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Chronology of World Events
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| 1598 | In France, Henri IV promulgates the Edict of Nantes, a decree granting French Calvinists or Huguenots a limited degree of religious toleration. | | Philip II, who ruled over vast territories in the New and Old Worlds, dies in Spain. | | 1600 | The British East India Company is chartered to undertake trade with the Far East. | | In Japan, the shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu defeats Itshida Mtsunari at the Battle of Sekigahara, preparing the way three years later for the rise of his own Tokugawa Shogunate, the beginning of the so-called Edo period in Japanese history. | | 1602 | The Dutch East India Company is established in the Netherlands, with six offices in the country's major trading cities. | | The English explorer Bartholomew Gosnold is the first European to discover Cape Cod in North America. | | The English explorer James Lancaster sails into Achin harbor with the English East India Company's fleet on the island of Sumatra. | | 1603 | In England, Elizabeth I dies and is succeeded by James VI of Scotland. A member of the Stuart dynasty, he will rule England as James I. |
| The first performance of Kabuki theater occurs in Japan. | | In the Ottoman Empire, Ahmed I succeeds Mehmed III. Ahmed will conduct unsuccessful campaigns in Eastern Europe, and eventually retire to a life of pleasure, a path that will prove detrimental to the empire's presence on the international scene. | | 1604 | Guru Arjan sets down the Sikh religion's scriptures. | | French settlers establish their first successful colony at Acadia in North America, as well as a settlement in Guiana on the northern coast of South America. | | The Spanish explorer Luis Vaez de Torres becomes the first European to sail through the Torres Strait, the gulf of water that separates modern New Guinea from Australia. | | 1605 | In England, the Gunpowder Plot is uncovered. This alleged Catholic plan aimed to blow up the Houses of Parliament in Westminster when the king and members were present. Anti-Catholic sentiment grows in England as a result of the foiled plot. |
| Polish troops occupy Moscow. For the next seven years, Poland will try to determine the course of events in Russia. | | 1606 | The Treaty of Zsitva-Torok ends the war between the Ottoman Empire and the Austrian Habsburgs. | | 1607 | The Jamestown settlement is established in Virginia. Although the first years of the colony will be difficult, the settlement will manage to survive. | | England's Popham Colony is established in what is present-day Maine; it fails after one year. | | 1608 | The first telescope is invented by Hans Lippershey, a maker of lenses from the Netherlands. | | The first official representative of the English crown arrives at Surat, in the western Indian territory of Gujarat. | | Samuel Champlain founds Quebec, the oldest still-existing European settlement in North America. | | 1609 | The Italian astronomer Galileo performs the first observations of the revolution of the planets with the aid of a telescope. | | The English explorer Henry Hudson is the first European to sail into Delaware Bay. | | 1610 | The Jesuit missionary Matteo Ricci dies in China, after having translated many ancient European classics into Chinese. | | In France, the Catholic fanatic Ravaillac assassinates Henri IV, hoping to set off a reaction against the crown's policy of toleration of the Protestant Huguenots. Instead, Henri's wife, Marie de' Medici, assumes power as regent, and France's state successfully weathers this crisis. | | 1611 | In Japan, the Emperor Go-Yozei abdicates in favor of Go-Mizunoo. During Go-Yozei's reign, the first presses using movable type were brought to the country. |
| The Authorized Version of the Bible, popularly known as the King's James Version, appears in England. | | 1612 | In Russia, the gentry rebel against Polish rule, touching off a civil war that will end one year later with the election of Michael Romanov as czar. He will establish the Romanov dynasty that will endure until the 1917 Revolution. | | 1614 | The Native American Pocahontas marries the Virginia settler John Rolfe, establishing a generation-long peace between English settlers and natives in the colony. | | In France, the Estates General, the country's parliament, meets for the last time until the onset of the Revolution in 1789. In the coming decades, France's kings will successfully establish their absolute authority over the political life of the country. | | 1615 | The Japanese shogun issues the Boku Shohatto, a code of conduct aimed at regulating the behavior of the country's aristocrats. | | 1616 | Nurhachi becomes leader of the Manchus and begins a series of invasions into China; within five years, he will control much of the northeastern part of the country. | | 1618 | The Thirty Years' War begins in Central Europe. The conflict is produced by the still lingering religious controversies of the Reformation and Counter-Reformation, and the devastation that the war brings will soon lay waste to much of Germany. | | Aurangzeb, last of India's great Mogul emperors, assumes the throne. His reign will be noteworthy for its intolerance of Hinduism. | | 1619 | In colonial Virginia, the House of Burgesses, colonial North America's first representative assembly, meets for the first time. |
