1840s


The 1840s was the decade that began on January 1, 1840, and ended on December 31, 1849.
The decade was noted in Europe for featuring the largely unsuccessful revolutions of 1848, also known as the springtime of the peoples. Throughout the continent, bourgeois liberals and working-class radicals engaged in a series of revolts in favor of social reform. In the United Kingdom, this notably manifested itself through the Chartist movement, which sought universal suffrage and parliamentary reform. In France, the February Revolution led to the overthrow of the reigning House of Orléans by Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte. In 1848, the publication of the Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx would help lay the groundwork for the global socialist movement. Arguably the first major event of the decade was the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi in the United Tribes between Māori rangatira and representatives of the British Crown, which began in February 1840. Due to the differences between the Māori and English versions of the texts, the British claimed Māori had ceded sovereignty and proclaimed a new Colony, leading to more than 25 years of asymmetric armed conflict until the Colony secured substantive control.
The Mexican–American War led to the redrawing of national boundaries in North America. In the United States, mass migration to the new West Coast occurred, following the annexation of California from Mexico with the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo,
and the California Gold Rush beginning, following the discovery of gold there, both in early 1848. On its northern border, the United States settled the Oregon boundary dispute with the United Kingdom in 1846, thereby solving a domestic political crisis in the former nation. Meanwhile in Ireland, the Great Famine began in 1845, causing the deaths of one million Irish people and forcing over a million more to emigrate. In 1848, the women's rights movement began with the Seneca Falls Convention in New York.
The last living person from this decade was Robert Early, who died in 1960.

Politics and wars

Pacific Islands

In 1842, Tahiti and Tahuata were declared a French protectorate, to allow Catholic missionaries to work undisturbed. The capital of Papeetē was founded in 1843. In 1845, George Tupou I united Tonga into a kingdom, and reigned as Tuʻi Kanokupolu.

East Asia

China

On August 29, 1842, the first of two Opium Wars ended between China and Britain with the Treaty of Nanking. One of the consequences was the cession of modern-day Hong Kong Island to the British. Hong Kong would eventually be returned to China in 1997.
On July 3, 1844 the United States signed the Treaty of Wanghia with the Qing Empire. The treaty established five U.S. treaty ports in China with extraterritoriality and was the first unequal treaty that the United States imposed on the dynasty.

Japan

The 1840s comprised the end of the Tenpō era, the entirety of the Kōka era, and the beginning of the Kaei era. The decade saw the end of the reign of Emperor Ninko in 1846, who was succeeded by his son, Emperor Kōmei.

Southeastern Asia

Siam and Vietnam

The Siamese-Vietnamese War in Cambodia erupted between Vietnam and Siam. In the increasingly confrontational rivalry between Vietnam and Siam, the conflict was triggered by Vietnam's absorption of Cambodia and the demotion of the Khmer monarchs. Siam under Rama III seized the opportunity to intervene as the tide of Khmer discontent rose against Vietnamese rule.
Emperors Minh Mạng, Thiệu Trị and Tự Đức ruled Vietnam during the 1840s under the Nguyễn dynasty.

New Guinea

  • 1848 – British, Dutch, and German governments lay claim to New Guinea.

    Australia and New Zealand

  • First signing of the Treaty of Waitangi on 6 February 1840, at Waitangi, United Tribes of New Zealand, between Māori rangatira and representatives of the British Crown. The treaty between is considered the founding point of modern New Zealand. There were substantial differences between the Māori and English versions of the text, with the vast majority of rangatira signing the Māori version. Perhaps the most prominent was that the Māori version gave Queen Victoria 'kāwanatanga', a transliteration of the English word 'governorship', whereas the British version said Māori who signed the Treaty were ceding sovereignty. Other notable differences included a right of pre-emption clause in the English version, but not in the Māori version. In the Māori version of the Treaty, the use of the words 'kawanatanga' and 'tino rangatiratanga' contributed to later differences of view between the Crown and Māori over how much authority rangatira would retain. The British subsequently declared they had sovereignty over the islands in May, and later proclaimed the Colony of New Zealand in 1841, despite Māori retaining de facto substantive sovereignty. This would lead to the New Zealand Wars between Māori and the British.
  • July 20, 1845 – Charles Sturt enters the Simpson Desert in central Australia.
  • May 25, 1846 – The Royal Geographical Society awards Paweł Edmund Strzelecki a Founder's Medal "for exploration in the south eastern portion of Australia".
  • June 15, 1846 – Launceston Church Grammar School opens for the first time in Tasmania.

