1700			The great Northern war between Russia and Sweden (1700 - 21)	The first piano is built
1701			War of the Spanish succession (1701 - 1713)
1702		Queen Anne
1703			47 Ronin commit suicide in Japan
1704	Marlborough wins the battle of Blenheim; Gibralter captured			Bach writes first cantata	Newton explains principles of Colour in Optics
1705			Bey Husain ibn Ali founds dynasty at Tunis		Halley predicts return of comet
1706	Battle of Ramillies: Marlborough routs French
1707	Act of Union between England and Scotland; Death of Moghul emperor Aurangzeb leads to the end of Moghul rule in India
1708	Battle of Oudenarde: Marlborough's third victory		Jesuit missionaries make first accurate map of China
1709	Last of Marlborough's victories at Malplaquet		Ghilzai defeat Persian empire - Afghanistan is no longer obedient to Persia		Abraham Darby uses coal to smelt Iron
1710	British capture French Acadia (becomes Nova Scotia)
1711	Tuscarora war between settlers and Indians in North Carolina; Dismissal of Marlborough
1712		Last execution for witchcraft		Handel arrives in London	Thomas Newcomen invents steam powered piston engine
1713	Utrecht treaty gives Britain Newfoundland, St. Kitts and Hudson bay. Leaves Britain dominant in force in America		Treaty of Utrecht
1714		King George I starts Georgian line of monarchy	French take Mauritius		Fahrenheit devises mercury thermometer
1715	Yamasee nation attacks South Carolina colony, killing hundreds of colonists	First Jacobite rebellion repressed
1716			French build fortress in Louisbourg, Canada; China invades Tibet (1716 - 20)
1717	Shenandoah valley forcibly settled, Indians evicted		Spanish establish viceroyalty of New Granada in South America	Handel's water music
1718			New Orleans founded by Mississippi company; Franco - Spanish dispute results in Texas going to Spain
1719				Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe
1720		South Sea bubble financial scandal	Mississippi bubble financial scandal in France
1721	French and English East India companies become serious rivals in India	Walpole becomes PM developing policy of peace and commercial expansion
1722			Treaty of Kiakhta defines Russian Chinese border; Dutch reach Samoan Islands and Easter Island
1723		Workhouses started
1724	Asaf Jah retires from Moghul empire to become Independent ruler of Hyderabad
1725				First Encyclopedia printed in China
1726			Spanish found Montevideo in order to prevent Portugese expansion	Swift's Gulliver's Travels
1727		George II King	First coffee plantations in Brazil
1728			Danish explorer Bering discovers Straits
1729	North and South Carolina become Crown Colonies		Diamonds discovered in Brazil
1730
1731					Octant navigational aid invented
1732	James Oglethorpe founds Georgia for 'poor debtors'
1733			War of Polish succession (1733 - 38)		First perambulator (pram) designed
1734					First fire extinguisher invented
1735	Libel trial in New York establishes freedom of press in North America		Persians defeat Ottomans at Baghavand		Linnaeus develops categorisation system
1736			Rubber discovered in Peru
1737			Earthquake kills 300,000 in India
1738	Captain Jenkins advocates war in Caribbean against Spain				Pneumatic Caisson invented
1739	War of Jenkins' ear against the Spanish; Slave revolts in South Carolina	Dick Turpin hanged at York	Nadir Shah invades India and sacks Delhi
1740			Frederick II king of Prussia; War of Austrian succession
1741			Dupleix becomes the extremely able commandant general for French in India
1742				Handel's Messiah	Celsius devises centigrade scale
1743	King George II defeats French at Dettingen				Sheffield Silver developed
1744	King George's war (1744 - 48) in America along St. Lawrence
1745	Fort Louisbourg captured from the French	Jacobite rebellion (1745 - 46)	Treaty of Dresden
1746	Madras captured by French but returned after war	Battle of Culloden	Mazrui dynasty in Mombasa becomes independent from Oman
1747	Britain wins naval battle of Belle Isle		Afghanistan united		Royal Navy issue first Lime rations to combat scurvey
1748			Treaty of Aix la Chapelle	Pompeii excavated	First blast furnace built
1749				Henry Fielding's Tom Jones
1750	East Indian company trading extensively throughout Asia; Tea becomes increasingly popular			Spirit of Enlightenment in full swing; death of Bach
1751		Death of Prince of Wales	China invades Tibet	Diderot publishses Vol. 1 of Encyclopedia
1752		Britain adopts Gregorian calender leading to riots	Afghans invade India and plunder Delhi		Franklin proposes Theory of Electricity
1753		Jewish naturalization laws	French occupy Ohio valley in North America; Burma united under Alaungpaya
1754	Anglo - French war in North America (1754 - 63)	Newcastle PM			Buffon's Histoire Naturelle
1755	Braddock expedition in North America fails to take Fort Duquesne from French		Lisbon earthquake; Smallpox in South Africa wipes out Khoisan	Samuel Johnson's Dictionary
1756	Black hole of Calcutta		Seven years war (1756 - 63)	Mozart born
1757	Clive commands East India Co. Army. Battle of Plassey defeats Nawab of Bengal and gains control of state		Frederick defeats French and Austrians at battle of Rossbach		Sextant invented by John Campbell
1758			Frederick defeats Russians; First Dutch - Japanese dictionary
1759	Wolfe captures Quebec and Montreal	British Museum opened	French defeated at Minden and Quiberon bay		Marine Chronometer invented by John Harrison.
