Timeline / Before 1800 to 1880 /

Date Country Theme

1786 United Kingdom Music, Literature, Dance And Fashion

Scotland’s most famous poet Robert Burns (b. Alloway, Scotland 1759; d. Dumfries, Scotland 1796) is set to immigrate to the West Indies when a collection of his poems, chiefly in the Scottish dialect, is published in the county town of Kilmarnock in 1786. The publication launches Burns’ career.

1800 United Kingdom Political Context

The Kingdom of Great Britain comes into being under the Treaty of Union of the kingdoms of England (which then included Wales) and Scotland on 1 May 1707. It lasts, controlled under a single parliament and government based at Westminster, up until 31 December 1800.

1801 United Kingdom Political Context

The Irish Rebellion of 1798, which was intended to put an end to what Irish nationalists perceived as the subordination and dependency of Ireland on the British crown, instead contributes to the Irish parliament’s vote to join the union between the kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland. On 1 January 1801, Britain, Scotland and Ireland sign the Act of Union and merge, to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.

1802 United Kingdom Rediscovering The Past

The Treaty of Paris is signed. Following defeat by Anglo-Ottoman forces, France surrenders to Britain the Egyptian antiquities it has collected. The way is open for British exploration of Egyptian archaeology.

1808 United Kingdom Rediscovering The Past

Claudius Rich is appointed Resident at . His work at and stimulates European interest in the archaeology of Iraq. East India Company men play a major role in the exploration and mapping of the Middle East.

1820s United Kingdom Music, Literature, Dance And Fashion

British interest in classical culture including literature sometimes originates in India where the first printed Arabic version of One Thousand and One Nights is published.

1822 United Kingdom Rediscovering The Past

Champollion deciphers Egyptian hieroglyphs, giving voice to the wealth of ancient inscriptions. This heralds the beginning of Egyptology.

1829 United Kingdom Economy And Trade

The Treaty of Adrianople, following a Russian-Turkish war, opens up the Black Sea to international trade. Trebizond becomes a major port for Persia and India. Constantinople, Smyrna (Izmir) and Aleppo, which have been major international Date Country Theme trading communities for many centuries now, flourish with the expansion of steam power.

1829 United Kingdom Political Context

The poet Lord Byron epitomises Romantic support for Greek independence from the Ottoman Empire. Over the next century, British opinion wavers between seeing the Ottoman Empire as a force for stability or one oppressing Christian populations – the Armenians and Balkan Christians.

1829 United Kingdom Political Context

Irish lawyer Daniel O’Connell leads the campaign for concession of Catholic Emancipation, which will allow Roman Catholics to sit in the UK Parliament. The campaign is successful, helped along by the death of George III, but O’Connell’s long-term goal is to repeal Ireland’s Act of Union with Great Britain.

1830s United Kingdom Migrations

With the new Kingdom of Greece, guaranteed by Britain, some Greeks migrate to Athens and the new state, while others migrate from Greece to Constantinople, which has a huge Greek community. Relations between Turks and Greeks suffer during the 19th century, leading to a slow cantonisation of the region, culminating with the exchange of populations (Greeks from Turkey to Greece and Turks from Greece to Turkey) after World War I. From the same period, expansion of the old Hellenic port of witnesses a mass migration of Greeks, mostly from the Aegean islands to the city, making them, by the end of the century, the wealthiest and most influential community in Alexandria.

1830s United Kingdom Great Inventions Of The 19th Century

The development of steam power in the early 19th century also applies to marine transport. Steamships shorten distances, but they also require fuelling stations. In 1839, Britain acquires Aden as one fuelling station on the route to India. Before construction of the Suez Canal, travellers sailed to Alexandria and continued overland to Suez, picking up a steamer there.

1834 United Kingdom Political Context

The development of steam power brings increased trade and travel to the eastern Mediterranean. This leads to the publication of travel literature and an interest in the archaeology of the Bible. A. W. Kinglake’s Eothen is the most widely read of the travel books.

