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The Industrial Revolution and the rise of capitalism began, more or less, toward the end of the eighteenth century. The nineteenth century was a turbulent epoch beginning with a stock market crash in 1825 then moving on to the Panic of 1847, a collapse of British financial markets associated with the end of the 1840s railroad boom. The crisis of 1847 could have been more disastrous except that it was cut short by economic revival following the California gold strike of 1849.

After a period of prosperity, there began a series of wars and revolutions. There was the first Italian War for Independence in 1857, and then the American Civil War of 1861, the Polish Insurrection of 1863, Napoleon the Second's Mexican adventure and the campaign against Denmark in 1864 which started the Prussian Wars led by Bismarck. Bismarck attacked Austria in 1866 and won a victory over France in 1871. The, there was the Republican uprising in Spain which toppled Queen Isabella from the throne. Finally, there was the last of Louis Napoleon's adventures which culminated in the crashing of the Empire in 1871.

There was Civil War in France following the downfall of the Second Napoleon, and the people (Paris Communards) seized power. They were soon crushed and order was restored in the Third Republic, and the revolutionary tide receded for the rest of the century.

It is interesting to consider the other events that were occurring at this time. Industrial capitalism was being spread with missionary zeal everywhere. Western investors roamed the globe looking for openings to establish trade and to invest in anything that could be bought or sold. In the process, millions of people were redistributed in the greatest mass migrations in history from the Old World to the New. Science became the handmaiden of industry and capitalism. The volume of world trade was 1.75 billion dollars in 1830 and it rose to 3.6 billion in 1850, skyrocketing to 9.4 billion in 1870.

So, Clube is right. For about twenty-five years, the entire Western world was bubbling cauldron of war and revolution and people taking advantage of wars and revolution to make money. When it was all over, the imperial powers of Europe that were to rule the world until 1914, were firmly ensconced. More than that, the United States as a federal, capitalist entity, had been forged at Appamattox.

There were obviously other things going on at that time. In the period from 1830 to 1860 there was apparently an enormous upsurge in religious fervor. The imminent return of Christ was being predicted everywhere! Manuel de Lacunza, a Catholic priest in South America wrote (under the pen name of Juan Josafa Ben-Ezra) a book entitled The Coming of Messiah in Glory and Majesty, which was published in Spain in 1812. He believed that Jesus was coming very, very soon. William Miller (Seventh-Day Adventists) declared that Christ was coming and predicted 1844 as the date. Edward Irving of England and Johann Bengel in Germany almost simultaneously came to the conclusion that the prophecies of Daniel pointed to the time of the end being right then; Mason in Scotland, Leonard H. Kelber in Germany and many, many others preached about the Second coming. Spiritualist Andrew Jackson Davis gave 157 lectures in 1845 about the new era, which Edgar Allen Poe attended regularly. The Spiritualism Craze began with the Fox sisters in 1848. Mourant Brock, of the Church of England, noted that the craze for eschatology had spread through all of Europe and extended to India. (See: The Story of Prophecy by Henry James Forman). As Clube notes, this religious fervor parallels cosmic events.

As Clube notes, this religious fervor parallels cosmic events.

In 1843, there appeared one of the greatest comets of history. The Great Comet of 1843 formally designated C/1843 D1 and 1843 I, was discovered on February 5, 1843 and rapidly brightened. It was a member of the Kreutz Sungrazers, a family of comets resulting from the breakup of a parent comet (X/1106 C1) into multiple fragments in about 1106. These comets pass extremely close to the Sun - within a few solar radii - and this is why they often become very bright.

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