1867
Marx Publishes Capital
The first volume of Karl Marx's gigantic economic work appeared in Hamburg after twenty years of reading in the British Museum. It was dense, German, and nearly unreadable. It sold slowly. But it gave the workers' movement a theory to fight with, and transformed socialism from a sentimental dream into something that sounded like science.
Canadian Confederation
The British North America Act joined Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick into a self-governing dominion under the Crown. Canada was a state mostly for self-defense against an American army fresh from civil war. Sir John A. Macdonald became prime minister. Within a decade the dominion would stretch, on paper, to the Pacific.
Austro-Hungarian Compromise
To hold his empire together after Königgrätz, Franz Joseph made a deal with the Hungarian nobility: separate parliaments, common army and foreign policy, one crown worn twice. He was crowned king of Hungary in Buda. The Dual Monarchy would stagger on for another fifty years and die in 1918, but this was its birth certificate.
Alaska Purchased
Secretary of State William Seward bought Alaska from Russia for $7.2 million - about two cents an acre. Newspapers called it "Seward's Folly" and "Seward's Icebox." Thirty years later, prospectors would find gold at Klondike Creek, and the deal would look, in retrospect, inspired. Russia had been very glad to be rid of it.
Maximilian Executed
The Habsburg prince whom Napoleon III had installed as emperor of Mexico was captured by Benito Juarez's republicans, tried, and shot by a firing squad on a hill outside Queretaro. Manet would paint it. Napoleon's Mexican adventure - and the last European attempt to plant a monarchy in the New World - ended in a ditch.
Paris Exposition
Napoleon III's second world's fair drew eleven million visitors to an oval pavilion on the Champ de Mars, showing off machinery, railways, and empires. The Khedive of Egypt had a palace; Japan had its first official European exhibit; Krupp showed a fourteen-inch siege gun. The Second Empire was at the height of its confidence and three years from Sedan.
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Frequently asked
What happened in the year 1867?
Saeculum lists 6 curated events from 1867. The most significant is Marx Publishes Capital: The first volume of Karl Marx's gigantic economic work appeared in Hamburg after twenty years of reading in the British Museum.
What era was 1867 part of?
1867 falls within the Industrial Age (1801-1900). Steam, empire, and the unmaking of the old order.
Which regions saw notable events in 1867?
The curated events from 1867 span Europe and North America.