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1803 CE

This year falls in the Age of revolutions and empire (1789–1914). Revolutions in France, Haiti and Latin America overturn old regimes, and industry, beginning in Britain, changes work, cities and war. European powers and the United States expand their reach, and by 1914 much of Africa and Asia is under colonial rule.

Within fifteen years

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Philosopher · Age of revolutions and empire · DenmarkSøren Kierkegaard1813–1855Danish thinker, the father of existentialism, who wrote under pseudonyms about the individual's leap of faith against Hegel's system. Fear and Trembling retells Abraham's trial. He lived 1813 to 1855 and died at forty two.

Ruler · Age of revolutions and empire · GermanyOtto von Bismarck1815–1898Prussian and German statesman, 1815 to 1898, who unified Germany by war and diplomacy. As minister president of Prussia from 1862 he provoked wars with Denmark, Austria and France, then proclaimed the German Empire at Versailles in 1871. Dismissed by the young Kaiser Wilhelm II in 1890, he warned that his successors would ruin his work.

Country · ArgentinaArgentina1816–Argentina is a large country in southern South America, stretching from the Andes to the Atlantic. It declared independence from Spain in 1816. It is a federal presidential republic known for tango, beef, and football.

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 · ChileChile1818–Chile is a long, narrow country between the Andes and the Pacific. Bernardo O'Higgins declared independence from Spain in 1818. It is a presidential republic, now among South America's most stable states.

Philosopher · Age of revolutions and empire · GermanyKarl Marx1818–1883German thinker who turned Hegel's dialectic into historical materialism: class struggle drives history, and capitalism digs its own grave. The Communist Manifesto of 1848 and Capital of 1867 made him the most politically consequential philosopher of modern times. He lived 1818 to 1883, mostly in London exile.