The Edict of Gülhane opens the Tanzimat, a series of reforms modernising Ottoman administration, law and the army.
An alliance of the Ottoman Empire, Britain, France and Sardinia defeats Russia, with fighting centred on the siege of Sevastopol in Crimea.
Greeks rise against the Ottoman Empire; with intervention by Britain, France and Russia, Greece wins its independence.
The European powers reorganise the Balkans after the Russo-Turkish War, recognising the independence of Serbia, Montenegro and Romania.
French forces under Napoleon Bonaparte occupy Egypt but are eventually forced out; the expedition sparks European Egyptology.
A revolutionary movement forces the Qajar shah to accept a constitution and establish Iran's first parliament, the Majlis.
The Committee of Union and Progress forces Sultan Abdul Hamid II to restore the 1876 constitution, opening the Second Constitutional Era.