1892 - Political Events

Political Events

Queen Victoria's unsavory grandson Prince Eddy (Albert Victor, duke of Clarence) dies of pneumonia (compounded by syphilis) January 14 at age 28—less than 6 weeks after becoming affianced to Princess May (Mary of Teck), 26, who will marry the prince's younger brother George next year.

Former New Zealand prime minister Sir Harry Atkinson dies at Wellington June 28 at age 60.

Britain's second Salisbury ministry falls in the general election August 13 after 6 years in power; a fourth Gladstone government takes office August 18.

A new French government takes power December 6 with foreign minister Alexandre (-Félix-Joseph) Ribot, 49, as prime minister (but see 1893).

Egypt's khedive Mohammed Tewfik dies at Hulwan January 7 at age 39 after a 12-year reign in which he has been content to let the British establish a virtual protectorate and permit the Mahdi to take the Sudan (see 1885). Tewfik is succeeded by his headstrong 17-year-old son, who will reign until 1914 as Abbas II and retake the Sudan. The new khedive encourages a fledgling nationalist movement and works to rid himself of the "Veiled Protectorate" that has governed the country since 1883 through the offices of Evelyn Baring, now nearly 51, who has been raised to the peerage as 1st earl of Cromer. The viceroy makes no effort to learn Arabic (he does speak Turkish, the language of the elite), and although he claims to have an intimate understanding of the people he has become increasingly distant (see 1907; Kitchener, 1894).

French forces under the command of General Alfred-Amédée Dodds, 50, defeat Dahomey forces at the Battle of Abomey, depose Dahomey's king Behanzin, but encounter resistance in the form of native uprisings against imperialism.

French forces under Colonel Louis Archinard defeat Fulani tribesmen on the Upper Niger and take Segu (see 1893).

British consular official Harry H. (Hamilton) Johnston, 34, subdues Angoni and Arab uprisings in Nyasaland. Having gone out to Africa in the early 1880s as a painter, botanist, and freelance journalist, Johnston obtained a land concession that helped draw the frontiers between British and German territories in the area of Mount Kiliminjaro and subsequently joined the consular service, administering a British protectorate in eastern Nigeria.

British East Africa Company agent Captain F. D. Lugard imposes peace on Buganda after an 18-month effort in which he has had occasion to use his Maxim gun (see 1890). French and British missionaries arrived at Kampala before he did last year, having taken a southern route, and he has found Protestants, Roman Catholics, Muslims, and animists struggling with the kabaka (ruler) Mwanga, who has given him his allegiance after Lugard completed a strenuous march to the west. Hearing that the company plans to abandon Uganda because of growing expenses, Lugard returns hurriedly to England, finds that he has been accused of harshness and injustice, mounts a successful defense of his reputation, and succeeds also in persuading the company to retain control of Uganda and have the country annexed.

Canada's first Liberal prime minister Alexander Mackenzie dies at Toronto April 17 at age 70; ailing Prime Minister Sir John Abbott resigns after a brief ministry and is succeeded by Sir John (Sparrow David) Thompson, 47, who will serve until his death in 1894.

A Venezuelan coup d'état overthrows the government at Caracas (see 1899).

General John Pope, U.S. Army (ret.), dies of nervous prostration at Sandusky, Ohio, September 23 at age 70.

President Harrison loses his bid for reelection as the Democrats campaign on a platform opposing the McKinley Tariff Act of 1890 and reelect Grover Cleveland with 277 electoral votes to Harrison's 145. (Harrison's wife has nursed Cleveland's tubercular wife instead of campaigning and the First Lady has died 2 weeks before the election.) Cleveland wins 46 percent of the popular vote, Harrison 43 percent, the Populist candidate 11 percent.

The "Myers Automatic Booth" employed by voters at Lockport, New York, is the first lever-type voting machine to have official approval (see Australian ballot, 1889). Such machines will be employed on a large scale at Rochester, New York, in 1896, and by 1930 they will have been installed at voting places in virtually every major U.S. city, but they provide no paper trail in case of malfunction, and most precincts will continue to use cheaper punchcard systems or other paper-ballot systems.