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| 1700 | | Duke of Gloucester the only surviving son of Princess of Anne dies resulting in the succession to the English throne moving to the Electress Sophia of Hanover | Constantinople and Moscow sign truce where the Russians keep Azov but relinquish their Black Sea Fleet, The Great Northern War between Russia and Sweden (until 1721), Last of the Spanish Hapsburgs Charles II of Spain dies setting up succession crisis | The first piano is built, William Congreve's The Way of the World, Samuel Sewall's The Selling of Joseph condeming the evils of the slave trade
| Increasing popularity of the Commode |
| 1701 | Foundation of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, Delaware agrees to establish separate legislature from Pennsylvania, 'Grand Settlement' treaties by Iroquois with English and French
| James II dies in exile,
England joins Grand Alliance to prevent Spain and France uniting under a single Bourbon ruler | War of the Spanish succession (also known as Queen Anne's War) (until 1713), Rise of Ashanti kingdom in West Africa, Antoine Cadillac founds colonial settlement of Fort Pont-Chartrain to control the route between Lake Huron and Lake Erie (it is later known as Detroit) | Daniel Defoe's The True Born Englishman defends the king against xenophobia of enemies by satirising the English claim to racial purity | Jethro Tull invents seed-planting drill |
| 1702 | East India Company establish settlement on Pulo Condor Island off the coast of Vietnam | Death of William III and replaced by Anne, Duke of Marlborough becomes Captain General of English Armed Forces, He takes Venlo, Ruremonde and Liege | Grand Alliance formally declares war on France, Serfdom abolished in Denmark, French settle in Alabama | Cotton Mather's Magnalia Christi Americana detailing the Ecclesiastical history of New England | |
| 1703 | Surat incorporated into Bombay by the EIC | Duke of Marlborough captures Bonn and invades Spanish Netherlands, Methuen Treaty between Portugal and England | Asiento Guinea Company set up to allow French to trade slaves to Spanish possessions in Americas, 47 Ronin commit suicide in Japan, Grand Alliance proclaims Archduke Charles of Austria as rightful King of Spain | Daniel Defoe sentenced to the pillory for his pamphlet The Shortest Way with Dissenters lampooning non-conformists, Death of Samuel Pepys | Eddystone Lighthouse destroyed by storm, Isaac Newton elected President of Royal Society |
| 1704 | Gibraltar captured, French and Indian allies massacre colonists at Deerfield Connecticut | Marlborough wins the battle of Blenheim |
| Bach writes first Cantata, Handel's St John Passion
| Newton explains principles of Colour in Optics |
| 1705 | Pulo Condor Island settlement destroyed, Act to permit export of Irish linen to America | English help Archduke of Austria to take Barcelona | Bey Husain ibn Ali founds dynasty at Tunis | Handel's Almira
| Halley predicts return of comet, Isaac Newton knighted, Thomas Newcomen invents steam engine |
| 1706 | Charleston South Carolina is successfully defended against French and Spanish attack | Battle of Ramillies where Marlborough routs French and conquers Spanish Netherlands | French driven out of Italy, Archduke Charles of Austria is crowned King of Spain in Madrid but then driven out by Philip V | | Construction begins on a new lighthouse on the Eddystone Rocks designed by Rudyard, Henry Mill invents carriage springs |
| 1707 | British arrive in Acadia in Eastern Canada | Act of Union between England and Scotland, Cricket mentioned as a common recreation in Chamberlayne's State of England | Death of Moghul emperor Aurangzeb leads to the beginning of the decline of Moghul rule in India | Edward Lhuyd's Archeologica Britannica on Celtic Languages | von Tschirnhans and Bottger discover how to manufacture the Chinese style 'hard' porcelain in Dresden, Denis Papin invents high pressure boiler |
| 1708 | British East India Company and the New East India Company merged into the United East India Company, British capture Minorca and Sardinia | Marlborough defeats French at Battle of Oudenarde | Charles XII of Sweden invades Ukraine | Bach becomes court organist at Weimar | Boerhaave's Institutiones medicae with his theory on inflammation |
| 1709 | German Protestant refugees from Palatine helped by Queen Ann to settle in American colonies | Marlborough's victory at Malplaquet, First copyright laws established in Britain | Peace negotiations begin at Hague, Afghanistan separated from Persian empire, Battle of Poltava limits Swedish inroads | | Abraham Darby uses coke to smelt Iron - the more efficient process will lead to huge increase in demand for coal |
| 1710 | British capture French Acadia (becomes Nova Scotia), Colonel Schuyler from New York Colony brings five Iroquois chiefs to London to impress them with British power and to show to Queen Anne | South Sea Company set up and granted a monopoly of trade with South America | Dutch abandon Mauritius | St Paul's Cathedral completed
| Le Blon develops three colour printing process |
| 1711 | Tuscarora war between settlers and Indians in North Carolina, British attempt invasion of French Canada but lose 10 ships as they enter St. Lawrence River | Dismissal of Marlborough as Commander in Chief | French sack Rio de Janeiro, Russia and Turkey fight war Russia returns Azov to Ottomans | Handel visits London where he completes Rinaldo | |
| 1712 | Slave revolts in New York | Last execution for witchcraft, Rob Roy declared outlaw | Utrecht Peace Conference opens, Antoine Crozat granted possession of Louisiana for 15 years | John Arbuthnot's The History of John Bull | Thomas Newcomen invents atmospheric piston engine |
| 1713 | The War of the Spanish Succession is concluded with the Treaty of Utrecht. Britain receives generous allocations of land and colonies in the Americas and the Mediterranean, Britain formally receives Newfoundland, St. Kitts and Hudson's Bay in Canada. Britain also recives Minorca and Gibraltar from Spain, Britain also gains the right to import slaves into Spanish colonies in Americas | | French and Spanish forced to agree not to unite their kingdoms by the Treaty of Utrecht, Louis XIV is given Coffee bush which becomes the ancestor of all New World coffee plants when it is stolen and taken to Martinique in 1723 to cultivate | Handel's Te Deum
| Roger Cotes revises Newton's Principia, Smallpox inoculation technique arrives in London from Constantinople |
| 1714 | Board of Longitude established in London to encourage a way of calculating Longitude accurately by offering monetary prize | King George I starts Hanoverian line of monarchy in England | Peace of Rastatt and Peace of Baden | The Rape of the Lock | Fahrenheit devises mercury thermometer, Dominique Anel devises fine-pointed syringe for surgical purposes |
