7.7Meanwhile, elsewhere (1861–1877)

The 1860s and 1870s were a great age of nation-building abroad. Italy completed its unification, and in 1871 the German states united into a powerful new empire after defeating France. Japan's Meiji Restoration (1868) launched a stunning drive to modernize and industrialize, transforming a feudal society into a rising power within a generation.

Elsewhere, European empires pressed deeper into Africa and Asia, and the Suez Canal (1869) reshaped global trade. Russia's emancipation of its serfs (1861) paralleled America's abolition of slavery. Around the world, strong central states were consolidating power—much as the American Civil War had transformed a loose union into a more unified nation.