1850s

The 1850s was a decade that ran from January 1, 1850, to December 31, 1859. The 1850s 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 mass migration to the American West, that particularly made the nation experience an economic boom, as well as a rapidly increasing population.

Crimean War
From left, clockwise: Henry Clay introduces the Compromise of 1850 to the U.S. Senate; Harriet Beecher Stowe publishes Uncle Tom’s Cabin; Russian forces fight against British, French and Ottoman forces in Sevastopol during the Crimean War; SS Arctic, an American steamship, sinks in the Atlantic Ocean after a collision with a French steamship, SS Vesta in 1854; The 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 U.S. Constitution to African Americans; Charles Darwin publishes On the Origin of Species in 1859, presenting the idea of natural selection.
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Wars

Internal conflicts

Prominent political events

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

Economics

Environment

Society
  • The word girlfriend first appears in writing in 1855.
  • The word boyfriend first appears in writing in 1856.

Literature

People

World leaders

Note: Names of country leaders shown below in bold face have remained in power continuously throughout the entirety of the decade

Europe
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