18th century

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Political boundaries at the beginning of year 1700

Storming of the Bastille, July 14, 1789, an iconic event of the French Revolution

Development of the Watt steam engine in the late 18th century was an important element in the Industrial Revolution in Great Britain.

The American Revolutionary War took place in the late 18th century.

The 18th century lasted from January 1, 1701 (MDCCI) to December 31, 1800 (MDCCC). During the 18th century, elements of Enlightenment thinking culminated in the American, French, and Haitian revolutions. During the century, slave trading and human trafficking expanded on a global scale. Revolutions began to challenge the legitimacy of monarchical and aristocratic power structures, including the structures and beliefs that supported the slave trade. The British Industrial Revolution began, leading to radical changes in human society and the environment.

The period is also known as the "century of lights" or the "century of reason". In continental Europe, philosophers dreamed of a brighter age. For some, this dream turned into a reality with the French Revolution of 1789, though this was later compromised by the excesses of the Reign of Terror. At first, many monarchies of Europe embraced Enlightenment ideals, but in the wake of the French Revolution they feared loss of power and formed broad coalitions for counter-revolution.

18th century music includes works characteristic of the Late Baroque period (including Johann Sebastian Bach and George Frideric Handel) and the classical period (including Joseph Haydn and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart).

The Ottoman Empire experienced an unprecedented period of peace and economic expansion, taking part in no European wars from 1740 to 1768. As a consequence, the empire was not exposed to Europe's military improvements of the Seven Years' War (1756–1763). The Ottoman Empire military may have fallen behind and suffered defeats against Russia in the second half of the century.

The 18th century also marked the end of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth as an independent state. The formerly powerful and vast kingdom, which had once conquered Moscow and defeated great Ottoman armies, collapsed under numerous invasions. Its semi-democratic government system was not robust enough to rival the neighboring monarchies of the Kingdom of Prussia, the Russian Empire and the Austrian Empire which divided the Commonwealth territories between themselves, changing the landscape of Central Europe and politics for the next hundred years.

European colonization of the Americas and other parts of the world intensified and associated mass migrations of people grew in size as the Age of Sail continued.

Great Britain became a major power worldwide with the French and Indian War in the 1760s and the conquest of large parts of India, especially Bengal. However, Britain lost many of its North American colonies after the American Revolution and Indian wars. In North America, the defeat of the British resulted in the formation of an independent United States.

In Central Asia, Nader Shah led successful military campaigns and major invasions, which led to the founding of the Durrani Empire.

In the Indian subcontinent, the death of the Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb marked the end of medieval India. It marked the beginning of modern India and the era of extensive European intervention in the subcontinent. The victory of the British East India Company over the Nawab of Bengal and their French allies^[1] in the Battle of Plassey caused the deindustrialization of Bengal. The British invasion expanded to cover much of South Asia.

French-Italian emperor Napoleon Bonaparte formed one of the Franco-Indian alliances with the major economic power Kingdom of Mysore,^[2] governed by Tipu Sultan and his father Hyder Ali, who pioneered the use of Rocket artillery and the world's first iron-cased rockets, the Mysorean rockets, through the compilation of the Fathul Mujahidin.^[3][4] The Anglo-Mysore Wars were fought and the Treaty of Mangalore was initiated in 1784.

Western historians have occasionally defined the 18th century otherwise for the purposes of their work. For example, the "short" 18th century may be defined as 1715–1789, denoting the period of time between the death of Louis XIV of France and the start of the French Revolution, with an emphasis on directly interconnected events.^[5][6] To historians who expand the century to include larger historical movements, the "long" 18th century^[7] may run from the Glorious Revolution of 1688 to the Battle of Waterloo in 1815^[8] or even later.^[9]

Events[]

1701–1750[]

Europe at the beginning of the War of the Spanish Succession, 1700

The Battle of Poltava in 1709 turned the Russian Empire into a European power.

John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough

Mughal emperor Muhammad Shah with the Persian invader Nader Shah.

