The Year 1850

Podcast Transcript

The year 1850 was the mid-point of the 19th century, one of the most transformative centuries in human history.

The first half of the 19th century saw wars, revolutions, and rapid technical and social changes.

In fact, there was arguably more technical and social change in the world during those fifty years than there had been in the last thousand years….and it was only just the beginning.

Learn more about the world in the year 1850 on the 1,850th episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.

For those of you who have been following along, I’ve been doing a state of the world episode every 100 episodes since episode 1500.

From 1500 to 1800, the pace of change was certainly faster than it had been in human history, but still relatively slow compared to what we have experienced in the last 200 years.

I didn’t think it was possible, or desirable, to try to cram the 19th century in a single episode. In fact, I’m not even sure trying to fit these 50 years will do it justice, but it is more reasonable than trying to cover an entire century.

So, let’s start with what was happening in the Pacific. In the last several century recap episodes, not much was happening. European explorers sailed around, made contact, and saw some islands, but that was about it.

Life didn’t change that much for the people who lived there. However, in the 19th century, that started to change dramatically.

Between 1801 and 1850, Australia and New Zealand underwent dramatic transformations as the forces of European colonization intensified across both regions, bringing significant political, social, and economic changes, often at the devastating expense of Indigenous peoples.

The early 19th century saw the spread of European settlement beyond Sydney into the hinterlands of New South Wales and, later, into newly established colonies. Van Diemen’s Land, or modern Tasmania, became a separate colony in 1825, notorious for its harsh penal settlements. Western Australia was founded in 1829 as the Swan River Colony, and South Australia followed in 1836 as a planned free settlement.

By the 1840s, Melbourne and Adelaide had become thriving colonial centers. Transportation of convicts continued until the 1840s but began to wane under growing opposition. In 1850, the Australian Colonies Government Act was passed in Britain, granting limited self-government to several colonies and setting the stage for greater autonomy.

In New Zealand, European contact had begun in earnest in the late 18th century, and colonization intensified in the 19th century. British missionaries arrived in the early 1800s, and whaling, sealing, and trade drew more Europeans to the land of the M?ori.

However, it was not until the 1840 signing of the Treaty of Waitangi that British sovereignty was formally claimed. The treaty, signed between many M?ori chiefs and the British Crown, was meant to guarantee M?ori land rights and protection in exchange for British governance.

However, differences in translation between the M?ori and English versions led to deep misunderstandings and disputes. While the British considered it a cession of sovereignty, many M?ori believed they were agreeing to a partnership.

Over in Asia, Chinese isolation was breaking down under foreign pressure. The Opium Wars with Britain forced China to open treaty ports and demonstrated the Qing Dynasty’s military inferiority to Western powers.

Its weakness would become even more evident in the second half of the century.

Japan remained under the Tokugawa shogunate, enforcing strict isolation as it had for centuries. Power was centralized in the shogun, with the emperor relegated to ceremonial status. However, internal economic and social pressures were building up.

As with China, Japan was living in the last stages of a traditional world which would be abandoned in the second half of the century during the Meiji Restoration.

India was increasingly dominated by the British East India Company, which expanded its control through military conquest and political manipulation. By 1850, the Company controlled most of the subcontinent either directly or through dependent princely states.

British rule brought significant changes to Indian society. The introduction of English education, legal systems, and administrative practices began creating a Western-educated Indian elite. Railroad construction and telegraph lines improved communication and transportation, though primarily to serve British commercial and strategic interests.

Traditional Indian industries, particularly textiles, faced devastating competition from British machine-made goods. This deindustrialization contributed to rural poverty and social disruption that would have long-lasting consequences.

Most of Africa remained outside direct European control during this period, as the Scramble for Africa hadn’t started yet, but European influence was growing through coastal trading posts and missionary activities.

The abolition of the slave trade by European powers, particularly by Britain in 1833, marked a significant reduction in the African slave trade, although it still persisted. The British began to use their navy to hunt down and free ships that were engaged in the slave trade.

The French invasion of Algeria began in 1830, which would lead to French entanglement with the country for over a century.

Muhammad Ali ruled Egypt from 1805 to 1848 as an ambitious and transformative leader who is often regarded as the founder of modern Egypt. Though nominally an Ottoman governor, he operated with near-total autonomy and launched a sweeping program of military, economic, and administrative reforms aimed at centralizing power and modernizing the country.

He built a powerful army and navy using conscription and European training, and established state monopolies over agriculture and industry, promoting cotton cultivation and founding textile factories and munitions works.

In South Africa, Boer settlers pushed inland, coming into conflict with indigenous African peoples in a series of frontier wars. These conflicts foreshadowed the more extensive European colonization that would come later in the century.

From 1801 to 1850, the Ottoman Empire was in a period of profound crisis and attempted reform as it grappled with internal decay, external threats, and the challenge of modernization. Militarily weakened and territorially diminished, as mentioned, the empire lost effective control over Egypt.

Meanwhile, nationalist revolts, most notably the Greek War of Independence from 1821 to 1829, further eroded Ottoman authority and forced European intervention, culminating in Greek independence with the Treaty of Constantinople in 1832.

Economically, the empire became increasingly dependent on European loans and trade, while technologically it lagged behind Western powers, though early rail and telegraph projects began to appear. Despite efforts at reform, the empire’s weakening geopolitical position earned it the moniker “the sick man of Europe” as it struggled to preserve its integrity in the face of internal fragmentation and growing European encroachment.

Latin America experienced one of the most profound periods of political and social upheaval in its history, marked by the collapse of Spanish and Portuguese colonial rule and the formation of independent republics across the continent.