| 1715 | Yamasee war of South Carolina against Indians | First Jacobite rebellions to protest against the new Hanoverian line, Jacobites defeated at Sherriffmuir, The Pretender arrives at Peterhead to try to rally support to his cause, First parliament of King George I's reign | French take Mauritius from Dutch control, Death of Louis XIV replaced by five year old Louis XV with the Duke of Orleans as his regent, Japanese limit copper exports by Dutch and Chinese traders | | Brook Taylor invents the calculus of finite differences |
| 1716 | | Pretender leaves Scotland and returns to France, Treaty of Westminster between Britain and the Holy Roman Empire, First banknotes issued, Royal Artillery founded | French build fortress in Louisbourg Canada; China invades Tibet, John Law sets up Banque Generale which issues paper money in France with the intention of stabilising the French economy after the War of Spanish Succession, Holy Roman Empire joins war against Ottoman Turks, Christian religious teaching prohibited throughout China | First Company of English actors arrives in Americas to perform in Williamsburg | Death of Leibniz |
| 1717 | Mughal Emperor gives British customs exemption in Bengal, Shenandoah valley forcibly settled as Indians are evicted | Triple Alliance nations force French to expel the Old Pretender from France | Spanish establish viceroyalty of New Granada in South America, John Law takes control of Mississippi Company and merges it with Banque Generale in France | Handel's Water Music
| Lady Mary Wortley Montague develops popularity of smallpox inoculation in England |
| 1718 | The pirate Edward Teach (Blackbeard) is killed in North Carolina, Yale University is named after Elihu Yale, First wave of Ulster emigration to American colonies | Britain declares war on Spain, The Battle of Cape Passaro where Byng defeats Spanish off Sicily | New Orleans founded by Mississippi company, Spain reasserts claim to Texas, The Quadruple Alliance is formed between France, Holy Roman Empire, England and Holland and declares war on Spain, Great Northern War Ends | | Sir Thomas Lombe patents a machine which can manufacture thrown silk |
| 1719 | Spanish attack The Bahamas from Cuba, Ireland declared inseperable from Britain by British Government | An attempted invasion of Britain by Spain fails to make landfall due to storms, Britain lands a force and captures Vigo before advancing to Pontevedra | John Law's Mississippi Company issues shares which rise phenomenally in value, Afghans defeat Persians at Herat, Oriental Company founded in Vienna | Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe | |
| 1720 | Treaty of The Hague ends War of Quardruple Alliance | South Sea bubble financial scandal, Declaratory Act asserts authority of British Parliament over Ireland | Mississippi bubble financial scandal in France, Spain occupies Texas, China claims Tibet as Protectorate | Daniel Defoe's Captain Singleton | |
| 1721 | French and English East India companies become serious rivals in India, Regular postal services introduced between London and New England | Chancellor of Exchequer is imprisoned in Tower of London for fraud charges relating to the South Sea Bubble, Walpole becomes PM developing policy of peace and commercial expansion | Mississippi Company shares collapse in value bringing ruin to French economy and a distrust of Central Banks which will endure for the remainder of the Century and hinder France's ability to raise money efficiently, China crushe revolt on Taiwan | Bach's Brandenburg Concertos
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| 1722 | Iroquois sign an undertaking not to cross the Potomac River of Blue Ridge without the permission of the governor of Virginia | Death of Duke of Marlborough | Treaty of Kiakhta defines Russian Chinese border, Dutch reach Samoan Islands and Easter Island, Russia invades Persia, Austrian East India Company formed | Daniel Defoe's Moll Flanders | Hoffman discovers that the base of Alum is an individual substance in its own right |
| 1723 | | Treaty of Charlottenburg between Britain and Prussia to arrange the marriage of a Prussian Princess to the Prince of Wales, Workhouses started | Dahomey invades Allada, Baku surrenders to Russians, Gabriel de Cheu steals coffee plant from Jardin Royale and takes it to Martinique for cultivation | Christopher Wren dies, Bach's St John Passion
| Death of Antony von Leeuwenhoek, Condoms advocated by White Kennett |
| 1724 | The slave population of South Carolina outnumbers the settler population by two to one | Increasing popularity of Gin | Constantinople and Moscow agree to dismember the Persian Empire, Asaf Jah retires from Moghul empire to become Independent ruler of Hyderabad, Paris Bourse opens | Charles Johnson's General History of the Robberies and Murders of the Most Notorious Pirates, Proffesorships of modern history and languages are founded at Cambridge and Oxford | Hermann Boerhaave's Elements of Chemistry |
| 1725 | | The Treaty of Hanover is signed between Great Britain, France and Prussia in opposition to Spain | Ottomans take Tabriz, Peter the Great of Russia dies and is succeeded by his wife Catherine | Alexander Pope translates Homer's The Odyssey, First Encyclopedia printed in China as Gujin Tushu Jicheng | St Petersburg Academy of Science Founded |
| 1726 | General George Wade begins building extensive system of military roads in Scottish Highlands as a precaution against Jacobite Uprisings | | Spanish found Montevideo in order to prevent Portugese expansion southwards from Brazil | Swift's Gulliver's Travels, Voltaire begins exile in England | John Harrison invents gridiron pendulum, Stephen Hales measures blood pressure |
| 1727 | War breaks out between Britain and Spain, Spanish besiege Gibraltar, Quakers make demand to abolish slavery throughout British Colonies | King George II becomes King | First coffee plantations in Brazil, Amur frontier between China and Russia rectified, Peter II becomes Tsar of Russia | Daniel Defoe's The Complete English Tradesman | Death of Isaac Newton |
| 1728 | Spanish raise siege of Gibraltar, Congress of Soissons sees Spain agreeing to recognise British possession of Gibraltar and Minorca in return for Britain recognising Spanish rights in Italy | | Danish explorer Bering discovers Straits | Jonathan Swift's A Short View on the State of Ireland which severely criticises British policy in Ireland, Ephraim Chamber's Cyclopedia, William Byrd publishes History of the Dividing Line which detailed differences between Britain and the American colonies, Handel is appointed co-director of the King's Theatre in London | James Bradley discovers aberration of light of fixed starts |
| 1729 | North and South Carolina become Crown Colonies, Benjamin and James Franklin begin to publish The Pennsylvania Gazette | Treaty of Seville formally ends Spanish British War | Diamonds discovered in Brazil, 200 European settlers are killed by Natchez Indians after the Indians were asked to give up ancestral burial grounds, Portuguese lose Mombasa to Arab attacks | Bach's St Matthew Passion , Jonathon Swift publishes A Modest Proposal which satirises British policy towards Island and suggests that the Irish should eat their own babies