• 1700–1721: Great Northern War between the Russian and Swedish Empires.
• 1701: Kingdom of Prussia declared under King Frederick I.
• 1701–1714: The War of the Spanish Succession is fought, involving most of continental Europe.^[10]
• 1702–1715: Camisard Rebellion in France.
• 1703: Saint Petersburg is founded by Peter the Great; it is the Russian capital until 1918.
• 1703–1711: The Rákóczi Uprising against the Habsburg Monarchy.
• 1704: End of Japan's Genroku period.
• 1704: First Javanese War of Succession.^[11]
• 1706–1713: The War of the Spanish Succession: French troops defeated at the battles of Ramillies and Turin.
• 1707: The Act of Union is passed, merging the Scottish and English Parliaments, thus establishing the Kingdom of Great Britain.^[12]
• 1708: The Company of Merchants of London Trading into the East Indies and English Company Trading to the East Indies merge to form the United Company of Merchants of England Trading to the East Indies.
• 1708–1709: Famine kills one-third of East Prussia's population.
• 1709: The Great Frost of 1709 marks the coldest winter in 500 years.
• 1710: The world's first copyright legislation, Britain's Statute of Anne, takes effect.
• 1710–1711: Ottoman Empire fights Russia in the Russo-Turkish War.
• 1711–1715: Tuscarora War between British, Dutch, and German settlers and the Tuscarora people of North Carolina.
• 1714: In Amsterdam, Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit invents the mercury-in-glass thermometer, which remains the most reliable and accurate thermometer until the electronic era.
• 1715: The first Jacobite rising breaks out; the British halt the Jacobite advance at the Battle of Sheriffmuir; Battle of Preston.
• 1716: Establishment of the Sikh Confederacy along the present-day India-Pakistan border.
• 1718: The city of New Orleans is founded by the French in North America.
• 1718–1730: Tulip period of the Ottoman Empire.
• 1719: Second Javanese War of Succession.^[13]
• 1720: The South Sea Bubble.
• 1720–1721: The Great Plague of Marseille.
• 1721: The Treaty of Nystad is signed, ending the Great Northern War.
• 1721: Sack of Shamakhi, massacre of its Shia population by Sunni Lezgins.
• 1722–1723: Russo-Persian War.
• 1722–1725: Controversy over William Wood's halfpence leads to the Drapier's Letters and begins the Irish economic independence from England movement.
• 1723: Slavery is abolished in Russia; Peter the Great converts household slaves into house serfs.^[14]
• 1723–1730: The "Great Disaster", an invasion of Kazakh territories by the Dzungars.
• 1724: Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit proposes the Fahrenheit temperature scale.
• 1727–1729: Anglo-Spanish War.

Qianlong Emperor

• 1730: Mahmud I takes over Ottoman Empire after the Patrona Halil revolt, ending the Tulip period.
• 1730–1760: The First Great Awakening takes place in Great Britain and North America.
• 1732–1734: Crimean Tatar raids into Russia.^[15]
• 1733–1738: War of the Polish Succession.
• 1735–1739: Russo-Turkish War.
• 1735–1799: The Qianlong Emperor of China oversees a huge expansion in territory.
• 1738–1756: Famine across the Sahel; half the population of Timbuktu dies.^[16]
• 1739: Great Britain and Spain fight the War of Jenkins' Ear in the Caribbean.

The extinction of the Scottish clan system came with the defeat of the clansmen at the Battle of Culloden in 1746.^[17]

• 1740: Great Awakening, George Whitefield
• 1740–1741: Famine in Ireland kills 20 percent of the population.
• 1740–1748: War of the Austrian Succession.
• 1742:
  • Marvel's Mill, the first water-powered cotton mill, begins operation in England.^[18]
  • Anders Celsius proposes an inverted form of the Centigrade temperature, which is later renamed Celsius in his honor.
• 1742: Premiere of Handel's Messiah
• 1744: The First Saudi State is founded by Mohammed Ibn Saud.^[19]
• 1744–1748: The First Carnatic War is fought between the British, the French, the Marathas, and Mysore in India.
• 1745: Second Jacobite rising is begun by Charles Edward Stuart in Scotland.
• 1748: The Treaty of Aix-La-Chapelle ends the War of the Austrian Succession and First Carnatic War.
• 1748–1754: The Second Carnatic War is fought between the British, the French, the Marathas, and Mysore in India.
• 1750: Peak of the Little Ice Age.

1751–1800[]

• 1754: The Treaty of Pondicherry ends the Second Carnatic War and recognizes Muhammed Ali Khan Wallajah as Nawab of the Carnatic.
• 1754: King's College is founded by a royal charter of George II of Great Britain.^[20]
• 1754–1763: The French and Indian War, the North American chapter of the Seven Years' War, is fought in colonial North America, mostly by the French and their allies against the English and their allies.
• 1755: The great Lisbon earthquake destroys most of Portugal's capital and kills up to 100,000.
• 1755–1763: The Great Upheaval forces transfer of the French Acadian population from Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.
• 1756–1763: The Seven Years' War is fought among European powers in various theaters around the world.
• 1756–1763: The Third Carnatic War is fought between the British, the French, the Marathas, and Mysore in India.

