What happened accross the world 200 years ago?

It is the year 2015.

Before asking what happened a century ago, we researched history to find out what was happening around the world 200 years ago.  Apart from swiss cheese going commercial, the headlines mainly consisted of Napoleon Bonaparte’s fall.

On February 3, the world’s first commercial cheese factory was established in Switzerland.

Napoleon was defeated during the famous Battle of Waterloo on June 18.  (The 1970’s band called ABBA sang about the events in a hit-song called Waterloo in 1974 – if the tune just popped into your head, you might be middle-aged.)  On June 22, Napoleon was abdicated and he surrendered on July 15 before he was exiled to St. Helena on August 8.  He arrived there on October 15.

The world was a grim place in 1915, as the second world war saw the Armenian Genocide that saw more than 600 000 Armenians killed by Turkish soldiers. The German sinking of the British oceanliner called the Lusitania followed on May 7.  More than 1000 people died and the Americans publicly sided with the Allies.  The Second Battle of Ypres followed shortly after, on May 25.  More than 6 000 casualties were reported.

According to author Matthew White’s Source List and Detailed Death Tolls for the Primary Megadeaths of the Twentieth Century, estimates of the total amount of casualties recorded during World War one range from 9 to 15 million.  Some sources say that more people died.

What we do know, is that our days seem a lot brighter in comparison with what the world looked like 100 years ago.