1816

1816 was a leap year beginning on Monday in the Gregorian calendar. It is notable for the global climatic disturbances caused by the eruption of Mount Tambora in April 1815, which produced the Year Without a Summer in 1816. The unusual cold and wet weather led to poor harvests, food shortages, and rising prices across Europe and North America, contributing to social unrest and migration in some regions. In literature and culture, the weather influenced writers who sought shelter indoors; Mary Shelley conceived the idea for Frankenstein during a stay at Lake Geneva in 1816, a tale published later in 1818.

In the United States, the year saw James Monroe elected president, succeeding James Madison, with the inauguration in 1817 and the continued expansion of the federal financial system; Congress chartered the Second Bank of the United States in 1816 to stabilize the currency after the War of 1812. The era of political realignment in the United States and Europe followed the Napoleonic Wars.

Across the Atlantic, the aftermath of the Napoleonic era shaped European politics, with the Concert of Europe and the postwar settlement ongoing in the background. In the Americas, movements for independence from colonial rule continued in Spanish America, contributing to a wave of revolutions and state formations during the 1810s.