| Andrew Motte translates Newton's Principia from Latin into English, Stephen Gray discovers that some bodies are conductors and others non-conductors of electricity |
| 1730 | | John and Charles Wesley found Methodist Sect at Oxford | Janissaries revolt and overthrow Sultan of Turkey, Tsar Peter II dies of smallpox and replaced by cousin Anne, Shah of Persia murdered | Henry Fielding's The Tragedy of Tragedies or Tom Thumb | Viscount 'Turnip' Townshend advocates four-course crop rotation system for agricultural which revolutionises agricultural production, Edinburgh Royal Infirmary founded, alcohol thermometer with graduated scale constructed by Reaumur, Zinc smelting first practiced in Britain |
| 1731 | Treaty of Vienna ends Britain's war with Spain but also marks the re-start of Anglo-French enmity, English factory workers are prohibited from emigrating to American colonies, First Maroon War in Jamaica, Act permitting some direct Irish imports from America | 10 Downing street built | French fortify Crown Point on Lake Champlain, Persians defeated by Turks at Arijan | | John Hadley invents the reflecting quadrant which allows latitude to be calculated by day or by night |
| 1732 | James Oglethorpe founds Georgia for 'poor debtors' | | Prussia introduces compulsory military service | Handel's Handel - Esther
receives first English oratorio, Covent Garden Opera House opens, Academie of Ancient Music founded in London | Carl von Linne travels through Scandanavia studying plant life |
| 1733 | James Oglethorpe founds Savannah, the Philadelphia Zeitung starts life as the first non-English newspaper in the American colonies, Molasses Act prohibits American trade with French colonies in the Caribbean | British Courts abolish the use of Latin within them, Political crisis over excise duties | Spanish treasure fleet is wrecked on the Florida Keys, War of Polish succession begins (until 1738), French declare war on Holy Roman Empire | Bach's Mass in B Minor
| John Kay invents the flying shuttle which will revolutionise textile production, First perambulator (pram) designed |
| 1734 | 8,000 Salzburg Protestants settle in Georgia whilst large number of Schwenkenfelders from Silesia settle in Delaware | Anglo-Russian Trade Agreement | War breaks out between Turkey and Persia, Russians occupy Danzig | Voltaire's Letters Concerning the English Nation where he praises the English Constitution | First fire extinguisher invented |
| 1735 | Georgia bans the import of slaves and alcohol, John and Charles Wesley embark for Georgia, Libel trial in New York establishes freedom of press in North America | William Pitt elected as MP for Old Sarum | War of Polish Succession ends, Persians defeat Ottomans at Baghavand ending war, French settlement at Vincennes in Indiana | | Linnaeus develops categorisation system in his Systema Naturae, Maillet develops evolutionary hypothesis in his Telliamed |
| 1736 | John Harrison presents his chronometer to the Board of Longitude it is found to be accurate to within one-tenth of a second per day and win's the board's prize, Slave Plot in Antigua | Riots in Edinburgh | War between Russia and Turkey | Voltaire's Les Americains
| Hard 'India' Rubber arrives in Britain for the the first time, Claudius Aymand performs first successful operation for appendicitis, Leonhard Euler begins study of analytical mechanics |
| 1737 | William Byrd founds Richmond, Virginia | All plays required to be submitted to Lord Chamberlain for censorship | Vienna declares war on Constantinople, Earthquake kills 300,000 in India | Handel's Berenice
| Carolus Linnaeus' Genera Plantarum |
| 1738 | Captain Jenkins advocates war in Caribbean against Spain, British troops sent to Georgia in anticipation of dispute with Spain, George Whitefield arrives in Georgia | John and Charles Wesley return to Britain where they establish the Methodist Society | Turks take Orsova, The excavation of Herculaneum begins | | Pneumatic Caisson invented, Bernoulli explains pressure and velocity of fluids in Hydrodynamica, Carolus Linnaeus' Critica Botanica |
| 1739 | War of Jenkins' ear against the Spanish (until 1748), Britain captures Porto Bello in Panama, Stono slave revolts in South Carolina, Peace settlement with Maroons in Jamaica | Holy Roman Empire signs peace treaty with Turks as they approach Belgrade, Dick Turpin hanged at York | French explorers Pierre and Paul Mallet sight Rocky Mountains for first time, Nadir Shah invades India and sacks Delhi, Peacock Throne taken back to Persia, Marthas invade Mughals from West, Mughal power is in decline and Indian sub-continent is becoming increasingly destabilised | David Hume's A Treatise of Human Nature, Handel's Saul
and Israel in Egypt
| John Winthrop publishes his Notes on Sunspots
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| 1740 | Anson despatched to Pacific to attack Spanish possessions there (returns 1744 after circumnavigating the world), Anson recognises strategic value of Falkland Islands, Admiral Vernon dilutes Navy's rum ration which is ever after referred to as Grog, North American colonies linked by roads and packet boats | Gin sales reach all time high | Frederick II becomes king of Prussia, War of Austrian succession | Thomas Arne's Rule Britannia
| Benjamin Huntley rediscovers the crucible method of steel manufacturing, Abraham Trembley discovers the hydra a freshwater polyp, Berlin Academy of Science founded |
| 1741 | British launch unsuccessful attack on Spanish stronghold of Cartagena, The attack was launched by Admrial Vernon whose force was ravaged by disease, The attack included Captain Lawrence Washington (father of George) who returned home and renamed his home Mount Vernon in honour of his commander | Robert Walpole refers to 'Balance of Power' as primary British aim of Foreign Policy, Highway Act in England to improve the the Roads and transportation system, Royal Military Academy in Woolwich is opened | Victor Behring discovers Alaska and Aleutian Islands but dies of hunger and cold, Russian explorer Alexei Cherikov lands in California, Dupleix becomes the commandant general for French in India | David Hume's Essays, Moral and Political | Linnaeus establishes Botanical Gardens in Uppsala |
| 1742 | Spanish invade Georgia from Florida, Coal is first discovered in West Virginia | Spencer Compton, Earl of Wilmington PM, Cotton factories begin to appear in Birmingham and Northampton | Treaty of Berlin ends Silesian War | Handel's Messiah (complete work)
| Celsius devises centigrade scale, Edmund Halley dies |
| 1743 | Anson captures Spanish treasure ship in East Indies | King George II defeats French at Dettingen, Henry Pelham PM | Austrians drive French and Bavarian troops out of Bavaria, Pogroms in Russia | | Sheffield Silver developed, Champagne business founded by Claude Moet |
