Instalment 5
1820-1830
Beethoven premiered his Ninth Symphony, 1824 which finished with a movement for orchestra, choir and soloists – something fairly unusual since up until that time, symphonies had always been characterised by their purely orchestral nature.
The Ninth Symphony, composed once the musician had gone completely deaf, includes the ‘Ode to Joy’, which is now the national anthem of the European Union.
The work has recently been declared part of Mankind’s Cultural Heritage by Unesco.
The troops gathered to repress the 1820 uprisings resulting from the independence of the American colonies revolted in Cadiz, proclaiming the Constitution of 1812. The revolt achieved its objective and Ferdinand VII was obliged to swear to the liberal constitution.
The Frenchman Louis Braille, who lost his eyesight as the result of a childhood accident, invented Braille, 1829 a tactile writing system designed for the blind. He conceived the code when he was just 15, basing his design on a military system used for reading orders during night time hours without needing to switch on any lights.
Rugby was invented when an English student at the Rugby school (from which the sport takes its name) 1823 picked the ball up with his hands during a football match and charged straight towards his opponents.
Bolivia was named after its liberator, Simón Bolívar, who won independence for the Spanish colonies in South America. These countries acquired political independence but did not manage to organise themselves into stable states, 1825 and were forced to struggle against the internal contradictions and external pressures that still, in many cases, determine their current situation.
The first steam engine passenger service 1825 in the United Kingdom prompted a major revolution in the field of transport. The 43 km journey was made by George Stephenson’s locomotive, which pulled 28 carriages. Technical breakthroughs made rail an ever faster, safer and cheaper way to travel. As a result, before long, railways spread throughout the world and a number of intercontinental lines were even designed.
2006 The 19th century in decades. Museo Zumalakarregi Museoa 