A British army invades Afghanistan and instals a puppet ruler, Shuja Shah, as the Afghan amir

Abd-el-Kader proclaims a holy war against the French in Algeria and begins a military campaign that will last for eight years

Andries Pretorius sets up the Boer republic of Natalia, with its capital at Pietermaritzburg

British troops invade China after the Chinese authorities seize and destroy the opium stocks of British merchants in Canton

The British abandon Kabul, losing most of the garrison force in the withdrawal to India and bringing to an end the first Anglo-Afghan war

The British take control of the existing Boer republic and proclaim Natal a British protectorate

James Polk pledges in his presidential campaign to include the self-proclaimed republic of Texas in the USA

The expansionist slogan 'Manifest Destiny' is coined by journalist John L. O'Sullivan to emphasize the right of the USA to extend west to the Pacific

Pretorius leads the last Boer families out of Natal and over the Drakensberg to the high veld

Harry Smith annexes for Britain the land between the Orange and Vaal rivers, calling it the Orange River Sovereignty

A British victory at the Battle of Gujarat effectively ends the second Anglo-Sikh war, and is followed by annexation of the Punjab

Vancouver Island is given the status of a British crown colony, to be followed by British Columbia in 1858

The British government buys the Danish fortresses on the Gold Coast, including Christiansborg castle in Accra

Russia occupies two Ottoman principalities, Moldavia and Wallachia, on the west coast of the Black Sea

The Boers establish the Orange Free State as an independent republic, with its own custom-built constitution

Napoleon III and Cavour hatch a secret plan at Plombièes to tempt Austria into war in north Italy, and agree how to divide up the spoils

The India Act places India under the direct control of the British government, ending the rule of the East India Company

Under the Treaty of Aigun, Russia wins from China the valuable Pacific coastline down to Vladivostok

Napoleon III sends forces to capture the port of Da Nang, beginning the French colonization of Vietnam

A French and Piedmontese army liberates Milan from Austrian rule

The treaty of Turin brings much of north Italy under the control of Cavour (for the kingdom of Sardinia), who in return cedes Savoy and Nice to France

Lagos, on the coast of Nigeria, is annexed as a British colony when the royal family prove unable or unwilling to end the slave trade

A joint French, Spanish and British force lands in Mexico and captures Veracruz, ostensibly to collect the interest on European debts

The Homestead Act grants 160 acres in the west of the USA to any family farming them for five years

The French capture Mexico City and President Juarez flees to the north