The Chorus.fm Historical Society

Let's chat history!

So lately I have been gotten into a YouTube/Wiki hole of "all the major conflicts that were happening in the 1860's around the world other than the American Civil War". I never realized what a turbulent decade that was for the entire world.

In that decade besides our Civil War other major conflicts happening around the same time:

• Taiping Rebellion. 1850-1864. Chinese Qing Dynasty fights a long protracted war against a Christian cult led by a guy who claimed to be the brother of Jesus and wanted to turn China into a Christian theocratic state almost proto-socialist in it's domestic policies. Qing eventually won but never really recovered and it eventually led to their downfall decades later. Bloodiest civil war in world history, 20-30 million dead.
• Paraguayan War. 1864-1870. Paraguay's wannabe Napoleon dictator tries to go to war with all its neighbors at once and get destroyed by the triple alliance of Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay. Bloodiest war in South American history. Death tolls vary between 150,000 to 500,000 dead. Paraguay had a 60% population decline after the war and to this day has still not recovered.
• January Uprising. 1863-1864. A large scale insurgency by Poland (which then was a vassal of Russia) against the Russian Empire to attempt breakaway and re-form the old Polish-Lithuanian Union. This was the largest and bloodiest of the many Polish rebellions. Roughly 50,000 dead.
• French Intervention in Mexico. 1861-1867. France under Napoleon III uses America being distracted by the Civil War as an opportunity to go into Mexico and help Mexican conservatives overthrow the liberal led Republic to set up a Mexican Empire which would be a French Puppet State. The liberals continued to fight a guerilla war against the conservatives and the French. Once the American Civil War ended freeing the US to assert their regional power, and France grew more concerned about the rise of Prussia in Europe, the French eventually left. The liberals executed the puppet emperor and restored the Mexican Republic 3 months later. Roughly 45,000 dead.
• Austro-Prussian War. 1866. This was a war fought between the varying different German states over who would be the center of power in a united Germany, Austria or Prussia. The Prussian alliance led by Bismarck defeated the Austrians and their allies leading to the creation of the North German Confederation with Berlin as it's capital. This would lead to the rise of Prussia as a major European force and would then 2nd to last step before final unification of Germany (the Franco-Prussian war the next decade). Over 30,000 dead in just one month of war.
• Ten Years War 1868-1878. A decade long uprising of Cubans against Spain. Spain eventually put down the rebellion at a huge cost. The first of the 3 Cuban revolutions in the latter part of the 19th century (before the US eventually intervened in the 3rd)but by far the bloodiest. Roughly 200,000 dead.
• Dominican Restoration War 1863-1865. Seeing the US distracted by the Civil War and unable to assert regional power Spain annexes the Dominican Republic which just gained independence 17 years prior. Soon after huge guerrilla war was ignited inflicting heavy Spanish casualties. After the US Civil War winds down Spain starts to fear a US intervention so the queen anulls the annexation and they leave. Death toll in the tens of thousands, mostly on the Spanish side.

 

For several years now I've been really into reading about the history of the USSR. Particularly the period from 1917-1953. I intend to read more about what came after at some point as well. Some books I'd recommend for anyone interested in the topic:

Leninism Under Lenin - Marcel Liebman
Lenin - Lars T. Lih
Lenin and the Russian Revolution - Christopher Hill
The Russian Revolution: A View from the Third World - Walter Rodney
Stalin: From the Caucasus to the Kremlin - Christopher Read
Stalin's Wars: From World War to Cold War, 1939-1953 - Geoffrey Roberts
Stalinism and the Politics of Mobilisation: Ideas, Power and Terror in Inter-War Russia - David Priestland