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(17th century - 18th century - 19th century - more centuries)

Purely as a means of recording the passage of time, the 18th Century was that century which lasted from 1701-1800; however, historians will sometimes specifically refer to the 18th Century as 1715-89; which denotes the period of time between the death of King Louis XIV and the start of the French Revolution. In Europe, the primary nations of this period were: Austria, Britain, France, Prussia, and Russia.

Events

• 1715 - Louis XIV dies
• 1750 -- peak of the Little Ice Age
• 1770s - James Cook explorations
• 1788 - First European settlement established in Australia
• 1789 - The French Revolution
• The Enlightenment
• Scientific discovery and early Industrial Revolution. See the History of Science and Technology.

• Union of the Parliaments of Scotland and England forms the Kingdom of Great Britain

• American Revolution leading to United States declaration of independence in 1776 and Constitution in 1789.

• Rosetta stone is found by Napoleon's troops in 1799.
• Wars of Empire between Great Britain, France, Spain, Austria.
  • See the War of the Spanish Succession (or Queen Anne's War), War of the Austrian Succession (or King George's War), War of Jenkins Ear, Seven Years' War (or French and Indian War)

Significant people

• Johann Sebastian Bach (composer)
• Catherine the Great (Russian Tsarina)
• Denis Diderot (French writer and philosopher)
• Leonhard Euler (mathematician)
• Benjamin Franklin (inventor and diplomat)
• Thomas Gainsborough (painter)
• William Hogarth (painter and engraver)
• David Hume (philosopher)
• Thomas Jefferson (American politician)
• Immanuel Kant (philosopher)
• Louis XIV of France (monarch)
• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (composer)
• Sir Joshua Reynolds (painter)
• Jean-Jacques Rousseau (French writer and philosopher)
• Voltaire (French writer and philosopher)

• James Cook (British navigator)
• Jonathan Swift (British writer)
• Samuel Johnson (British writer)
• Thomas Gray (British writer)
• Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (German writer)
• Friedrich Schiller (German writer)

Inventions, Discoveries, Introductions

• Cotton gin by Eli Whitney
• The marine chronometer of John Harrison solves the latitude problem for navigation.
• Improved Steam Engines by Thomas Newcomen and James Watt

Notorious People

• Benedict Arnold, considered a traitor by many people on both sides (United States and Britain) of the American revolutionary war.

Decades and Years