1834 United Kingdom Travelling

A. W. Kinglake’s Eothen is the best known of the many travel books to the East. William M. Thackeray, Benjamin Disraeli and Anthony Trollope all travel to the Near East, others wander around Asia Minor and the Levant recording their impressions, often in search of classical inscriptions.

1838 - 1847 United Kingdom Great Inventions Of The 19th Century

The financial success of the Stockton and Darlington Railway encourages large- scale investment in railways, leading to massive growth in the network. The many Date Country Theme passengers are entertained on their journeys with inexpensive books, such as John Murray’s “Reading for the Rail” series.

1839 United Kingdom Political Context

British control of India is driven by trade. Steamships require fuelling stations. To this purpose Aden is occupied and controlled imperially from India for a century. Most British control of the Middle East is indirect and informal. Aden becomes a Crown Colony, with partial control of the Hinterland.

1839 United Kingdom Reforms And Social Changes

The British Ambassador in Constantinople, Stratford Canning, has been credited with influencing the reforms in Turkey during the 19th century, in particular the decree of 1839, initiating a programme of liberal reform in the Ottoman Empire. Some of the changes are superficial, but nonetheless highly visible, such as the adoption of Western dress and titles. Other changes are seen in the culmination of social transformations within the Empire.

1840s United Kingdom Migrations

Aden becomes a British Crown Colony in 1839 administered (until 1937) not from but from India. Indians migrating to practise trade and the professions help to duplicate what is happening in India, albeit in a smaller way, in the Gulf and Iraq.

1840s United Kingdom Music, Literature, Dance And Fashion

Western classical music penetrates the courtly circles of the Ottoman Empire. The imperial Ottoman family includes composers, such as Sultan ‘Abd al-‘Aziz who composes dance music. On a visit to London in 1867, the band of the Grenadier Guards plays one of the Sultan’s own compositions at a reception for him.

1841 United Kingdom Great Inventions Of The 19th Century

William Henry Fox Talbot announces his calotype photography, which, using a developing agent, drastically reduces exposure time. A negative image is created, from which it is possible to produce countless positive images. Talbot is keen to apply the technique to archaeological objects, and photography is then used increasingly for recording objects and sites.

1841 United Kingdom Economy And Trade

The Ottoman Bank is founded in this year, registered in London, to channel overseas investment in the Ottoman Empire.

1842 United Kingdom Political Context

Evangelists in Britain and Germany found the Jerusalem Protestant bishopric. There is an idea of converting Jews – the first bishop is a converted Jew – and the bishopric establishes a British cultural and educational interest in the Levant. It also stimulates archaeological work.

1843 - 1870 United Kingdom Great Inventions Of The 19th Century Date Country Theme

Invention of and improvements to the rotary printing press allows for mass production of newspapers and books. The public are eager to read about the latest archaeological discoveries.

1845 - 1852 United Kingdom Migrations

The Great Famine, or “Irish Potato Famine” as it is known, is a period of huge significance in Irish national history, not least because the country lost about a quarter of its population: a million people died from starvation and disease and another million emigrated. A number of factors – including absentee landlords, land acquisitions, the corn laws, anti-Catholic sentiment and crop failures due to “potato blight” – brought about the famine at a time when around two-fifths of the population were reliant solely on potatoes.

1850s United Kingdom Great Inventions Of The 19th Century

Britain also holds a stake in the development of railways in the Near East. , as part of a global transport network and under British sponsorship, has a railway network before Norway does.

1850s United Kingdom Music, Literature, Dance And Fashion

The Crimean War brings thousands of British soldiers to Constantinople. After the war, certain innovations can be traced back to it – such as beards! There is a craze for things all things Turkish; the Turkish commander even becomes something of a folk hero in Britain.

