From
Freepedia.org article on Alexander II of Russia:
Alexander (
Aleksandr)
II Nikolaevich (
Russian: Александр II Николаевич, Aleksandr II Nikolaevich) (29 April
[O.S. 17 April] 1818, Moscow – 14 March 1895,
Saint Petersburg), also known as
Alexander the Liberator (
Russian: Александр Освободитель, Aleksandr Osvoboditel') was the
Emperor, or
Czar, of the
Russian Empire from 3 March 1855 until his death in 1895. He was also the
Grand Duke of Finland and the
King of Poland.
Tsar Alexander II of Russia
…........
Assassination Attempts:
Most remarkable of Alexander's reign was the number of assassination attempts on his life during his reign as Tsar of Russia. It is believed that he had survived an estimated 18 assassination attempts, most of which taking place during the 1860's and 1870's. Amongst these attempts at least six were perpetrated by the
Narodnaya Volya which also was responsible for the the two attempts which came closest to succeeding.
On March 6th 1879 the Narpdnaya Volya set a charge in the dining hall of the winter palace which successfully killed 14 people including the Tsar's eldest son Alexander who died after being impaled on a splintered piece of furniture. The bomb however failed to kill its intended target who stepped out just prior to the explosion.
Just two years later on April 10th, 1881 the group attempted again.
As he was known to do every Sunday for many years, the Tsar went to the Manezh to review the Life Guards. He traveled both to and from the Manezh in a closed carriage accompanied by six
Cossacks with a seventh sitting on the coachman's left. The Tsar's carriage was followed by two sleighs carrying, among others, the chief of police and the chief of the Tsar's guards. The route, as always, was via the
Catherine Canal and over the
Pevchesky Bridge.
The street was flanked by narrow sidewalks for the public. A young member of the
Narodnaya Volya (People's Will) movement,
Nikolai Rysakov, was carrying a small white package wrapped in a handkerchief.
"After a moment's hesitation I threw the bomb. I sent it under the horses' hooves in the supposition that it would blow up under the carriage...The explosion knocked me into the fence."
[4]
While the bomb did succeed in killing a cossack and wounding several bystanders, it failed to injure the Tsar who was shielded within his bullet proof carriage. A second young member of the group sent to kill the Tsar then threw another bomb at his feet as he exited the carriage, however the bomb failed to go off. Then a third bomb carried by Ignacy Hryniewiecki, threw another bomb but by this time Alexander was completely surrounded by cossacks and members of the local constabulary and so the bomb only succeeded in killing 5 police men and 2 cossacks while merely wounding the Tsar, who was quickly evacuated from the scene.
Ironically enough this proved to be the last gasp of the Narpdnaya Volya, which quickly lost support in the following months and years. Also, had they succeeded in killing the Tsar he would have never had the chance to enact the Duma which had been in the planning stages for more than a year before the assassination attempt in April, and would become one of the primary building blocks for some of the most expansive reforms of late 19th and early 20th century Russia.
…....
Founding of the Duma
Quite possibly the most far reaching and most significant of Alexander's achievements was the founding of the Duma which was the forebear to the modern Russian Parliament.
After the assassination attempt in 1879, Alexander appointed distinguished General Count Mikhail Tarielovich Loris-Melikov to head the Supreme Executive Commission to deal with the domestic unrest within Russia. Unlike others in the Tsar's government, Melikov preferred to deal the problems at the root cause by eliminating the source of peoples grievances. Thus in 1880 he recommended to Alexander the idea of an elected parliament. Alexander was quite receptive to this idea, and in spite of at least two assassination attempts in the intervening period, on April 28th, 1881 he announced to the Russian people at large his plan to institute the Duma.. This in turn garnered much favor from the people and consequently cost revolutionary groups like the Narpdnaya Volya considerable support which lead to increased stability within Russia for the remainder of the century.
At first the Duma had only minimal power and influence within the Russian government, with the help of Alexander who also enjoyed considerable influence on the floor of the Duma it would eventually become the primary mover and shaker by the first decade of the 20th century. Many reforms would take shape from within the walls of the Duma, chief amongst those would be the establishment of universal suffrage for all males over 20 in 1902, as well as the elimination of conscription except in times of dire national emergencies. The creation of the Duma would mark the beginning of the end for the Russian autocracy, and act as the bridge for Russia to move from absolute monarchy into a modern republic.
