Who controlled the economic and social power in europe during the 18th century?

Century

For other uses, see 18th century (disambiguation).

• 17th century
• 18th century
• 19th century

• 17th century
• 18th century
• 19th century

• 17th century
• 18th century
• 19th century

• 1700s
• 1710s
• 1720s
• 1730s
• 1740s

• 1750s
• 1760s
• 1770s
• 1780s
• 1790s

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 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 consequence, the empire was not exposed to Europe's military improvements of the Seven Years' War. The Ottoman Empire military may have fallen 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. 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 Nawab of Bengal and their French allies at the Battle of Plassey.[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.[9][10]

Events

For a chronological guide, see Timeline of the 18th century.

1701–1750

• 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.[11]
• 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.[12]
• 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.[13]
• 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: Foundation of the Hotak Afghan Empire.
• 1709: The Great Frost of 1709 marks the coldest winter in 500 years, contributing to the defeat of Sweden at Poltava.
• 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 and regains Azov.
• 1711: Bukhara Khanate dissolves as local begs seize power.
• 1711–1715: Tuscarora War between British, Dutch, and German settlers and the Tuscarora people of North Carolina.
• 1713: The Kangxi Emperor acknowledges the full recovery of the Chinese economy since its apex during the Ming.
• 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.
• 1716–1718: Austro-Venetian-Turkish War.
• 1718: The city of New Orleans is founded by the French in North America.
• 1718–1720: War of the Quadruple Alliance between Spain, France, Britain, Austria, and the Netherlands.
• 1718–1730: Tulip period of the Ottoman Empire.
• 1719: Second Javanese War of Succession.[14]
• 1720: The South Sea Bubble.
• 1720–1721: The Great Plague of Marseille.
• 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.[15]
• 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.
• 1724: Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit proposes the Fahrenheit temperature scale.
• 1725: Austro-Spanish alliance revived. Russia joins in 1726.
• 1727–1729: Anglo-Spanish War ends inconclusively.

• 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.[16]
• 1733–1738: War of the Polish Succession.
  
  Qianlong Emperor

• 1735–1739: Austro-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.[17]
• 1737–1738: Hotaki Afghan Empire ends after the Siege of Kandahar by Nader Shah.
• 1739: Great Britain and Spain fight the War of Jenkins' Ear in the Caribbean.
• 1739: Nader Shah defeats a pan-Indian army of 300,000 at the Battle of Karnal. Taxation is stopped in Iran for three years.

• 1739–1740: Nader Shah's Sindh expedition.
• 1740: Great Awakening, George Whitefield
• 1740–1741: Famine in Ireland kills 20 percent of the population.
• 1741–1743: Iran invades Uzbekistan, Khwarazm, Dagestan, and Oman.
• 1741–1751: Maratha invasions of Bengal.
• 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
• 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.[19]

• 1744: The First Saudi State is founded by Mohammed Ibn Saud.[20]
• 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.
• 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.[21]
• 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.

• 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.
• 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: 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.[22] (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.
• 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: Russia imposes a reduction in autonomy on the Zaporizhian Cossacks of Ukraine.
• 1775–1782: First Anglo-Maratha War.
• 1775–1783: American Revolutionary War.
• 1776: Several Kongsi Republics are founded by Chinese settlers in the island of Borneo. They are some of the first democracies in Asia.
• 1776–1777: A Spanish-Portuguese War occurs over land in the South American frontiers.
• 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.
• 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.[23]
• 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.
• 1789 : Quang Trung defeated the Qing army
• 1789–1799: French Revolution.

• 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.[24]
• 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.
  
