World History 1829

About the history of the world in 1829, the Catholic Emancipation Act, Rocket Railroad, Simon Bolivar died.

TWO CENTURIES OF WORLD HISTORY: 1778-1978

1829

* The Duke of Wellington, prime minister of England, drove through Parliament the unpopular Catholic Emancipation Act, sacrificing himself and his Tory party to avert civil war. Now Catholics might sit in the British Parliament, but only larger Catholic property owners had the franchise.

Aug. 9 A cousin of Charles X, Louis Philippe, Duc d'Orleans, became the new constitutional monarch. Often called the "citizen king," he sympathized with the ideals of the French Revolution and tried to reconcile monarchists with socialists and other republicans, including Bonapartists (those who hoped to restore a member of Napoleon's family to power). Under his prosperous but uneventful reign, France enjoyed the luxury of boredom.

Sept. 15 The opening of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway with George Stephenson's new engine, the Rocket, capable of 36 mph, inaugurated modern railroading.

Dec. 17 Simon Bolivar, 47, liberator of Venezuela, Peru, Ecuador, Columbia, Bolivia, and Panama, died of tuberculosis, a disappointed man who had spent his personal fortune on the wars. Attempts had been made upon his life; his designated successor, Sucre, had been assassinated; and former supporters challenged his authority in Peru and Mexico. A few weeks before his death he wrote, "America is ungovernable. He who serves a revolution plows the sea."

You Are Here: Trivia-Library Home » World History: 1829 » World History 1829