1900 - Political Events

Political Events

V. I. Lenin returns from exile January 29 after 3 years in Siberia with his wife and mother-in-law (see 1895). He sets up residence at Pskov while awaiting the release of his wife from Ufa, and on July 16 emigrates to Switzerland to begin a 5-year exile. In December, Lenin becomes an editor of the newspaper Iskra (the Spark) published at Munich for distribution in Russia, taking its name from an 1825 poem by an exile in Siberia who said, "The spark will kindle a flame!" (see 1903).

Former Ottoman war minister Osman Nuri dies at Constantinople April 14 at age 67 and is memorialized as the hero of the 1877 Battle of Plevna.

The entire Serbian cabinet resigns in protest when the 24-year-old king Aleksandr announces his intention to marry his mistress Draga Masin (née Lunjevica). The widow of a Bohemian engineer, she was formerly a lady in waiting to the king's mother, is 10 years older than Aleksandr, and has a shady reputation, but Aleksandr defies the objections of his father and other political advisers. The scandal will force the king to grant a more liberal constitution next year and to create a senate as a second house in the legislature (see 1903).

The German Reichstag approves a Second Fleet Act that is more ambitious than the 1898 act. Initiated by Admiral von Tirpitz (he is ennobled this year and awarded the Order of the Black Eagle), it calls for construction by 1917 of two modern flagships, 36 battleships, 11 large cruisers, and 34 small cruisers. Britain responds by initiating a naval construction program of her own (see Dreadnought, 1906).

French naval officer François-Ferdinand-Philippe-Louis-Marie d'Orléans, prince de Joinville, dies at Paris June 16 at age 81, having played a prominent role in modernizing the French Navy.

Italy's Umberto I is assassinated by an anarchist at Monza July 29 at age 56. He is succeeded after a 22-year reign by his 30-year-old son, who will reign until 1946 as Victor Emmanuel III.

German socialist leader Wilhelm Liebnecht dies at Berlin August 7 at age 74, having cofounded the German Social Democratic Party.

Former Spanish general and political leader Arsenio Campos Martínez dies at Zarauz September 23 at age 68.

Britain's "Khaki" election October 16 results in a victory for the Conservatives, who retain power under the marquess of Salisbury, now 70.

The British government takes direct control January 1 of the Royal Niger Company's territories, having revoked the charter granted to Sir George Goldie's company in 1886. Sir George has negotiated with the French and German governments to settle the boundaries of Britain's sphere of influence, but it has been decided that a private company is less able than government ministers to deal in international matters; the company's territory and the adjacent Niger Coast Protectorate are reorganized as Northern and Southern Nigeria.

The Boer War continues in South Africa, where General Frederick Sleigh Roberts (Bobs Bahadur), now 67, arrives January 10 to succeed Sir Redvers Buller as commander-in-chief, with Lord Kitchener as his chief of staff. Buller retains command of an army, but it is cavalry commander John (Denton Pinkstone) French, 47, who relieves Kimberley February 15 after a 4-month Boer siege in which Lieut. Col. Robert Kekewich has had 596 regulars, 352 Cape Police, and 3,658 volunteers to hold off 4,000 to 5,000 Boers (the Boers have had about 12 guns, including one Creusot 155 mm. heavy gun; the British six field guns, one improvised heavy gun, and six machine guns). Roberts surrounds the Boer leader Piet Arnoldus Conje near Paardeberg and forces him to surrender February 27 after he has run out of food and ammunition, General Buller relieves Ladysmith February 28 after nearly 4 months of siege in which the British have lost 894 killed and wounded, the Boers an estimated 1,600 killed and wounded. Bloemfontein falls to Roberts March 13, Boer politician Petrus Joubert dies at Pretoria March 27 at age 69, and Mafeking is finally relieved May 17 after a 215-day siege in which Colonel Robert S. S. Baden-Powell has resisted a far superior Boer force, sustaining 212 killed and wounded while killing more than 500 of the enemy and wounding many more (see Boy Scouts, 1908).

Johannesburg falls to Gen. Roberts May 31, he and Gen. Buller take Pretoria June 5, Boer general Jacobus (Hercules) de la Rey, 53, takes full charge of operations in the Transvaal July 1 and supervises guerrilla tactics, Roberts and Buller join forces at Vlakfontein July 4, Roberts defeats Boer commandos at Bergendal August 27, Britain annexes the Orange Free State and the Transvaal (they become the Orange River Colony and the Transvaal Colony), President Kruger flees to Delagoa Bay and voyages to Europe in hopes of obtaining German support, but Kaiser Wilhelm II denies the aged Kruger an audience October 6. Gen. Roberts hands over his command to Lord Kitchener in November and next year will be created first earl Roberts of Kandahar, Pretoria, and Waterford as the Boers continue guerrilla warfare in their efforts to drive out the British (see 1901).

Russia annexes Manchuria May 21; Russian forces occupy southern Manchuria in the fall.

A "Boxer Rebellion" rocks China beginning June 20 as foreign legations at Beijing (Peking) are besieged by members of a 20,000-man militia force who have murdered the German minister to Beijing with encouragement from an anti-foreigner clique at the Manchu court led by the dowager empress Cixi (Tzu Hsi), now 66, who has effectively ruled China for 39 years (see 1895). Numbering perhaps 4 million, the Boxers massacre missionaries throughout the country, calling them "foreign devils" who are trying to destroy the nation's native culture and religion. Churches are burned, women and children beheaded. An eight-nation expeditionary force that includes Bengalis, Welsh fusiliers, Germans, Italians, Russians, and Americans enters Beijing August 14, lifting the 55-day siege of the legations, but at least 231 foreign civilians, most of them missionaries, are killed in various parts of China, and Russian troops retaliate for mid-July Chinese bombardments across the Amur River by driving thousands of civilians to their death in the river. The dowager empress escapes from Beijing (see 1901; Japanese, 1904).

U.S. troops in the Philippines employ brutal measures to suppress the rebellion that began last year, some 60,000 U.S. troops are in the islands by summer to fight what they call "gooks," the War Department demands two additional divisions, but many Americans decry what they view as U.S. imperialism (see 1899). Massachusetts-born Gen. Arthur MacArthur, 55, U.S. military governor in the Philippines, grants an amnesty to Filipino rebels June 21 as the foreign war becomes an election campaign issue.

Queen Victoria gives assent July 9 to the Commonwealth of Australia Bill, but she is old and ailing (see 1901).

Puerto Rico becomes a U.S. territory under terms of the Foraker Act, which replaces the island's military government with a civil administration (see 1899; Jones Act, 1917).

U.S. Republicans assemble in convention at Philadelphia and nominate President McKinley for reelection, Theodore Roosevelt of New York is selected as his running mate, and the two campaign on a platform of "Prosperity at Home, Prestige Abroad," using "the full dinner pail" as their slogan. William Jennings Bryan and former vice president Adlai E. Stevenson oppose them, criticizing the war in the Philippines as "immoral" and calling McKinley a tool of the moneyed interests. Bryan campaigns vigorously, making six to 12 speeches per day as he criss-crosses the country, but Roosevelt is just as vigorous and McKinley receives a plurality of nearly a million popular votes. The Democratic ticket wins 155 electoral votes versus 292 for the Republicans as Americans vote their pocketbooks, but thousands of workers cast their ballots for Socialist Party candidate Eugene V. Debs.