Toussaint-L'ouverture led a series of slave rebellions on the French colony of Saint Domingue. These rebellions culminated in 1800 with the successful liberation of slaves living in Haiti and the eventual establishment of the Haitian Republic.

Defeat in the Crimean War led to a series of modernizing reforms in Russian society, including the emancipation of the serfs, the reorganization of the judicial system, and the encouragement of the growth of heavy industry and manufacturing.

The French Revolution began in 1789 during the reign of the Bourbon monarch Louis XVI. Louis was executed in the early stages of the Revolution.

Miguel Hidalgo was a Catholic priest who inspired a peasant rebellion during the early stages of the Mexican campaign for independence. Hidalgo was executed a full decade before Mexican independence was achieved, but for his lasting impact in the movement he is often remembered as the Father of the Mexican nation.

The Self Strengthening Movement began in China in 1861, in the wake of China’s defeat to Britain in the Opium Wars. The goal of the movement was to modernize the Chinese military and adopt some aspects of western technology.

The Sepoy Rebellion occurred in British occupied India in 1857. The Sepoys were Indian soldiers who served in the armed forces of the British East India Company, who administered the Indian subcontinent directly prior to the Sepoy Rebellion. The rebellion began due to British abuses of the Hindu and Muslim troops serving in the armed forces and was quelled when the British government stepped in and began to oversee the administration of India directly (removing the East India Company from ultimate authority). The Sepoy Rebellion is usually called the First Indian War of Independence in India.

Prior to the Sepoy Rebellion of 1857 the Indian subcontinent was administered by the British East India Company. However, after the outbreak of violence and rebellion in 1857 the British government took direct control of India (a period known as the rule of the British Raj) so as to prevent further disorder.

Otto von Bismarck was a conservative chancellor of Prussia and Germany in the second-half of the nineteenth century. He is remembered for leading the unification of Germany through his able diplomacy and timely military conquests. His efforts ensured that Germany would be unified at the exclusion of Austria, and would therefore be dominated by the Prussian state. He also is remembered for preserving the balance of power in Europe in the 1870s and 1880s.

Simon Bolivar fought for South American independence from the Spanish Empire in the early nineteenth century. Bolivar was inspired by the enlightenment ideas he was exposed to during his education in Spain and returned to Latin America to lead the campaign for independence. His actions contributed to the independence of Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru, Colombia, and Bolivia. Bolivar served as President of Gran Colombia from its formation in 1819 until its demise in 1830.

The Haitian Revolution began as a series of slave revolts led by Toussaint-L’ouverture in the 1790s. The successes of the rebellion encouraged L’ouverture and others to transform the slave rebellion into an independence movement. Although L’ouverture was captured and imprisoned in France, the fight continued in his absence and, in 1804, Jean-Jacques Dessalines declared the independence of the Haitian republic.