Contents
18th century
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Centuries: 17th century · 18th century · 19th century
Decades: 1700s 1710s 1720s 1730s 1740s
1750s 1760s 1770s 1780s 1790s
Categories: Births – Deaths
Establishments – Disestablishments
The 18th century lasted from 1701 to 1800 in the Gregorian calendar.
However, Western historians may sometimes specifically define 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.[1][2]
To historians who expand the century to include larger historical movements, the "long" 18th century [3] may run from the Glorious Revolution of 1688 to the battle of Waterloo in 1815[4] or even later.[5] During the 18th century, the Enlightenment culminated in the French and American revolutions. Philosophy and science increased in prominence. Philosophers were dreaming about a better age without the Christian fundamentalism of earlier centuries. This dream turned into a nightmare during the terror of Maximilien Robespierre in the early 1790s. At first, the monarchies of Europe embraced enlightenment ideals, but with the French revolution, they were on the side of the counterrevolution.
Great Britain became a major power worldwide with the defeat of France in the Americas in the 1760s and the conquest of large parts of India. However, Britain lost much of her North American colonies after the American revolution. The industrial revolution started in Britain around the 1770s. Despite its modest beginnings in the 18th century, it would radically change human society and the geology of the surface of the earth.
Events
1700–1709
- 1700: The 1700 Cascadia earthquake (magnitude 9) occurs off the coast of the Pacific Northwest; the coast of Japan is struck by a tsunami.
- 1700–21: Russia supplants Sweden as the dominant Baltic power after the Great Northern War.
- 1701–1714: War of the Spanish Succession was a conflict which involved most of Europe.[6]
- 1701–1702: The Daily Courant and the The Norwich Post becomes the first daily newspapers in England.
- 1702: Forty-seven Ronin attack Kira Yoshinaka and then commit seppuku in Japan.
- 1702–1715: Camisard Rebellion in France.
- 1703: Saint Petersburg founded by Peter the Great. Russian capital until 1918.
- 1703–1711: The Rákóczi Uprising against the Habsburg Monarchy.
- 1704: End of Japan's Genroku period.
- 1707: Act of Union passed merging the Scottish and the English Parliaments, thus establishing The Kingdom of Great Britain.[7]
- 1707: After Aurangzeb's death, the Mughal Empire enters a long decline and the Maratha Empire slowly replaces it.
- 1707: Mount Fuji erupts in Japan.
- 1707: War of 27 years between the Marathas and Mughals ends in India.
- 1708: The Company of Merchants of London Trading into the East Indies and English Company Trading to the East Indies merged 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.
- Great Frost of 1709: Coldest winter in 500 years.
- 1709: Hotaki dynasty founded in Afghanistan.
- 1709: Charles XII of Sweden flees to Ottoman Empire after Peter I of Russia defeats his army at the Battle of Poltava.
1710s
- 1710-1711: Ottoman Empire fights Russia in the Russo-Turkish War
- 1713-1714: Tarabai establishes rival Maratha Empire government in Kolhapur against Chattrapati Shahu.
- 1714: Accession of George I, Elector of Hanover, to the throne of Great Britain.
- 1715: First Jacobite rebellion breaks out
- 1715: Louis XIV dies, leaving France deep in debt.
- 1715: Pope Clement XI declares Catholicism and Confucianism incompatible.
- 1716: Establishment of the Sikh Confederacy along the India Pakistan border.
- 1718: City of New Orleans founded by the French in North America
- 1718: Blackbeard is killed by Robert Maynard in a North Carolina inlet on the inner side of Ocracoke Island
- 1718-1730: Tulip period of the Ottoman Empire
- 1719: Spanish attempt to restart the Jacobite rebellion fails.
1720s
- 1720: The South Sea Bubble
- 1720: Spanish military embarks on the Villasur expedition from Mexico and travel into the Great Plains
- 1720–1721: The Great Plague of Marseille
- 1721: Robert Walpole became the first Prime Minister of Great Britain (de facto).
- 1721: Treaty of Nystad signed, ending the Great Northern War.
- 1721: Kangxi Emperor bans Christian Missionaries because of Pope Clement XI's decree.
- 1721: Peter I reforms the Russian Orthodox Church
- 1722: Afghans conquered Iran, overthrowing the Safavid Shah Soltan Hosein.
- 1722: Kangxi Emperor of China died.
- 1722: Bartholomew Roberts is killed in a sea battle off the African coast.
- 1722–23: 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 abolished in Russia. Peter the Great converted the household slaves into house serfs.[8]
- 1723–1730: The "Great Disaster" – an invasion of Kazakh territories by the Dzungars.
- 1725: The Fulani nomads took complete control of Fuuta Jallon and set up the first of many Fulani jihad states to come.[9]
- 1726: The enormous Chinese encyclopedia Gujin Tushu Jicheng of over 100 million written Chinese characters in over 800,000 pages is printed in 60 different copies using copper-based Chinese movable type printing.
- 1727–1729: Anglo-Spanish War
- 1729–1735: Charles Wesley and John Wesley begin the Methodism in England