  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.[25]
• 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.[26]

Inventions, discoveries, introductions

Main articles: Timeline of historic inventions § 18th century, and Timeline of scientific discoveries § 18th century

• 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
• 1751: Jacques de Vaucanson perfects the first precision lathe
• 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
  
  The 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
• 1776: Steamboat invented by Claude de Jouffroy
• 1777: Circular saw invented by Samuel Miller
• 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[27]
• 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[28]
• 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

1. ^ Volkov, Sergey. Concise History of Imperial Russia.
2. ^ Rowe, William T. China's Last Empire.
3. ^ Anderson, M. S. (1979). Historians and Eighteenth-Century Europe, 1715–1789. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-822548-5. OCLC 185538307.
4. ^ Ribeiro, Aileen (2002). Dress in Eighteenth-Century Europe 1715–1789 (revised ed.). Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-09151-9. OCLC 186413657.
5. ^ Baines, Paul (2004). The Long 18th Century. London: Arnold. ISBN 978-0-340-81372-0.
6. ^ 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. ISBN 978-0-19-924677-9. OCLC 174866045., "Introduction" by P. J. Marshall, page 1
7. ^ O'Gorman, Frank (1997). The Long Eighteenth Century: British Political and Social History 1688–1832 (The Arnold History of Britain Series). A Hodder Arnold Publication. ISBN 978-0-340-56751-7. OCLC 243883533.
8. ^ Campbell, John; Watts, William (1760). Memoirs of the Revolution in Bengal, anno Dom. 1757. A. Millar, London.
9. ^ Parthasarathi, Prasannan (2011), Why Europe Grew Rich and Asia Did Not: Global Economic Divergence, 1600–1850, Cambridge University Press, p. 207, ISBN 978-1-139-49889-0
10. ^ Allana, Gulam (1988). Muslim political thought through the ages: 1562–1947 (2 ed.). Pennsylvania State University, Pennsylvania: Royal Book Company. p. 78. ISBN 9789694070919. Retrieved 18 January 2013.
11. ^ "War of the Spanish Succession, 1701–1714". Historyofwar.org. Retrieved 2009-04-25.
12. ^ Ricklefs (1991), page 82
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14. ^ Ricklefs (1991), page 84
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16. ^ "List of Wars of the Crimean Tatars". Zum.de. Archived from the original on 12 March 2009. Retrieved 2009-04-25.
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18. ^ Wadsworth, Alfred P.; Mann, Julia De Lacy (1931). The Cotton Trade and Industrial Lancashire, 1600–1780. Manchester University Press. p. 433. OCLC 2859370.
19. ^ "A guide to Scottish clans". Unique-cottages.co.uk. Archived from the original on May 11, 2008. Retrieved 2009-04-25.
20. ^ "Saudi Arabia – The Saud Family and Wahhabi Islam". Countrystudies.us. Retrieved 2009-04-25.
21. ^ "History". Columbia University.
22. ^ Ricklefs (1991), page 102
23. ^ "Sufism in the Caucasus". Islamicsupremecouncil.org. Archived from the original on February 23, 2009. Retrieved 2009-04-25.
24. ^ "Yellow Fever Attacks Philadelphia, 1793". EyeWitness to History. Archived from the original on 7 June 2007. Retrieved 2007-06-22.
25. ^ Riedel S (2005). "Edward Jenner and the history of smallpox and vaccination". Proc (Bayl Univ Med Cent). 18 (1): 21–5. doi:10.1080/08998280.2005.11928028. PMC 1200696. PMID 16200144.
26. ^ Ricklefs (1991), page 106
27. ^ Encyclopædia Britannica's Great Inventions, Encyclopædia Britannica Archived August 7, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
28. ^ Meggs, Philip B. A History of Graphic Design. (1998) John Wiley & Sons, Inc. p 146 ISBN 978-0-471-29198-5

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.