| The first slaves appear in England's New World colonies. | | England establishes its first colonial outpost in India. | | 1620 | The Pilgrims establish Plymouth Colony in North America. By the end of the first winter, almost half of all the English settlers there will have died. | | Protestant defeat at the Battle of White Mountain outside Prague paves the way for the re-catholicization of Bohemia by the Habsburgs. | | 1622 | One-third of all English settlers are killed in the "Jamestown Massacre" in Virginia. | | The French explorer Étienne Brûlé is the first European to visit Lake Superior. | | 1623 | Murat IV is installed as the Ottoman emperor following a palace coup that displaces Osman II. In the early years of his reign, his mother will dominate government, but in 1630, Murat will seize control and begin a campaign against governmental corruption. | | England establishes a colony on the Caribbean island of St. Kitts. | | In Baghdad, the Turkish tribe of the Safavids regains control of the city and surrounding region. | | 1624 | The Dutch establish a trading colony on the island of Taiwan at Kaohsiung. | | 1625 | The Dutch trading center of "New Amsterdam" is chartered on the site of the future city of New York. | | 1626 | Spain establishes a trading colony on the island of Taiwan. | | 1628 | Salem Colony is founded north of what is the modern city of Boston. One year later, the Massachusetts Bay Colony will found the city of Boston. | | In England, William Harvey publishes his findings confirming the circulation of blood. |
| 1629 | Woman performers are banned from the Kabuki theater in Japan on moral grounds. | | 1632 | In India, the Mogul Emperor Shahjahan begins the construction of the Taj Mahal as a memorial to his deceased wife, Mumtaz Mahal. | | The Caribbean islands of Antiqua and Barbuda are first colonized by the English. | | 1633 | Galileo is forced to recant his support for the heliocentric theory of Nicholas Copernicus after an inquiry conducted by the Inquisition. | | Ethiopian leader Negus Fasilidas expels foreign missionaries from that African country. | | 1634 | In France, the first meetings of the French Academy, an institution organized by Cardinal Richelieu with the intentions of standardizing literary French, are held in Paris. | | King Ladislaus IV of Poland defeats the Russian army at the Battle of Smolensk. | | The first English settlers arrive in the new colony of Maryland under the leadership of Lord Baltimore. | | 1635 | The Caribbean islands of Guadaloupe and Martinique are first settled by the French. | | 1636 | The Puritans establish Harvard College at Cambridge near Boston. | | 1637 | France sends its first missionaries to the Ivory Coast in Africa. | | 1638 | The Ottoman Emperor Murat IV captures Baghdad from the Safavids; as a result of the treaty concluding these hostilities the boundaries between Iran and the Ottoman Empire (modern Turkey) are firmly fixed. | | Spanish explorer Pedro Texeira sails up the Amazon River and travels as far as Quito, Ecuador. | | English sailors shipwrecked in Central America found the settlement of Belize. |
| The first settlers arrive in New Sweden, the modern state of Delaware. | | The Dutch found a trading colony on the island of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean. | | 1639 | The Japanese shogunate closes the borders of the country to all outsiders, the most extreme measure taken yet to protect Japan from Western missionaries and traders. Only the Dutch are allowed to remain in the country. | | In Scotland, Archbishop William Laud's plans to establish an episcopal governmental structure over the Church of Scotland precipitate the Bishop's War. | | Russian forces cross the Urals, continuing their campaign of conquest to the Pacific Ocean at Okhotsk. | | The colony of Connecticut adopts its first written constitution. | | 1640 | The Ottoman Emperor Murat IV dies and is succeeded by his brother Ibrahim the Mad. Ibrahim suffers from depression and is overshadowed by his mother for a time. Eventually he rallies, though, to conduct unsuccessful wars against the Republic of Venice. | | The first book is printed in colonial North America at Cambridge, Massachusetts. | | In England, Charles I calls the "Short Parliament," a meeting that lasts only a month. After realizing the dire state of his finances, though, he reconvenes Parliament in the same year. This "Long Parliament" will eventually sit for almost two decades, and its members will sentence the king to his death in 1649. | | 1641 | Dutch traders establish a colony at Dejima in Japan. | | In the same year, Dutch forces also seize the colony of Malacca in modern Malysia from Portugal. | | 1642 | The Dutch explorer Abel Tasman and his crew are the first Europeans to see the islands of New Zealand and Tasmania. |
| In France, Blaise Pascal invents the "Pascaline," history's first adding machine. | | French settlers found the city of Montreal in Canada. | | 1644 | In China, the Manchus overthrow the Ming Dynasty and establish the new Qing lineage, a government that will make major colonial expansions into Central Asia. | | In Japan, Miyamoto Musashi, one of Japan's greatest samurai swordsman, dies. In the year proceeding his death, Musashi retired and lived as a hermit, writing the classic text, The Book of Five Rings, a meditation on his career and philosophy. | | 1645 | The Chinese rebel Li Zicheng dies, either from assassination or suicide. Li Zicheng led a rebellion that helped to bring down the Ming Dynasty, but with the rise of the Manchus to power, his forces were defeated. | | The Maunder Minimum, a solar phenomenon later discovered by the astronomer E.W. Maunder, begins. During the seventy years following 1645, sunspots became extremely rare, depressing the world's temperature even further during this time in the "Mini-Ice Age," the coldest period in recorded history that lasted from the fifteenth to the early eighteenth century. | | In England, Parliament outlaws use of the Book of Common Prayer in the country's national church. | | 1648 | The Peace of Westphalia is signed in Münster, Germany, bringing to a close the Thirty Years' War. The terms of the Peace recognize Calvinism as a legal religion, but uphold the principle that Germany's territorial rulers may define the religion of their subjects. The separate Treaty of Münster signed at the same time by the Netherlands and Spain finally recognizes Dutch independence and ends 80 years of war between the two powers. | | In Paris, the Fronde, a rebellion waged by French nobles and prominent urban factions, begins. Although the movement is eventually suppressed, it will color the young king Louis XIV's attitudes toward the aristocracy. |
