1882 - Political Events

Political Events

Charles Stewart Parnell comes to terms with Prime Minister Gladstone in March (the Kilmainham Treaty), and the British release him and his associates from Ireland's Kilmainham Prison May 2 after they agree to stop boycotting landowners, stop inciting Irishmen to intimidate tenant farmers from cooperating with landlords, and cooperate with the Liberal Party (see 1881). Parnell has since May 1880 been having a love affair with an Englishwoman, Katharine Wood O'Shea, now 37, while helping to advance her husband's political career (see 1889). Fenians murder the new chief secretary for Ireland and his permanent under-secretary in broad daylight May 6 in Dublin's Phoenix Park, and while Parnell repudiates the murder of Lord Frederick Cavendish and Thomas Burke it leads the British to suspend trial by jury and give the police unbridled power to search and arrest on suspicion. Parnell also disavows the campaign of terrorism that includes dynamiting of public buildings in England (see 1886).

A Triple Alliance signed May 20 pledges Germany, Austria, and Italy to come to each other's aid should any be attacked by France within the next 5 years (see 1887).

Italian independence leader Giuseppe Garibaldi dies in retirement at Caprera June 2 at age 74.

Egyptian army officials join with the educated classes and peasantry in a challenge to foreign control of budgetary matters in the Assembly (see Arabi, 1881). London and Paris send a joint communiqué in January designed to strengthen the khedive Tewfik, but a new, nationalist ministry is formed with Ahmad Arabi al-Misri as minister of war, Arabi agitates with the slogan, "Egypt for Egyptians" ("Misr li'l Misriyin") and becomes a national hero, the khedive asks for French and British assistance, French and British fleets arrive at Alexandria, riots break out in the city June 11, Sir Beauchamp Seymour bombards the city July 11, but the French refuse to participate. Arabi organizes resistance and proclaims Tewfik a traitor, the Ottoman Turks boycott an international conference held at Istanbul, nothing comes of the talks, the British land troops to protect the Suez Canal from nationalist forces, Sir Garnet Wolseley defeats the Egyptians September 13 at the Battle of Tel el-Kebir, and British forces occupy Cairo September 15. Arabi is captured, tried by a court martial, and sentenced to death, but the British intervene and arrange for him to go into exile in Ceylon; dual Anglo-French control of Egypt is abolished November 9 (see 1883).

France's premier Jules Ferry arranges in February to have diplomat (Pierre-) Paul Cambon, 29, appointed resident minister in Tunisia (see 1881). Cambon will organize the French protectorate.

The Ottoman statesman-scholar Ahmed Vefik is appointed grand vizier for a second time but is soon dismissed and confined to his house at Rumeli Hisar on the Bosphorus in December by order of the sultan Abdul Hamid. Given the governorship of Bursa 3 years ago, he sponsored significant reforms of education, sanitation, and agriculture while establishing the first Ottoman theater; his library is sold to pay his debts.

Russian general Konstantin Petrovich Kaufmann dies at Tashkent May 16 (May 14 Old Style) at age 64, having governed Turkistan efficiently since 1867; General Mikhail D. Skobelev dies of a heart ailment at Moscow July 7 (June 25 Old Style) at age 38, having played a prominent role in Russia's conquest of Turkistan but then angered authorities early this year by making speeches at Paris and Moscow predicting inevitable conflict between the German and Slavic peoples.

Italy takes over Ethiopia's northern town of Assab and will make it the basis of an Eritrean colony in 1890 (see 1885). Ethiopia's Johannes IV makes a pact with his vanquished rival Menelek of Shoa and designates Menelek as his successor.

The International Association of the Congo is created out of the 1878 Belgian Comité d'Etudes du Haut-Congo and several companies are organized to exploit the region.

France claims a protectorate over the entire northwestern portion of Madagascar. French warships blockade the island in May, troops occupy the port of Majunga, but Madagascar's prime minister Rainilaiarivony will not capitulate (see 1885).

Maori chief Wiremu Kingi dies at Kaingaru, New Zealand, January 13 at age 86 (approximate). The New Zealand government will now begin making annual grants to the Taranaki tribes in compensation for the confiscation of their lands, a practice that will continue until 1926.

An insurrection against the French in Indochina begins in Tonkin (northern Vietnam) following Captain Henri Rivière's seizure of Hanoi April 25 (see Garnier, 1873). The authorities at Saigon have sent a 250-man force to Hanoi under the command of Captain Rivière, who is killed in a skirmish as Paris tries to impose its rule by force over the entire Red River delta (see 1883).

Former Japanese finance minister Shigenobu Okuma, 44, founds the English Constitutional Reform Party (Rikken Kaishinto). He resigned from the government last year after 12 years in which he played the leading role in modernizing and reorganizing the nation's fiscal system; he now proposes that elections be held next year and that a parliament be formed, winning support from urban intellectuals, industrialists, merchants, and politicians who include former journalist Yukio Ozaki, 23. The new party will merge with some smaller parties in 1896 to create the nationalistic Progressive (Shimpō) Party.

Korea has anti-Japanese demonstrations organized by the former regent Taewon-gun (Yi Ha-ung), now 61, who expels Queen Min and her clique in July and burns down the Japanese legation (see 1876). He is regarded as a trouble maker, and the reforms he instituted as regent beginning in 1864 have proved short lived; China's Qing government sends an army to Korea, Taewon-gun is abducted and taken to China, and the Chinese will hold him there for 3 years while they urge the Korean king to sign a treaty with Japan (see 1884).

The world powers sign a Hague convention agreeing to a three-mile limit for territorial waters.

Canada creates the District of Saskatchewan; the town of Regina is founded on the route of the Canadian Pacific Railway being constructed by W. C. Van Horne (see 1881). Regina will be headquarters for the 9-year-old Northwest Mounted Police. Financier-shipowner Sir Hugh Allan dies at Edinburgh December 9 at age 72, having lost the company he organized to finance the Canadian Pacific (see politics, 1873).

The British Caribbean islands of Saint Kitts, Nevis, and Anguilla are united by act of Parliament (see 1967).

Anarchist Johann Most arrives at New York December 12, receives an enthusiastic welcome at a mass meeting of social revolutionists, and resumes publication of his weekly paper Die Freiheit that London authorities shut down last year. He will win converts to his ideas on U.S. lecture tours, and despite several confinements on Blackwell's Island in New York for inciting to violence will use his invective, sarcasm, and wit to promote his idea of "propaganda by deed," advocating violence against rulers and capitalists (see 1886).

Former French premier Léon Gambetta dies at Paris December 31 at age 44 from the effects of "an accidental wound in the hand from a revolver." He resigned January 16 after the Chamber of Deputies rejected a proposal that he had made, settled with his mistress Léonie Léon outside Paris with the aim of marrying her, and is given a state funeral.