Short description: Time period between January 1, 1701, and December 31, 1800
Political boundaries at the beginning of year 1700Storming 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 Europe.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 Revolution , and Haitian Revolutions. During the century, slave trading and human trafficking expanded across the shores of the Atlantic, while declining in Russia,[1] China,[2] and Korea. Revolutions began to challenge the legitimacy of monarchical and aristocratic power structures, including the structures and beliefs that supported slavery. The Industrial Revolution began during mid-century, leading to radical changes in human society and the environment.
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.[3][4] To historians who expand the century to include larger historical movements, the "long" 18th century[5] may run from the Glorious Revolution of 1688 to the Battle of Waterloo in 1815[6] or even later.[7]
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 to oppose the French Republic in the French Revolutionary Wars.
The 18th century also marked the end of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth as an independent state. Its semi-democratic government system was not robust enough to rival the neighboring states of the Prussia, Russia, and Austria, which partitioned the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth between themselves, changing the landscape of Central Europe and politics for the next hundred years.
The Ottoman Empire experienced an unprecedented period of peace and economic expansion, taking part in no European wars from 1740 to 1768. As a result, the empire was not exposed to Europe's military improvements of the Seven Years' War. The Ottoman Empire military consequently lagged behind and suffered several defeats against Russia in the second half of the century. In Southwest and Central Asia, Nader Shah led successful military campaigns and major invasions, which indirectly led to the founding of the Durrani Empire.
The European colonization of the Americas and other parts of the world intensified and associated mass migrations of people grew in size as part of the Age of Sail. European colonization intensified in present-day Indonesia, where the Dutch East India Company established increasing levels of control over the Mataram Sultanate. Mainland Southeast Asia would be embroiled in the Konbaung–Ayutthaya Wars and the Tây Sơn rebellion, while in East Asia, the century marked the High Qing era and the continual seclusion policies of the Tokugawa shogunate.
Various conflicts throughout the century, including the War of the Spanish Succession and the French and Indian War saw Great Britain triumphing over its European rivals to become the preeminent colonial power in Europe. However, Britain lost its colonies in North America after the American Revolutionary War, which went on to form the United States , initiating the decolonization of the Americas. The European colonization of Australia and New Zealand began during the late half of the century.
In the Indian subcontinent, the death of Mughal emperor Aurangzeb marked the end of medieval India and the beginning of an increasing level of European influence and control in the region, which coincided with a period of rapid Maratha expansion. After the reign of Aurangzeb, the Mughal Empire became less powerful. In 1739, Nader Shah invaded and defeated the Mughal Empire. Later, his general Ahmad Shah Abdali scored another defeat against the Mughals in the Third Battle of Panipat in 1761.[8] By the middle of the century, the British East India Company began to conquer the eastern parts of India, a process which accelerated after their victory over the Mughal emperor, Nawab of Bengal and their French allies at the Battle of Plassey.[9][8] Mughal emperor transformed into mere puppet of British.[8] By the end of the century, Company rule in India had come to cover more regions within South Asia, the British would also expand to the south, participating in the Anglo-Mysore Wars against the Kingdom of Mysore, governed by Tipu Sultan and his father Hyder Ali.[10][11]
Europe at the beginning of the War of the Spanish Succession, 1700The Battle of Poltava in 1709 turned the Russian Empire into a European power.John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough
1700–1721: Great Northern War between the Russian and Swedish Empires.
1706–1713: The War of the Spanish Succession: French troops defeated at the battles of Ramillies and Turin.
1707: Death of Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb leads to the fragmentation of the Mughal Empire.
1707: The Act of Union is passed, merging the Scottish and English Parliaments, thus establishing the Kingdom of Great Britain.[14]
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.
1720: Qing forces oust Dzungar invaders from Tibet.
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: Siege of Isfahan results in the handover of Iran to the Hotaki Afghans.
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.Mughal emperor Muhammad Shah with the Persian invader Nader Shah.
1723: Slavery is abolished in Russia; Peter the Great converts household slaves into house serfs.[16]
1723–1730: The "Great Disaster", an invasion of Kazakh territories by the Dzungars.
1723–1732: The Qing and the Dzungars fight a series of wars across Qinghai, Dzungaria, and Outer Mongolia, with inconclusive results.
Anders Celsius proposes an inverted form of the centigrade temperature, which is later renamed Celsius in his honor.
1742: Premiere of Handel's Messiah
1743–1746: Another Ottoman-Persian War involves 375,000 men but ultimately ends in a stalemate.The extinction of the Scottish clan system came with the defeat of the clansmen at the Battle of Culloden in 1746.[20]
1744: The First Saudi State is founded by Mohammed Ibn Saud.[21]
1744: Battle of Toulon is fought off the coast of France.
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.
1747: The Durrani Empire is founded by Ahmad Shah Durrani.
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.
1752: The British Empire adopts the Gregorian Calendar, skipping 11 days from September 3 to September 13. On the calendar, September 2 is followed directly by September 14.
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.[22]
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: The Dzungar genocide depopulates much of northern Xinjiang, allowing for Han, Uyghur, Khalkha Mongol, and Manchu colonization.