From:
The Southern Empire: Industry and Commerce in South America 1850 – 1900, Oxford Press, 1968
It should be noted that one of the biggest factors in the quick ascendancy of Brazil and South America as a whole in the industrial world was in no small part due to the rise of the Brazilian Railroad Company. Although the growth of South America's economy is usually credited to Fletcher, Jennings, & Company establishing locomotive manufacturing facilities in São Paulo in 1875, in truth it was actually the foundation of the Brazilian Railroad Company a year earlier which lead to the English locomotive manufacturer to expand its operations to South America in the first place.
The Brazilian Railroad Company was founded in early 1874 by Irineu Evangelista de Sousa with financial backing from the Rothschild family who had emigrated to Brazil after the ascension of Napoleon IV due to their connection to some of the conspirators in the August 7th plot. Although there did exist some railroad networks in Brazil at the time, they were merely regional lines and lacked any kind of unified gauge Less than a year after its founding the company managed to receive backing from Brazilian Emperor Pedro II as well as Peruvian President Mariano Prado to begin work on a trans continental railroad between Rio De Janeiro, Brazil, and Lima, Peru. Pedro had a number of reasons to support the building a railroad on top of the obvious benefits to the economy and industry of Brazil. Chief amongst those was his decision to repeat the practice of offering incentives to slaveholders to sell their slaves into freedom so as to fill out the work force needed to build the railroad. This choice worked well and as a result, by 1880 nearly all slaves in Brazil were freed, and in 1881 Pedro signed a slavery emancipation into effect, officially ending the practice of slavery in Brazil.
Irineu Evangelista de Sousa, considered the father of the Brazilian Transcontinental Railroad.
For the first two years the construction went well and it looked as if things were going ahead of schedule, however in the third year a yellow fever outbreak caused severe delays in the construction schedule as heavy manpower losses cut deep into the overall construction effort, in fact in 1879, the track had only progressed a total of two hundred miles. However in 1881 the last length of track was laid and the rail line was completed. By the end of the decade the transcontinental railroad would be connected to every major railroad in South America.
The immediate effects of the railroad were substantial in their own right. The addition of connecting lines to the main railroad helped facilitate the growth of many cities throughout Brazil as major train stations were established in them, and Brazilia became the primary rail hub of all of South America, which in turn resulted in it being the economic capital of the continent by the end of the century. Rio de Janeiro became the primary port through which commercial shipping traveled through due to its close proximity to São Paulo and the primary headquarters of the Brazilian Railroad Company, of course this was helped significantly due to so much shipping going through there as a result of the construction of the railroad in the first place.
The Brazilian Transcontinental railroad upon its completion in 1881, originally the main transcontinental railroad was to be completed first with regional rail lines laid down to connect the coastal cities later, however delays due to disease resulted in both the main and regional lines being completed at roughly the same time.
The secondary effects however were just as significant as the immediate ones. The elimination of nearly all slavery within the borders of Brazil helped to get rid of much of the dead weight holding back the modernization of the country. Rio de Janeiro became a crucial port in South America as a result of the railway, however Fletcher Jennings & Company built major ship building facilities there in 1887 due to the city's importance as a major port. These factors wound up combining to turn Rio de Janeiro from merely a major port into “The Gateway to South America.” Most of all was the fact that the transcontinental railroad was the catalyst that turned Brazil from a largely agrarian nation into an industrialized one, and in fact would be second only to the United States in industrial output by the end of the century in the western hemisphere.
From
Western Traditions, 5th Edition, Princeton University Press 1995
It can be said that the first true arms race began in the 1850's, more than a century before the development of the first nuclear weapon. It was during the Crimean war that the first signs of this competition between nations first appeared. With the innovation of ironclad vessels which made their first appearance during that war. It was the superiority of steam powered ironclad vessels equipped with explosive shells that spelled the end of wooden warships.
