1815-2-26 Bonaparte Escapes

1815-2-26 Bonaparte escapes exile on the Mediterranean island of Elba - HiPo > .

1815-6-9 Final Act of Congress of Vienna signed, days before Waterloo - HiPo > .

On 26 February 1815, Napoleon Bonaparte escaped exile on the Mediterranean island of Elba and sailed to the French mainland.

On 11 April 1814 Napoleon had agreed to the Treaty of Fontainebleau, in which he abdicated the throne following his defeat in the War of the Sixth Coalition. The Treaty ended his rule of France but allowed him to keep his title as Emperor. He was granted sovereignty of the island of Elba and, following a failed suicide attempt, arrived on the island on 30 May.

Throughout the nine months and twenty-one days that he remained on Elba, Napoleon observed with interest the unfolding situation in France under the restored Bourbon king. Meanwhile he implemented a series of social and economic reforms to improve the situation on the island.

It was Napoleon’s confidence in the likelihood of a popular revolt in his favour that led to him leaving the island. Furthermore the Great Powers were distracted by internal disagreements at the Congress of Vienna. The ships from the British Navy that were supposed to ensure Napoleon was unable to escape his exile were not in the area when, on 26 February, he left the island and headed for the French mainland on board the brig Inconstant accompanied by almost a thousand troops.

Napoleon’s arrival in France was greeted with enthusiasm. After landing at the coastal town of Golfe-Juan on 1 March, he quickly secured support from a small army with whom he marched to Paris. His arrival on 20 March led Louis XVIII to flee the city and heralded the start of a period of Napoleonic government that became known as the Hundred Days.

On 9 June 1815 the ‘Final Act’ of the Congress of Vienna was signed, nine days before Napoleon’s final defeat at the Battle of Waterloo.

The Congress was chaired by Metternich, the Austrian principal minister, and led by the ‘Four Great Powers’ of Austria, Russia, Britain, and Prussia alongside France. In total over 200 states were represented in some way at the Congress, making it the largest diplomatic event of its time. However, the key terms were discussed and decided by the Great Powers in informal meetings.

The Congress met with the purpose of reviewing and reorganising Europe after the Napoleonic Wars. By doing this, the Great Powers hoped to achieve a lasting peace. Having first met after the defeat and surrender of Napoleonic France in 1814, the meetings continued in spite of the renewal of hostilities following the period known as the Hundred Days in which Napoleon returned from exile and took back control of France.

The Final Act of the Congress set in place a map of Europe that remained largely unchanged for the next forty years, and which laid the foundations for the First World War. Historians and politicians in the later 19th Century even criticised the attendees for focusing more on achieving a balance of power than on maintaining peace.

The Final Settlement largely ignored the emerging nationalist sentiments in parts of Europe, and this exclusion was particularly heavily criticised by later commentators. Although nationalist movements were a key factor in the disputes and conflicts that emerged later, it’s important to remember that the Congress did succeed in its primary aim of securing wider European peace for the best part of a century.

Highland Clearances 1815+

.In Our Time: The Highland Clearances - BBC > .

The Highland Clearances (Fuadaichean nan Gàidheal, the "eviction of the Gaels") were the evictions of a significant number of tenants in the Scottish Highlands and Islands, mostly in the period 1750 to 1860.

The second phase (c.1815–20 to 1850s) involved overcrowded crofting communities from the first phase that had lost the means to support themselves, through famine and/or collapse of industries that they had relied on (such as the kelp trade), as well as continuing population growth. This is when "assisted passages" were common, when landowners paid the fares for their tenants to emigrate. Tenants who were selected for this had, in practical terms, little choice but to emigrate. The Highland Potato Famine struck towards the end of this period, giving greater urgency to the process.

Agriculture in the Highlands had always been marginal, with famine a recurrent risk for pre-clearance communities. Nevertheless, population levels increased steadily through the 18th and early 19th centuries. This increase continued through nearly all of the time of the clearances, peaking in 1851, at around 300,000. Emigration was part of Highland history before and during the clearances, and reached its highest level after them. During the first phase of the clearances, emigration could be considered a form of resistance to the loss of status being imposed by a landlord's social engineering.

The eviction of tenants went against dùthchas, the principle that clan members had an inalienable right to rent land in the clan territory. This was never recognised in Scottish law. It was gradually abandoned by clan chiefs as they began to think of themselves simply as commercial landlords, rather than as patriarchs of their people—a process that arguably started with the Statutes of Iona. The clan members continued to rely on dùthchas. This different viewpoint was an inevitable source of grievance. The actions of landlords varied. Some did try to delay or limit evictions, often to their financial cost. The Countess of Sutherland genuinely believed her plans were advantageous for those resettled in crofting communities and could not understand why tenants complained. A few landlords displayed complete lack of concern for evicted tenants.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Highland_Clearances .

Highland Clearances, 1750+ ..  

Kate Warne, Detective

Kate Warne: America's First Female Detective, Pinkerton Agency > . 

Kate Warne (1833 – January 28, 1868) was the first female detective, from 1856 to 1868 (her death), in the Pinkerton Detective Agency and the United States.

...

