The Second Millenium

[Vince53]

We're back in 1846!

Driven out of Navoo, Illinois after their unsuccessful attempt to seize the area, Mormons begins migrating west into desert land. They eventually found Salt Lake City, Utah.

In Europe's last great peasant uprising, serfs in Poland and Austria massacre over 1,000 nobles. Although they are quickly slaughtered, the serfs win, and serfdom is abolished a few years later.

Komei begins his 21 year reign as Emperor of Japan. He begins as a merely symbolic ruler, until the US forces Japan to open to the West. As the Shogun (the real ruler of Japan) yields steadily more power to foreign governments, Komei begins seizing powers that the Emperors had relinquished centuries ago. He fumed helplessly as the shogunate signed unfair trade treaties with the West, and when he died, Japan was nearly bankrupt. But he started the trend that would eventually turn Japan into a major power.

Mexico invades Texas, which was now part of the US. The US responds quickly, winning major battles and then invading Mexico. The Mexican War will eventually cost Mexico half its territorial claims. California declares itself independent of Mexico, and several weeks later voluntarily joins the US.

The planet Neptune is discovered. Kerosene and the sewing machine are invented.

 

[Vince53]

Welcome to 1847!


There is controversy over how the Mexican War began. Both Texas and Mexico claimed a strip of land north of the Rio Grande and south of the smaller Nueces River. When the US sent troops into the disputed area, Mexico attacked them, claiming that they were being invaded by the US.

Ulysses Grant, an American Army officer who served with distinction in the war, described the war as a massive land grab. Decades later, after serving as US President, he wrote in his memoirs, “For myself, I was bitterly opposed to the annexation of Texas, and to this day regard the war, which resulted, as one of the most unjust ever waged by a stronger against a weaker nation. It was an instance of a republic following the bad example of European monarchies, in not considering justice in their desire to acquire additional territory.”

Elected as a Whig to Congress in 1846, Abraham Lincoln gained notoriety when he lashed out against the Mexican War, calling it immoral, proslavery, and a threat to the nation's republican values. He accused President Polk of fabricating justification for the war, stating that Mexico had only invaded a part of Texas which had always been part of Mexico, and that the Mexicans had posed no threat to the United States.

 

[Vince53]

We return to 1847.

With Santa Anna in command, Mexico suffers a major defeat when 5,000 Americans defeat their 15,000 man army at Buena Vista. Meanwhile, the US Navy lands another American force near the Mexican port of Veracruz, which is captured a few weeks later. After a few more victories, victorious American troops enter Mexico City, and the US finds itself with a problem: Mexico no longer has a government with the authority to surrender.

The American Medical Association is founded. Over time, it will bring American doctors under government control, ending the ability of unqualified individuals to declare themselves doctors.

As the government of Switzerland consolidates its power, seven Catholic cantons rebel. A massive government army defeats a massive Catholic army with fewer than 100 deaths, ending the rebellion. But the victorious Swiss general organizes massive care for the wounded, and a few years later, he leads his organization into forming the Red Cross.


American donors help establish Liberia as a nation for freed slaves.

 

[Vince53]

The Little Heroes


As overwhelming American forces ascend the heights to the Mexican military academy, the Mexican commander orders all his forces, including the cadets, to retreat.

Refusing to leave, 6 cadets become Mexico’s most beloved legends when they stay behind to uphold the honor of Mexico. A 500 man US Army is stopped at the front gate by 14 year old Vincent Suarez, who dies like a man holding his post. All six of “The Little Heroes” are killed. The last one wrapped the academy’s Mexican flag around himself and jumped from the spire.

Fearing that God would punish the United States if they took away the flag as a trophy, General Winfield Scott forces the local bishop to agree to bury all six of them in sealed coffins, with the flag still wrapped around the last cadet.

In 1947, reporters secretly trailed US President Harry S. Truman on his visit to Mexico. The President went to their monument and laid a wreath on it, and Mexicans love him to this day.

 

[Vince53]

Finally! It is 1848! It is known as "The Year of Revolutions," as failed revolutions break out all over the world. But the revolutionists often do force their governments to treat their people better.




For the first time in Hawaiian history, commoners are allowed to own property. But foreigners take advantage of a poorly –organized administration to buy large tracts of land intended for peasants, and eventually Hawaii becomes a major sugar producer. (It still is).

Gold is discovered in California, beginning a gold rush as immigrants flood into the territory. Today, the thinly-populated California Territory is America's most populous state.