1760	All Canada passes to Britain	George III King
1761	Eyre Coot takes Pondicherry from French in India but later returned it	Bute PM	Battle of Panipat gives Afghans victory over Marathas
1762	First serious criticism of Slave Trade; British expedition against Cuba seizes Havana from Spanish		Catherine the Great accedes in Russia	Rousseu's Contrat Social	First Sandwich
1763	Treaty of Paris cedes Canada, Mississippi and India to Britain; Colonists move into Ohio basin; Fort Duquesne becomes Pittsburgh; Pontiac concpiracy of Indians rising against colonists		Rio de Janeiro becomes capital of Brazil	Samuel Johnson meets James Boswell
1764	Victory of British at Buscar secures British revenue collecting rights in Bengal		Jesuits expelled from France	Voltaire's Dictionnaire Philosophique	James Hargreaves invents the Spinning Jenny
1765	Stamp act provokes outcry in American colonies; Clive recalled to govern Bengal	Rockingham PM		First public restaurant opens in France	James Watt develops Steam engine
1766	Stamp act repealed	Britain	Bougainville's voyage round the world (1766 - 9)		Cavendish isolates Hydrogen
1767	Increasing opposition to Imperial rule in American colonies		Burma invades Thailand
1768	Cook's voyage to Australia and NZ (1768 - 71)		France purchases Corsica; Ali Bey rules Egypt
1769	Famine kills 10 million in Bengal		Birth of Napoleon		Water powered spinning machine developed
1770	Boston massacre kills 5; First cargoes of Bengal Opium arrive in China	North PM	Spanish reach Easter Island	Burke's Thoughts on the present Discontents
1771				First edition of Encyclopedia Britannica	Arthur Young challenges agricultural practices
1772	Cook's second voyage to pacific (1772 - 75)		Poland partitioned		Nitrogen discovered
1773	Boston Tea Party; No taxation without representation		Russians suppress Cossack rebellion		First Iron bridge built at Coalbrookdale
1774	Coercive acts passed against Boston and Massachusetts; Warren Hastings replaces Clive in India			Goethe's Sorrows of Young Werther	Priestly discovers Oxygen
1775	American war of Independence (1775 - 83); Second Continental congress at Philadelphia				Thomas Crapper invents WC
1776	Declaration of Independence; Battle of Bunker Hill; French support for colonies; Cook's third voyage (1776 - 79)			Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire; Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations
1777	British take New York and Philadelphia but defeated at Saratoga	Rapid growth of textile industry	Treaty of San Idelfonso defines Spanish and Portugese borders around Brazil		Lavoister shows that Oxygen and Nitrogen are the main components of air
1778	France joins America in war			Mozart's Paris Symphony
1779	Spain joins American war; Cook murdered in Hawaii	Riots against machinery	Boers clash with Xhosa in South Africa
1780		Gordon riots in London	Tupac Amaru revolt in Peru		Steel nib pen invented
1781	Britain takes Charleston but surrenders at Yorktown; French gain supremacy of sealanes around colonies			Kant's Critique of pure reason	Herschel discovers Uranus
1782		Political crisis results in fall of North government			Watt patents rotary steam engine
1783	Treaty of Versaille: Britain accepts independence of 13 colonies but retains West Indies and Canadian colonies; Mass migration of Loyalists to Canada	Pitt the Younger PM	Russian annexation of Crimea		Hot air balloon
1784	East India Act	Methodists split from Church of England			Bifocal spectacles developed
1785	Warren Hastings, the Governor General of India, returns to Britain to face charges of corruption	Parliamentary reform defeated	Omani rulers reassert influence in Zanzibar		Power loom patented
1786	Assault in slavery starts in earnest			Mozart's Marriage of Figaro	Coal gas used to make light
1787	Mutiny on HMS Bounty; Warren Hastings impeached		American constitution signed
1788	First convict ships arrive at Botany Bay; African Association formed to explore the interior of Africa	George III's first insanity	France bankrupt
1789			French revolution (1789 - 93)		Guillotine put to the test
1790			Slave revolt in Haiti against French	Burke's Reflections on the French Revolution	First Ambulances used in France
1791	Canada act divides Canada into Upper and Lower Canada		Counter Revolution begins	Thomas Paine's Rights of Man; Mozart dies	Metric system formulated in France
1792			French Republic proclaimed		Cotton Gin invented by Eli Whitney
1793	Britain declares war against France; Trinidad captured from Spanish; First free settlers arrive in Australia		Louis XVI executed
1794	Scottish martyrs transported to NSW		Persia united
1795	The first seizure of Cape Colony from the Dutch; Mungo Park sets out to discover source of Niger	Rural depression and high inflation	France overruns Netherlands		Hydraulic Press
1796			French campaign in Italy, Bonaparte the victor		Jenner succeeds in developing a smallpox vaccine
1797		Naval mutiny at Nore and Spithead
1798	Irish rebellion suppressed	Hansard starts parliamentary reports	France invades Egypt	Malthus publishes essay on population	Lithography invented
1799	Nelson's victory at Aboukir Bay; Defeat of Tipu Sultan and the end of the fourth Mysore war; Malta captured	Income Tax introduced		Rosetta stone discovered

| Home | Articles | Introduction | Biography | Discussion | Timelines | Map Room | Armed Forces | Art and Culture | Science and Technology | Resources | Index | Glossary | Links | Search |