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The 1890s (pronounced "eighteen-nineties") was a decade of the Gregorian calendar that began on January 1, 1890, and ended on December 31, 1899. In American popular culture, the decade would later be nostalgically referred to as the "Gay Nineties" ( Gay as in 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'). In the British Empire, the 1890s epitomised the late Victorian period.
As European powers continued their colonial expansion, the decade saw the defeat of Edi (1890), Siam (1893), Morocco (1894), Dahomey (1894), Arab-Swahili warlords (1894), Lombork (1894), Pahang (1895), Merina (1895), Zanzibar (1896), Khaua and Mbandjeru (1896), Ashanti (1896), Matabeleland (1897), Pedir (1898), Sudan (1899), and various north-west Indian tribes and states. Whereas most colonial campaigns were successful, Italy faced a significant setback as it failed to conquer Ethiopia, being decisively defeated at Adwa (1896). Furthermore, the second half of the decade saw the final unravelling of Spanish America, which began with insurrections in Cuba (1895) and the Philippines (1896) and ended with the Spaniards' defeat at the hands of the United States in 1898. Following the sale of various Pacific islands to Germany in 1899, the Spanish colonial empire would be restricted to Africa. Further in the east, Japan sought to expand its own empire, waging wars against Donghak (1894–1895), Qing China (1894–1895) and the Republic of Formosa (1895). Other conflicts included the Garza War (1891–1893), the Greco-Turkish War (1897) and internal conflicts in Samoa (1886–1894, 1898–1899), Afghanistan (1888–1893), Argentina (1890), Chile (1891), the Ottoman Empire (1891, 1893, 1894, 1895–96, 1896–1897, 1896), Mexico (1891–1892), Brazil (1893–1894, 1893–1895, 1899–1903), Peru (1894–1895), the South African Republic (1894), northwest China (1895–1896), Bolivia (1898–1899) and Columbia (1899–1902).
The decade was characterized by an international economic recovery following the Long Depression (1873—1896) and by the beginning of strong economic growth during the Belle Époque (1871—1914), driven by the innovations of the Second Industrial Revolution (i.e. electricity, gasoline, automobiles, artificial textiles, organic chemistry). The decade also saw the apogee of the coal-powered steam engine, which would subsequently be dethroned by the reciprocating engine, powered by refined petroleum. The supremacy of this new source of energy was confirmed when the world's first fleet, the Royal Navy, decided in 1910 to supply all its vessels with fuel oil. In the United States, the decade was marked by a severe economic depression sparked by the Panic of 1893. This economic crisis would help bring about the end of the so-called "Gilded Age", and coincided with numerous strikes in the industrial workforce. The economic depression sparked a political struggle over free silver and the collapse of the Third Party System. Concurrently in Australia, a banking crisis occurred, caused by the collapse of a speculative boom in the Australian property market. First-wave feminism made a significant breakthrough as a successful petition in 1893 resulted in New Zealand becoming the first country to grant women the right to vote.
From 1889–1890, a worldwide respiratory viral pandemic took place, resulting in 300–900 million infections and 1 million deaths. The pandemic is presumed to have originated in the central Asian city of Bukhara. Furthermore, in this decade, an epizootic of the rinderpest virus struck Africa, considered to be "the most devastating epidemic to hit southern Africa in the late nineteenth century". [1] It killed more than 5.2 million cattle south of the Zambezi, [2] as well as domestic oxen, sheep, and goats, and wild populations of buffalo, giraffe, and wildebeest. This led to starvation resulting in the death of an estimated third of the human population of Ethiopia and two-thirds of the Maasai people of Tanzania. [3] In 1891−1892, poor weather alongside government mismanagement in Russia led to a famine, causing 375,000 to 400,000 deaths. British India suffered two famines this decade, first from 1896–1897 and then from 1899–1900, due to draught and British policies. Famines also took place in Cuba and China. Major earthquakes of this decade include the 1891 Mino–Owari earthquake (7,273 deaths), the 1893 Quchan earthquake (18,000 casualties), and the 1896 Sanriku earthquake (22,066 people dead or missing).
The first international Olympic Games in modern history were held in Athens in 1896, with 241 athletes from across 14 nations competing. In the United States, the best-selling books of this decade (by year) were Beside the Bonnie Brier Bush (a collection of short stories, best-seller in 1895), Tom Grogan (a drama novel, best-seller in 1896), Quo Vadis (a historical novel, best-seller in 1897), Caleb West (best-seller in 1898), and David Harum (best-seller in 1898). The film industry, still in its infancy, continued to produce short films such as Le Coucher de la Mariée and The Kiss . Songs of this decade include "America the Beautiful", "Daisy Bell" and "Hello! Ma Baby".
In this decade, the world population grew from 1.5 to 1.6 billion. [4] The last living person from this decade, Emma Morano, died on April 15, 2017. Last living man from this decade was Jiroemon Kimura, and he died on June 12, 2013.
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Harbin founded as a Russian city within Manchuria, founded to serve as the center of construction and the main junction and administration center of the Russian-built Chinese Eastern Railway. The location for the city was largely chosen strategically to cross the Songhua river, a tributary of the Amur, and the largest river in Manchuria. [5]
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The 1896 Summer Olympics officially known as the Games of the I Olympiad, was the first international Olympic Games held in modern history
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The United Mine Workers of America is a North American labor union best known for representing coal miners. Today, the Union also represents health care workers, truck drivers, manufacturing workers and public employees in the United States and Canada. Although its main focus has always been on workers and their rights, the UMW of today also advocates for better roads, schools, and universal health care. By 2014, coal mining had largely shifted to open pit mines in Wyoming, and there were only 60,000 active coal miners. The UMW was left with 35,000 members, of whom 20,000 were coal miners, chiefly in underground mines in Kentucky and West Virginia. However it was responsible for pensions and medical benefits for 40,000 retired miners, and for 50,000 spouses and dependents.
