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1848 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.

Dated to 1848 CE

Philosopher · Age of revolutions and empire · GermanyGottlob Frege1848–1925German mathematician and logician who founded analytic philosophy by inventing modern logic. His Begriffsschrift of 1879 rebuilt reasoning on exact symbols. Russell's paradox broke his life's work, the reduction of arithmetic to logic. He lived 1848 to 1925.

Within fifteen years

Country · GuatemalaGuatemala1847–Guatemala is a Central American country, heartland of the ancient Maya. It became fully independent in 1847. A 1954 CIA backed coup and a long civil war scarred it; it is now a presidential republic.

Country · LiberiaLiberia1847–Liberia is a West African country founded by freed American slaves. It declared independence in 1847, the first African republic. Civil wars from 1989 to 2003 devastated it; it is now a presidential republic.

Country · Dominican RepublicDominican Republic1844–The Dominican Republic occupies the eastern two thirds of Hispaniola, the island where Columbus landed. It declared independence from Haiti in 1844. It is a presidential republic and the Caribbean's largest economy.

Philosopher · Age of revolutions and empire · GermanyFriedrich Nietzsche1844–1900German thinker who announced the death of God and demanded a revaluation of all values. Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Beyond Good and Evil, and the Genealogy of Morals made him philosophy's great stylist and destroyer. He collapsed in 1889 and lived 1844 to 1900.

Ruler · Age of revolutions and empire · JapanMeiji1852–1912Emperor of Japan from 1867 to 1912, born Mutsuhito in 1852, in whose name Japan was transformed from a feudal state into a modern power. The Meiji Restoration abolished the shogunate, built railways, schools and a conscript army, and wrote a constitution. Japan defeated China in 1895 and Russia in 1905 under his reign.

Country · El SalvadorEl Salvador1841–El Salvador is the smallest country in Central America, on the Pacific coast. It became fully independent in 1841 after the Central American federation broke up. A civil war from 1979 to 1992 killed about 75,000 people.

Philosopher · Age of revolutions · FranceGustave Le Bon1841–1931French physician and publicist. Psychologie des foules (1895) described crowd suggestion, prestige and repetition. His racial hierarchies and brain-volume claims have been repudiated.

Country · HondurasHonduras1841–Honduras is a Central American country on the Caribbean. It became fully independent in 1841. American fruit companies dominated it as a banana republic; it is now a presidential republic.

Country · LuxembourgLuxembourg1839–Luxembourg is a small landlocked country between France, Germany, and Belgium. It became fully independent in 1839. It is a constitutional monarchy and one of the founding members of the European Union.

Country · NicaraguaNicaragua1838–Nicaragua is the largest country in Central America. It left the Central American federation in 1838. The Somoza dictatorship, the Sandinista revolution, and the Contra war shaped it; Daniel Ortega rules again as an autocrat.

Philosopher · Age of revolutions and empire · CzechiaEdmund Husserl1859–1938Moravian born German thinker who founded phenomenology, the study of things as they appear to consciousness. His motto was back to the things themselves. He lived 1859 to 1938, stripped of his posts by the Nazis.

Country · ItalyItaly1861–Italy is a peninsula in southern Europe, heir to ancient Rome and the Renaissance. It was unified as a kingdom in 1861 after centuries of division. The modern republic was founded in 1946, after the fall of Mussolini.