19th century

The 19th century began on 1 January 1801 (represented by the Roman numerals MDCCCI), and ended on 31 December 1900 (MCM). It was the 9th century of the 2nd millennium. It was characterized by vast social upheaval. Slavery was abolished in much of Europe and the Americas. The First Industrial Revolution, though it began in the late 18th century, expanded beyond its British homeland for the first time during the 19th century, particularly remaking the economies and societies of the Low Countries, France, the Rhineland, Northern Italy, and the Northeastern United States. A few decades later, the Second Industrial Revolution led to ever more massive urbanization and much higher levels of productivity, profit, and prosperity, a pattern that continued into the 20th century. The Catholic Church, in response to the growing influence and power of modernism, secularism and materialism, formed the First Vatican Council in the late 19th century to deal with such problems and confirm certain Catholic doctrines as dogma. Religious missionaries were sent from the Americas and Europe to Asia, Africa and the Middle East.

In the Middle East, it was an era of change and reform. The Islamic gunpowder empires fell into decline and European imperialism brought much of South Asia, Southeast Asia, and almost all of Africa under colonial rule. Reformers were opposed at every turn by conservatives who strove to maintain the centuries-old Islamic laws and social order.^[1] The 19th century also saw the collapse of the large Spanish, Portuguese, French and Mughal empires, which paved the way for the growing influence of the British, French, German, Russian, Austro-Hungarian, Italian, and Japanese empires along with the United States.

Following the defeat of France in the Napoleonic Wars, it marked the end of France’s status as the world superpower. Britain took France’s status as the world superpower, the British and Russian empires expanded considerably, becoming two of the world's leading powers. Russia expanded its territory to the Caucasus and Central Asia. The Ottoman Empire underwent a period of Westernization and reform known as the Tanzimat, vastly increasing its control over core territories in the Middle East. However, it remained in decline and became known as the sick man of Europe, losing territory in the Balkans and North Africa.

The remaining powers in the Indian subcontinent, such as the Maratha and Sikh empires, suffered a massive decline, and their dissatisfaction with the British East India Company's rule led to the Indian Rebellion of 1857 and the company's dissolution. India was later ruled directly by the British Crown through the establishment of the British Raj. During the post-Napoleonic era (after 1815), Britain enforced what became known as the Pax Britannica, which ushered in unprecedented globalization on a massive scale. Britain's overseas possessions grew rapidly in the first half of the century, especially with the expansion of vast territories in Canada, Australia, India, and in the last two decades of the century in Africa. By the end of the 19th century, the British controlled a fifth of the world's land and a quarter of the world's population. After the Napoleonic Wars, France sought to rebuild its colonial empire, having lost most of its major overseas possessions to the British in the in the 17th and 18th centuries, including territories in North America (modern-day United States and Canada), French India, and much of the Caribbean. French expansion resumed in the 19th century, beginning with the conquest of Algeria in 1830 and the establishment of influence Africa. French overseas possessions expanded gradually in the second half of the century, France significantly enlarged its colonial holdings, establishing French Indochina in Southeast Asia, French Polynesia, New Caledonia and the New Hebrides in Oceania and controlling over 40% of Africa. By the end of the 19th century, France possessed the second largest colonial empire in the world after the British Empire, it controlled over 13.5 million km2 or 1/10 of the world’s land area, comprising extensive territories in 40% of Africa, Southeast Asia with French Indochina, and Oceania with French Polynesia, New Caledonia and New Hebrides, and exerted significant influence in East Asia through spheres of influence in China.

By the end of the century, Britain and France had colonized almost all of South Asia (British Raj), Southeast Asia (French Indochina), 80% of Africa and Oceania (Australia, New Zealand, French Polynesia, New Caledonia, New Hebrides). In East Asia, China under the Qing dynasty endured its century of humiliation by foreign powers with Britain and France carving up spheres of influences in China that lasted until the first half of the 20th century. The last surviving man and woman, respectively, verified to have been born in the 19th century were Jiroemon Kimura (1897–2013) and Nabi Tajima (1900–2018), both Japanese, and the last surviving person to have been born in the 1800s was Emma Morano (1899–2017), an Italian woman.