Catherine the Great, Empress of Russia.

• 1760: George III becomes King of Britain.
• 1761: Maratha Empire defeated at Battle of Panipat.
• 1762–1796: Reign of Catherine the Great of Russia.
• 1763: The Treaty of Paris ends the Seven Years' War and Third Carnatic War.
• 1765: The Stamp Act is introduced into the American colonies by the British Parliament.
• 1766: Christian VII becomes king of Denmark. He was king of Denmark to 1808.
• 1766–1799: Anglo-Mysore Wars.
• 1768–1772: War of the Bar Confederation.
• 1768–1774: Russo-Turkish War.
• 1769: Spanish missionaries establish the first of 21 missions in California.
• 1769–1770: James Cook explores and maps New Zealand and Australia.
• 1769–1773: The Bengal famine of 1770 kills one-third of the Bengal population.
• 1769: French expeditions capture clove plants in Ambon, ending the VOC monopoly of the plant.^[21] (to 1772)

Encyclopédie, ou dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers

• 1770–1771: Famine in Czech lands kills hundreds of thousands.
• 1771: The Plague Riot in Moscow.
• 1772: Gustav III of Sweden stages a coup d'état, becoming almost an absolute monarch.
• 1772–1779: Maratha Empire fights Britain and Raghunathrao's forces during the First Anglo-Maratha War.
• 1772–1795: The Partitions of Poland end the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and erase Poland from the map for 123 years.
• 1773–1775: Pugachev's Rebellion, the largest peasant revolt in Russian history.
• 1773: East India Company starts operations in Bengal to smuggle opium into China.
• 1775–1782: First Anglo-Maratha War.
• 1775–1783: American Revolutionary War.
• 1776: Illuminati founded by Adam Weishaupt.
• 1776: The United States Declaration of Independence is adopted by the Continental Congress in Philadelphia.
• 1776: Adam Smith publishes The Wealth of Nations.
• 1778: James Cook becomes the first European to land on the Hawaiian Islands.
• 1779–1879: Xhosa Wars between British and Boer settlers and the Xhosas in the South African Republic.

George Washington

Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen

• 1780: Outbreak of the indigenous rebellion against Spanish colonization led by Túpac Amaru II in Peru.
• 1781: The city of Los Angeles is founded by Spanish settlers.
• 1781–1785: Serfdom is abolished in the Austrian monarchy (first step; second step in 1848).
• 1783: The Treaty of Paris formally ends the American Revolutionary War.
• 1785–1791: Imam Sheikh Mansur, a Chechen warrior and Muslim mystic, leads a coalition of Muslim Caucasian tribes from throughout the Caucasus in a holy war against Russian settlers and military bases in the Caucasus, as well as against local traditionalists, who followed the traditional customs and common law (Adat) rather than the theocratic Sharia.^[22]
• 1785–1795: The Northwest Indian War is fought between the United States and Native Americans.
• 1786–1787: Mozart premieres The Marriage of Figaro and Don Giovanni
• 1787–1792: Russo-Turkish War.
• 1788: First Fleet arrives in Australia
• 1788–1790: Russo-Swedish War (1788–1790).
• 1789: George Washington is elected the first President of the United States; he serves until 1797.
• 1789–1799: French Revolution.

Napoleon at the Bridge of the Arcole

• 1789: The Liège Revolution.
• 1789: The Brabant Revolution.
• 1789: The Inconfidência Mineira, an unsuccessful separatist movement in central Brazil led by Tiradentes
• 1791: Suppression of the Liège Revolution by Austrian forces and re-establishment of the Prince-Bishopric of Liège.
• 1791–1795: George Vancouver explores the world during the Vancouver Expedition.
• 1791–1804: The Haitian Revolution.
• 1791 Mozart premieres The Magic Flute
• 1792–1802: The French Revolutionary Wars lead into the Napoleonic Wars, which last from 1803–1815.
• 1792: The New York Stock & Exchange Board is founded.
• 1792: Polish–Russian War of 1792.
• 1793: Upper Canada bans slavery.
• 1793: The largest yellow fever epidemic in American history kills as many as 5,000 people in Philadelphia, roughly 10% of the population.^[23]
• 1793–1796: Revolt in the Vendée against the French Republic at the time of the Revolution.
• 1794–1816: The Hawkesbury and Nepean Wars, which were a series of incidents between settlers and New South Wales Corps and the Aboriginal Australian clans of the Hawkesbury river in Sydney, Australia.
• 1795: The Marseillaise is officially adopted as the French national anthem.
• 1795: The Battle of Nuʻuanu in the final days of King Kamehameha I's wars to unify the Hawaiian Islands.
• 1796: Edward Jenner administers the first smallpox vaccination; smallpox killed an estimated 400,000 Europeans each year during the 18th century, including five reigning monarchs.^[24]
• 1796: War of the First Coalition: The Battle of Montenotte marks Napoleon Bonaparte's first victory as an army commander.
• 1796: The British eject the Dutch from Ceylon.
• 1796–1804: The White Lotus Rebellion against the Manchu dynasty in China.
• 1798: The Irish Rebellion fails to overthrow British rule in Ireland.
• 1798–1800: The Quasi-War is fought between the United States and France.
• 1799: Dutch East India Company is dissolved.
• 1799: Coup of 18 Brumaire - Napoleon's coup d'etat brings the end of the French Revolution
• 1800: 1 January, The bankrupt Dutch East India Company (VOC) is formally dissolved and the nationalised Dutch East Indies are established.^[25]