Sent to Mexico City to sign a peace treaty, a mid-level American representative illegally organizes a functioning Mexican government that signs away half of Mexico's claims to the US. Now it's official and uncontested: the US reaches "from sea to shining sea."

And having said all the bad things about how the US wronged Mexico, I want to point out something important. As the most powerful nation in the western Atlantic and the eastern Pacific, the US has served as the world's peacekeeper. Mexico is one of the most prosperous nations in the world today, largely because the US protects it. Mexico's small military budget is mostly used against drug cartels, while most European nations spend fortunes protecting their borders against each other. American prosperity won two world wars and the cold war, and we couldn't have done it without our large amount of territory. Prosperity has allowed to us make scientific and medical advances that have benefited the entire world, including Mexico.

The Communist Manifesto is published in London.

And so many revolutions break out around the world that we'll have to come back tomorrow to discuss them.

 

[Vince53]

We're back in 1848, "The Year of Revolutions."

Sicily overthrows its Bourbon rulers and survives for 16 months as an independent nation. But the Bourbons manage to hold onto one city and violently retake the nation next year. While independent, Sicily writes a constitution that established democracy and calls for all of the Italian peninsula to unite as a single nation.

Thirteen and a half centuries after it disappeared as a nation, Italy loses its first war of independence to Austria and her Italian allies. San Marco was part of Venice, and it declared itself independent. The new government demanded that all foreign rulers of Italian states withdraw, and that the Italian states unite as one nation. Faced with a large invading army, San Marco dissolves itself after 17 months and join Sardinia (an independent Italian state), and they are both defeated by the Habsburgs.

French mobs overthrow their government. Jubilant French establish "The Second French Republic," which guarantees everyone the right to vote along with other democratic principles. Three years later, when his term expires, the President overthrows the new government and makes himself President for the next ten years.

Although a conquered part of the Habsburg Empire, Hungary revolts and forces the Habsburgs to give them more freedom. The new government ends feudalism and serfdom and establishes freedom of religion and freedom of the press. Officially, there never was a Habsburg Empire, but actually, there was. The Habsburgs ruled Austria, and by intermarriage and a few wars, they established a stable empire that allowed only limited rights to the peasants.

With help from Austria, Croatia and Romania rebel against Hungary. After initial victories, in which they massacre about 8,500 Hungarian civilians, the Romanians are driven out of Hungary.

Danish rebels force their government to adopt a new constitution guaranteeing the people more freedom. Then, southern Denmark and northern Germany revolt against Germany over rival claims to three duchies. Denmark wins.

Britain quickly defeats an Irish rebellion.

Pope Pius IX begins organizing opposition to these democratic revolutions.

When the Austrian rulers cannonade the city of Prague, Czechoslovakia revolts.

 

[Vince53]

And now it is 1849.

The Sikhs of northwest India open the year with a victory over Britain, but by the end of the year they are conquered.

The US issues a medical degree to its first licensed woman doctor.

It takes four months and three weeks, but Americans can now travel by steamboat from New York to San Francisco.

No, David Rice Atchison did not become President of the United States for one day. When President Polk's term expired on a Sunday noon, the new President, Zachary Taylor, refused to take the oath of office on a Sunday. However, the Constitution made Taylor President even without the oath. As president of the Senate, Atchison had been up for almost three days, and he slept through most of his "term of office." Contrary to popular American belief, the oath of office is only a formality--the new President automatically assumes office when the previous President's term expires.

Fearing European influence, Madagascar, an island kingdom off southeast Africa, executes eighteen Christians.

After gaining independence from Austria, Hungary is reconquered by Austria, Russia, Romania, and Transylvania.

The Kennedy family arrives in the United States.

 

[Vince53]

So today it is 1850.

The fourteen year Taiping Rebellion begins. Killing an estimated 20 million Chinese, the rebels try to establish a Christian “Heavenly Kingdom” that provides justice for the peasants. Modern Chinese textbooks teach that they were heroes who tried to overthrow the corrupt feudal system. French and British forces eventually helped China defeat the rebellion.

An angry Greek mob destroys the house of a British citizen after a riot (for which he was not to blame) while the police do nothing. An angry Britain then blockades Greece's main harbor for two months, forcing Greece to pay restitution.