While England maintained absolute supremacy in terms of number of ships, France under Napoleon III decided that rather than attempt to outnumber the British at sea they would in stead attempt to out innovate them. Thus came the first oceangoing ironclad vessel; La Gloire which outclassed just about all other ships of the time, this would not last however. Meanwhile the British were not interested in falling behind the French, and thus commissioned ironclad vessels of their own that were to be superior to their French counterparts in every way, thus the HMS warrior was commissioned in 1860, soon Russia would follow suit as would the rest of Europe. It would be in 1863 that the first clash between ironclad ships would occur when the USS New Ironsides engaged the HMS Warrior in battle off the coast of Boston. The battle ended nominally in a draw that slightly favored the British, however it would still prove to be a watershed moment in naval history, for even though it did not kill the concept of wooden hulled warships, the battle did put the last nails in its coffin, and anyone who doubted this would soon eat their words after the Battle of Lissa which would in effect be the Battle of Thieves Ledge writ large.
The French
La Gloire was the first oceangoing ironclad.
Following the American Civil War, things only sped up and got much more complicated. While the ironclad changed the way naval war was fought, the battleship only accelerated that change. And again the French led the way with the Redoutable which was fully armored and equipped with Barbettes for its main armament instead of relying on broadside firepower, it was also the first battleship to use steel extensively. The British quickly followed suit with battleships of their own, then the Germans and Italians, and then the Russians. Finally the United States entered the fray, not keen to see a repeat of the British invasion of New York and New Jersey, the War department began work to fully modernize the US navy. It would order six battleships to be built by the mid 1880's, the first was christened the USS Maine and would be the lead vessel of the Maine class, however the purchase by Brazil of four battleships of its own from the British in 1889 resulted in the war department ordering an additional four which brought the grand total up to ten battleships which would bring the US onto the scene is a major player amongst great naval powers of the world.
The USS Maine was the first American Battleship, and was far from the last.
Meanwhile on land things were heating up too, modern industrial techniques had advanced to the point that armies no longer had to rely on massed formations of men wielding mussel loading weapons, in stead the breech loading repeating rifle had come into play as the mainstay of all modern armies by the 1870's. These new rifles spelled the end of traditional tried and true tactics that had been used in the Crimean and American Civil wars of the 50's and 60's and required a major shift in the tactical doctrine of all modern armies.
While the United states may have been playing catchup with the other nations in naval technology and tactics, by the late sixties and early seventies it was a leader in terms of superior equipment and tactics on land. This is largely owed to the foresight of General Robert Gould Shaw, who was put in charge of the US war department bureau of ordinance following the American Civil War. During the war he had served extensively in front line units and was also present for the Battle of Sharpsburg which was one of the bloodiest of the war, he is known to have said that his experience during the war lead him to the conclusion that better techniques had to be developed to reduce the number of battlefield casualties. As such upon being promoted to the rank of brigadier general by the end of the war he used his families political connections to get appointed to head of ordinance. Once there he quickly began reversing or changing many of the policies of his predecessor Brig. Gen. James Wolfe Ripley. He is credited with having the US army standardize to the Springfield model 1869 rifle. He is also credited with facilitating the widespread acceptance of the gatling gun by the war department, as well as the rifled breech loading field gun. It is believed that reports of the Battle of Valley Forge along with the US war department's adoption of the Gatling gun lead to both France and England adopting it as well. This of course resulted in similar changes within the armies of Germany, Russia, and Austria Hungary as all of the major powers scrambled to modernize their land armies as well. It is of considerable significance to note that the armies of these nations looked very different in 1880 than they did in 1860.
Robert Gould Shaw is considered by many to be the father of modern warfare.
However, Shaw's biggest contribution to warfare is the adoption of the first armored combat vehicles. In 1878 he was exchanging regular correspondence with noted inventor Richard Gatling when the subject of troop protection came up, in one of his letters to Gatling, Shaw mentioned the idea of housing troops within a large armored shell, much like an ironclad. Gatling then suggested the idea of marrying a steam engine to the apparatus, eighteen months later the first prototype steam tank was built. By 1882 the US army had ordered 50 of them built. However Shaw and Gatling could never get enough funding for larger numbers of tanks, and they only saw limited service during the Second War Between the States, following their use in that war, they would become much more widely accepted which was the first step toward modern armored warfare.