1851 United Kingdom Rediscovering The Past

When the Great Exhibition of All Nations opens in London, as well as showcasing technological progress, it also exposes the public to Egyptian, Mesopotamian and other ancient cultures, thus fostering an appetite for museums.

1851 United Kingdom International Exhibitions

At the Great Exhibition of this year are some examples of Islamic design influenced by Owen Jones, who had “discovered” Al-Andalus (Andalusian) Islamic architecture. Jones was brother-in-law to the architect J. W. Wild who designed St Mark’s Church in Alexandria.

1854 United Kingdom Political Context

Russia’s expansion to the Black Sea and the Caucasus encroach on, seize and annex Ottoman possessions. Britain and France support Ottoman resistance, targeting the Russian naval base in Crimea. Britain provides military and naval support to the Ottoman armed force.

1867 United Kingdom International Exhibitions

The Paris Exhibition is the major international exhibition of the century. In the aftermath of the Crimean War (1854–56), when France, Britain and Turkey ally against Russia, there is a boost of friendship with and interest in the Ottoman Empire. The Sultan visits the Paris Exhibition and then continues to London where he was made a Knight of the Garter. Date Country Theme

1867 United Kingdom Political Context

The 1850s and 1860s sees close political, commercial and cultural relations between the Ottoman Empire and Britain. The zenith of this relationship is the state visit of Ottoman Sultan ‘Abd al-‘Aziz to France and then Britain. The Prince of Wales then reciprocates with a visit to Constantinople, and Jerusalem in 1869.

1869 United Kingdom Rediscovering The Past

The opening of the Suez Canal sparks a second burst of British popular interest in ancient Egypt.

1869 United Kingdom Political Context

Built largely with French expertise and capital, the Suez Canal shortens the journey to India. The British government secures a major financial interest in the Canal in 1876, and its security becomes a major British interest for the following century.

1869 - 1878 United Kingdom Great Inventions Of The 19th Century

Under French direction the Suez Canal opens in 1869, improving the route to India. Britain then acquires a financial interest in the Canal in 1875. When in 1878 Cyprus becomes part of the British Empire, another fuelling station on the imperial route to India is achieved.

1870 - 1875 United Kingdom Rediscovering The Past

Academic interest and geopolitical concerns combine to stimulate the state-of- the-art mapping of Palestine. There is strong interest in the lands of the Bible. In addition, following the opening of the Suez Canal, threats to British routes to India loom from the north, first from Russia and then from the Ottoman Empire and Germany.

1872 United Kingdom Music, Literature, Dance And Fashion

The Italian composer Verdi is commissioned by the Egyptian Khedive to compose the opera Aida for celebrations to mark the opening of the Suez Canal. Later Verdi is also commissioned to compose the Egyptian National Anthem.

1876 United Kingdom Great Inventions Of The 19th Century

In 1870, after attending universities in Edinburgh and London, Scottish-born Alexander Graham Bell (1847–1922) immigrates to Canada before becoming professor of vocal physiology at Boston. There, in pursuit of a device to help the deaf, Bell invented the telephone, which he patented in February 1876 only days ahead of other rivals. It was not until 10 March 1876 that the famous words “Mr Watson, come here; I want you” were transmitted by telephone. He formed the Bell Telephone Company in 1877.

1878 United Kingdom Political Context

Uprisings in the Balkan Ottoman territories lead to disproportionate reprisals. Popular protests in Britain oppose support for the Ottoman Empire. In contrast Date Country Theme to the Crimean War, Britain provides no military aid to the Ottomans in their war with Russia. Diplomatic support is rewarded however, with Britain’s occupation of Cyprus confirmed at the Congress of Berlin.

1880s United Kingdom Migrations

European Zionism initiates a small migration, mostly from Russia – especially after the pogroms – to Palestine. Among the Jewish community in Palestine are ancestors of Jewish migrants from the 15th and 16th centuries who fled the Iberian Peninsula after their expulsion by Ferdinand and Isabella.