View source for 1850s

{{Short description|Decade}}

[[File:1850s Montage.jpg|thumb|335x335px|From left, clockwise: [[Henry Clay]] introduces the '''[[Compromise of 1850]]''' 
 the [[United States Senate|U.S. Senate]]; [[Harriet Beecher Stowe]] publishes '''''[[Uncle Tom's Cabin|Uncle Tom’s Cabin]]'''''; Russian forces fight against British, French and Ottoman forces in [[Sevastopol]] during the '''[[Crimean War]]'''; '''[[SS Arctic|SS ''Arctic'']]''', an American steamship, sinks in the Atlantic Ocean after a collision with a French steamship, [[SS Vesta|SS ''Vesta'']] in 1854; The '''[[Panama Canal Railway|Panama Railroad]]''' opens in 1855 connecting the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans with a railroad in Central America; Anglo-French and Qing Empire forces engage each other in a four-year long campaign known as the '''[[Second Opium War]]''' starting in 1856; '''''[[Dred Scott v. Sandford]]''''' denies American citizenship as mandated under the [[Constitution of the United States|U.S. Constitution]] to African Americans; [[Charles Darwin]] publishes ''[[On the Origin of Species]]'' in 1859, presenting the idea of '''[[natural selection]]'''.]]
{{Decadebox|185}}

The '''1850s''' (pronounced "eighteen-fifties") was a [[decade]] of the [[Gregorian calendar]] that began on January 1, 1850, and ended on December 31, 1859.

It was a very turbulent decade, as wars such as the [[Crimean War]], shifted and shook European politics, as well as the expansion of [[colonization]] towards the [[Far East]], which also sparked conflicts like the [[Second Opium War]]. In the meantime, the United States saw its peak on [[American frontier|mass migration to the American West]], that particularly made the nation experience an economic boom, as well as a rapidly increasing population.

The last living person from this decade was [[Oldest people#Chronological list of the oldest known living person since 1954|Ada Roe]], who died in 1970.

[[File:Malakhov1.jpg|thumb|250px|right|[[Crimean War]]]]

== Wars ==

* [[Crimean War]] (1853–56) fought between [[Imperial Russia]] and an alliance consisting of the [[United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland]], the [[Second French Empire]], the [[Kingdom of Sardinia]] and the [[Ottoman Empire]]. The majority of the conflict takes place around Crimea, on the northern coasts of the [[Black Sea]].
* On 8 October 1856 the [[Second Opium War]] between several western powers and China begins with the ''Arrow Incident'' on the [[Pearl River]].
* [[Second War of Italian Independence]] (1859), also known as Franco-Austrian War, or Austro-Sardinian War.
* [[Cayuse War]] &mdash; the [[Cayuse Five]] (five members of the [[Cayuse people]]) were executed for murder in [[1850]] following the [[Whitman massacre]] (an attack on a mission settlement near present-day [[Walla Walla, Washington]])

== Internal conflicts ==
* The revolt in Alexandria by Alexandrian locals led by Sherekoh, governor of Alexandria against [[Abbas I of Egypt]].
* The [[Indian Rebellion of 1857]], a revolt against British [[Colonialism|colonial rule]] in India.
* [[Bleeding Kansas]] (1854–59): battles erupt in [[Kansas Territory]] between proslavery and "[[Free-Stater (Kansas)|Free-State]]" settlers, directly precipitating the [[American Civil War]].
* [[Reform War]] (1857–1861) in Mexico
* [[Taiping Rebellion]] (1850–1864) in southeastern China.
* [[Nian Rebellion]] (1853–1868) in northern China.
* [[Miao Rebellion (1854–1873)]] in Guizhou province, China.
* [[Red Turban Rebellion (1854–1856)]] in Guangdong province, China.
* [[Punti–Hakka Clan Wars]] (1855–1867) in Guangdong province, China.
* [[Panthay Rebellion]] (1856–73) in Yunnan province, China.

== Prominent political events ==

* [[Moldavia]] and [[Wallachia]] are unified and form [[Romania]].
* [[Gideon T. Stewart]] attempts to create a [[Prohibition Party]].
* Dissolution of the [[Mughal Empire]] by the British.
* Establishment of the [[South African Republic]] (Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek) and the [[Orange Free State]], granting independence to the [[Voortrekkers]] by the British.

==Assassinations and attempts==
Prominent assassinations, targeted killings, and assassination attempts include:
* Assassination of [[Abbas I of Egypt]] by 4 of his slaves (1854)
* Eight were killed and 142 wounded in Paris in a failed assassination attempt on [[Napoleon III]], Emperor of the French (1858).