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, and Mysore in India.
1757: British conquest of Bengal.
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.
1764: The Mughals are defeated at the Battle of Buxar.
1765: The Stamp Act is introduced into the American colonies by the British Parliament.
1765–1767: The Burmese invade Thailand and utterly destroy Attuthaya.
1765–1769: Burma under Hsinbyushin repels four invasions from Qing China, securing hegemony over the Shan states.
1766: Christian VII becomes king of Denmark. He was king of Denmark to 1808.
1766–1799: Anglo-Mysore Wars.
1767: Taksin expels Burmese invaders and reunites Thailand under an authoritarian regime.
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: The French East India Company dissolves, only to be revived in 1785.
1769: French expeditions capture clove plants in Ambon, ending the VOC monopoly of the plant.[23] (to 1772)
1770–1771: Famine in Czech lands kills hundreds of thousands.
1771: The Plague Riot in Moscow.
1771: The Kalmyk Khanate dissolves as the territory becomes colonized by Russians. More than a hundred thousand Kalmyks migrate back to Qing Dzungaria.
1772: Gustav III of Sweden stages a coup d'état, becoming almost an absolute monarch.Encyclopédie, ou dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers
1772–1779: Maratha Empire fights Britain and Raghunathrao's forces during the First Anglo-Maratha War.
1778: James Cook becomes the first European to land on the Hawaiian Islands.
1778: Franco-American alliance signed.
1778: Spain acquires its first permanent holding in Africa from the Portuguese, which is administrated by the newly-established La Plata Viceroyalty.
1778: Vietnam is reunified for the first time in 200 years by the Tay Son brothers. The Tây Sơn dynasty has been established, terminated the Lê dynasty
1779–1879: Xhosa Wars between British and Boer settlers and the Xhosas in the South African Republic.
1779–1783: Britain loses several islands and colonial outposts all over the world to the combined Franco-Spanish navy.
1779: Iran enters yet another period of conflict and civil war after the prosperous reign of Karim Khan Zand.
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.George Washington
1781–1785: Serfdom is abolished in the Austrian monarchy (first step; second step in 1848).
1782: The Thonburi Kingdom of Thailand is dissolved after a palace coup.
1783: The Treaty of Paris formally ends the American Revolutionary War.
1783: Russian annexation of Crimea.
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.[24]
1785–1795: The Northwest Indian War is fought between the United States and Native Americans.
1785–1787: The Maratha-Mysore War concludes with an exchange of territories in the Deccan.
1786–1787: Mozart premieres The Marriage of Figaro and Don Giovanni
1787: The Tuareg occupies Timbuktu until the 19th century.
1787–1792: Russo-Turkish War.
1788: First Fleet arrives in Australia
1788–1790: Russo-Swedish War (1788–1790).Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen
1788–1789: A Qing attempt to reinstall an exiled Vietnamese king in northern Vietnam ends in disaster.
1789: George Washington is elected the first President of the United States; he serves until 1797.
1793: The largest yellow fever epidemic in American history kills as many as 5,000 people in Philadelphia, roughly 10% of the population.[25]
1793–1796: Revolt in the Vendée against the French Republic at the time of the French 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.Napoleon at the Bridge of the Arcole
1795: The Battle of Nuʻuanu in the final days of King Kamehameha I's wars to unify the Hawaiian Islands.
1795–1796: Iran invades and devastates Georgia, prompting Russia to intervene and march on Tehran.
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.[26]
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 and South Africa.
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: Austro-Russian forces under Alexander Suvorov liberates much of Italy and Switzerland from French occupation.
1799: Coup of 18 Brumaire - Napoleon's coup d'etat brings the end of the French Revolution .
1799: Death of the Qianlong Emperor after 60 years of rule over China. His favorite official, Heshen, is ordered to commit suicide.
1800: On 1 January, the bankrupt Dutch East India Company (VOC) is formally dissolved and the nationalised Dutch East Indies are established.[27]
Inventions, discoveries, introductions
The Spinning Jenny
1709: The first piano was built by Bartolomeo Cristofori
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
1768–1779: James Cook mapped the boundaries of the Pacific Ocean and discovered many Pacific Islands
1774: Joseph Priestley discovers "dephlogisticated air", oxygenThe Chinese Putuo Zongcheng Temple of Chengde, completed in 1771, during the reign of the Qianlong Emperor.
1775: Joseph Priestley first synthesis of "phlogisticated nitrous air", nitrous oxide, "laughing gas"
1776: First improved steam engines installed by James Watt
↑Marshall, P. J., ed (2001). The Oxford History of the British Empire: Volume II: The Eighteenth Century (Oxford History of the British Empire). Oxford University Press, USA. ISBN978-0-19-924677-9. OCLC174866045., "Introduction" by P. J. Marshall, page 1
↑Wadsworth, Alfred P.; Mann, Julia De Lacy (1931). The Cotton Trade and Industrial Lancashire, 1600–1780. Manchester University Press. p. 433. OCLC2859370.
↑Meggs, Philip B. A History of Graphic Design. (1998) John Wiley & Sons, Inc. p 146 ISBN978-0-471-29198-5
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.