As slavery divides the US into North vs. South, the US passes a package of compromise bills in an attempt to avert war. One of them is The Fugitive Salve Law. Previously, if a runaway slave reached the North, he was free. Now the government required the return of runaway slaves, and they had to reach Canada to be free.

Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter is published. The fictional account of a Godly Puritan minister who gets a woman pregnant presents a shocking idea for its time.

Millard Fillmore is sworn in as the 13th President of the US, and the jokes have never stopped. A Whig, he is the last President who was neither Democrat nor Republican. He is also the first President who wasn't wealthy. He wasn't elected--he was vice-President when President Zachary Taylor died. He signed laws passed by Congress, introduced the trime (a 3 cent coin) and literally did almost nothing. Always listed as one of the worst Presidents, Fillmore was not an evil man--he just did nothing. After the Whigs refused to re-nominate him, he was active in various nut parties but didn't accomplish anything.

Facing a hopeless war with Austria and Russia, Prussia gives up without a fight. The Habsburg Empire now rules Germany.

A survey shows that 22% of the world lives in Europe.

 

[Vince53]

And it is now 1851.


While most of the Apache men are peacefully trading in a Mexican town, a Mexican army launches an unprovoked massacre on the women and children. Learning that his mother, wife, and three children were all killed, “One Who Yawns” leads revenge raids on Mexicans. Successfully ambushing a Mexican army unit in a canyon, the Apache are bewildered when the doomed soldiers shout out to Saint Jerome for help, their cries echoing off the canyon walls into a confused blend. So they give One Who Yawns a new name—“Geronimo.”

The population of Britain reaches 21 million.

Rama IV begins his successful 17 year reign over Siam (modern Thailand). Pressured by European attempts to expand, he modernizes Siam with western science and culture. He hires Christian missionaries to teach English, hires western mercenaries to train the Siamese army with modern weapons and tactics, banns wife-selling, ends forced marriages, and releases hundreds of the concubines whom he had inherited. He hires Anna Leonowens to tutor his children, and her fictional adventures are the source of "Anna and the King of Siam," and "The King and I." Anna influences Rama's son (the next king) to abolish slavery.

The New York Times, Western Union, and Reuters News Service are established.

"Moby Dick" is published.

 

[Vince53]

Welcome to 1852!

Mexican War hero Robert E. Lee is appointed superintendent of West Point. As a cadet, Lee had been the first person to graduate from West Point without a single demerit.

Several Jewish organizations form Mt. Sinai hospital in New York City. One of the best-regarded hospitals in the world today, it has expanded into a teaching college and has branches throughout New York City.

In the US, "Uncle Tom's Cain" becomes the first American novel to sell a million copies. Rejected by Southerners as inaccurately portraying the brutality of slavery, it is recognized by historians as showing an accurate portrayal.

 

[Vince53]

Good, bad, or ugly, the United States alters the course of world history in 1853.


Four modern American warships force Japan to open to international trade, ending 200 years of isolation. But shocked at how obsolete their military has become, the Japanese soon begin a modernization campaign that will eventually lead to World War 2.

The horrified Japanese are startled to realize that their entire nation is not powerful enough to defeat four American ships inside Tokyo Bay itself. When they refuse to meet with the Americans, the Navy begins openly mapping their harbor's defenses in preparation for an attack. And when they do land, the Americans put on quite a parade. Flanked by two tall, muscular Black US Marines (the Japanese didn't know that Africa even existed), Commodore Matthew Perry leads a noisy dress parade through the startled citizens and enters the imperial palace. He comes out with a treaty, and both nations benefit from US-Japanese trade.

Was Uncle Sam insane? Evil? Both? No, the US took a calculated risk. With the British Empire closing in on the Pacific from three directions, the US feared being surrounded. Sparce reports showed that Japan was a peaceful, prosperous, backwards nation with a weak military--a perfect target for European conquest. By shocking Japan into modernization, the US hoped to keep the Japanese independent (it worked). And the US hoped that Japan, seeing itself surrounded by European empires, would become a strong American ally (it didn't work).

 

[Vince53]

We return to 1853.


The Crimean War begins. Fearing Russia’s growing power, France and England unite with the failing Ottoman Empire to stop Russian expansion into Turkey. Three years later, a defeated Russia is forced to leave Turkey alone for the next twenty years. Although Russia destroys a Turkish fleet, the Turks win the first battles, actually invading Russia.

