1902 - Political Events

Political Events

Saudi Arabia has her beginnings in January as the 20-year-old Wahabi emir Abdul-Aziz ibn Saud comes out of exile in Kuwait (see 1891) and seizes the Musmak Fortress at Riyadh, a mud fort that serves as headquarters of the Rashid governor and capital of the Nejd, still controlled by the Rashids, a rival clan (see 1818). The Saud family ruled much of Arabia from 1780 to 1880, when it was driven out by the Rashids. Left penniless as exiles in neighoring Kuwait, the family has struggled. Ibn Saud left Kuwait last year with 60 brothers and cousins mounted on camels and slipped into Riyadh at night; he seizes the Rashid governor when he comes out of his castle in the morning, rallies former supporters of his family, sets himself up as leader of an Arab nationalist movement, and begins a series of raids and skirmishes that by the end of next year will have reconquered half of central Arabia (see 1904).

The Chinese dowager empress Cixi (Tzu-hsi) returns to her native Beijing (Peking) and will work in the next 6 years to support the introduction of Western ideas (see 1901; 1908).

An Anglo-Japanese Alliance signed January 20 ends the "splendid isolation" of Britain and recognizes Japan's interests in Korea. Diplomat Count Tadasu Hayashi, now 51, serves as ambassador to the Court of St. James and has negotiated the treaty under the direction of Prime Minister Taro Katsura, 54. If either party should become involved in war with a third party, its ally is to remain neutral, but if the war should expand to involve any other power or powers, then the ally is obligated to enter the conflict (see 1904).

More than 30,000 Russian students demonstrate in February to protest government efforts to curb school organizations. Socialist revolutionaries murder the head of the secret police April 15, thousands die in riots, and Czar Nicholas II offers talks July 2 to quell the disturbances (see 1903).

Portugal declares national bankruptcy May 10 as the cost of suppressing a revolt in Angola brings her regime under financial pressure. The announcement produces industrial unrest at home and increases criticism of the extravagant Carlos I, who has reigned since October 1889 (see 1906).

Spain declares the posthumous son of the late Alfonso XII of age on his 16th birthday, May 16. His mother, Maria Christina de Habsburgo-lorena, now 43, resigns the regency that she has held since 1885, the seven-time prime minister Práxedes Mateo Sagasta resigns, minister of the interior Antonio Maura conducts honest elections, and Alfonso XIII begins a reign that will continue until 1931 despite several attempts on his life.

France's premier René Waldeck-Rousseau resigns in June because of ill health and is succeeded by former minister of education (Justin-Louis)-Emile Combes, 66, who precipitates a break in relations between Paris and the Vatican by agreeing to laws that exile nearly all religious orders from the country and dismantle major facets of the Church's function in French society, notably in education. Waldeck-Rousseau emerges from retirement to protest.

British diplomat Frederick Temple Hamilton-Temple-Blackwood, 1st marquess of Dufferin and Ava, dies at Clandeboye, outside Belfast, February 13 at age 75, having served with distinction as governor-general of Canada (1872 to 1878) and viceroy of India (1884 to 1888).

Britain's prime minister Lord Salisbury retires July 11 at age 72 and is succeeded by his nephew Arthur J. Balfour, now 53, who will head the government until 1905.

Cuba gains formal independence from Spain May 20 and establishes a republic with Tomás Estrada Palma, now 66, as president (see 1898). U.S. troops are withdrawn, but Washington continues to exercise informal control under the terms of last year's Platt Amendment (see 1906).

Brazilians elect Francisco de Paula Rodrigues Alves to the presidency. Now 54, he has been president of São Paulo state since 1900 and begins a 4-year term in which he will rebuild and improve Rio de Janeiro, eliminate yellow fever by reforming the city's public health system, and settle border disputes with Bolivia, British Guiana, Dutch Guiana (Surinam), and Uruguay through the offices of his foreign minister José Maria de Silva Paranhos.

Venezuela refuses to meet her debt obligations, British and German warships seize the Venezuelan Navy December 9, and Italian warships join in a blockade of Venezuelan ports December 19 (see 1899). The blockade will continue until February of next year, when Venezuela's dictator Cipriano Castro will agree to arbitration by a Hague Tribunal commission (see 1908).

Empire builder Cecil J. Rhodes dies at Muizenburg in the Cape Colony March 26 at age 49 and is buried in the Matopo Hills near Bulawayo; imperious and autocratic in his final years, he leaves bequests that include £6 million for public service.

The Treaty of Vereeniging signed May 31 ends the Second Anglo-Boer War (see 1901). The Boers accept British sovereignty in South Africa (but will soon come to dominate the country), the British promise £3 million for rebuilding Boer farms, but many Afrikaners consider the terms of the treaty humiliating and will work to eliminate British influence in what they regard as their country.

Former Illinois governor John P. Altgeld dies at Joliet March 12 at age 54; former Confederate Army general Wade Hampton at Columbia, S.C., April 11 at age 84; Admiral William T. Sampson, U.S. Navy, at Washington, D.C., May 6 at age 62.

President Roosevelt officially ends the "great insurrection" in the Philippines July 4 and commends U.S. troops for upholding America's "lawful sovereignty" (see Jones Act, 1916).