| 1744 | Robert Clive arrives in Madras as a clerk, Anson returns from his circumnavigation of the world, King George's War (1744 - 48) in America along St. Lawrence, French occupy Annapolis Nova Scotia | France declares war on Britain, First recorded cricket match with Kent playing All England | Second Silesian War, Prussia takes Prague before being driven back into Saxony | God Save the Queen is published in Thesaurus Musicus, Death of Alexander Pope, Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier
| Serson develops gyroscope stabiliser |
| 1745 | Fort Louisbourg captured from the French | Jacobite rebellion (1745 - 46), Hanoverians defeated by Jacobites at Prestonpans, French defeat British at Fontenoy | Treaty of Dresden | | Ewald Jurgen von Kleist invents the capacitor (Leyden Jar) |
| 1746 | Madras captured by French | Battle of Culloden ends Jacobite Rebellion as Charles Stewart flees to France, Wearing of tartan banned as it was regarded as symbol of jacobitism | Mazrui dynasty in Mombasa becomes independent from Oman | Joshua Reynolds' The Eliot Family | |
| 1747 | Britain wins naval battle at Cape Finistere, James Lind begins trials looking at the treatment of scurvy | | Afghanistan united after death of Shah of Persia, French defeat Anglo-Dutch army at Laufeld, William IV of Orange-Nassau becomes hereditary stadtholder, Oyo defeat Dahomey | Handel's Judas Maccabaeus written to celebrate Cumberland's victory at Culloden
| Benjamin Robins speaks to Royal Society on physics of a spinning projectile and its military application |
| 1748 | French regain Cape Breton Island but return Madras to Britain under the terms of the Treaty of Aix la Chapelle, American colonists cross the Alleghany Divide despite agreements to Indian tribes | | Treaty of Aix la Chapelle ending War of Austrian Succession, Pompeii excavated | Bach's The Art of Fugue (Die Kunst der Fuge) /Tachezi
| First blast furnace built, Platinum arrives in Europe from South America, John Fothergill publishes Account of the Sore Throat attended with Ulcers which describes diphtheria |
| 1749 | Halifax Nova Scotia is founded and fortified in response to the French settlement at Louisberg, French forces advance into Ohio valley and claim it for Louis XV, British grant permission to Ohio Company to settle around the forks of the Ohio River, Georgia becomes a Crown Colony | Consolidation Act of Royal Navy ushers in reforms to the service | | Henry Fielding's Tom Jones, Chippendale opens workshop | |
| 1750 | British and French enter discussions on boundaries in North America, Thomas Walker discovers the Cumberland Gap through the Appalachian Mountains, The Iron Act passed by Parliament prohibits Americans from manufacturing iron products but allowing them to trade pig iron for manufactured goods, Company of Merchants takes over administration of African forts, Clive's successful defence of Arcot | Tea becomes increasingly popular througout Britain | Spanish-Portuguese Treaty on borders in South America | Death of Bach, Cleland's Memoirs of Fanny Hill | Nicolas de Lacaille leads expedition to Cape of Good Hope to determine solar and lunar parallax |
| 1751 | Clive captures Arcot and begins challenging French for supremacy in India | Death of Prince of Wales, Britain joins Austria and Russia in alliance against Prussia | China invades Tibet | Diderot publishses Vol. 1 of Encyclopedia | Benjamin Franklin discovers the electrical nature of lightning through kite experiment, First mental asylums in London |
| 1752 | Logstown Treaty cedes Iroquois lands below Ohio River to Virginia Colony | Britain (and all British colonies) adopts Gregorian calender leading to riots | Treaty of Aranjuez between Spain and Holy Roman Empire, Afghans take Lahore | George Berkeley's On the Prospects of Planting Arts and Learning in America | Franklin proposes Theory of Electricity |
| 1753 | French troops from Canada seize Ohio Valley | Jewish naturalization laws | French occupy Ohio valley in North America; Burma united under Alaungpaya | British Museum granted Royal Foundation Charter | |
| 1754 | French government recalls Joseph Dupleix from Indian leaving Britain in a strong position to dominate the sub-continent, French and Indian War in North America (until 1763) begins with Battle of Jumonville Glen, Albany Convention meets to discuss common defence plans for 13 colonies and Iroquois Nation against French aggression | Duke of Newcastle PM, First Iron-rolling mill at Fareham, Hampshire | | Death of Henry Fielding, David Hume's History of Great Britain, John Woolman's Some Consideration on the Keeping of Negroes attacking the institution of slavery and urging boycotting of slave made products, Thomas Chippendale's The Gentleman and Cabinetmaker's Directory | William Cookworthy pioneers creation of porcelain in Plymouth, Buffon's Histoire Naturelle, Joseph Black discovers Carbonic Acid Gas |
| 1755 | Braddock expedition in North America fails to take Fort Duquesne from French, French surrender to British at Fort Beausejour, French defeated at Battle of Lake George | Anglo-Austrian Alliance dissolved | Lisbon earthquake, Smallpox outbreak in South Africa ravages Khoisan, Casanova imprisoned | Samuel Johnson's Dictionary, Benjamin Franklin's Observations Concerning the Increase of Mankind, Peopling of Countries, | Joseph Black's Experiments upon Magnesia, Quicklime and other Alkaline Substances |
| 1756 | Black hole of Calcutta, British lose Minorca to Spanish | Anglo-Prussian Treaty of Westminster Duke of Devonshire PM | Seven Years War (until 1763) begins as Prussia invades Saxony | | Construction begins on a new lighthouse on the Eddystone Rocks |
| 1757 | Clive recovers Calcutta and defeats Nawab of Bengal at Battle of Plassey and gains control of state, EIC destroys French outpost at Chandernagore, Benjamin Franklin writes from England to Colonies explaining how best to avoid British trading restrictions | Duke of Newcastle PM | Frederick defeats French and Austrians at battle of Rossbach, Afghans take Delhi and Punjab | Death of Domenico Scarlatti, Edmund Burke's The Sublime and the Beautiful | Sextant invented by John Campbell, James Lind's On the Most Efficient Means of Preserving the Health of Seamen
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| 1758 | French defeat British at The Battle of Ticonderoga, British capture Louisbourg, British capture Fort Frontenac, George Washington and John Forbes take Fort Duquesene (Pittsburgh), Clive becomes Governor of Bengal, Battle of Cuddalore sees British fleet indecisively fight French fleet off Madras, Battle of Negapatam sees British fleet defeat French fleet off Indian coast, Capture of St. Louis in Senegal | | Frederick defeats Russians in East Prussia, Prussian/Hanoverian force defeats French at Krefeld, Austrians defeat Prussians at Battle of Hochkirk, Chinese occupy Eastern Turkestan | First Dutch - Japanese dictionary | Halley's Comet appears as predicted by Edmund Halley |