External links

• 
  Media related to 18th century at Wikimedia Commons

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Page 2

Century

• 7th century
• 8th century
• 9th century

• 7th century
• 8th century
• 9th century

• 7th century
• 8th century
• 9th century

• 700s
• 710s
• 720s
• 730s
• 740s

• 750s
• 760s
• 770s
• 780s
• 790s

The 8th century is the period from 701 (DCCI) through 800 (DCCC) in accordance with the Julian Calendar. The coast of North Africa and the Iberian Peninsula quickly came under Islamic Arab domination. The westward expansion of the Umayyad Empire was famously halted at the siege of Constantinople by the Byzantine Empire and the Battle of Tours by the Franks. The tide of Arab conquest came to an end in the middle of the 8th century.[1]

In Europe, late in the century, the Vikings, seafaring peoples from Scandinavia, begin raiding the coasts of Europe and the Mediterranean, and go on to found several important kingdoms.

In Asia, the Pala Empire is founded in Bengal. The Tang dynasty reaches its pinnacle under Chinese Emperor Xuanzong. The Nara period begins in Japan.

Events

• Estimated century in which the poem Beowulf is composed.
• Classical Maya civilization begins to decline.
• The Kombumerri burial grounds are founded
• The first Serbian state is formed at the beginning of the century.
• Buddhist Jataka stories are translated into Syriac and Arabic as Kalilag and Damnag.
• An account of Buddha's life is translated into Greek by Saint John of Damascus, and widely circulated to Christians as the story of Barlaam and Josaphat.
• Height of the Classic period in pre-Columbian Maya civilization history.
• Śāntideva, a Buddhist monk at Nalanda Monastery in India, composes the famous Bodhicharyāvatāra, or Guide to the Bodhisattva's Way of Life.
• The height of the Giant Wild Goose Pagoda in Xi'an, China is extended by 5 stories.
• 701: The Taihō Code is enacted in late Asuka period Japan.
• 705: Death of Arab caliph Abd al-Malik, his succession by his nominated heir and elder son al-Walid.
• 705: Overthrow of Empress Wu Zetian, the reign of China's first and only sole-ruling empress ends.
• 705: Justinian II is forced to give the title Caesar of Byzantium to the Bulgarian Emperor Tervel. The Byzantine Empire begins to pay annual tributes to Bulgaria.
• 708–711: The Bulgarians defeat Justinian II at the battle of Anchiallus. Arab armies occupied Sindh.[2]
• 710: Empress Genmei moves the capital to Heijō-kyū (present day Nara), initiating the Nara period of Japan.
• 711: Palenque is conquered by Toniná.

• 711: Tariq ibn Ziyad crosses the Straits of Gibraltar.[2] With the creation of Al-Andalus, most of the Iberian Peninsula is conquered by Arab and Berber Muslims, thus ending the Visigothic rule, and beginning almost eight centuries of Muslim rule.
• 712: Liutprand, King of the Lombards begins his reign (until 744).
• c. 712: Metropolitan episcopal see is established by the Church of the East in Chinese capital of Chang'an.
• 712–756: Emperor Xuanzong reigned, the time was considered one of China's high points.
• 712–740: Caliphate campaigns in India
• 713: Death of Dajian Huineng, sixth and last Patriarch of Chán Buddhism.
• 713: Treaty of Tudmir, signed between Abd al-'Aziz, the commander of Muslim troops invaidibng Spain and Theodemir, the Christian king of a southern region is Spain.
• 715: Death of al-Walid I and he was succeeded by his brother Sulayman ibn Abd al-Malik.
• 716: Sanjaya ascends the throne to be the first king of the Mataram Kingdom.[3]
• 717: Death of caliph Sulayman ibn Abd al-Malik and his succession by his cousin and nominated heir Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz.
• 717–718: Siege of Constantinople. The Bulgarians and the Byzantines decisively defeat the invading Arabs, thus halting the Arab advance toward Europe.
• 718: Sri Indravarman King of Srivijaya send a letter to the Caliph Umar bin Abdul Aziz of the Umayyad Caliphate in Damascus, signing early ancient Indonesian official contact with Islamic world in the Middle East.[4]
• 720: Death of caliph Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz and succession of his cousin Yazid II on 4th February 720.
• 724: Death of caliph Yazid II and he was succeeded by his brother and nominated heir Hisham.
• 726: Byzantine Emperor Leo III the Isaurian destroys the icon of Christ above the Chalke Gate in the capital city of Constantinople, beginning the first phase of the Byzantine Iconoclasm.
• 731: Bede completes his Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum (Ecclesiastical History of the English People).[5]
• 732: Battle of Tours. Near Poitiers, France, leader of the Franks Charles Martel and his men defeat a large army of Moors under the governor of Cordoba, Abdul Rahman Al Ghafiqi, who is killed during the battle. The Battle of Tours halts the advance of Islam into Western Europe and establishes a balance of power between Western Europe, Islam and the Byzantine Empire.
• 732: The Sanjaya dynasty is founded around this time according to the Canggal inscription.[6]

