1886 | Political Events
Political Events
The appointment of General Georges Boulanger as minister of war January 4 stimulates French revanchist sentiment. A 38-year-old veteran of the 1870 siege of Metz in the Franco-Prussian War, Boulanger has been pushed into prominence by Georges Clemenceau, 44, a member of the Chamber of Deputies who served as a war correspondent with Grant's army in the U.S. Civil War (see 1888). The Bourbon family that was once France's royal house is banished by law and will not be allowed to return even to visit until 1950.
Britain's first Salisbury ministry ends January 27 after 7 months. Spencer C. Cavendish, marquess of Hartington, assumes leadership of the Liberal Unionist Party but declines the prime ministership for a second time (he declined in 1880), and a third Gladstone ministry begins February 12.
An Irish home rule bill introduced in Parliament April 8 by Prime Minister Gladstone provides for a separate Irish legislature but retains control of matters relating to the army and navy, trade and navigation, and the crown in the British Parliament where the Irish will no longer be represented (see Parnell, 1885). The Manchester Guardian supports the bill despite strong opposition from the marquess of Hartington and others. Conservatives attack the measure; Joseph Chamberlain, 50, marquess of Huntington, resigns from the Gladstone cabinet and leads a secession from the Liberal Party; the bill is defeated in July, and the third Gladstone ministry ends July 26 when a general election gives victory to the Conservatives. A second Salisbury ministry takes power (it will continue until 1892), and Lord Salisbury's nephew Arthur J. Balfour, now 38, is made chief secretary for Ireland (see 1887).
The Congress of Berlin imposes a settlement on Serbia and Bulgaria March 3, ending their nearly 4-month-old conflict (see 1885). Bulgaria's Prince Aleksandr I is forced to abdicate and is abducted in August, Stefan N. Stambolov forms a counterrevolutionary regime at Turnovo that is loyal to the prince and undermines the pro-Russian provisional government at Sofia. Aleksandr formally abdicates in September, and Stambolov sets up a regency council to choose a new prince (see 1887).
Spain's queen Maria Christina of Austria gives birth May 17 to a boy who is immediately proclaimed king; posthumous son of the late Alfonso XII, he will reign until 1931 as Alfonso XIII, with his mother serving as regent until 1902.
Bavaria's eccentric king Ludwig II drowns in the Starnberger See June 13 at age 40 after a 12-year reign in which he has brought his realm into the German Empire but taken only occasional interest in affairs of state while he indulged his romantic passion for architecture (his Neuschwanstein reconstruction of a medieval castle near Füssen is left incomplete). A panel of physicians has declared Ludwig insane June 10, his uncle Prince Luitgard has become regent, and the king has been removed by the psychiatrist Bernard von Gudden to Schloss Berg near the lake, but whether he has drowned himself, fallen into the water by accident, or been murdered will remain a matter of controversy.
Britain annexes Upper (northern) Burma January 1 following a third Anglo-Burmese war, but desultory guerrilla warfare will continue for years. Viceroy to India Frederick Temple, earl of Dufferin, consolidates British territories by the annexation, and Burma will remain part of the British Empire until 1948; China recognizes the British protectorate in Burma July 24 in return for continuation of a decennial tribute.
The Royal Niger Company is chartered to establish British rule on Africa's Niger River. Britain was successful at last year's Berlin West Africa Conference in claiming that her dominant commercial position on the lower Niger justified the region being placed under British (rather than international) control, and former Royal Engineers officer George (Dashwood Taubman) Goldie, 40, has founded a company that will develop northern Nigeria into an orderly and prosperous protectorate, although most of the vast region has never been explored by Europeans and remains unoccupied (see Lugard, 1894).
A new Anglo-German agreement divides East Africa into two spheres of influence divided by a line that runs from a point south of Mombasa to the eastern shore of Lake Victoria (see 1890; Peters, 1885).
Former Union Army general and presidential candidate Winfield Scott Hancock dies at his Governors Island, New York, headquarters February 9 at age 61; former Confederate naval commander James I. Waddell at Annapolis, Maryland, March 15 at age 61; former presidential candidate Samuel J. Tilden at Yonkers, New York, August 4 at age 72; former president Chester A. Arthur of Bright's disease at New York November 18 at age 57; former diplomat Charles Francis Adams at Boston November 21 at age 79; former Union general and Grand Army of the Republic president Sen. John A. Logan (R. Ill.) at Washington, D.C., December 26 at age 60.
Colombia adopts a new constitution that replaces the Liberal Constitution of 1853 with one that consolidates the regime of President Rafael Nuñez and will impose reactionary dominance over the country for the next 50 years. Nuñez restores the power of the Roman Catholic Church and imposes a centralized government with supremacy over the various state governments.