What is the problem with Crimea? Russia has no warm water ports to the Atlantic or the Mediterranean. But Crimea, located in the Black Sea, has two harbors. It is connected to Russia by a narrow strip of land. Using these two harbors as naval bases, Russia can bully the nations of the Black Sea, enter the Mediterranean, and from there enter the Atlantic. Crimea was part of the fading Ottoman Empire (Turkey) at this time. Fearing Russia's growing strength, France and England wanted their former enemy, Turkey, to be a threat to Russia's southern flank. They also didn't want Russia to have naval bases in Crimea.

Yes, you have heard of the Mexican outlaw Joaquin Murrieta Carrillo, who is killed this year by California police—maybe. A century and a half later, he will be the inspiration for “Zorro.”

A 750,000 man rebel army seizes Nanjing, killing about 30,000 Chinese government troops.

The first passenger train in India begins operating.

New Zealand is granted self-government within the British Empire.

Missionary Hudson Taylor leaves for China.

The potato chip is invented.

 

[Vince53]

It's 1854! "When can their glory fade? O the wild charge they made!"

“The Charge of the Light Brigade” turns British cavalry into a legend of courage. Bungled orders send 700 (not 600, as the poem says) into a frontal attack on heavily-fortified Russian cannon. The light brigade take the cannon with heavy losses, and Russian cavalry refuse to fight British cavalry for the rest of the Crimean War.

The Catholic Church declares officially that Mary was conceived without original sin.

In the US, the Republican Party is founded.

The US passes the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which virtually guarantees a civil war. These two territories were ready to be admitted as states, but both of them forbade slavery. Admitting them would give the free states a majority in the Senate, allowing the North to dominate the South. But the two territories (both in the North) were allowed to vote for themselves whether to be slave or free. Civil war breaks out in Kansas as both sides send men into the new state to vote illegally.

In London, a cholera epidemic kills 10,000 people. A single water pump kills 500 of them, showing that cholera is spread by contaminated water.

 

[Vince53]

1855


The Black Plague breaks out in China, killing about 12 million people in India and China before ending.

About this time, two rival bands of American Indians fight it out during a terrific rain storm. The leader of the winning band fights so furiously that his followers change his name. “Rain in the Face” goes on to become one of the greatest military leaders in history.

The strongest earthquake in the history of New Zealand kills five people.

It's only 47.6 miles long, but the Panama Railway connects the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Still in operation, it made the building of the Panama Canal possible.

Theodore II begins his 13 year reign over Ethiopia. After six years of putting down revolts, he is able to form the modern Ethiopian nation. But he is troubled by new revolts, and the Church fights him as he tries to reform its corrupt clergy. He appoints honest judges and governors, increasing regional loyalty to the central government. When he arrests British agents, a small British force storms his capitol building, and he commits suicide.

Alexander the Liberator begins his 26 year reign over Russia, Poland, and Finland. Honest, competent, and brutal, he abolishes serfdom, establishes honest courts and local governments, establishes a universal draft, supports education, and sends thousands of his critics to Siberia. He had just completed plans for an elected parliament when anarchists,fearing the results of a good government, assassinated him. Russia plunges into a repression of freedom that eventually produces the Communist Revolution.

 

[Vince53]

Sakes alive! We return to 1855!

China had conquered Tibet, and Nepal had become a Chinese tributary state. But with China wracked by civil war and the Black Plague, Nepal invaded Tibet, demanding tribute and territory. After a year, Tibet agrees to a small annual payment, and Nepal withdraws its troops.

Britain grants its Australian colonies self-government within the British Empire.

Sevastopol the chief port and naval base of Crimea,falls to British, French, and Turkish forces. The victory followed several major battles and a year-long siege. Essentially, Russia has now lost the Crimean War.

Civil war breaks out in Kansas between pro and anti-slavery forces.

 

[Vince53]

It's 1856!


After China is forced to release a captured British pirate ship, the Royal Navy bombards Canton, starting the Second Opium War. Defeated four years later by France and Britain, China grants them unlimited trading rights, including the right to sell opium to the Chinese.

A US Navy ship with 16 guns was stranded in Seattle, Washington after striking a reef. During repairs, local Indians attacked Seattle. Marines went ashore while the Navy fired its cannon, driving off the Indians with 28 dead and 80 wounded. The settlers had two killed. The problem is that the war was provoked by the governor's forcing unfair treaties on the Indians.

Mt. Everest is shown to be the tallest mountain on land.

