1910 - Political Events

Political Events

A nationalist fanatic assassinates Egypt's British-supported Coptic Catholic premier Butros Ghali February 20 as Islamic agitation increases (see 1908; 1913).

Britain's Edward VII dies at Buckingham Palace May 6 at age 68 after a 9-year reign of peace and prosperity. He is succeeded by his 44-year-old second son, who will reign until 1936 as George V with help from his wife, Mary, nearly 44 herself. She will be credited with helping the bluff king adapt to changing conditions and make himself popular with the people, although he will never be as popular as she.

Montenegro proclaims herself an independent Balkan kingdom August 28, and Prince Nicholas, who obtained recognition of his country's independence in the Treaty of Berlin in 1878, receives the title king by a vote of the national legislature. Now 69, he will reign until 1919 as Nicholas I.

The Portuguese monarchy founded in 1143 by Afonso Henriquez ends October 4 in a revolution at Lisbon after a 2-year reign by Manoel II. He flees to England (where he will live as a country gentleman until his death in 1932) and a republic is proclaimed with a provisional government headed by scholar-writer Teofilo Braga, 67.

A coalition of rebellious U.S. congressmen led by George W. (William) Norris, 48, (R. Neb.) and Champ (originally James Beauchamp) Clark, 60, (D. Ky.) curtails the powers of Speaker Joseph (Gurney) "Uncle Joe" Cannon, 73, (R. Ill.) and excludes him from the House Rules Committee March 19. The congressmen establish a system of seniority that will control committee chairmanships for decades, Clark will be speaker of the House from 1911 to 1919, and Norris will serve in the Senate from 1912 to 1942.

The Federal Corrupt Practices Act (Publicity Act) approved by Congress June 25 requires candidates for the House of Representatives to disclose the sources of their campaign financing (see Tillman Act, 1907). Former president Theodore Roosevelt delivers an address at Ossowatomie, Kansas, August 31 calling for full federal control of the special interests that have gained so much political power: "The true friend of property, the true conservative, is he who insists that the property shall be the servant and not the master of the man who made it. The citizens of the United States must effectively control the mighty commercial forces which they themselves have called into being." The new law will be amended next year to cover candidates for the Senate and establish limits as to how much a candidate can spend, but like the Tillman Act of 1907 it will prove unenforceable (see 1925).

U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice Melville W. Fuller dies at Sorrento, Maine, July 4 at age 77 after 22 years on the Court and is succeeded by Louisiana-born jurist Edward D. (Douglass) White, 64, who will preside until his own death in 1921.

U.S. Marines and sailors land in Nicaragua May 19 to protect the interests of banks that have loaned the country $14 million; they seize the national bank and take control of Nicaraguan customs (see 1912).

Mexico's president Porfirio Díaz celebrates his 80th birthday and the centennial of the nation's struggle for independence September 15 with a dinner at which 2,000 guests eat from golden plates. His regime has controlled the country since 1876, attracting foreign capital but allowing white landowners to take over the lands of its 6 million Indians and 8 million mestizos. Having quipped, "He who counts the votes wins," he wins election to a sixth term despite massive demonstrations against his rule. U.S.- and European-educated northern landowner Francisco Indalécio Madero, 37, leads the opposition to Díaz, but the president has rigged the election and claims that Madero has won only 195 votes; Madero flees to the United States (but see 1911).

The Republic of South Africa is established May 31 under terms of the South Africa Act approved by Parliament in September of last year. Independent of Britain (whose high commissioner William W. Palmer, 2nd earl of Selborne, proposed the union and has returned to his native London), the new Union of South Africa has dominion status. It unites the Cape Colony, Orange River Colony, Natal, and Transvaal; its legislative seat is at Cape Town; its seat of government is at Pretoria; and its prime minister is Boer statesman Louis Botha, now 47, who will continue in the post until his death in 1919.

France renames the French Congo French Equatorial Africa and redivides it into the colonies of Gabon, Middle Congo, and Ubanghi-Shari.

Tibet's Dalai Lama reaches Darjeeling, India, February 24, and is deposed for a second time February 25 by the Chinese government, which issues an edict describing him as "proud, extravagant, lewd, slothful, vicious, and perverse" (see 1912).

Bhutan signs a new treaty with Britain, agreeing to be guided by the British in external affairs (see 1865). The British, in return, increase their annual subsidy and promise not to interfere in the landlocked, mountainous country's internal affairs; Bhutan will continue to trade with Tibet but will gradually become oriented more toward British-ruled India (see 1949).

Siam's king Somdeth Phra Paraminda Maha Chulalongkorn (Rama V) dies at his native Bangkok October 23 at age 57 after a 42-year reign in which he has abolished slavery, adopted other reforms based on Western ideas, and kept his country free of foreign colonial domination (although he has been forced to give up its rights in Cambodia and Laos to the French and cede four Malay states to Britain, both Western countries wishing to keep Siam independent as a buffer state between their respective colonie). Rama V is succeeded by his 30-year-old son, who will reign until his death in 1925 as Vajiravudgh (Rama VI). Following his father's practice of seeking counsel from European advisers, the new ruler will continue his father's reforms, establishing Siam's first university; he will create the Boy Scouts, travel with a bodyguard of Boy Scouts, translate Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet and The Merchant of Venice into Siamese, marry in 1922, abjure polygamy, and give up the royal harem.

Japanese police arrest 26 anarchists and socialists on charges of planning to assassinate the Meiji emperor Mutsuhito. All are men except revolutionist Suga Sugano, 29, who will be executed next year along with 11 other alleged conspirators after a secret trial without witnesses.

Japan formally annexes Korea by treaty August 22 and calls it Chōsen (see 1909). The outright annexation fulfills the long-held goal of Prime Minister Taro Katsura, now 62, who began a second term as premier in 1908. His foreign minister Jutaro Komura, now 54, has helped negotiate the treaty (see 1945).