360The 19th century: railways, electricity and the modern world
The 19th century built the modern world. Railways and steamships shrank distances, the telegraph and telephone carried messages in moments, and electric light began to replace flames. Medicine discovered germs and anaesthesia. In 1824, Imam Turki bin Abdullah founded the Second Saudi State with Riyadh as its capital.
At the start of the 1800s, most people travelled no faster than a horse. By 1900, railways crossed continents and steamships crossed oceans in days. The first public steam railway opened in England in 1825, and by the end of the century, rail networks linked cities around the world.
Communication was transformed. The electric telegraph spread from the 1830s, undersea cables linked continents from the 1860s, and Alexander Graham Bell patented the telephone in 1876. Photography, sound recording and moving pictures were all invented during the century.
In the Arabian Peninsula, Imam Turki bin Abdullah founded the Second Saudi State in 1824 and made Riyadh its capital, continuing the legacy of the First Saudi State.
Science made huge leaps. Michael Faraday's work on electricity led to generators and motors, Charles Darwin explained evolution by natural selection, and Dmitri Mendeleev organised the periodic table. Louis Pasteur and Robert Koch showed that germs cause disease, and anaesthesia made surgery painless.
Society changed too. Britain abolished slavery in its empire in 1833 and the United States in 1865. Cities grew rapidly, schooling spread, and the first modern Olympic Games were held in Athens in 1896.
- 1824
- Second Saudi State founded, with Riyadh as capital
- 1825
- First public steam railway
- 1859
- Darwin's On the Origin of Species
- 1876
- Bell patents the telephone
- 1896
- First modern Olympic Games
Sources: Britannica · Saudipedia · Science Museum.