| ca. 1790s–1840s | 1861 |
| Romantic movement in literature and the arts | Freeing of Russian serfs |
| 1814–1815 | 1866–1871 |
| Congress of Vienna | Unification of Germany |
| 1832 | 1873 |
| Reform Bill in Britain | Stock market crash spurs renewed anti-Semitism in central and eastern Europe |
| ca. 1840s–1890s | 1883 |
| Realism is dominant in Western literature | First social security laws to help workers in Germany |
| 1845–1851 | 1889–1914 |
| Great Famine in Ireland | Second Socialist International |
| 1848 | 1890–1900 |
| Revolutions in France, Austria, and Prussia; Marx and Engels, The Communist Manifesto; first public health law in Britain | Massive industrialization surge in Russia |
| 1854 | 1904–1905 |
| Pasteur studies fermentation and develops pasteurization | Russo-Japanese War |
| 1854–1870 | 1905 |
| Development of germ theory | Revolution in Russia |
| 1859 | 1906–1914 |
| Darwin, On the Origin of Species by the Means of Natural Selection | Social reform in Britain |
| 1859–1870 | |
| Unification of Italy | |