Napoleon's remains are brought to Paris for burial in Les Invalides, as the Napoleonic legend grows

Queen Victoria gives Kew Gardens to the nation, as a botanic garden of scientific importance

Muhammad Ali, officially viceroy for the Turkish sultan, establishes his own ruling dynasty on the throne of Egypt

Victoria marries Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and soon, with nine children, they provide the very image of the ideal Victorian family

The 14-year-old Dom Pedro, son of Pedro I, becomes emperor of Brazil as Pedro II

A revolution in Paris in February removes Louis-Philippe and introduces France's second republic

18-year-old Francis Joseph becomes emperor of Austria when his uncle, Ferdinand I, abdicates at the end of a year of unrest

Delegates of the German states offer the imperial crown of a united Germany to Frederick William IV, the king of Prussia, who rejects it

The Habsburgs recover power in both Austria and Hungary

The president of France, Louis Napoleon, stages a coup d'état, rounding up his political opponents during a long December night

Louis Napoleon, asking the French people to approve his elevation to emperor as Napoleon III, receives a resounding yes in the plebiscite

An Ethiopian baron usurps the throne and proclaims himself emperor, as Theodore II

The last Mughal emperor, Bahadur Shah II, is deposed by the British and exiled to Rangoon, in Burma

Victor Emmanuel II is proclaimed king of a united Italy, with only Rome and Venetia remaining outside his realm

Prince Albert dies of typhoid, plunging Victoria into forty years of widowhood and deep mourning

The French arrange for the coronation of the Austrian archduke Maximilian as emperor of Mexico

Francis Joseph, emperor of Austria, is also crowned king of Hungary – to become ruler of the 'dual monarchy' of Austria-Hungary

Napoleon III is among 83,000 French prisoners captured by the Germans at Sedan in the Franco-Prussian war

A French government of national defence deposes Napoleon III and proclaims the third French republic

The Prussian king, William I, is proclaimed emperor of a united Germany in the palace at Versailles

Cetshwayo becomes king of Zululand, on the death of his father Mpande

The return to Spain of Isabella's son, as Alfonso XII, offers an end to forty years of royal feuding

Queen Victoria's golden jubilee brings her back into the public's affection

Menelik II is crowned emperor in Ethiopia, bringing the crown back to the Solomon dynasty

A coup removes emperor Pedro II from his throne in Brazil, putting in his place a military dictatorship