1859-1866: Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston† (Liberal)
1859 (Minority) def. Edward Smith-Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby (Conservative)
1861 – Declaration of European Neutrality in the American Civil War; Trent Affair
1862 – Withdraw of British Support from the Mexican Intervention
1863 – French Recognition of the C.S.A. after the Battles of Gettysburg and Westminster; Reiteration of British Neutrality in North America; Napoleon III’s intervention in the American Civil War
1864 – French Invasion of New Orleans; General George McClellan elected President of the United States after the Republican Party splits; Paraguayan War begins; Sherman’s March halted at Atlanta
1865 (Majority) def. Edward Smith-Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby (Conservative)
1865 – Battle of Germantown leads to the withdrawal of the Confederates behind the Potomac; Second Schleswig War; Osborne House Conference; The Gladstone Affair; Treaty of Portsmouth ends the American Civil War with the South securing independence
1866-1868: John Russell, 1st Earl Russell (Liberal)
1866 – Austro-Prussian War; Reform Act of 1866; British North America Act; Great Britian officially recognizes the Confederate States of America; Assassination of President McClellan, he is succeeded by Vice President Horation Seymour
1867 – Factory Act; The Alaskan Controversy; General Robert E. Lee soundly defeats Jefferson Davis in the Confederacy’s first peacetime election; French troops withdraw from Mexico after stabilising Emperor Maximillian’s rule with Confederate assistance
1868-1869: Edward Smith-Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby† (Conservative Minority)
1868 – Napier’s Expedition to Abyssinia; despite continued splits in the Republican Party, Horatio Seymour is defeated and replaced by the Radical Democracy candidate Benjamin Wade; Suspension of work on the Transcontinental Railroad after the Judah and Credit Mobilier Scandals
1869-1871: Benjamin Disraeli (Conservative)
1869 (Majority) def. Robert Lowe, 1st Viscount Sherbrooke (Liberal)
1869 – Elementary Education Act; Trade Union Act
1870 – Establishment of Secret Ballot in England; Franco-Prussian War; Napoleon III forced to abdicate by the Maréchals, establishment of the Third French Republic
1871-1872: Robert Lowe, 1st Viscount Sherbrooke (Liberal)
1871 (Minority) def. Benjamin Disraeli (Conservative)
1871 – British Columbia incorporated into the Dominion of Canada; Beginning of the Canadian Transcontinental Railroad; Death of Queen Victoria; Disestablishment of the Church of Ireland
1872-1881: Benjamin Disraeli† (Conservative)
1872 (Majority) def. Robert Lowe, 1st Viscount Sherbrooke (Liberal)
1872 – Coronation of King Albert I Edward; Licensing Act of 1872; Hampton Reforms to the British Army; the reunited Republican Party elects Supreme Court Judge David Davis as President of the United States
1873 – Robert E. Lee steps down as Confederate President, replaced by Nathan Bedford Forrest
1874 – Spanish-Confederate War, loss of all Spanish colonies in the Caribbean; The Great Balkan Crisis; Hawaii becomes a protectorate of the United States after rebuffing British advances; The “Comanche Campaign” ends with the ethnic cleansing of Comanche Indians from Texas
1875 – British Purchase of the Suez Canal; Balkan uprisings against the Ottoman Empire
1876 – Emperor of India Act, Albert I Edward travels to India for the first Imperial Durbar; Samuel J. Tilden elected President of the U.S.A., first to serve from the nation’s new capital in Columbus, Ohio
1877 – Russo-Turkish War; Congress of Berlin; Canadian Transcontinental Railroad Completed, linking Vancouver to Quebec, an extension to Halifax begins construction.
1878 (Majority) def. Robert Lowe, 1st Viscount Sherbrooke (Liberal); Isaac Butt (Home Rule League)
1879 – Anglo-Zulu War; Second Anglo-Afghan War, Britain retains a garrison at Kandahar; War of the Pacific
1881-1885: Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury (Conservative)
1881 – Tsar Alexander II survives an attempt on his life; The Boer War begins between Britain and the Boer Republics; League of the Three Emperor’s ends
1882 – Anglo-Egyptian War, Britain becomes the dominant power in the region over French and Turkish objections
1884 (Minority) def. William Ewart Gladstone (Liberal); Charles Stewart Parnell (IPP)
1884 – British representatives negotiate a white peace in the First Sino-French War; Austro-French Alliance signed in Vienna; General Gordon is dispatched to repress the Mahdists Revolt in Sudan; conservative Democrat Winfield Hancock is elected President, succeeding the liberal Samuel Tilden
1885-1887: William Ewart Gladstone (Liberal)
1885 (Majority) def. Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury (Conservative); Charles Stewart Parnell (IPP)
1885 – The Relief of Khartoum saves General Gordon and his army; British control of both Egypt and Sudan permanently alienates Britain and the Ottomans; Death of Prince Albert; James Longstreet is elected President of the C.S.A. and begins the slow emancipation of Dixie’s Slaves; King Leopold II of Belgium establishes the Congo Free State as private property
1887-1888: Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury (Conservative)
1887 – Russo-German alliance signed; General Georges Boulanger elected President of the Third Republic; End of the Fenian Raids after decisive clash in Manitoba, U.S. President Hancock deploys Federal troops to the Black Hills to round up remaining Fenians, repatriating many to England for trial; First Irish Home Rule Bill is killed in House of Commons, Gladstone resigns
1888-1894: William Ewart Gladstone (Liberal)
1888 (Majority) def. Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury (Conservative); Charles Stewart Parnell (IPP)
1888 – Start of the Last Indian War after the Apache Geronimo escapes his reservation, sparking uprisings of native tribes across the Great Plains for several years; Anglo-Boer War leads to the annexation of the Boer Republics; Kaiser Wilhelm I dies, the coronation of Fredrich III is delayed as he recovers from his cancer operation
