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The 19th century began on January 1, 1801 and ended on December 31, 1900, according to the Gregorian calendar. During the 19th century, the Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, and Ottoman empires began to crumble, the Holy Roman Empire was dissolved, and the Mughal empire collapsed.

Antoine-Jean Gros, Surrender of Madrid, 1808. Napoleon enters Spain's capital during the Peninsular War, 1810

After the Napoleonic Wars, the British Empire became the world's leading power, controlling one quarter of the world's population and one third of the land area. It enforced a Pax Britannica, encouraged trade, and battled rampant piracy. During this time the 19th century was an era of widespread invention and discovery, with significant developments in the understanding or manipulation of mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, electricity, and metallurgy largely setting the groundworks for the comparably overwhelming and very rapid technological innovations which would take place the following century.

Modest advances in medicine and the understanding of human anatomy and disease prevention were also applicable to the 1800s, and were partly responsible for rapidly accelerating population growth in the western world. The introduction of railroads provided the first major advancement in land transportation for centuries, and their placement and application radically altered the ways people could live and rapidly and reliably obtain necessary commodities, fueling major urbanization movements in countries across the globe. Numerous cities worldwide surpassed populations of 1,000,000 or more during this century. The last remaining undiscovered landmasses of Earth, largely pacific island chains and atolls, were discovered during this century, and with the exception of the extreme zones of the Arctic and Antarctic, accurate and detailed maps of the globe were available by the 1890s.

Jean-Léon Gérôme, The Slave Market c.1884

Slavery was greatly reduced around the world. Following a successful slave revolt in Haiti, Britain forced the Barbary pirates to halt their practice of kidnapping and enslaving Europeans, banned slavery throughout its domain, and charged its navy with ending the global slave trade. Britain abolished slavery in 1834, America's 13th Amendment following their Civil War abolished slavery there in 1865, and in Brazil slavery was abolished in 1888 (see Abolitionism). Similarly, serfdom was abolished in Russia.

The 19th century was remarkable in the widespread formation of new settlement foundations which were particularly prevalent across North America and Australasia, with a significant proportion of the two continents' largest cities being founded at some point in the century.

Eras

• Industrial revolution
• British Regency, Victorian era (UK, British Empire)
• Bourbon Restoration, July Monarchy, French Second Republic, Second French Empire, French Third Republic (France)
• Edo period, Meiji period (Japan)
• Qing Dynasty (China)
• Tanzimat, First Constitutional Era (Ottoman Empire)
• Russian Empire
• American Manifest Destiny

Events

Map of the world from 1897. The British Empire (marked in pink) was the superpower of the 19th century.

1800–1809

• 1800: The Company of Surgeons are awarded their Royal Charter and became The Royal College of Surgeons of England.
• 1800: The inception of the Second Great Awakening for the United States.
• 1801: The Kingdom of Great Britain and the Kingdom of Ireland merge to form the United Kingdom.
• 1801: Ranjit Singh crowned as King of Punjab.
• 1801–15: Barbary War between the United States and the Barbary States of North Africa
• 1803: The United States buys out France's territorial claims in North America via the Louisiana Purchase. This begins the U.S.'s westward expansion to the Pacific referred to as its Manifest Destiny which involves annexing and conquering land from Mexico, Britain, and Native Americans.
• 1803: Saudi Wahhabists conquered Mecca and destroyed various shrines.
• 1804: Haiti gains independence from France and becomes the first black republic.
• 1804: Austrian Empire founded by Francis I.
• 1804–10: Fulani Jihad in Nigeria.
• 1804–15: Serbian revolution erupts against the Ottoman rule. Suzerainty of Serbia recognized in 1817.
• 1805–48: Muhammad Ali modernizes Egypt.
• 1806: Holy Roman Empire dissolved as a consequence of the Treaty of Lunéville.
• 1807: Kingdom of Great Britain declares the Slave Trade illegal.
• 1808–09: Russia conquers Finland from Sweden in the Finnish War.
• 1808–14: Spanish guerrillas fight in the Peninsular War.
• 1809: Napoleon strips the Teutonic Knights of their last holdings in Bad Mergentheim.

1810s

1816: Shaka rises to power over the Zulu kingdom

• 1810: The University of Berlin, the world's first research university, is founded. Among its students and faculty are Hegel, Marx, and Bismarck. The German university reform proves to be so successful that its model is copied around the world (see History of European research universities).
• 1810s–20s: Most of the Latin American colonies free themselves from the Spanish and Portuguese Empires after the Mexican War of Independence and the South American Wars of Independence.
• 1812: The French invasion of Russia is a turning point in the Napoleonic Wars.
• 1812–15: War of 1812 between the United States and the United Kingdom
• 1813–1907: The contest between the British Empire and Imperial Russia for control of Central Asia is referred to as the Great Game.
• 1815: The Congress of Vienna redraws the European map. The Concert of Europe attempts to preserve this settlement, but it fails to stem the tide of liberalism and nationalism that sweeps over the continent.
• 1815: Napoleon's defeat at Waterloo brings a conclusion to the Napoleonic Wars and marks the beginning of a Pax Britannica which lasts until 1870.
• 1816: Year Without a Summer: Unusually cold conditions wreak havoc throughout the Northern Hemisphere, likely caused by the 1815 explosion of Mount Tambora.
• 1816–28: Shaka's Zulu kingdom becomes the largest in Southern Africa.
• 1817: Principality of Serbia becomes suzerain from the Ottoman Empire. Officially independent in 1867.
• 1819: The modern city of Singapore is established by the British East India Company.

1820s

• 1820: Liberia founded by the American Colonization Society for freed American slaves.
• 1821: Peru declares its independence from Spain
• 1821–27: Greece becomes the first country to break away from the Ottoman Empire after the Greek War of Independence.
• 1823–87: The British Empire annexed Burma (now also called Myanmar) after three Anglo-Burmese Wars.
• 1825: Erie Canal opened connecting the Great Lakes to the Atlantic Ocean.
• 1826–28: After the final Russo-Persian War, the Persian Empire took back territory lost to Russia from the previous war.
• 1825–28: The Argentina-Brazil War results in the independence of Uruguay.