Warne reported back to Pinkerton about all her work when he was away from the office and they worked together, on numerous cases, during their tenure. Pinkerton constantly showed a deep trust in the work that Warne performed and acknowledges so in his memoirs. She was in charge of the Female Detective Bureau established by Pinkerton, her title being Supervisor of Women Agents.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kate_Warne 

Siam Avoids Colonization

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Why wasn't Thailand Colonized? - Know > .

> Vietnam >>

24-8-14 Myanmar's Bleak Future: Civil War and Ethnic Strife || Peter Zeihan > .

24-4-6 Vietnam: Hx, USA-Xina Relations, SXS, economy - gtbt > .

As the powers of Europe began to grow and expand throughout the world’s history, colonialism became the forefront of this expansion. Over time, almost every non-European nation became a colony of one European nation or another at some point. Only a few countries managed to escape becoming overpowered by the Europeans, which makes us wonder, how did they do it? For a nation like Thailand, which was surrounded by British, French, and Dutch territories, there seemed to be no hope of avoiding colonialism. And yet, somehow, not the British, nor the French, or even the Dutch, ever colonized Thailand - and neither did any other European power.

British Burma (1885-1948): In the 19th century, Burmese rulers, whose country had not previously been of particular interest to European traders, sought to maintain their traditional influence in the western areas of Assam, Manipur and Arakan. Pressing them, however, was the British East India Company, which was expanding its interests eastwards over the same territory. Over the next sixty years, diplomacy, raids, treaties and compromises, known collectively as the Anglo-Burmese Wars, continued until Britain proclaimed control over most of Burma. With the fall of Mandalay, all of Burma came under British rule, being annexed on 1 January 1886.

French Indochina (previously spelled as French Indo-China) (Indochine française), officially known as the Indochinese Union (Union indochinoise) from 1887 and the Indochinese Federation (French: Fédération indochinoise; Vietnamese: Liên đoàn Đông Dương) after 1947, was a grouping of French colonial territories in Southeast Asia until its demise in 1954. It comprised three Vietnamese regions of Tonkin in the north, Annam in the centre, and Cochinchina in the south, Cambodia, Laos (from 1899) and the Chinese territory of Guangzhouwan (from 1898 until 1945). The capital for most of its history (1902–45) was Hanoi; Saigon was the capital from 1887 to 1902 and again from 1945 to 1954.

The French annexed Cochinchina and established a protectorate in Cambodia in 1862 and 1863 respectively. After the French took over northern Vietnam through the Tonkin campaign, the various protectorates were consolidated into one union in 1887. Two more entities were incorporated into the union: the Laotian protectorate and the Chinese territory of Guangzhouwan. The French exploited the resources in the region during their rule, but also contributed to improvements of the health and education system in the region. Nevertheless, deep divides remained between the natives and the colonists, leading to sporadic rebellions by the latter. After the Fall of France during World War II, the colony was administered by the Vichy government and was under Japanese occupation until March 1945, when the Japanese overthrew the colonial regime. After the Japanese surrender, the Viet Minh, a communist organization led by Hồ Chí Minh, declared Vietnamese independence, but France subsequently took back control of French Indochina. An all-out independence war, known as the First Indochina War, broke out in late 1946 between French and Viet Minh forces.

To counter the Viet Minh, the State of Vietnam, led by former Emperor Bảo Đại, was proclaimed in 1949. French efforts to reunite Vietnam were unsuccessful. On 22 October and 9 November 1953, the Kingdom of Laos and Kingdom of Cambodia proclaimed their respective independences. Following the Geneva Accord of 1954, the French withdrew from Vietnam, which had been split into the two countries (until 1976), and French Indochina was no more.

The Dutch East Indies (or Netherlands East-Indies; Nederlands(ch)-Indië) was a Dutch colony consisting of what is now Indonesia. It was formed from the nationalised colonies of the Dutch East India Company, which came under the administration of the Dutch government in 1800.

During the 19th century, the Dutch possessions and hegemony were expanded, reaching their greatest territorial extent in the early 20th century. The Dutch East Indies was one of the most valuable colonies under European rule, and contributed to Dutch global prominence in spice and cash crop trade in the 19th to early 20th century. The colonial social order was based on rigid racial and social structures with a Dutch elite living separate from but linked to their native subjects. The term Indonesia came into use for the geographical location after 1880. In the early 20th century, local intellectuals began developing the concept of Indonesia as a nation state, and set the stage for an independence movement.

Japan's World War II occupation dismantled much of the Dutch colonial state and economy. Following the Japanese surrender in August 1945, Indonesian nationalists declared independence which they fought to secure during the subsequent Indonesian National Revolution. The Netherlands formally recognized Indonesian sovereignty at the 1949 Dutch–Indonesian Round Table Conference with the exception of the Netherlands New Guinea (Western New Guinea), which was ceded to Indonesia 14 years later in 1963 under the provisions of the New York Agreement.

Third Reform Act 1884

"Greatest Revolution", Third Reform Act 1884, Redistribution of Seats Act 1885 > .
Second Reform Act, a brief history of the Second Reform Act 1867 > .
What was the Secret Ballot? | The Ballot Act 1872 > .

Chartism - HiHu >> .
Protest in the Nineteenth Century - HiHu >> .
Nineteenth Century Social Reform - HiHu >> . 

Abolition of Slavery - HiHu >> . 

Reforming Parliament in the Long Nineteenth Century - HiHu >> . 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Representation_of_the_People_Act_1884 .