Timeline 1800-1899: the decade 1810-1819

Napoleon is exiled (twice), the Pax Britannica begins, Romanticism waxes as Neoclassicism wanes.

Clockwise from upper left: Bombardment of Fort McHenry in a print of ca. 1814, re Key’s “Star-Spangled Banner” {9/14/1814 Music}. Napoleon on his way to exile to Elba {4/6/1814 World}, in a British print of 1814. Nash, Royal Pavilion at Brighton {1815-1823 Arch} (Photo: Briantist / Wikipedia). Luddite leader {1811-1813 Econ}.

This month’s categories: Major Events (the usual summary of the decade), Worldwide, POTUS, US Politics & Culture, Economics, Science & Technology, Philosophy & Religion, Architecture, Painting, Sculpture, Fiction, Poetry, Opera, and Music.

Highlights:

• Waterloo (as ABBA’s 1974 song reminds us, “Napoleon did surrender”) and the Congress of Vienna (with a hilarious cartoon)

• US again battles the Barbary pirates and the British

• Supreme Court rulings start setting the legal basis of capitalism

• Science & technology: Luddites, homoeopathy, locomotives, velocipedes

• Brighton Pavilion (pic above): wow!

• Frankenstein, Byron, Austen, and the Brothers Grimm

This month’s download for paid subscribers includes all of the 19th century so far: the World in 1800, 1800-1809, and 1810-1819. Why? Because I often tweak previous decades as I’m working on later ones, but this month’s tussle with Gericault’s Raft of the Medusa involved more of that than usual. I added an entry for an 1806 painting and revised the World in 1800 chapter for Esthetics and Visual Arts re Neoclassicism and Romanticism. (This is why I lay out my own books: a professional would be very exasperated with my unceasing desire to improve the text.)