1890 – Treaty of Lisbon resolves Portuguese disputes with Britain in Africa, securing its sovereignty over land north of the Zambezi and linking Angola and Mozambique by land; Second Sino-French War ends in French victory, annexing the Tonkin Gulf, the Leizhou Peninsula and Hainan as colonies; Bismarck is dismissed by Kaiser Fredrich and a more liberal coalition under Eugen Richter takes power; the Royal Navy adopts the two-power standard
1892 – Spanish-Moroccan War leads to the deposing of the Sultan and establishment of a Spanish protectorate; Reforming Russian Tsar Alexander II dies, his son and successor Alexander III disbands the State Duma and restores Absolutist Tsarism
1894 (Majority) def. Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury (Conservative); Charles Stewart Parnell (IPP)
1894 – Second Irish Home Rule Bill fails to pass the House of Commons; Gladstone resigns as Prime Minister to prevent a split in the Liberal Party
1894-1897: William Harcourt (Liberal)
1894 – The Dreyfus Affair leads to a crackdown by President Boulanger, imposing greater restrictions on the Third Republic
1895 – Sino-Japanese War signals the arrival of Japan on the world stage; Tsar Alexander III is assassinated, his son succeeds him as Nicholas II; Kaiser Fredrich III succumbs to pneumonia, his son Wilhelm II succeeds him; President Boulanger’s health begins to decline, fearing for the stability of France without him Philippe, Count of Paris, is summoned back to France and preparations made to restore the Bourbons
1897-1906: Joseph Chamberlain (‘Ministry of All Talents’)
1897 (Coalition w/ some Conservative and some Liberal) def. Lord Randolph Churchill (Conservative); William Harcourt (Liberal); John Redmond (IPP)
1897 – The Third attempt to pass Irish Home Rule, an election gives neither Party a majority, and the King summons Joseph Chamberlain to form a coalition ministry; a French-Confederate consortium begins groundwork on a canal through the Isthmus of Panama; Alfonso XIII and Philippe VII sign an alliance treaty between Spain and France
1898 – Philippe VII of France is assassinated, the Duke of Orleans is crowned Philippe VIII
1901 – The End of the Boxer Rebellion; Oceania Act amalgamates the British colonies of Australia, Westralia, and New Zealand into the Empire’s second autonomous Dominion; the French naval plan begins to strain Anglo-French relations
1902 (Coalition w/ Conservative and Unionist Liberal) def. Lord Randolph Churchill (Conservative); Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman (Liberal); John Redmond (IPP); Spencer Cavendish, 8th Duke of Devonshire (Unionist Liberal); Keir Hardie (Labour Representative Council)
1902 – Anglo-Japanese alliance is signed in London; Anglo-German alliance signed in Berlin; the Liberal Party splits on Tarriff reform, Chamberlain calls an election that keeps him in power in coalition between the Conservatives and his pro-Tarriff Unionist supporters
1904 – The Panama Canal completes construction, with France securing the controlling interest; Theodore Roosevelt is elected President of the United States, the first Progressive leader in North America; Russo-Japanese War leads permanent Japanese control over Korea and the leading interest in Manchuria; King Albert I Edward tours North America, meeting future Presidents Wilson and Bryan, and President Roosevelt; Confederation of South Africa becomes an independent Dominion in the British Empire
1905 – Franco-Turkish Alliance signed in Constantinople; 1905 Revolution almost topples Tsarism in Russia, Nicholas II restores the Duma and make other concessions to retain his rule; HMS Dreadnought is launched, triggering a global naval arms race, most intently felt by France and Britain
1906-: Austen Chamberlain (Unionist ‘Caretaker’)
1906-1908: Spencer Cavendish, 8th Duke of Devonshire† (Unionist Liberal)
1906 (Coalition w/ Conservative and Unionist Liberal) def. Lord George Hamilton (Conservative); Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman (Liberal); John Redmond (IPP); Austen Chamberlain (Unionist Liberal); Keir Hardie (Labour Representative Council)
1906 – Joseph Chamberlain suffers a stroke, and resigns, his son Austen does not hold the confidence of the Cabinet and is soon replaced by the Duke of Devonshire; Anglo-German Naval Agreement leads to a massive expansion of the German fleet, giving the allies a theoretical four power standard by 1920
1908-1909: Lord George Hamilton (Conservative)
1909-????: H.H. Asquith (Liberal)
1909 (Majority) def. Lord George Hamilton (Conservative); John Redmond (IPP); Austen Chamberlain (Unionist Liberal); David Shackleton (Labour)
1909 – Theodore Roosevelt’s second inauguration, the first Republican to serve two terms in office; Anglo-Russian Agreement signed, resolving differences in Central Asia; the increasingly weak Unionist government collapses, the Liberals form a new government under Asquith; Woodrow Wilson is elected Confederate President, a Progressive ‘New Whig’; New French naval plan scales back dreadnought production, concentrating on commerce raiders
1911 – Russian Prime Minister Pytor Stolypin is assassinated creating a power vacuum; Revolution topples the Qing dynasty in China; King-Emperor Albert I Edward dies, succeeded by his son Albert II Victor, his funeral is the largest assembly of crowned heads in History
1912 – Unionist Liberals officially integrate with the Conservative Party; The May Days – after a failed coup in Serbia leads to the assassination of Nikola Pašić, and Europe spirals into war between the Triple Alliance (Britain, Germany and Russia) and the Entente (France, Spain, Turkey and Austria); Emperor Maximillian of Mexico dies, his adopted son Agustín II succeeds him, but the country is plunged into chaos; Progressive Democrat William Jennings Bryan is elected President of the United States