| 1759 | Wolfe captures Quebec signalling beginning of end to French primacy along the St. Lawrence and in the Great Lakes region, British capture Fort Ticonderoga, EIC defeat Dutch at Battle of Chinsurah, British capture Guadeloupe, Naval victories at Lagos and Quiberon Bay, Anglo-Cherokee War | | French defeated at Minden, Austrians defeat Prussians at Kunersdorf | British Museum opened, , Garrick's Hearts of Oak
first performed, Death of Handel, Haydn's Symphony No.1, Variations on a theme of Haydn
Adam Smith's Theory of Moral Sentiments | |
| 1760 | Lower Canada effectively passes to Britain after Amherst captures Montreal, Robert Clive leaves India, Tacky's slave rebellion in Jamaica, Coote defeats French at Battle of Wandiwash in India | King George III King, Portsmouth Dockyard destroyed by Fire | Dutch explorer Jakobus Coetsee advances beyond the Orange River in South Africa, Russians occupy and burn Berlin, Austrians defeat Prussians at Landshut, Prussians defeat Austrians at Liegnitz | First exhibition of contemporary art at Royal Society of Arts, Josiah Wedgwood founds pottery works at Etruria in Staffordshire, Hayden's Symphonies 2, 3, 4 and 5 | Botanical Gardens in Kew open, Ben Franklin's Some Account of the Success of Inoculation for the Smallpox in England and America |
| 1761 | Eyre Coot takes Pondicherry from French in India but it is later returned, John Harrison's chronometer is successfully taken from London to Jamaica on board HMS Deptford | Bridgwater Canal Completed | Battle of Panipat gives Afghans victory over Marathas, French and Spanish invade Portugal, Danish expedition to explore Arabia under Castens Niebuhr sets off | | John Hill makes connection first connection between tobacco and cancer, Mikhail Lomonosov discovers that Venus has an atmosphere, Sussmilch initiates study of statistics, Morgagni's On the Causes of Diseases introducing pathological anatomy |
| 1762 | British expedition against Cuba seizes Havana from Spanish, Britain also captures Martinique, St. Lucia, St. Vincent, Grenada and Manila, First British settlement at Maugerville in New Brunswick | Earl of Bute PM, Death of Beau Nash | Catherine the Great accedes in Russia, Truce between Prussia, Saxony and Holy Roman Empire, Russo-Prussian alliance against Austria | Rousseau's Social Contract, William Falconer's The Shipwreck | At Carron Ironworks in Stirlingshire cast iron is converted into malleable iron for first time |
| 1763 | Treaty of Paris cedes territories in Lower Canada, Senegal, lands up to the Mississsippi and India to Britain, Spain cedes Florida to Britain although Britain hands back Cuba and Manila, Britain also regains Minorca, Colonists move into Ohio basin, Fort Duquesne becomes Pittsburgh, Pontiac Rebellion by Indians against colonists, King George's Proclamation agrees to prevent American Colonists from crossing the Appalachian Mountains, War with Mir Kasim in India | George Grenville PM | Rio de Janeiro becomes capital of Brazil, Slave uprising in Dutch colony of Berbice | Samuel Johnson meets James Boswell | Nevil Maskelyne's The British Mariner's Guide, Kolreuter conducts experiments on the fertilisation of plants by animal carriers of pollen, Bayes' theorem is first announced |
| 1764 | Victory of British at Buscar secures British revenue collecting rights in Bengal, Amendment to British Sugar Act reduces duty on molasses in an attempt to make it more effectively collected in the American Colonies to help defray the costs of the Seven Years War expenditure, Boston merchants initiate a policy of non-importation of British goods in response. | | Jesuits expelled from France, French establish settlement on Falkland Islands | Voltaire's Dictionnaire Philosophique, Death of William Hogarth, Allan Ramsay's King George III | James Hargreaves invents the Spinning Jenny |
| 1765 | Stamp Act and Quartering Act provokes outcry in American colonies, Clive recalled to govern Bengal, HMS Victory is launched, British establish colony on Falkland Islands, Mughal Emperor grants diwani of Bengal by Treaty of Allahabad | Marquis of Rockingham PM, Britain acquires fiscal rights in Isle of Man | | First public restaurant opens in France, Horace Walpole's The Castle of Otranto an early Gothic Novel is published, Sir Joshua Reynolds' George Clive and His Family with an Indian Maid | James Watt develops an improved Steam engine, Spallanzani suggests preserving by means of hermetic sealing |
| 1766 | Stamp act repealed due to widespread opposition in 13 Colonies but new Declaratory Act re-asserts the rights of Britain over the colonies, Mason-Dixon line drawn by surveyors to denote boundary between Pennsylvania and Maryland, Nizam Ali of Hyderabad cedes Northern Circars in Madras to Britain, Act creating free ports in West Indies | Pitt the Elder PM | Bougainville's voyage round the world (1766 - 9) | Mozart returns to Salzburg after tour of Europe including London and Paris, Rouseau's Confessions | Cavendish isolates Hydrogen |
| 1767 | The Townshend Acts levy customs duties and attempted to assert British rights over 13 Colonies, New York Assembly suspended for failing to support quartering of troops, Daniel Boone contests King George's Proclamation by passing through Cumberland Gap and starts using Indian hunting grounds, Whalers from New England appear in Antarctic for first time, Chatham's East India Act, Wallis reaches Tahiti | | Burma invades Thailand | Jean Jacques Rousseau settles in Britain, Allan Ramsay becomes court painter to King George III | Joseph Priestley's The History and Present State of Electricity, Nevill Maskelyne's Nautical Almanac |
| 1768 | Massachusetts Assembly dissolved for refusing to assist in the collection of taxes, British troops land in Boston to restore order but many citizens refuse to quarter the troops, Captain Cook's voyage to Australia and NZ (1768 - 71) | Duke of Grafton PM, Work begins on the Forth-Clyde Canal | Austria renounces claims to Silesia, France purchases Corsica from Genoa, Ali Bey rules Egypt, Gurkhas conquer Nepal | James Boswell's Account of Corsica, Joseph Priestley's Essay on the First Principles of Government, Founding of the Royal Academy with Joshua Reynolds as president | Pallas travels through Russia to China in order to observe transit of Venus |
| 1769 | Great Famine of Bengal kills over 10 million people, Privy Council in London rules that it is legal for the British Government to retain tea duty in 13 Colonies, Virginia Assembly dissolved, James Cook arrives in Tahiti to watch Transit of Venus before moving on to map the coastline of New Zealand, Chief Pontia murdered | | Russian troops occupy Moldavia and enter Bucharest, Austria occupies Lwow and Zips region of Poland, Birth of Napoleon, Spanish found new settlements in California | William Blackstone's Commentaries on the Laws of England where he adds 'It is better that ten guilty persons escape than that one innocent suffers' | Water powered spinning machine developed, First lightning conductors on high buildings added, Cugnot develops first steam powered road carriage |
