Honestly, I got hooked on this topic last week while sipping coffee and watching a period drama. They kept mentioning steam engines and telegraphs, and it hit me – how much did that century actually mess things up for us today? Like, the world before and after must’ve been totally different. So, I decided to dive in properly this Tuesday morning.
First thing after breakfast, I grabbed my laptop and went straight down the internet rabbit hole. My goal? Find those real game-changers, not just random dates. Started broad, typing “Big events 1800s” – wow, overwhelming. So many wars, inventions, political shake-ups. Way too much info, felt messy.
Shifted gears around lunch. Instead of skimming hundreds of events, I focused on finding historians’ opinions on the most consequential. That helped big time. Kept seeing the same few popping up across different articles and docs. Made a rough list in Notes:
- That steam engine thing? Industrial Revolution.
- Message cables under oceans? Telegraph.
- Big Napoleon guy causing chaos? Napoleonic Wars.
- Farmers heading west in the US? Manifest Destiny.
- Germany suddenly appearing? Unification.
But five? Needed to be sure. Spent Wednesday evening cross-checking. Read snippets, watched a couple of documentaries on streaming. The Opium Wars kept coming up too, almost swapped it for Manifest Destiny. Tough call, honestly. But stuck with the original five after thinking hard about how each one fundamentally changed trade, land, communication, or how countries worked.
Thursday was writing day. Didn’t just want dry facts. Tried to figure out the so what?. Like, why does telegraph matter? Realized it shrunk the world overnight! News that took weeks suddenly took minutes. Businesses could react faster, families could connect. Game. Changer. Similar for the others:
- Industrial Revolution: Ditched hand tools for machines. Boom! Cities exploded (hello modern pollution and traffic jams), factory work sucked but created tons of stuff cheaper.
- Napoleonic Wars: Europe redrawn like a messy puzzle box. Fueled nationalism everywhere. Totally messed up old kings and borders.
- Manifest Destiny: US just bulldozed west. Native Americans destroyed, massive new territory gained. Shaped the whole USA superpower vibe.
- German Unification: Europe got scared stiff by this new heavyweight powerhouse in the middle. Seriously set the stage for those World War fights later.
Wrapped it up Friday, feeling surprised. Knew it was a big century, but connecting the dots on how these moments linked arms to make our modern world? Like, those wires in your walls, the shape of Europe, the rush hour? Yeah, blame the 1800s. Crazy to see the fingerprints everywhere. Next up? Maybe the scramble for Africa… got curious after this!