The Crimean War ends. All captured territory is returned to Russia, which is prohibited from having warships or naval bases in the Black Sea.

Scottish missionary David Livingston reaches the Indian Ocean after two years walking across Africa.

A young congressman, Preston Brooks, beats the elderly Senator Charles Sumner with a cane for making an anti-slavery speech. Brooks becomes a hero in the southern US, which further antagonizes the North.

 

[Vince53]

Today is 1857.

The US starts the world's first college for the deaf.

"The Weeping Time"--in the largest slave auction in US history, 436 Blacks, including infants, are sold. The slaves had been kept in horse stalls, some for weeks, before the sale. The auction occurred during a heavy rainstorm (because Heaven was weeping). It was widely reported in Northern newspapers and added to the national tension over slavery.

The Dred Scott Case--The US Supreme Court rules that under the Constitution, a slave is not a human being. Therefor, a slave cannot sue in court. Dred Scott was a slave who had accompanied his owner into a free state and then sued for freedom.

In Tokyo, an earthquake kills 100,000 people. 11,000 people are killed by an earthquake in Sicily.

What is the safest means of public transportation in the world? The elevator, which is invented this year.

British-trained native troops rebel, beginning India's First War of Independence. The rebels are defeated next year, and Britain also conquers more Indian territory.

The Panic of 1857-- A large American insurance company collapses due to stock speculation and embezzlement, closing all New York banks and beginning a financial crisis that soon spreads to Europe.

 

[Vince53]

Things went great in 1858!

You know the song that they always play at weddings ? "The Wedding March!"is played for the first time at the wedding of Queen Victoria's daughter, and it has been popular ever since.

Bernadette, a fourteen year old French peasant, reports the first of 18 claimed appearances of the Virgin Mary.

A pencil with an eraser at one end in invented.

Visible for several months, Comet Donati is the first comet to be photographed.

Running for the US Senate, Abraham Lincoln declares "A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this government cannot endure, permanently, half slave and half free." Based on recent laws and Supreme Court decisions, Lincoln correctly predicts that the US must eventually become entirely slave or entirely free. However, he loses the election.

Charles Darwin publishes his theory of evolution. It is so inaccurate that no one, even evolutionists, believe it today.

 

[Vince53]

We start the day with a visit to 1859!


Allied with France against Austria in the Second War of Italian Independence, a section of Italy seizes major cities and becomes independent.

The Codex Sinaiticus is discovered in an Egyptian monastery. Written in the fourth century, it contains the entire Greek New Testament, and about half of the Septuagint (the Greek Old testament). Along with the Codex Vaticanus, it is the oldest surviving Greek New Testament. Full of spelling errors, it heavily contradicts the Vaticanus. The best explanation for the survival of both ancient manuscripts is that they were rejected for use due to their many errors.

France captures Saigon, the capital of Vietnam.

Construction begins on the Suez Canal.

Philadelphia opens the first zoo in the US.

California records the only simoon in North American history. A giant sandstorm raises the desert temperature to 122 degrees. Lasting five hours, it kills all plants and animals in the area, while all humans survive.

John Brown's raiders seize the federal arsenal at Harper's Ferry, Virginia, in an unsuccessful attempt to start a slave revolt. In a small-scale operation that is an act of genius, Robert E. Lee captures the raiders, and Brown is hanged later.

 

[Vince53]

1860

In California, 60 peaceful Indians living on an island are massacred by White settlers.

Having won independence last year, a small section of northern Italy forms the first Italian Parliament. Although claiming to represent the entire peninsula, most of Italy still consists of small kingdoms and the Papal States. But Giuseppe Garibaldi, who had led the Italians to victory last year, continues to win battles for independence. Other Italian forces invade the Papal States.

The Pony Express begins. Lasting only 19 months, its riders deliver mail, newspapers, and small packages from Missouri to California. Connected to other services, they shorten the time from the Atlantic to the Pacific to only ten days. An American legend, the Pony Express is driven bankrupt by the telegraph and competing services.

England founds a nursing school based on the ideals of Florence Nightingale. A Crimean War nurse, Nightingale turned nursing into a highly-regarded profession.

Abraham Lincoln is elected President of the United States, although he does not take office until next year. Although Lincoln, a strong opponent of slavery, promises not to abolish slavery, South Carolina soon secedes from the US. With about 4 million Black slaves, the US is producing cotton that is desperately needed by Britain (which manufactures 20% of world manufacturing).