| 1770 | James Cook claims New South Wales for Britain as he explores the Southern Oceans, Battle of Golden Hill sees open conflict between colonists and British soldiers at New York Boston massacre where British soldiers are provoked into opening fire on crowd, First cargoes of Bengal Opium arrive in China, James Bruce discovers source of Blue Nile, Falkland Islands War threat as Spanish attack British settlement there | Lord North PM | Spanish reach Easter Island, Battle of Chesme sees Russian fleet defeating Ottoman fleet in Baltic Sea | Edmund Burke's Thoughts on the present Discontents | Hargreave's patent for spinning jenny, Leonhard Euler's Introduction to Algebra |
| 1771 | War of the Regulation in North Carolina | Sir Richard Arkwright produces first spinning mill in England, Assembly Rooms in Bath opened | Russia and Prussia agree to partition Poland, Damascus seized by Ali Bey, Russia completes conquest of Crimean Peninsular | Encyclopedia Britannica first published, William Robertson's History of America, Angelica Kauffmann's Rinaldo and Armida | Arthur Young challenges contemporary agricultural practices, The Smeatonian Club for engineers founded in London, Galvani discovers electrical nature of nervous impulse |
| 1772 | Cook's second voyage to Pacific (until 1775), Boston Assembly demands rights of colonies and threatens secession, Samuel Adams forms Committees of Correspondence for action against Britain, Hastings becomes Governor of Bengal | Lord Mansfield declares that a slave is free on landing in England in the Somerset case, Failure of Ayr Bank and credit crisis | Poland partitioned, Edo destroyed by fire | | Joseph Priestley gives rubber its name on discovering that it will rub out pencil marks, Daniel Rutherford distinguishes Nitrogen as being a seperate gas from Carbon Dioxide |
| 1773 | British East India Regulating Act, Tea Act passed reducing duty on tea shipped to American colonies, Boston Tea Party is organised by settlers who disputed Britain's ability to levy taxes and by smygglers who were concerned at being undercut by the reduced levy, Daniel Boone led another expedition into Kentucky but was attacked by Indians and they were forced to retreat back across the Appalachians, Captain Cook crossed Antarctic Circle in search for a great southern continent | | Russians suppress Cossack rebellion, Jesuits expelled from Holy Roman Empire, Ali Bey killed, Denmark cedes Duchy of Oldenburg to Russia | Mozart's The Symphonies 23, 24, 25 26, 28 and 29  , Oliver Goldsmith's She Stoops to Conquer, Phylis Wheatley's Poems, Angelica Kauffmann's A Turkish Woman, Hawkesworth's Voyages in the Southern Hemisphere
| First Iron bridge built at Coalbrookdale, Baron de Morveau experiments with chlorine as a disinfectant |
| 1774 | Coercive acts passed against Boston and Massachusetts, Boston harbour is closed until EIC is compensated for the lost tea, Rhode Island and Connecticut prohibit the importation of slaves into the colonies, Continental Congress meets for first time in Philadelphia, Continental Congress agrees to boycott importation of British goods, Battle of Point Pleasant sees Shawnee Indians repelled on the Ohio River, Captain Cook charts New Hebrides, Warren Hastings replaces Clive in India, Quebec Act permits Roman Catholic practices in Lower Canada, British abandon settlment on Falkland Islands | Rules of Cricket drawn up for first time | Louis XVI comes to the throne of France, Russian-Turkish War ends, Jesuits expelled from Poland | On American Taxation, Goethe's Sorrows of Young Werther, John Cartwright's American Independence, The Glory and Interest of Great Britain | Gahn isolates Manganese, Mesmer uses hypnosis for medical purposes, John Wilkinson develps boring mill to facilitate manufacture of cylinders for steam engines |
| 1775 | American war of Independence (until 1783), Battle of Lexington, Second Continental Congress at Philadelphia, George Washington made CinC of Continental forces, British victory at Bunker Hill, Attack on Quebec fails to widen Revolution into Canada, James Cook returns from his second voyage, Start of war with Marathas in western India | First British banks' clearing house established in Lombard Street | | Samuel Johnson's A Journey into the Western Islands of Scotland, Edmund Burke's Speech on Conciliation with America, Sir Joshua Reynolds' Dr Johnson | James Watt continues to perfect his steam engine designs, Joseph Priestley discovers hydrochloric and Sulphuric Acid, Pierre-Simon Girard invents water turbine |
| 1776 | Declaration of Independence from 13 Colonies, British abandon Boston, British take New York and Rhode Island, Washington retreats to Pennsylvania but attacks at Trenton, French declare support for American colonists, Cook's third voyage (until 1779) | In his first speech before Parliament since the Declaration of Independence that summer, King George III acknowledged that all was not going well for Britain in the war with the colonies | Unification of Portuguese colonies in South America with Rio de Janeiro as the overall capital, Potemkin builds Russian Black Sea fleet, Treaty of Copenhagen between Russia and Denmark, Jacques Necker becomes French finance minister | Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations, Observations on Civil Liberty and the Justice and Policy of the War with America, Thomas Paine's Common Sense | |
| 1777 | British secure Delaware, Lafayette's French volunteers begin to arrive to help Americans, Defeat of British at Saratoga | Rapid growth of textile industry | Treaty of San Idelfonso defines Spanish and Portugese borders in South America | Mozart's Piano Concertos Number 9
| Lavoister shows that Oxygen and Nitrogen are the main components of air, Coulomb invents torsion balance |
| 1778 | France recognises American Independence and formally joins America in their War of Independence, this turns the conflict into a wider global struggle, British defeated at Battle of Monmouth, British take Savannah, Warren Hastings takes Chandernagore in Bengal, James Cook discovers Hawaii which is called Sandwich Islands | Death of Pitt the Elder, Knight case against slavery in Scotland | War of the Bavarian Succession starts | Mozart's Paris Symphony (31), Death of Jean Jacques Rousseau
| John Smeaton experiments with diving bell |
| 1779 | British attack French colonies in Senegal and capture Goree, French take St. Vincent and Grenada, Spain joins American war and begins a new siege of Gibraltar, British defeated at Battle of Baton Rouge by troops from Spain, France, Germany and Americans, Cook killed in Hawaii, EIC begins war with Mahrattas in India | Riots against machinery, Derby established at Epsom racetrack | Boers clash with Xhosa in South Africa, Peace of Teschen ends War of Bavarian Succession | | First 'Velocipedes' (early bicycles) appear in Paris, Spallanzani proves that semen required for fertilisation, Samuel Crompton invents a spinning mule, Iron Bridge constructed at Coalbrookdale |
