Britain herself, not untaught by the breach with America, has learned to establish responsible government in her Colonies, making them virtually free states; and among those states the idea of federation has taken root and is bearing fruit. In India, challenged by one native race after another, she has extended her sway over the whole peninsula, and has abolished the anomaly of governing her great dependency through a trading company. In the West her kinsmen have raised the United States into a mighty nation.
In Europe France has passed through monarchy and republic and second empire into a stable republic; Italy has revolted against foreign rulers, and become a united nation; the small peoples of the Balkan Peninsula have now achieved by arms their liberty from Turkish rule. Prussia has won the hegemony of the German states, and established a new German Empire. Russia, the bogey of the West, and of Britain in particular, has shown her weakness in collision with the sudden development of Japan.
Finally, the Dark Continent has been explored and partitioned: in the south, after a sharp conflict, British and Dutch are on the way to become a united people; in the north, Egypt has been reorganised under British administration. We end, as we began, with the land of the Pyramids.
ARTHUR D. INNES.
TIME-TABLE OF THE WORLD: A.D. 1700 to 1914 | |||
Struggle for Colonial Supremacy. French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars. Growth of Democracy and Consolidation of European States. Colonial Extension of Responsible Government | |||
A.D. | Asia, Africa, and Australasia | Europe and America | A.D. |
| War of Spanish Succession, 1702–13. Bourbons established in Spain. | ||
1720 |
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| 1720 |
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| Anglo-Spanish War, combined with War of the Austrian Succession, 1739–48. | ||
1740 |
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| 1740 |
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Struggle between British and French in Southern India, 1746–61. Clive conquers Bengal; beginning of British territorial power in India, 1757. | GREAT BRITAIN: End of Jacobitism (the Forty-five) consolidates the union. | ||
1760 |
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| 1760 |
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British dominion receives Mogul’s sanction. Haidar Ali in Mysore. | Treaties of Paris and Hubertsburg exclude France from America and India, and confirm the position of Prussia. | ||
1780 |
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| 1780 |
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Dual control in India by East India Company and Parliamentary Board of Control set up by Pitt’s India Act. | British recovery of naval predominance. | ||
1800 |
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| 1800 |
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Overthrow of Mahratta power by Lord Hastings (1819): extensive annexations. | War renewed (1803) between European Coalitions and Emperor Napoleon (1804). | ||
1820 |
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| 1820 |
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Aggressive Eastward movement of Persia checked at Herat. | Independence of South and Central American States. | ||
1840 |
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| 1840 |
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Sikh Wars, 1845–49. | Charles Darwin. | ||
1860 |
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| 1860 |
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JAPAN: Revived power of the Mikado. Second Afghan War, 1878–80. | American Civil War, 1861–65. Abolition of Slavery. | ||
1880 |
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| 1880 |
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Mahdism in the Eastern Sudan; ended at Omdurman in 1898. British control established. | British control established in Egypt. First Peace Conference of European powers at the Hague, 1899. Norway separates from Sweden and elects King Haakon, 1905. Second Peace Conference at the Hague, 1907. | ||
1910 |
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| 1910 |
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A.D. | CHINA: Revolution: Manchu dynasty displaced by Republic, 1912. | Allied Balkan States defeat Turkey, 1912. | A.D. |
A TIME-TABLE OF THE NATIONS OF THE WORLD
FROM THE BEGINNING OF HISTORY TO THE PRESENT DAY
Showing at a glance the fate of all nations, their rise, their sway, their decline, and their successors
On this double-page are shown the empires of the ancient world to the rise of Rome, and on the succeeding double-page the ruling powers from Rome until the present day. The chronology is in divisions of a hundred years, except the first four, which, for convenience of space, are shown in longer periods