The long 19th century

The long nineteenth century is a term coined by the British historian and Marxist author Eric Hobsbawn to refer to the historical period of 125 years between 1789 and 1914. Hobsbawn expounds his theory over three books on different eras: The Age of Revolution: Europe, 1789-1848, The Age of Capital, 1848-1875 and The Age of Empire, 1875-1914. His Marxist formation can be inferred from the second of his works, which starts not only a year of social revolutions but the original publication of the Communist Manifesto. The period in question begins with the French Revolution, which established a post-monarchy republic in Europe, and ends with the beginning of the First World War. After the conclusion of this great warlike conflagration, the long balance of power or forces that had characterized the 19th century itself (1801-1900) was definitively eliminated. These events and events represented significant changes in history, not only European, but worldwide. These were changes that redefined an entire era.

Hobsbawn himself published in 1994 a companion book to that trilogy, entitled History of the Twentieth Century. He suggests that "the short twentieth century," began with the outbreak of World War I and ended with the dissolution of the Soviet Union in late 1991.

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