| 1780 | Second Mysore War sees EIC fight off combined Maratha and Mysore force, Charleston surrenders to British, Battle of King's Mountain sees colonists defeat loyalists, Benedict Arnold's plot to surrender West Point is discovered, Henry Grattan demands Home Rule for Ireland, Opening of colonial trade with Ireland, Netherlands joins America in their War of Independence | Anti-Catholic Gordon riots in London | Tupac Amaru revolt in Peru, Serfdom abolished in Hungary and Bohemia | Jeremy Bentham's Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation | Steel nib fountain pen invented, Circular saw invented by Gervinus |
| 1781 | French gain supremacy of sealanes around colonies, French take Tobago, British sack Richmond, Continental Army wins at Battle of Cowpens, British forces surrender to French and Revolutionary forces at Yorktown, British cease all land operations in Revolutionary War, British defeat Haidar Ali in India, British capture Dutch settlement of Negapatam in Madras | French attack Channel Islands and land at Jersey, First Building Society established in Birmingham | Serfdom abolished in Austria | | Herschel discovers Uranus, Scheele discovers composition of tungsten |
| 1782 | Spanish capture Minorca and Florida but repelled from Gibraltar, Admiral Rodney defeats French fleet between Dominica and Guadeloupe, Peace talks opened between Britain and America to discuss terms of Independence, Treaty of Salbai ends Mahratta War but Mysore War continues, Legislative Independence granted to Irish Parliament | Marquis of Rockingham PM and then Earl of Shelburne PM | | Thomas Jefferson's Notes on Virginia
| Watt invents double acting rotary steam engine, Montgolfier brothers construct air balloon, Josiah Wedgwood develops pyrometer for checking temperature in pottery furnaces, |
| 1783 | Siege of Gibraltar is ended, Treaty of Versailles whereby Britain accepts independence of 13 Colonies and cedes Florida back to Spain and Senegal back to France but retains colonies in West Indies and Canada, Mass migration of Loyalists to Canada, Defeat of Fox's India Bills places India nder direct state control | William Bentinck Duke of Portland PM and then Pitt the Younger | Russian annexation of Crimea | Mozart's Mass in C Minor
| Jouffroy d'Abbans develops paddle wheel steamboat, Montgolfier brothers ascend in their hot air balloon, Copper cylinder for calico printing by Henry Bell, William Herschel's Motion of the Solar System in Space |
| 1784 | Pitt's East India Act places EIC under governmental control, First Anglican bishop for the colonies, Commutation Act reduces tea duty, Foundation of Bengal Asiatik Society, Peace with Mysore, US shipping denied access to West Indian colonies by Order in Council, Creation of New Brunswick in Canada | Methodists split from Church of England, Britain recieves its first bales of cotton from America since before the Revolutionary War | Treaty of Constantinople formalises Russian annexation of Crimea from Turkey, Serfdom abolished in Denmark, Thomas Jefferson's land ordinance passed | Bengal Asiatic Society formed by William Jones, Death of Samuel Johnson, Sir Joshua Reynolds' Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire | George Atwood accurately determines acceleration of a free falling body, Henry Cort introduces puddling process for manufacture of wrought iron, Andrew Meikle invents threshing machine, Goethe discovers human intermaxillary bone, Bifocal spectacles developed, Henry Cavendish's Experiments on Air |
| 1785 | Warren Hastings returns to Britain to face charges of corruption as Governor-General of India, Bill for free trade between Britain and Ireland is defeated | Parliamentary reforms defeated | Omani rulers reassert influence in Zanzibar, Russians settle in Aleutian Islands in the North Pacific, US adopts the dollar as its currency, Treaty of Fontainebleau settles conflicts between Austria and Netherlands | William Cowper's The Task | Blanchard and Jeffries cross English Channel in a balloon, Salsano develops seismograph for measuring earthquakes, Berthollet invents chemical bleaching, James Watt and Matthew Boulton install a rotary machine steam engine in a cotton spinning factory at Papplewick in Nottinghamshire |
| 1786 | Lord Cornwallis is made Governor-General of India, Rajah of Kedah cedes Penang to British who rename it Prince of Wales' Island, Mennonites from Central Europe settle in Canada | | Mont Blanc is climbed for first time | Mozart's Mozart: Le nozze di Figaro
| Henry Nock invents the breech-loading musket, Coal gas used to make light |
| 1787 | Sierra Leone established as a colony for freed slaves and those of black ancestry who had for the British in the American Revolution, Warren Hastings impeached, William Wilberforce begins campaigning to end slavery in British colonies | Prisons declared to be overcrowded and alternative arrangements were sought to house criminals | Austrian Netherlands declared a province of the Hapsburg monarchy, France bankrupt, US imposes duties on importation of foreign goods, Turkey and Russia go to war, US Constitution signed | Thomas Clarkson's Essay on the Slavery and Commerce of the Human Species, Mozart's Don Giovanni , Angelica Kauffmann's Self Portrait
| Lavoisier's Méthode de nomenclature chimique |
| 1788 | First convict ships arrive at Botany Bay, African Association formed to explore the interior of Africa, Trial of Warren Hastings begins, Formation of the London Committee for the Abolition of Slave Trade | George III's first insanity, British parliamentary motion for abolition of slave trade | Parliament of Paris presents list of grievances to Louis XVI, Sweden invades Finland | Death of Bach, Kant's Critique of Practical Reason, Mozart's Three Great Symphonies - E-Flat, G-Minor and Jupiter
| William Symington develops working steamboat in Scotland, James Hutton's New Theory of the Earth |
| 1789 | Mutiny on HMS Bounty as ship was used to transport breadfruit from Pacific to Caribbean to act as a crop to feed slaves, mutineers set up new settlement on Pitcairn Island | | French Revolution begins in earnest as storming of Bastille and Declaration of Rights of Man, First US Congress meets in New York, Austrians take Belgrade | Charles Burney's History of Music, William Blake's Songs of Innocence | Guillotine developed, First steam driven cotton factory in Manchester, Galvani conducts experiments on muscular contraction of dead frogs, Jussieu's Genera Plantarum which classified plants |
| 1790 | British alliance with the Nizam of Hyderabad, Third Mysore War, George Vancouver explores North-West coast of Americas, Crisis with Spain over seizure of fur traders at Nootka Sound | Prime Minister of Great Britain William Pitt refuses to recognize Belgian independence | New Constitution for France, Slave revolt in Haiti against French, American capital moves from New York to Philadelphia before a new site is found on the banks of the Potomac | Burke's Reflections on the French Revolution, William Bligh's A Narrative of the Mutiny on Board HMS Bounty, Burns' Tam O'Shanter, James Bruce's Travels to Discover the Sources of the Nile | France begins using decimcal systems for weights and measures |