The Napoleonic invasion of Spain in 1808 weakened Spanish authority and created a power vacuum that ignited independence movements throughout Spanish America. Inspired by Enlightenment ideals, the American and French revolutions, and local grievances, revolutionary leaders such as Simón Bolívar, José de San Martín, Miguel Hidalgo, and Bernardo O’Higgins led armed struggles for independence from Buenos Aires to Mexico.

By the mid-1820s, most of Latin America, excluding the Caribbean colonies and a few strongholds, had declared independence from European powers.

The political landscape after independence was unstable and fragmented. Large colonial administrative units such as Gran Colombia and the United Provinces of Central America dissolved into smaller, often warring states.

Caudillos, or military strongmen, rose to power, exploiting weak institutions and regional rivalries. Many countries adopted republican constitutions, but democratic governance was often undermined by authoritarian rule, factionalism, and frequent civil wars.

Meanwhile, Brazil followed a unique path, becoming an independent constitutional monarchy under Dom Pedro I in 1822, avoiding the violent upheavals that characterized the Spanish American wars of independence.

The social order saw only partial transformation. While legal racial hierarchies were dismantled with independence, deep economic and social inequalities endured.

The Catholic Church retained significant influence, though in some countries it faced growing pressure from liberal anticlerical movements.

By 1850, Latin America was a region defined by political experiments, economic realignment, and unfinished social revolutions, laying the groundwork for future conflicts and the gradual emergence of more stable national identities.

In North America, the United States expanded westward under the banner of Manifest Destiny. Key events included the Louisiana Purchase, the War of 1812, the Monroe Doctrine, and the annexation of Texas.

By the end of 1850, the United States had 31 states.

The most recent state to join the Union at that time was California, which was admitted on September 9, 1850, as part of the Compromise of 1850.

Native American displacement accelerated via forced treaties and removals such as the Trail of Tears in 1838.

The U.S. economy transitioned from subsistence farming to market-driven agriculture and industry. The cotton economy boomed in the South, driven by slavery and exports to Britain. The North experienced early industrialization in textiles, iron, and railroads. Banking and infrastructure improved. The Erie Canal boosted trade, while tariffs and banking systems sparked regional political debates.

The biggest issue looming over the country was slavery. The issue had been festering since the founding of the country, and it would come to a head in a little over a decade.

In 1850, Canada was not yet a unified nation but a collection of British North American colonies united in 1841 under the Province of Canada following the Act of Union. Governed by a British-appointed governor general, the colony had limited self-rule, though the achievement of responsible government in 1848 marked a significant step toward democratic autonomy.

Europe during this period functioned as the primary laboratory for political and economic experimentation. The continent was still reeling from the French Revolution’s aftermath when Napoleon Bonaparte dominated the early years of the century. His conquests spread revolutionary ideals across Europe while simultaneously triggering nationalist responses that would reshape the political map.

Politically, the Congress of Vienna in 1815 attempted to restore stability by reinstating monarchical authority, but the revolutionary genie could not be returned to its bottle.

The 1830 revolutions in France, Belgium, and Poland demonstrated that liberal and nationalist sentiments remained powerful forces. By 1848, a wave of revolutions swept across the continent, from Paris to Vienna to Berlin, though most were ultimately suppressed. These uprisings revealed the growing tension between monarchy and democracy.

Britain deserves special attention because it pioneered the Industrial Revolution that would eventually transform the entire globe. By 1850, Britain had become what contemporaries called “the workshop of the world,” producing roughly half of the world’s iron and coal.

The political system evolved through gradual reform rather than revolution. The Great Reform Act of 1832 began expanding voting rights beyond the traditional landed elite, though still excluding most working-class men and all women. This process of incremental democratization helped Britain avoid the revolutionary upheavals that swept continental Europe.

Economically, Britain embraced free trade principles, culminating in the repeal of the Corn Laws in 1846. This shift reflected the growing political influence of industrial and commercial interests over traditional agricultural ones. The expansion of railway networks, from just a few hundred miles in 1830 to over 6,000 miles by 1850, knitted the country together as never before.

Underlying almost all of the changes I’ve mentioned so far was a revolution in science and technology.

The widespread adoption of steam power revolutionized transportation and manufacturing. Steamships made transoceanic travel faster and more reliable, while railroads transformed inland transport and commerce. The telegraph, developed in the 1830s and first demonstrated by Samuel Morse in 1844, enabled near-instantaneous communication over long distances for the first time in history.

In manufacturing, mechanized textile production advanced dramatically with inventions like the power loom, and the use of interchangeable parts in tools and weapons production signaled the rise of mass production. In metallurgy, the hot blast furnace improved iron production efficiency, supporting the expansion of railways and heavy industry.

Scientifically, this era saw major strides in fields like chemistry, where John Dalton introduced atomic theory, and Dmitri Mendeleev began laying the groundwork for the periodic table.

In biology, Georges Cuvier and Jean-Baptiste Lamarck contributed to early theories of evolution, setting the stage for Charles Darwin.

Advances in geology and paleontology provided new understandings of Earth’s history, while Michael Faraday’s work on electromagnetism in the 1820s and 1830s fundamentally changed physics and inspired later electrical technologies.

Medical knowledge also progressed, with growing acceptance of germ theory, the introduction of ether anesthesia in surgery in 1846, and improvements in sanitation and public health awareness.

These decades marked a critical transition from Enlightenment science to the applied, systematic investigations that would define the later 19th century.

For those of us living today, life in the early 1800s might seem quaint, yet for the people who lived then, they were experiencing a world of perplexing changes and technological wonders.

As incredible as the changes of the first half of the 19th century were, they only foreshadowed what was to come.