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Enlightenment
The Enlightenment, where the methods of the Scientific Revolution were applied to human society, gave the world the idea of natural rights, which spurred revolutions against authoritarian or imperial rule throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. -
Industrial Revolution
The Industrial Revolution, characterized by the use of machines and a dramatic increase in productivity, made the world modern by linking together disparate parts of the globe, jump-starting capitalism, creating a middle class, and spurring unceasing improvements in technology that have continued up until the present. -
French Revolution
Spurred on by Enlightenment ideals and an unfair class structure, the French Revolution threw society into a revolutionary upheaval for more than two decades and serves as foreshadowing for future revolutions, both in the drastic democratic changes it briefly implemented and it its eventual turn to bloodshed and dictatorship. -
Grito de Dolores
The Grito de Dolores, an emotional rallying cry by a Catholic priest urging impoverished Mexicans to rebel against the Spanish, began the process of independence for Mexico; however, it was not until the creoles gave their support to the revolution that, in Mexico and other places in Latin America, independence was finally achieved. -
Abolition of Slavery in British Empire
In 1834, the British passed a law abolishing slavery in their colonies; however, the gains of freedom proved illusory for the freedmen as they rarely gained land or political power and, in some places, were still forced to labor on plantations. -
Great Potato Famine
The Great Potato Famine, which caused 20% of the population of Ireland to die or emigrate within 10 years of its onset, was a major impetus to global migration, one major consequence of which was the New World gaining back its lost population with European immigrants. -
Taiping Rebellion
Lasting until 1864, the world's deadliest civil war killed at least 20 million people as the deluded Hong Xiquan, proclaiming that he was the brother of Jesus, led a revolt against the Manchu rulers of the Qing dynasty. -
Meiji Restoration
The Meiji Restoration began a period of change in Japan that saw the country industrialize rapidly and become a military power; their rank as one of the world's great powers was cemented with their defeat of Russia in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-05. -
Berlin Conference
At the Berlin Conference (1884-1885) the major European powers agreed to divide the continent of Africa amongst themselves, with armies and "effective occupation" replacing what had formerly been trading posts. -
Battle of Adwa
Ethiopian forces under Menelik II defeated the army of the Kingdom of Italy, in the process preserving Ethiopia's status as one of the few independent African states and dealing a rare defeat to an imperializing European nation.
