrecht T. E. graf von Roon has died at Berlin February 23 at age 75. The treaty promising mutual support in the event of an attack by Russia on either country will be renewed periodically until 1918.

The Zulu nation founded by Shaka in 1816 ends in a bloodbath as British breech-loading rifles kill some 8,000 Zulu warriors and wound more than 16,000 while 76 British officers and 1,007 men are killed in action, 17 officers and 330 men killed by disease, 99 officers and 1,286 men invalided home, 37 officers and 206 men wounded, nearly 1,000 Natal Xhosa corpsmen killed. The British forces have been commanded by General Frederic Augustus Thesiger, 51, 2nd Baron Chelmsford, the Zulu by Cetshwayo, 51, whose father was a half brother of the late Shaka. The Zulu War ends only after an incredible stand by the British March 29 at Rorke's Drift, where 140 soldiers—30 of them incapacitated—hold off 4,000 Zulu armed with spears and some rifles. Eleven Victoria Crosses (a record for any single action) will be awarded to the heroes of Rorke's Drift, but later the same day the British lose 895 out of a force of 950 plus some 550 Xhosa allies in an attack by Zulu warriors at Isandhlwana. France's Prince Imperial Louis, 23, has accompanied the British in Zululand and is killed June 2 by a Zulu assegai (spear). French Anglophobes charge that the prospective Napoleon IV was killed with the connivance of Queen Victoria. The Zulu king Cetshwayo is captured by the British August 20 and sent in ill-fitting European clothes to Cape Town. Zululand is divided into 13 separate kingdoms whose territory will eventually be absorbed in large part by Natal.

Boers in South Africa organize the anti-British Afrikaner Bund under the leadership of pastor Stephanus Jacobus Du Toit, now 32 (see 1875). It will be the Cape Colony's most important Boer political party by 1884.

The Ottoman sultan deposes his Egyptian khedive Ismail June 25 under pressure from the European powers after 16 years of profligate rule. British diplomat Evelyn Baring, 38, of the banking family, went to Egypt 2 years ago as representative of investors who held Egyptian bonds and was dismayed at the state of the country's finances; he is invited to return as British controller of the Egyptian debt. Ismail is succeeded by his son Tewfik, 27, who will rule until 1892 (see 1880).

The Afghan emir Sher Ali dies in February and is succeeded by his son Mohammed Yakub, 29, who last year signed a treaty of friendship with Russia. The Afghans repulse a mission sent by the viceroy of India, whereupon the British send an army under the command of Cawnpore (India)-born Gen. Frederick Sleigh "Little Bobs" Roberts, 48, who distinguished himself in suppressing the Indian Mutiny of 1857 to 1858. Under terms of the Treaty of Gandamak forced upon him in April, Yakub cedes his country's foreign policy to Britain and allows the British to occupy the Khyber Pass on condition that they pay an annual subsidy of £60,000; but while some British colonial authorities favor withdrawal to the Indus River, others push for an advance from Kabul through Ghazni to Kandahar. The Afghans rise against the British September 3, the British envoy Sir Louis Cavagnari and his escort are murdered, General Roberts returns and hangs some Afghans in punishment, British troops advance on Kabul, and they take it October 12. Yakub is forced to abdicate October 19, and he is succeeded by his 49-year-old cousin Abdur Rahman, who will gain recognition in 1880 and reign until 1901, playing off the British against the Russians. Roberts is besieged at Kabul, another British force in southern Afghanistan is nearly annihilated, but Roberts manages to withdraw his forces to the British fortress at Kandahar (see 1880).

Yorkshire-born New Zealand politician John Hall, 54, takes office as prime minister with a small majority and works to secure voting rights for all men, regardless of whether or not they own property. He will serve until 1882, reluctantly ordering the arrest of a leading Maori chief with whom negotiations have failed.

The War of the Pacific begins February 14 as Chilean troops occupy Antofagasta (see 1878). Bolivia proclaims a state of war, Peru refuses to guarantee neutrality, the United States is unsuccessful in its attempts at mediation, and Chilean forces proceed to occupy the entire Bolivian coast (see 1884).

A second Cuban rebellion against Spain begins in August as Calixto García mounts a makeshift insurgent army (see 1878). Superior Spanish forces will put down La Guerra Chiquita (The Little War) by the fall of next year (see 1894; human rights, 1886).

Former Confederate Army general John Bell Hood dies in poverty at New Orleans August 30 at age 58; Admiral Hiram Paulding, U.S. Navy (ret.), at his farm near Huntington, New York, October 20 at age 80; former Union Army general Joseph Hooker at Garden City, New York, October 31 at age 64.