1800★★★★★
Volta invents the electric battery
Alessandro Volta announces the voltaic pile, the first source of continuous electric current.
ScienceTechnology· Italy
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Events this year
Ongoing
c. 15th century – c. 1860s★★★★★
The transatlantic slave trade
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.
Economy· Ghana, Nigeria, Benin, Senegal, Angola, Brazil, United States, Portugal, United Kingdom
1639 – 1853★★★★★
Japan's sakoku isolation policy
The shogunate expels the Portuguese and severely restricts foreign contact, allowing only Dutch and Chinese trade at Nagasaki.
PoliticsEconomy· Japan
August 22, 1791 – January 1, 1804★★★★★
Haitian Revolution begins
Enslaved people in the French colony of Saint-Domingue rise up, beginning the only successful slave revolution in history.
RevolutionWar· Haiti, France
1798 – 1801★★★★★
Napoleon's campaign in Egypt and Syria
French forces under Napoleon Bonaparte occupy Egypt but are eventually forced out; the expedition sparks European Egyptology.
War· Egypt, Syria, Israel
1799 – 1849★★★★★
Ranjit Singh takes Lahore, founding the Sikh Empire
Ranjit Singh captures Lahore and unites the Sikh confederacies into an empire in the Punjab.
PoliticsDynasty· Pakistan, India