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1796 CE

This year falls in the Early modern period (c. 1500–1800). European ships link the Americas, Africa, Europe and Asia into one trading world, and the conquest of the Americas and the Atlantic slave trade follow. Large land empires, among them the Ottoman, Safavid, Mughal and Qing, rule much of Asia, while printing and the Scientific Revolution change how knowledge spreads in Europe.

Within fifteen years

Philosopher · Age of revolutions and empire · FranceAuguste Comte1798–1857French thinker who founded positivism and coined the word sociology. His law of three stages said thought moves from theology through metaphysics to positive science. He lived 1798 to 1857 and ended by founding a Religion of Humanity.

Event · Age of revolutions · FranceFrench Revolution1789–1799From the Estates-General of 1789 through constitutional monarchy, republic, and the Terror under the Committee of Public Safety, to the Directory. Death sentences and civil war tolls are estimates with ranges.

Philosopher · Age of revolutions and empire · GermanyArthur Schopenhauer1788–1860German pessimist whose World as Will and Representation of 1818 taught that a blind striving will drives all things and that release comes through art and denial. Ignored for decades, he became famous late. He lived 1788 to 1860.

Country · HaitiHaiti1804–Haiti occupies the western third of Hispaniola. Its slaves rose in 1791 and defeated Napoleon to found the first Black republic in 1804. It is now the poorest country in the Americas, torn by gang rule.

Ruler · Age of revolutions and empire · South AfricaShakac. 1787–1828Founder of the Zulu Kingdom, ruling from 1816 to 1828, born about 1787, who revolutionized warfare in southern Africa. He replaced the throwing spear with the short stabbing assegai and drilled his regiments in the buffalo horns formation. His conquests set off the Mfecane, the scattering of peoples across the region.

Philosopher · Age of revolutions and empire · EnglandJohn Stuart Mill1806–1873English thinker raised by his father as a reasoning machine who became liberalism's great defender. On Liberty of 1859 made free speech and individuality the test of civilization. He lived 1806 to 1873.

Country · LiechtensteinLiechtenstein1806–Liechtenstein is a tiny German speaking principality in the Alps, between Switzerland and Austria. It became a sovereign state in 1806. It is a constitutional monarchy under the House of Liechtenstein, one of the richest countries in the world per person.

Ruler · Age of revolutions and empire · United StatesAbraham Lincoln1809–1865Sixteenth president of the United States, 1861 to 1865, born in 1809, who preserved the Union through civil war and ended slavery. The Emancipation Proclamation of 1863 freed the slaves in the rebellious states. He was assassinated at Ford's Theatre on 14 April 1865, five days after Lee's surrender.

Ruler · Age of revolutions and empire · VenezuelaSimon Bolivar1783–1830Venezuelan general and statesman, 1783 to 1830, called the Liberator, who freed much of South America from Spain. His campaigns liberated Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia, the last named for him. He dreamed of a united Spanish America but died disillusioned, his federations broken apart.

Country · ParaguayParaguay1811–Paraguay is a landlocked country in central South America. It declared independence from Spain in 1811. The War of the Triple Alliance in the 1860s killed most of its men; it is now a presidential republic.