1860s

Politics and wars

Wars

• French occupation of Mexico. Replacement of President of Mexico Benito Juárez at first with Juan Nepomuceno Almonte and then by Emperor Maximilian of Mexico with the establishment of the Second Mexican Empire. Juárez eventually manages to recover his position.
• On 18 October 1860, the first Convention of Peking formally ended the Second Opium War.
• The American Civil War which lasted from 1861 to 1865.
• The Paraguayan War starts in South America, with the invasion of Paraguay by the Triple Alliance. It will kill almost 60% of the country's population.
• The main phase of the New Zealand Wars between British colonials and the Māori population begins with the First Taranaki War in 1860. The most significant campaign is the Invasion of the Waikato in 1863, which sees some 14,000 British and colonial troops engaged.File:Schlacht-bei-koeniggraetz-von-georg-bleibtreu.jpg|thumb|The Battle of Königgrätz was the decisive battle of the Austro-Prussian War
• The Kingdom of Prussia under Bismarck invaded Denmark in 1864, which ended in the division of Schleswig, the location of a pro-German revolt, between Prussia and the Austrian Empire. Though Prussia and Austria had both fought side by side in this war, Prussia later attacked Austria in the Austro-Prussian war of 1866. The technological and logistical superiority of Prussia's armed forces obliterated Austria and its allies, the former also having to deal with Prussia's ally Italy in Venice. By the end of these conflicts, Prussia was seen as the most powerful state in Germany, and had total hegemony over the other German states. The NGF was formed after the Austro-Prussian war, uniting the states of north Germany, and Prussia soon led it into another conflict with France.
• The Bhutan War between the British Empire and Bhutan lasted from 1864 to 1865. It ended in a British victory and the loss of some Bhutanese territory to British India.
• The British Expedition to Abyssinia was a rescue mission and punitive expedition carried out in 1868 by the armed forces of the British Empire against the Ethiopian Empire.
• Conclusion of the Russo-Circassian War resulting in Russian victory and subsequent Circassian genocide and diaspora.

  Internal conflicts

• The Federal War was a civil war in Venezuela between the Conservative party and the Liberal party over the monopoly the Conservatives held over government positions and land ownership, and their intransigence to granting any reforms. It was the biggest and bloodiest civil war that Venezuela had since its independence. Hundreds of thousands died in the violence of the war, or from hunger or disease, in a country with a population of just over a million people
• American Civil War fought between the remaining United States of America under President Abraham Lincoln and the self-declared Confederate States of America under President Jefferson Davis and Vice President Alexander Stephens.
• * Beginning of the Reconstruction era under President Andrew Johnson.
• 1863–64 January Uprising in the Russian Empire.
• On 19 July 1864 the fall of Nanjing formally ended the 14-year Taiping Rebellion.
• 1862–1877 Tongzhi Hui Revolt in Qing dynasty of China.
• 1868–1869 Boshin War in Japan, fought between the Tokugawa shogunate and those seeking to return political power to the Imperial Court.

  Prominent political events

• Italian Unification under King Victor Emmanuel II. Wars for expansion and national unity continue until the incorporation of the Papal States.
• Abolition of serfdom in Russia by tsar Alexander II.
• Meiji Restoration in Japan. Tokugawa Yoshinobu, 15th and last of the Tokugawa shōguns loses control to the Meiji Emperor. A series of reforms follows. The samurai class fails to survive while the daimyōs turn to politics.
• The Dominion of Canada is created by the British North America Act on July 1, 1867.
• Compromise between Austria and Hungary, hence creating the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1867.
• The "La Gloriosa"revolution in Spain. Queen Isabella II is deposed.

  Assassinations and attempts