== Science and technology==
[[File:Professor Faraday lecturing at the Royal Institution, 27th December, 1855 RIIC 0006 20110213 BAL EP.jpg|thumb|250px|[[Michael Faraday]] delivering a [[Royal Institution Christmas Lectures|Christmas Lecture at the Royal Institution]] in London, {{Circa|1855}}]]
* 1851 – the [[Great Exhibition]] is held at the [[The Crystal Palace|Crystal Palace]], London, considered to be the first [[world's fair]].
* 1851 – the first public exhibition of a [[Foucault pendulum]], at the Meridian of the [[Paris Observatory]], demonstrating the [[Earth's rotation]].
* 1851 – German [[physiologist]] [[Hermann von Helmholtz]] invents the  [[Keratometer]], a diagnostic instrument for measuring the curvature of the anterior surface of the [[cornea]] and assessing the extent and axis of [[Astigmatism (eye)|astigmatism]]
* 1856 – discovery of [[Neanderthal]] fossils in [[Neanderthal, Germany]].
* 1856 – [[Eunice Newton Foote]] is the first scientist to make the connection between the amount of [[carbon dioxide]] in our atmosphere and [[climate change]]
* 1858 – [[Donati's Comet]], the first comet to be photographed, is discovered by [[Giovanni Battista Donati]]
* 1858 – first publication of ''[[Gray's Anatomy]]''.
* 24 November 1859 – [[Charles Darwin]] publishes ''[[The Origin of Species]]'', putting forward the theory of [[evolution]] by natural selection 
* 1859 –  [[Florence Nightingale]] publishes ''[[Notes on Nursing|Notes on Nursing: What it is and What it is Not]]''
* 1859 – [[Marian Albertovich Kowalski]] publishes the first usable method to deduce the [[rotation]] of the [[Milky Way]]
* 1859 – [[Pollen]] is identified as the cause of [[allergic rhinitis]] by [[Charles Harrison Blackley]].
* 1859 – French mathematician [[Nicolas Auguste Tissot]] first proposes [[Tissot's indicatrix]] in [[cartography]].
* 1859 – [[Étienne Lenoir]] produces the first single-cylinder [[Two-stroke engine|two-stroke]] [[Lenoir cycle]] [[gas engine]] with an electric [[ignition system]].
* [[Epidemiology]] begins when [[John Snow (physician)|John Snow]] traces the source of an outbreak of [[cholera]] in London to a contaminated water pump.
* [[Solar flare]]s discovered by [[Richard Christopher Carrington]].

== Economics ==
* Distinction between [[coat (clothing)|coats]] and [[jackets]] begins to blur
* Production of [[steel]] revolutionized by invention of the [[Bessemer process]]
* [[Benjamin Silliman]] fractionates [[petroleum]] by [[distillation]] for the first time
* First transatlantic [[Telegraphy|telegraph]] cable laid
* First safety [[elevator]] installed by [[Elisha Otis]]
* Railroads begin to supplant [[canal]]s in the United States as a primary means of transporting goods.
* First commercially successful sewing machine made by [[Isaac Singer]]

== Environment ==
* [[Ukraine|Ukrainian settlers]] take [[Carniolan honey bee]]s to what is now [[Primorsky Krai]]

== Society ==
* The word ''[[girlfriend]]'' first appears in writing in 1855.
* The word ''[[boyfriend]]'' first appears in writing in 1856.

== Popular culture ==

===Literature===
* [[Charles Dickens]] publishes ''[[Bleak House]]'', ''[[Hard Times (novel)|Hard Times]]'', ''[[Little Dorrit]]'' and ''[[A Tale of Two Cities]]''
*[[Nathaniel Hawthorne]] publishes ''[[The Scarlet Letter]]'' in 1850
*[[Herman Melville]] publishes ''[[Moby-Dick; or, The Whale]]'' in 1851
* [[Harriet Beecher Stowe]] publishes [[Uncle Tom's Cabin]] in 1852.  The novel had a profound effect on attitudes toward African Americans and [[Slavery in the United States|slavery in the U.S.]], and is said to have "helped lay the groundwork for the [[American Civil War]]".{{sfn|Kaufman|2006|p= [https://archive.org/details/civilwaramerican00kauf/page/n32 18]}}{{sfn|Painter|2000|p= 245}}{{sfn|DeLombard|2012}}
*[[Herman Melville]] publishes ''[[Bartleby, the Scrivener]]'' in 1853
*[[Charlotte Brontë]] publishes ''[[Villette (novel)|Villette]]'' in 1853
*[[Elizabeth Gaskell]] publishes ''[[North and South (Gaskell novel)|North and South]]'' in 1854
*[[Christina Rossetti]] writes ''[[Goblin Market]]'' in 1859

== Citations ==
{{reflist}}

== References ==
* {{cite book|last=Kaufman|first=Will|title=The Civil War in American Culture|url=https://archive.org/details/civilwaramerican00kauf|url-access=limited|publisher=[[Edinburgh University Press]] |isbn=978-0748619351|year=2006}}
* {{cite journal |first= Nell Irvin |last= Painter |title=Honest Abe and Uncle Tom |journal= Canadian Review of American Studies |year= 2000 |volume= 30 |issue= 3 |pages= 245–272 |doi= 10.3138/CRAS-s030-03-01|s2cid= 155725588 }}
* {{cite journal |first= Jeannine |last= DeLombard |title= Mightier than the Sword: Uncle Tom's Cabin and the Battle for America |journal= The Historian |volume= 74 |issue= 3 |date=Fall 2012 |url= https://go.gale.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CA303450562&sid=googleScholar&v=2.1&it=r&linkaccess=abs&issn=00182370&p=AONE&sw=w&userGroupName=anon%7Ed45b82f0}}


== External links ==
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20060430004457/http://www.assumption.edu/ahc/rhetoric/1850textarchive.html American texts from the 1850s]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20060430004403/http://www.assumption.edu/ahc/rhetoric/oratoryarchive.html American speeches from the 1850s]

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[[Category:1850s| ]]