This section of the timeline of United States history concerns events from 1860 to 1899.
The Western Federation of Miners (WFM) was a labor union that gained a reputation for militancy in the mines of the western United States and British Columbia. Its efforts to organize both hard rock miners and smelter workers brought it into sharp conflicts – and often pitched battles – with both employers and governmental authorities. One of the most dramatic of these struggles occurred in the Cripple Creek district of Colorado in 1903–1904; the conflicts were thus dubbed the Colorado Labor Wars. The WFM also played a key role in the founding of the Industrial Workers of the World in 1905 but left that organization several years later.
The Baltimore Orioles were a 19th-century professional baseball team that competed from 1882 to 1899, first in the American Association and later in the National League. This early Orioles franchise, which featured six players and a manager who were later inducted to the National Baseball Hall of Fame, finished in first place for three consecutive seasons (1894–1896) and won the Temple Cup national championship series in 1896 and 1897.
There were two related incidents between miners and mine owners in the Coeur d'Alene Mining District of North Idaho: the Coeur d'Alene, Idaho labor strike of 1892, and the Coeur d'Alene, Idaho labor confrontation of 1899. This article is a brief overview of both events.
The following is a timeline of labor history, organizing & conflicts, from the early 1600s to present.
Edward Boyce was president of the Western Federation of Miners, a radical American labor organizer, socialist and hard rock mine owner.
The Cripple Creek miners' strike of 1894 was a five-month strike by the Western Federation of Miners (WFM) in Cripple Creek, Colorado, United States. It resulted in a victory for the union and was followed in 1903 by the Colorado Labor Wars. It is notable for being the only time in United States history when a state militia was called out in support of striking workers.
The bituminous coal miners' strike was an unsuccessful national eight-week strike by miners of bituminous coal in the United States, which began on April 21, 1894.
The decade of the 1890s in film involved some significant events.
The American Labor Union (ALU) was a radical labor organization launched as the Western Labor Union (WLU) in 1898. The organization was established by the Western Federation of Miners (WFM) in an effort to build a federation of trade unions in the aftermath of the failed Leadville Miners' Strike of 1896. The group changed its name from WLU to the more familiar ALU moniker in 1902 at its fifth annual convention. The group had a peak membership of about 43,000 — of which 27,000 were members of the WFM. The ALU was a precursor to the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), established in 1905, which effectively terminated it.
In the United States, a Mine Owners' Association (MOA), also sometimes referred to as a Mine Operators' Association or a Mine Owners' Protective Association, is the combination of individual mining companies, or groups of mining companies, into an association, established for the purpose of promoting the collective interests of the group. Such associations are sometimes referred to as MOAs, however, in some cases they may be designated by the state, district, or locale, such as the Cripple Creek District Mine Owners' Association (CCDMOA).
George Manville Fenn was a prolific English novelist, journalist, editor and educationalist. Many of his novels were written with young adults in mind. His final book was his biography of a fellow writer for juveniles, George Alfred Henty.
The Leadville miners' strike was a labor action by the Cloud City Miners' Union, which was the Leadville, Colorado local of the Western Federation of Miners (WFM), against those silver mines paying less than $3.00 per day. The strike lasted from 19 June 1896 to 9 March 1897, and resulted in a major defeat for the union, largely due to the unified opposition of the mine owners. The failure of the strike caused the WFM to leave the American Federation of Labor (AFL), and is regarded as a cause for the WFM turn toward revolutionary socialism.
The November 1897 proclamation of the State Trades and Labor Council of Montana was a reflection of western labor's assessment of the struggle between labor and capital after the failed Leadville Colorado, Miners' Strike. The proclamation, and the impetus behind it had a significant impact on the labor movement in the United States, Canada, and other countries for a period of several decades.
John Francis Campion was a wealthy Canadian-American who made his fortune in mining and sugar production. He was also an executive and investor in banking, railroad, insurance, and other businesses.
The 1892 Coeur d'Alene labor strike erupted in violence when labor union miners discovered they had been infiltrated by a Pinkerton agent who had routinely provided union information to the mine owners. The response to the labor violence, disastrous for the local miners' union, became the primary motivation for the formation of the Western Federation of Miners (WFM) the following year. The incident marked the first violent confrontation between the workers of the mines and their owners. Labor unrest continued after the 1892 strike, and surfaced again in the labor confrontation of 1899.
Cyrus Warman was an American journalist and author known during his life by the appellation "The Poet Laureate of the Rockies".
The Illinois coal wars, also known as the Illinois mine wars and several other names, were a series of labor disputes between 1898 and 1900 in central and southern Illinois.
The Southern League was a Class B and Class C minor league baseball league which operated intermittently in the Southern United States from 1885 to 1899. Financial problems plagued the league and its member teams throughout their existence. It was not unusual for teams to depart the league during the season or for the league to cease operations without completing the season. It was this lack of financial support which ultimately caused the league to permanently disband in 1889. In 1901, a new league, called the Southern Association, was created from its remnants.