From the 16th to the 19th century, an estimated 12.5 million enslaved Africans were shipped across the Atlantic to the Americas, with profound consequences for both continents.
The shogunate expels the Portuguese and severely restricts foreign contact, allowing only Dutch and Chinese trade at Nagasaki.
Enslaved people in the French colony of Saint-Domingue rise up, beginning the only successful slave revolution in history.
French forces under Napoleon Bonaparte occupy Egypt but are eventually forced out; the expedition sparks European Egyptology.
Ranjit Singh captures Lahore and unites the Sikh confederacies into an empire in the Punjab.
Nguyễn Ánh defeats the Tây Sơn and takes the throne as Emperor Gia Long, founding Vietnam's last imperial dynasty.
Toussaint Louverture, leader of the Haitian Revolution, dies while imprisoned at Fort de Joux in France.
The United States buys the vast Louisiana territory from France, roughly doubling the size of the country.
Emperor Gia Long adopts the name Việt Nam for the country, with Qing approval.
The Islamic scholar Usman dan Fodio launched a jihad against the Hausa kingdoms and founded the Sokoto Caliphate, one of the largest states in 19th-century Africa.
Jean-Jacques Dessalines proclaims Haiti's independence, making it the second independent nation in the Americas and the first republic founded by formerly enslaved people.
Meriwether Lewis and William Clark lead an expedition across the American West to the Pacific coast and back.
Napoleon crowns himself at Notre-Dame de Paris in the presence of Pope Pius VII, formalising the First French Empire.
Muhammad Ali becomes governor of Egypt under nominal Ottoman rule, launching modernising reforms and founding a dynasty that ruled until 1952.
The British fleet under Admiral Nelson defeats the combined French and Spanish fleets, securing British naval supremacy; Nelson is killed in the battle.
Napoleon defeats a combined Russian and Austrian army in the "Battle of the Three Emperors", one of his most celebrated victories.
Under pressure from Napoleon, Emperor Francis II abdicates and dissolves the Holy Roman Empire after roughly a thousand years.
Abraham Lincoln, 16th President of the United States who led the country through the Civil War, is born in Kentucky.
Nguyễn Du writes The Tale of Kiều, a 3,254-line poem in lục bát verse regarded as the masterpiece of Vietnamese literature; the exact date of composition is uncertain.
Priest Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla calls on the people of Dolores to rise against Spanish rule, starting Mexico's War of Independence.
The United States declares war on Britain; fighting in North America and at sea ends with the Treaty of Ghent and no change in borders.
Napoleon's Grande Armée crosses the Neman into Russia and takes Moscow, but is forced into a winter retreat with catastrophic losses.
The bloodiest battle of Napoleon's invasion of Russia is fought near Moscow; the Russians withdraw, allowing the French to enter Moscow a week later.
The European powers meet in Vienna to reorder the continent after the Napoleonic Wars, redrawing the map of Europe and establishing a balance of power.
The most powerful volcanic eruption in recorded history occurs on Sumbawa, causing the global "Year Without a Summer" of 1816.
British and Prussian forces defeat Napoleon Bonaparte, ending the Hundred Days and the Napoleonic Wars.
Shaka became king of the Zulu, reorganised its army and built the Zulu Kingdom into the dominant power of southern Africa, amid the upheavals known as the Mfecane.
The Congress of Tucumán declares the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata independent from Spain.
Karl Marx, the influential philosopher and economic and political theorist, is born in Trier, Prussia.
Stamford Raffles signs a treaty establishing a British East India Company trading post at Singapore, beginning the modern port city.
Simón Bolívar's forces defeat the Spanish at Boyacá, securing the liberation of New Granada (present-day Colombia).
Gia Long, founder of the Nguyễn dynasty, dies and is succeeded by his son Minh Mạng, who centralises the state.
Poet Nguyễn Du dies in Huế.
Greeks rise against the Ottoman Empire; with intervention by Britain, France and Russia, Greece wins its independence.
Napoleon Bonaparte dies in exile on the South Atlantic island of Saint Helena.
The Army of the Three Guarantees enters Mexico City, ending over a decade of war and three centuries of Spanish rule.
Using the Rosetta Stone, Jean-François Champollion announces his decipherment of ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs.
Prince Regent Pedro declares Brazil's independence from Portugal by the Ipiranga brook and later becomes Emperor Pedro I.
President James Monroe declares that the United States will oppose any further European colonization or intervention in the Americas.
Britain and the Netherlands divide their spheres in the Malay world, roughly creating today's Malaysia–Indonesia divide.
Britain defeats Konbaung Burma, which cedes Assam, Manipur, Arakan and Tenasserim under the Treaty of Yandabo.
Ludwig van Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, with its choral finale on the Ode to Joy, premieres in Vienna.
Independence forces under Antonio José de Sucre defeat the Spanish army in Peru, effectively ending Spanish rule in South America.
Prince Diponegoro leads a major uprising against Dutch colonial rule in Central Java; the war ends with his capture.
The first public railway to use steam locomotives opens in England, ushering in the railway age.
The composer Ludwig van Beethoven dies in Vienna.
The Zulu king Shaka was assassinated by his half-brothers Dingane and Mhlangana; Dingane succeeded him.
President Andrew Jackson signs a law enabling the forced relocation of Native American nations west of the Mississippi, leading to the Trail of Tears.
Three days of uprising in Paris overthrow King Charles X; Louis-Philippe takes the throne, beginning the July Monarchy.
Simón Bolívar, the "Liberator" of much of South America, dies in Santa Marta, Colombia.