• 738: Quiriguá declares independence from Copan
• 740: Battle of Akroinon. Byzantines win their first large-scale victory in a pitched battle against the Arabs.
• 742: For the municipal census of the Tang-dynasty Chinese capital city Chang'an and its metropolitan area of Jingzhou Fu (including small towns in the vicinity), the New Book of Tang records that in this year there were 362,921 registered families with 1,960,188 persons.
• 743: Death of Arab caliph Hisham and succession of his nephew and heir Al-Walid II.
• 744: Assassination of Al-Walid II, Succession of Yazid III to the Caliphal throne on 17 April 744.
• 744 Death of Yazid III and his succession by his brother and nominated heir Ibrahim ibn al-Walid. On 4th December Ibrahim was forced to Abdicate in favour Marwan II.
• 748: The Chinese Buddhist monk Jian Zhen writes in his Yue Jue Shu of the international sea traffic coming to Guangzhou, ships from Borneo, Persia, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, and others bringing tons of goods.
• 750: The last Umayyad Caliph Marwan II (744–750) is overthrown and executed by the first Abbasid Caliph, Abu al-Abbas al-Saffah. The Caliphate is moved to Baghdad which would later develop into a centre of trade and culture. The Ghana Empire begins in western Africa.
• mid-8th century - Great Wild Goose Pagoda at Ci'en Temple, Xi'an, Shanxi, is rebuilt.
• c. mid-8th century - Camel Carrying a Group of Musicians, from a tomb near Xi'an, Shanxi, is made. Tang dynasty. It is now kept at Museum of Chinese History, Beijing.
• 751: Arabian armies defeat Chinese Tang dynasty troops in the Battle of Talas, in the high Pamirs near Samarkand, and conquer Central Asia completely.
• 752: The Hindu Mataram kingdom flourishes and declines.[8] (to 1045)
• 754: Death of Abbasid caliph al-Saffah and ascension of caliph al-Mansur to Arab Caliphate.
• 755–763: The An Shi Rebellion devastates China during the mid Tang dynasty.
• 757: King Offa of Mercia becomes dominant ruler in England.
• 758: Arab and Persian pirates and travelers burn and loot the Chinese city of Guangzhou, while the Tang Dynasty authorities shut the port down for the next five decades.
• 760: The construction of the famous Indonesian Buddhist structure Borobudur began, probably as a non-Buddhist shrine.[9]
• 761: Marriage of Abbasid princess Raytah and Muhammad (future al-Mahdi).
• 768: Pepin dies; Charles becomes king at Noyan and his brother Carloman becomes king at Soissons.
• 770's–780's: Java launched series of naval raids on ports of Dai Viet, Champa and Cambodia; Sontay in Tonkin (767); Nha Trang (774); captured Indrapura in Cambodia (770); Phan Rang (787). The naval raids was probably launched by Sailendran-Srivijayan Maharaja Dharmasetu or Dharanindra.[10]
• 772–804: Charlemagne invades what is now northwestern Germany, battling the Saxons for more than thirty years and finally crushing their rebellion, incorporating Saxony into the Frankish Empire and the Christian world.
• 775: Death of caliph al-Mansur and he was succeeded by al-Mahdi.