    Southern Asia

Afghanistan

The First Anglo-Afghan War had started in 1838, started by the British as a means of defending India from the Russian Empire's expansion into Central Asia. The British attempted to impose a puppet regime on Afghanistan under Shuja Shah, but the regime was short lived and proved unsustainable without British military support. By 1842, mobs were attacking the British on the streets of Kabul and the British garrison was forced to abandon the city due to constant civilian attacks. During the retreat from Kabul, the British army of approximately 4,500 troops and 12,000 camp followers was subjected to a series of attacks by Afghan warriors. All of the British soldiers were killed except for one and he and a few surviving Indian soldiers made it to the fort at Jalalabad shortly after. After the Battle of Kabul, Britain placed Dost Mohammad Khan back into power and withdrew from Afghanistan.

India

The Sikh Empire was founded in 1799, ruled by Ranjit Singh. When Singh died in 1839, the Sikh Empire began to fall into disorder. There was a succession of short-lived rulers at the central Durbar, and increasing tension between the Khalsa and the Durbar. In May 1841, the Dogra dynasty invaded western Tibet, marking the beginning of the Sino-Sikh war. This war ended in a stalemate in September 1842, with the Treaty of Chushul.
The British East India Company began to build up its military strength on the borders of the Punjab. Eventually, the increasing tension goaded the Khalsa to invade British territory, under weak and possibly treacherous leaders. The hard-fought First Anglo-Sikh War ended in defeat for the Khalsa. With the Treaty of Lahore, the Sikh Empire ceded Kashmir to the East India Company and surrendered the Koh-i-Noor diamond to Queen Victoria.
The Sikh empire was finally dissolved at the end of the Second Anglo-Sikh War in 1849 into separate princely states and the British province of Punjab. Eventually, a Lieutenant Governorship was formed in Lahore as a direct representative of the British Crown.

Sri Lanka

Ottoman Empire

The decade was near the beginning of the Tanzimât Era of the Ottoman Empire. Sultan Abdülmecid I ruled during this period.
Lebanon
Emir Bashir Shihab II controlled the Mount Lebanon Emirate at the beginning of the 1840s. Bashir allied with Muhammad Ali of Egypt, but Muhammad Ali was driven out of the country. Bashir was deposed in 1840 when the Egyptians were driven out by an Ottoman-European alliance, which had the backing of Maronite forces. His successor, Emir Bashir III, ruled until 1842, after which the emirate was dissolved and split into a Druze sector and a Christian sector.
Romania
There was a wave of revolutions in Europe, collectively known as the Revolutions of 1848. It remains the most widespread revolutionary wave in European history, but within a year, reactionary forces had regained control, and the revolutions collapsed.
The revolutions were essentially bourgeois-democratic in nature with the aim of removing the old feudal structures and the creation of independent national states. The revolutionary wave began in France in February, and immediately spread to most of Europe and parts of Latin America. Over 50 countries were affected, but with no coordination or cooperation among the revolutionaries in different countries. Six factors were involved: widespread dissatisfaction with political leadership; demands for more participation in government and democracy; demands for freedom of press; the demands of the working classes; the upsurge of nationalism; and finally, the regrouping of the reactionary forces based on the royalty, the aristocracy, the army, and the peasants.
The uprisings were led by ad hoc coalitions of reformers, the middle classes and workers, which did not hold together for long. Tens of thousands of people were killed, and many more forced into exile. The only significant lasting reforms were the abolition of serfdom in Austria and Hungary, the end of absolute monarchy in Denmark, and the definitive end of the Capetian monarchy in France. The revolutions were most important in France, the Netherlands, Germany, Poland, Italy, and the Austrian Empire, but did not reach Russia, Sweden, Great Britain, and most of southern Europe .