1870s

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From left to right, clockwise: Conflict erupts between the Second French Empire and the Kingdom of Prussia leading to the Franco-Prussian War in 1870; a fire in Chicago kills approximately 300 people and leaves about another 100,000 people homeless in 1871; Claude Monet's Impression, Sunrise is recognized as the source of inspiration for the Impressionist movement; The U.S. Army is defeated by Arapaho, Lakota and Northern Cheyenne tribes during the Battle of the Little Bighorn in 1876; Nicolaus Otto patents the first commercial four-stroke internal combustion engine; Queen Victoria is recognized as the “Empress of India” in the Royal Titles Act 1876; Emirate of Afghanistan forces defend against British Raj invaders in the Second Anglo-Afghan War; British Empire and Zulu Kingdom fighters engage in combat during the Anglo-Zulu War.

The 1870s (pronounced "eighteen-seventies") was a decade of the Gregorian calendar that began on January 1, 1870, and ended on December 31, 1879.

The trends of the previous decade continued into this one, as new empires, imperialism and militarism rose in Europe and Asia. The United States was recovering from the American Civil War, though the Reconstruction era introduced its own legacies of bitterness and racial segregation in the country. Germany unified as a nation in 1871 and became the German Empire. Changing social conditions led workforces to cooperate in the form of labor unions in order to demand better pay and working conditions, with strikes occurring worldwide in the later part of the decade and continuing until World War I. The decade was also a period of significant technological advancement; the phonograph, telephone, and electric light bulb were all invented during the 1870s, though it would take several more decades before they became household items.

Millennium: 2nd millennium
Centuries:
Decades:
Years:
  • 1870
  • 1871
  • 1872
  • 1873
  • 1874
  • 1875
  • 1876
  • 1877
  • 1878
  • 1879
Categories:
  • Births
  • Deaths
  • By country
  • By topic
  • Establishments
  • Disestablishments

Politics and wars[]

Wars[]

Colonization, decolonization, and independence[]

Political and social events[]

Science and technology[]

Franco-Prussian War
Photograph of Edison with his phonograph, taken by Mathew Brady in 1877
The first version of the light bulb was invented by Thomas Edison in 1879

Environment[]

Popular culture[]

Literature and arts[]

  • Jules Verne (France) publishes Around The World in Eighty Days
  • Monet, Renoir, Pissarro, and Sisley organized the Société Anonyme Coopérative des Artistes Peintres, Sculpteurs, Graveurs ("Cooperative and Anonymous Association of Painters, Sculptors, and Engravers") for the purpose of exhibiting their artworks independently. Members of the association, which soon included Cézanne, Berthe Morisot, and Edgar Degas, were expected to forswear participation in the Salon. The organizers invited a number of other progressive artists to join them in their inaugural exhibition, including the slightly older Eugène Boudin, whose example had first persuaded Monet to take up plein air painting years before.[1] Another painter who greatly influenced Monet and his friends, Johan Jongkind, declined to participate, as did Manet. In total, thirty artists participated in their first exhibition, held in April 1874 at the studio of the photographer Nadar. The group soon became known as the Impressionists.[2]
  • Jeanne Calment, born 1875, would eventually become the longest-living human being with a verified lifespan. She lived until 1997, at the age of 122. She still holds the record as of 2020.
  • Lewis Carroll publishes Through the Looking-Glass.
  • Mark Twain publishes ‘’The Adventures of Tom Sawyer’’ in 1876.
  • Henrik Ibsen releases A Doll's House in 1879

Fashion[]

Main article: 1870s in fashion

People[]

Politics[]

Famous and infamous people[]

See also[]

Further reading[]

References[]

  1. ^ Denvir (1990), p.32.
  2. ^ Bernard Denvir, The Thames and Hudson Encyclopaedia of Impressionism (1990).
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