Modern Era
Repeal of the Corn Laws (1846): Free Trade and Peel's Fall
The Importation Act 1846 phased out duties on foreign grain by 1849, split the Conservative Party and brought down Peel's government.
Era · c. 1800 – 1945
Modern Era
Industry, science and global conflict: the century and a half that built the modern world.
Modern Era
Donner Party (1846-1847): Trapped in the Sierra Nevada Snows
Of the 87 members of the party, about 48 survived; the rest died of starvation, cold, violence or exhaustion.
Modern Era
Mexican-American War (1846-1848): War for the American West
US victory; under the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo Mexico ceded California and most of the Southwest and accepted the Rio Grande border.
Modern Era
Ether Day (1846): The First Public Surgery Under Anaesthesia
A public demonstration proved that inhaled ether could prevent pain during surgery, and surgical anaesthesia spread around the world within months.
Modern Era
Discovery of Neptune (1846): The Planet Found by Mathematics
Neptune became the first planet found by mathematical prediction rather than by chance, a striking confirmation of Newtonian gravitation.
Modern Era
Semmelweis and Handwashing (1847): Fighting Childbed Fever
Handwashing with chlorinated lime cut maternal deaths in the clinic dramatically, but Semmelweis's explanation was widely rejected during his lifetime.
Modern Era
Young Ireland Rebellion (1848): Rising During the Famine
The rising collapsed after a brief exchange of fire with police; its leaders were convicted of high treason and transported to Van Diemen's Land.
Modern Era
Frankfurt Parliament (1848-1849): First German National Assembly
The Assembly adopted a constitution for a united Germany in March 1849, but the King of Prussia refused the imperial crown and the parliament was dissolved.
Modern Era
Hungarian Revolution of 1848: Kossuth Against the Habsburgs
Hungary was defeated by Austria and Russia in August 1849 and ruled directly from Vienna, but the end of serfdom survived and the revolution became a national founding myth.
Modern Era
The Communist Manifesto (1848): Marx and Engels' Pamphlet
A small pamphlet with little impact in 1848 became, from the 1870s onwards, one of the most widely read and influential political texts in history.
Modern Era
Revolutions of 1848: The Springtime of Peoples in Europe
Most revolutions were defeated by 1849, but serfdom ended in the Austrian Empire, France gained universal male suffrage and several states kept constitutions.
Modern Era
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (1848): Mexico Cedes the Southwest
Mexico ceded about 525,000 square miles, including California and New Mexico, and accepted the Rio Grande border with Texas.