Victorian Era 1850
In 1851 the Great Exhibition opened in the Crystal Palace in London's Hyde Park. That vast hall of glass and iron was the emblem of a new age. Railways were linking the continent, the telegraph carried news in minutes, and factory chimneys were beginning to blot out the skies over the cities.
The shape of the age
Queen Victoria's Britain was "the empire on which the sun never sets", and the European powers were extending their colonies across the globe. At the same time, within the continent nationalism was redrawing the map. A scattered Italy and Germany were being bound into single nations, and the multinational empires of Austria and the Ottomans shook under the pressure.
It is also an age in which factories, shares and newspapers carry more power than a noble's land. That is why the game features events such as elections, railway investments, photographic studios and the telegraph.
Great events in the game
- The Crimean War In 1853–56, Britain and France sided with the Ottomans against Russia. It was the war in which Nightingale transformed the field hospital.
- Italian unification Garibaldi's Redshirts and the Kingdom of Sardinia founded the Kingdom of Italy in 1861.
- German unification Bismarck's Prussia fought Denmark, Austria and France in turn, and proclaimed the German Empire in 1871.
- Austria-Hungary and the Congress of Berlin The Dual Monarchy was born in 1867, and in 1878 the great powers redrew the borders of the Balkans.
- The First World War In 1914, the shots fired at Sarajevo drag every alliance into war.
How to enjoy this era
As the latest of the five eras, it is the hardest in which a small holding can survive among the great empires. In return, it is an age that makes dramatic rises possible, such as a commoner becoming a minister within a single generation.
Major powers
| Power | In the game |
|---|---|
| Britain | The world's largest empire and navy. Seeks to preserve the balance on the continent. |
| Prussia and Germany | Armed with railways and a general staff, it wages the wars of unification. |
| France | From the Second Empire to the Third Republic. Its enmity with Germany deepens. |
| Austria(-Hungary) | An empire embracing many peoples. Beset by the pressure of nationalism. |
| Russia · Ottoman Empire | Clash again and again over the Black Sea and the Balkans. |
Life in the age
The Industrial Revolution moved people from the countryside to the cities. Factory workers laboured more than twelve hours a day, and cholera swept through the urban slums. At the same time, thanks to the railways, ordinary people began for the first time to take holidays by the sea. The game's factory, seaside resort and railway investment events show the two faces of this age.
Politics became the business of more and more people. The franchise widened, trade unions and socialist movements emerged, and the campaign for women's suffrage began. Darwin's On the Origin of Species (1859) set alight the debate between religion and science, and photography and the telegraph changed the way people saw the world. At the century's end, a string of anarchist assassinations left monarchs trembling.