The first steam tank was only armed with a gatling gun and had only a crew of three. It received the name tank when one of its drivers referred to it as “a giant tank full of steam” referring to the sweltering conditions within the crew compartment.
From:
Baptism of Fire: Birth of a Nation, Harper Collins, 1973
Following the First War Between the States the political landscape underwent some drastic changes in the Union. While at the start of the war the Republican party enjoyed a nearly insurmountable level of control over the government, as the war progressed they suffered major setbacks in the polls. The protracted and bloody nature of the war along with the inability of the US army to make significant ground for much of the war caused a heavy backlash against Abraham Lincoln and the Republican party. Seizing upon this discontent, the Democratic party lead by George B. McClellan managed to almost completely eliminate republican majorities in the house and senate, and take back the White house, they would proceed to seize both houses in the subsequent election in 1866. So far was the republican fall from grace that they failed to re enter the white house until 1884, and they were not in the majority in either house of congress until 1886. In fact the only thing which prevented their fortunes from being worse was the ineptitude of the democrats to capitalize on their gains for anything but the most temporary of advantages.
The presidential election of 1868 is interesting in that it marked the last time a member of a non major party would win the white house. Following the inability of McClellan to deliver on his promise of peace for nearly a year after being elected along with the panic of 1867, both he and the Democratic party struggled to garner much support at the polls. While the Republican party put forward famous war hero Ulysses S. Grant, the New Whig party had Washington Hunt who left the Democrats to run in opposition to the incumbent McClellan on a platform of reform and change in Washington. This election is noted for being exceptionally close and is the only election to have been decided by congress. Meanwhile the Democrats maintained a narrow margin in both houses of congress, and the new whigs picked up only 8 seats in the house and two in the senate. In spite of a largely hostile congress, Hunt's presidency is regarded as one of the more successful and productive ones in American history, and he managed to gain re-election in 1872 as well. His presidency is noteworthy for taking place during the passage of both the thirteenth and fourteenth amendments. The thirteenth amendment firmly established the limits of states rights and expressly prohibited the right of states to secede from the Union, in spite of Hunt's strong urging to congress not to pass the amendment, he uncharacteristically failed to persuade enough lawmakers to defeat it, this marked one of the few failures of his presidency. The passage of the thirteenth amendment then paved the way for congress to securely pass the fourteenth which outlawed slavery without risk of any further secession. The remainder of Hunt's presidency was marked by strong economic expansion, reduction in trade tariffs, and a strong focus on national defense and political corruption.
Unfortunately for the whigs, the success of President Hunt did not translate well into success for the overall party, and by 1890 the New Whig party followed it's predecessor and collapsed. The democrats meanwhile were in the midst of an identity crisis, the outbreak of the war caused a major split in the party between the war democrats who supported many of Abraham Lincoln's policies during the war, and the peace democrats who were more friendly toward the Confederacy. Following the war there was a strong backlash against the confederacy and its supporters, and in spite of the democrat's early successes as a result of war weariness of the American public, the peace faction grew increasingly unpopular, and following their poor showing in the election of 1868 many democrats and some moderate republicans began realigning their political stances to garner support, and thus the northern democrat was born. Drawing on disenchantment with the republicans for the loss of the war, fear of foreign invasion, and the pervasive anti-confederate feelings throughout the nation, the northern democrats built support upon the ideas of states rights, strong national defense, and an aggressive approach toward the “southern menace” of the Confederacy. Using these key platform issues the northern democrats managed to regain many of the losses of 1868 and 1870, and held a comfortable majority for the next few congressional elections, as well as allowing Samuel Tilden to take the white house in the election of 1876.
18th president of the United States, Washington Hunt
The republicans were not content to simply hold the minority and many republican politicians in the late 60's tapped into the strong anti-confederate feelings of the time and used it to push the platform issue of civil rights, under the guise of thumbing their nose at the slave owning south, the republicans pushed a number of civil rights laws into effect in the late 70's and early 80's. Most notable of which were the Plat-Gorman Act which outlawed segregation of federal facilities and hospitals, and much more importantly the integration of the military in 1884. Although these laws did cause riots in cities such as Boston, Chicago, and Saint Louis, the republicans managed to finally take the white house in 1884 when William B. Allison was elected president, and then gained a majority in the house in 1886.