• 778: Kalasan temple constructed, according to the Kalasan inscription.
• 781: Marriage of Abbasid princess Zubaidah and Harun al-Rashid. The Nestorian Monument is erected in China.
• 782: Buddhist monk Prajna reaches Chang'an and translates the sutras into Chinese.
  
  The Second Council of Nicaea was set up to restore the use and veneration of icons (or holy images), which had previously been suppressed[11]

• 785: Death of Abbasid caliph al-Mahdi and succession of al-Hadi on 24 July 785. The Tang dynasty begins landing regular maritime missions on the coast of East Africa, cutting out middlemen Arab sea merchants.
• 785–805: Chinese geographer Jia Dan describes large lighthouse pillars built in the Persian Gulf, which is confirmed a century later by al-Mas'udi and al-Muqaddasi.
• 787: The Empress Irene of Athens convenes the Seventh Ecumenical Council, ending the first phase of Byzantine Iconoclasm.
• 786: Death of Abbasid caliph al-Hadi and ascension of caliph Harun al-Rashid.
• 792: Battle of Marcelae. The Bulgarian victory over the Byzantines marks the end of the half-century political instability in Bulgaria.
• 792: The Manjusrigrha (Sewu) temple is completed according to Manjusrigrha inscription.
• 793: The first written account of a Viking raid carried out on the abbey of Lindisfarne in northern England.
• 793: The Frisian–Frankish wars come to an end with the last uprising of the Frisians.
• 794: Emperor Kanmu moves the capital to Heian-kyō (present day Kyoto), initiating the Heian period of Japan.
• 800: An Arab fleet sails up the Tiber.
• 800–909: Rule of Aghlabids as an autonomous province of Caliphate in North Africa, with their capital at Tunis.
• 800: Beginning of the ancient West African state of Takrur or Tekrour, which flourished roughly parallel to the Ghana Empire.
• 800: On Christmas Day, Charlemagne is crowned the first Holy Roman Emperor by Pope Leo III.
• 800: The agriculturally based Buddhist Sailendra kingdom flourishes and declines.[6] (to 832)

Inventions, discoveries, introductions

• Heavy plow in use in the Rhine valley.
• Horse collar in use in Northern Europe in 8th or 9th century — perhaps introduced from Asia.
• Mid 8th century – papermaking introduced from China to Arabs.
• Iron horseshoes came into common use around 770.
• Pattadakal, Chalukya architecture.
• The Chinese Buddhist monk Yi Xing applies a clockwork escapement mechanism to operate and rotate his astronomical celestial globe.
• The first European triangular harp designed by the Picts of Scotland.

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to 8th century.

1. ^ Roberts, J., History of the World, Penguin, 1994.
2. ^ a b Roberts, J., History of the World, Penguin, 1994.
3. ^ Coedès, George (1968). Walter F. Vella (ed.). The Indianized States of Southeast Asia. trans.Susan Brown Cowing. University of Hawaii Press. ISBN 978-0-8248-0368-1.
4. ^ Azra, Azyumardi (2006). Islam in the Indonesian world: an account of institutional formation. Mizan Pustaka. ISBN 979-433-430-8.
5. ^ Palmer, Alan; Veronica (1992). The Chronology of British History. London: Century Ltd. pp. 34–37. ISBN 0-7126-5616-2.
6. ^ a b Miksic (1997)
7. ^ Lee Lawrence. (3 September 2011). "A Mysterious Stranger in China". The Wall Street Journal. Accessed on 31 August 2016.
8. ^ Miksic (2003)
9. ^ Taylor (2003), p. 37.
10. ^ Munoz, Paul Michel (2006). Early Kingdoms of the Indonesian Archipelago and the Malay Peninsula. Singapore: Editions Didier Millet. p. 171. ISBN 981-4155-67-5.
11. ^ Gibbon, Edward (1995). The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. New York: Random House. p. 1693.

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