Inventions, discoveries, introductions[]

The Spinning Jenny

The Chinese Putuo Zongcheng Temple of Chengde, completed in 1771, during the reign of the Qianlong Emperor.

• 1709: The first piano was built by Bartolomeo Cristofori
• 1711: Tuning fork was invented by John Shore
• 1712: Steam engine invented by Thomas Newcomen
• 1714: Mercury thermometer by Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit
• 1717: Diving bell was successfully tested by Edmond Halley, sustainable to a depth of 55 ft
• c. 1730: Octant navigational tool was developed by John Hadley in England, and Thomas Godfrey in America
• 1733: Flying shuttle invented by John Kay
• 1736: Europeans encountered rubber – the discovery was made by Charles Marie de La Condamine while on expedition in South America. It was named in 1770 by Joseph Priestley
• c. 1740: Modern steel was developed by Benjamin Huntsman
• 1741: Vitus Bering discovers Alaska
• 1745: Leyden jar invented by Ewald Georg von Kleist was the first electrical capacitor
• 1752: Lightning rod invented by Benjamin Franklin
• 1753: The first Clock to be built in the New World (North America) was invented by Benjamin Banneker.
• 1755: The tallest wooden Bodhisattva statue in the world is erected at Puning Temple, Chengde, China.
• 1764: Spinning jenny created by James Hargreaves brought on the Industrial Revolution
• 1765: James Watt enhances Newcomen's steam engine, allowing new steel technologies
• 1761: The problem of longitude was finally resolved by the fourth chronometer of John Harrison
• 1763: Thomas Bayes publishes first version of Bayes' theorem, paving the way for Bayesian probability
• 1768–1779: James Cook mapped the boundaries of the Pacific Ocean and discovered many Pacific Islands
• 1774: Joseph Priestley discovers "dephlogisticated air", oxygen
• 1775: Joseph Priestley first synthesis of "phlogisticated nitrous air", nitrous oxide, "laughing gas"
• 1776: First improved steam engines installed by James Watt
• 1776: Steamboat invented by Claude de Jouffroy
• 1777: Circular saw invented by
• 1779: Photosynthesis was first discovered by Jan Ingenhousz
• 1781: William Herschel announces discovery of Uranus
• 1784: Bifocals invented by Benjamin Franklin
• 1784: Argand lamp invented by Aimé Argand^[26]
• 1785: Power loom invented by Edmund Cartwright
• 1785: Automatic flour mill invented by Oliver Evans
• 1786: Threshing machine invented by Andrew Meikle
• 1787: Jacques Charles discovers Charles's law
• 1789: Antoine Lavoisier discovers the law of conservation of mass, the basis for chemistry, and begins modern chemistry
• 1798: Edward Jenner publishes a treatise about smallpox vaccination
• 1798: The Lithographic printing process invented by Alois Senefelder^[27]
• 1799: Rosetta Stone discovered by Napoleon's troops

Literary and philosophical achievements[]