| 1791 | Captain Bligh repeats his expedition to Tahiti to obtain breadfruit but this time on board a specially constructed HMS Providence, Canada Act formally divides Canada into Upper Canada and Lower Canada, Foundation of the radical United Irishmen in Belfast | | Louis XVI and family attempt to escape but are recaptured at Varennes, Mirabeau elected President of French Assembly, Slave rebellion in Saint Domingue | James Boswell's The Life of Samuel Johnson, Thomas Paine's Rights of Man, Death of Mozart, Haydn invited to Britain | London School of Veterinary Surgery founded |
| 1792 | Commons votes for gradual abolition of slave trade, Deart of Tipu and end of Mysore War | Libel Act comes into force | Peace of Jassy ends war between Russia and Turkey, French Republic proclaimed, France declares war on Austria, Prussia and Sardinia, Prussians and Austrians stopped at Battle of Valmy, Denmark becomes the first state to outlaw the slave trade | Death of Sir Joshua Reynolds, Arthur Young's Travels in France, Mary Wollstonecraft's Vindication of the Rights of Women | Cotton Gin invented by Eli Whitney which increases US cotton production but also increases demand for slaves for the cotton plantations, Illuminating gas used in England, Claude Chappe invents mechanical semaphore signal |
| 1793 | Captain Bligh arrives in Jamaica and St. Vincent with the breadfruit from Tahiti, George Vancouver discovers Vancouver Island as he attempts to find a North-West Passage from the Pacific side, Revolutionary France declares war on Britain starting a two decade long struggle (until 1815), Trinidad captured from Spanish, First free settlers arrive in New South Wales, Sir Alexander Mackenzie becomes the first European to cross Canada from coast to coast, Kermadec Islands north-east of New Zealand discovered, Commons refuses to continue abolition of slave trade in response to Revolutionary and Radical activity, Macartney's embassy to China, EIC charter renewed | Board of Agriculture established | Louis XVI executed, Committee of Public Safety established in Paris with Danton as its head, Reign of Terror begins in earnest, Marat murdered, Catholicism banned in France, Napoleon takes Toulon, US proclaims neutrality, First coalition against France formed | William Godwin's Enquiry Concerning Political Justice, Joel Barlow's Advice to the Privileged Orders, William Blake's Gates of Paradise | |
| 1794 | British capture Martinique from French, Battle of Fleuris sees French fleet defeat the British in the English Channel, British naval victory on Glorious First of June, Jay Treaty adjusts territory and trading rights with US | Habeas Corpus suspended (until 1804) | Persia united under the Kajar dynasty, Haitian slave rebellion coalesces under the leadership of Pierre Toussaint l'Ouverture, Slavery abolished in French colonies, Danton executed by Robespierre as Reign of Terror reaches its apogee, Robespierre himself is executed, Rising of Polish patriots crushed by Russians, US Navy created | Thomas Paine's Age of Reason | Fichte's Grundlagen der gesamten Wissenschaftslehre (Foundation of the Whole Theory of Science), Erasmus Darwin's Zoonomia or the Laws of Organic Life |
| 1795 | The first seizure of Cape Colony from the Dutch, Mungo Park sets out to discover source of Niger, Royal Navy orders that lime juice rations to be carried and administered to the crew on all voyages lasting more than five weeks, House of Lords acquits Warren Hastings of 'High Crimes' whilst Governor-General of India, Foundation of London Missionary Society, War against Maroons in Jamaica | Rural depression and high inflation, Speenhamland Act introduced for poor relief where wages are supplemented by dole | Napoleon Bonaparte invited to help defend the French Revolution from counter-revolutionaries, France overruns Netherlands and captures the Dutch fleet, William V escapes to England and establishes the Batavian Republic, Treaty of Basel sees Prussians withdraw from anti-French alliance | | First horse-drawn railorad in England, Appert designs preserving jar for food, Joseph Bramah invents Hydraulic Press |
| 1796 | Wolfe Tone and a battered French Fleet arrive at Bantry Bay in Ireland, British capture Elba, Spain declares war on Britain, British capture Ceylon and Guiana from Dutch | | Napoleon invades Italy, Napoleon marries Josephine de Beauharnais, Napoleon defeats Austrians at Lodi, Napoleon establishes Lombard Republic and Cisalpine republic, Persians make Teheran capital, Edict of Peking forbids importation of opium into China | Fanny Burney's Camilla | Jenner succeeds in developing a smallpox vaccine, Lowitz prepares pure ethyl alcohol, Cuvier founds science of comparative zoology, Hufeland's Macrobiotics or The Art to Prolong One's Life |
| 1797 | Nelson and Jervis defeat Spanish fleet at Cape St. Vincent, Naval mutiny at Nore and Spithead, Marquis Wellesley appointed Governor-General of India, John MacArthur introduces merino sheep to Australia, Spanish Trinidad occupied, First London Missionary Society ship to Tahiti | First copper pennies and pound notes are issued for the first time | Napoleon defeats Austrians at Rivoli signs peace with them at Leoben, The Treaty of Campo Formio sees Austria ceding its Belgian territories to France in return for territory in Venice, Dalmatia and Istria | Samuel Coleridge Taylor's Kubla Khan, Frederick Morton's The State of the Poor | Martin Klaproth succeeds in making uranium oxide, Olvers publishes his method of calculating the orbits of comets, Vauquelin discovers chromium |
| 1798 | United Irishmen Rebellion with French support, Battle of Aboukir Bay sees Nelson destroy French fleet off Egypt, Treaty of Hyderabad between Britain and the Nizam, Wellesley is Governor-General of Bengal, British attempt to take Saint-Domingue but abandon effort | Hansard starts parliamentary reports, Income tax of 10 per cent is announced to start in 1799 to help pay for war expenditure | Napoleon occupies Rome and takes Pope into custody, Napoleon takes Malta en route to invade Egypt where he wins victory at Battle of Pyramids | Malthus writes Essay on the Principles of Population, Beethoven's Piano Concertos Number 1 , Charles Brockden Brown's Alcuin, A Dialogue on the Rights of Women, Samuel Taylor Coleridge and William Wordsworth's Lyrical Ballads
| Lithography invented by Aloys Senefelder |
| 1799 | Fourth Mysore war and defeat of Tipu Sultan, The Kingdom of Mysore is divided between the Nizam of Hyderabad and the British, Malta captured, Foundation of Church Missionary Society | | Napoleon invades Syria, Russian army defeats French army at Battle of Zurich, Napoleon returns to France abandoning much of his army in Egypt, Napoleon is installed as Dictator | Rosetta stone discovered, Mungo Park's Travels in the Interior of Africa | Alexander von Humboldt sets sail for Spanish America, Humphry Davy produces nitrous oxide |