• 1703: The Love Suicides at Sonezaki by Chikamatsu first performed
• 1704–1717: One Thousand and One Nights translated into French by Antoine Galland. The work becomes immensely popular throughout Europe.
• 1704: A Tale of a Tub by Jonathan Swift first published
• 1712: The Rape of the Lock by Alexander Pope (publication of first version)
• 1719: Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe
• 1725: The New Science by Giambattista Vico
• 1726: Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift
• 1728: The Dunciad by Alexander Pope (publication of first version)
• 1744: A Little Pretty Pocket-Book becomes one of the first books marketed for children
• 1748: Chushingura (The Treasury of Loyal Retainers), popular Japanese puppet play, composed
• 1748: Clarissa by Samuel Richardson
• 1749: The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling by Henry Fielding
• 1751: Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard by Thomas Gray published
• 1751–1785: The French Encyclopédie
• 1755: A Dictionary of the English Language by Samuel Johnson
• 1759: Candide by Voltaire
• 1759: The Theory of Moral Sentiments by Adam Smith
• 1759–1767: Tristram Shandy by Laurence Sterne
• 1762: Emile: or, On Education by Jean-Jacques Rousseau
• 1762: The Social Contract, Or Principles of Political Right by Jean-Jacques Rousseau
• 1774: The Sorrows of Young Werther by Goethe first published
• 1776: Ugetsu Monogatari (Tales of Moonlight and Rain) by Ueda Akinari
• 1776: The Wealth of Nations, foundation of the modern theory of economy, was published by Adam Smith
• 1776–1789: The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire was published by Edward Gibbon
• 1779: Amazing Grace published by John Newton
• 1779–1782: Lives of the Most Eminent English Poets by Samuel Johnson
• 1781: Critique of Pure Reason by Immanuel Kant (publication of first edition)
• 1781: The Robbers by Friedrich Schiller first published
• 1782: Les Liaisons dangereuses by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos
• 1786: Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect by Robert Burns
• 1787–1788: The Federalist Papers by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay
• 1788: Critique of Practical Reason by Immanuel Kant
• 1789: Songs of Innocence by William Blake
• 1789: The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano by Olaudah Equiano
• 1790: Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow by Alexander Radishchev
• 1790: Reflections on the Revolution in France by Edmund Burke
• 1791: Rights of Man by Thomas Paine
• 1792: A Vindication of the Rights of Woman by Mary Wollstonecraft
• 1794: Songs of Experience by William Blake
• 1798: Lyrical Ballads by William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge
• 1798: An Essay on the Principle of Population published by Thomas Malthus
• (mid-18th century): The Dream of the Red Chamber (authorship attributed to Cao Xueqin), one of the most famous Chinese novels

Musical works[]

• 1711: Rinaldo, Handel's first opera for the London stage, premiered
• 1721: Brandenburg Concertos by J.S. Bach
• 1723: The Four Seasons, violin concertos by Antonio Vivaldi, composed
• 1724: St John Passion by J.S. Bach
• 1727: St Matthew Passion composed by J.S. Bach
• 1733: Hippolyte et Aricie, first opera by Jean-Philippe Rameau
• 1741: Goldberg Variations for harpsichord published by Bach
• 1742: Messiah, oratorio by Handel premiered in Dublin
• 1749: Mass in B minor by J.S. Bach assembled in current form
• 1751: The Art of Fugue by J.S. Bach
• 1762: Orfeo ed Euridice, first "reform opera" by Gluck, performed in Vienna
• 1786: The Marriage of Figaro, opera by Mozart
• 1787: Don Giovanni, opera by Mozart
• 1788: Jupiter Symphony (Symphony No.41) composed by Mozart
• 1791: The Magic Flute, opera by Mozart
• 1791–1795: London symphonies by Haydn
• 1798: The Pathétique, piano sonata by Beethoven
• 1798: The Creation, oratorio by Haydn first performed

References[]

Further reading[]

• Black, Jeremy and Roy Porter, eds. A Dictionary of Eighteenth-Century World History (1994) 890pp
• Klekar, Cynthia. “Fictions of the Gift: Generosity and Obligation in Eighteenth-Century English Literature.” Innovative Course Design Winner. American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies: Wake Forest University, 2004. <Home | American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies (ASECS)>. Refereed.
• Langer, William. An Encyclopedia of World History (5th ed. 1973); highly detailed outline of events online free
• Morris, Richard B. and Graham W. Irwin, eds. Harper Encyclopedia of the Modern World: A Concise Reference History from 1760 to the Present (1970) online
• Milward, Alan S, and S. B. Saul, eds. The economic development of continental Europe: 1780–1870 (1973) online; note there are two different books with identical authors and slightly different titles. Their coverfage does not overlap.
  • Milward, Alan S, and S. B. Saul, eds. The development of the economies of continental Europe, 1850–1914 (1977) online
• The Wallace Collection, London, houses one of the finest collections of 18th-century decorative arts from France, England and Italy, including paintings, furniture, porcelain and gold boxes.

External links[]

• Media related to 18th century at Wikimedia Commons