| Mehmed IV ascends the throne as Ottomon Sultan. During his reign, he will concentrate most of his efforts on hunting. | | In Paris, the rebellion of the Fronde begins among the nobility and members of the city's Parlement or representative body. The rebellion will last for almost five years, and will, on one occasion, force the king and his family to leave the city. | | 1649 | In England, Stuart King Charles I is executed by Parliament. In the years that follow, the country will be ruled by a Puritan Commonwealth, over which the Protector Oliver Cromwell will eventually assert forceful control. | | 1651 | The English political theorist Thomas Hobbes publishes his Leviathan, a work that supports a strong ruler as an antidote to the aggressive nature of humankind. | | The English scientist William Harvey lays the foundations for modern embryology through his Essays on the Generation of Animals. | | The Battle of Beresteczko is fought in the Ukraine between native forces and the Poles. It is perhaps the largest battle ever waged in the seventeenth century. Although the Poles are massively outmanned by Ukranian forces, they manage to win when the Ukrainian's allies, the Tatars, abandon the battlefield. | | 1652 | The Dutch East India Company establishes a center for resupplying their ships near the Cape of Good Hope in southern Africa. | | The English colony of Rhode Island becomes the first in North America to outlaw slavery. | | The first Anglo-Dutch War begins between England and the Netherlands when Parliament passes measures outlawing the importation of goods into the country except in ships that are English-owned. This trade dispute precipitates tensions between the Dutch and English that will worsen over the coming decades. |
| Young boy performers are banned from the Kabuki theater in Japan on moral grounds. From this point onward, this form of theater will become male-dominated and will develop into a highly stylized and artificial form of drama. | | 1654 | The rebel Bohdan Chmielnicki leads a revolt against Polish forces in Ukraine. To assure their territory's security, the revolt's leaders sign a treaty with Moscow that will eventually lead to their region's annexation into the Russian Empire. | | 1655 | Emperor Go Sai ascends the throne in Japan. | | New Sweden (modern Delaware) is seized by Dutch forces. | | 1656 | Masuria, a region in modern northeastern Poland, is laid waste by marauding hordes of Poles and Tatars. This attack is one of the worst blows during the "Deluge," a period of troubles in Poland in which the country came to be devastated by a series of external invasions. As a result, the region's population declined by as much as a third. | | 1660 | The "Long Parliament" is disbanded in England and the Stuart heir Charles II is restored to the throne. | | 1661 | King Charles II of England marries Catherine Braganza of Portugal. As part of Catherine's dowry, she brings the colonies of Bombay and Tangiers, which become English colonies. | | The Dutch abandon their colony on Taiwan, after the Qing dynasty invade the island. | | 1662 | Charles II founds the Royal Society in England; this institution will be a major force in popularizing the Scientific Revolution among the country's intellectuals. |
| In China, Emperor K'ang Hsi assumes the throne at the age of eight. The fourth in the line of Manchu emperors, he will eventually become a great statesman, scholar, and warrior. | | 1663 | Queen Nzinga of Ndongo and Matamba, territories in southwestern Africa, dies. During her long life, she had attempted to limit the depredations of the slave trade in her lands by negotiating treaties with the Portuguese, converting to Christianity, and, when necessary, conducting skillful military campaigns against the traders. | | 1664 | The Netherlands surrenders New Amsterdam (modern New York) as well as other New World colonies to the English. | | 1665 | The last outbreak of the plague in Western Europe strikes London. One year later, much of the city will be destroyed by the Great Fire. | | Portuguese forces kill King Garcia II of the African state of Kongo (modern Angola), ending that country's independence. | | 1667 | Poland gives up control of Smolensk, Kiev, and Ukraine to Muscovy. From this date forward, these possessions will become integral parts of the Russian empire. | | 1668 | The English East India Company takes control of the port of Bombay in India. | | 1669 | In India, the Mogul Emperor Aurangzeb bans Hinduism and burns several temples, inciting a rebellion. | | Famine in the northeastern Indian state of Bengal claims as many as three million lives. | | 1670 | King Charles II charters the Hudson Bay Company to undertake trade with native Americans in Canada in all those regions where the rivers flowed into the great bay. | | England assumes control over the island of Jamaica in the Caribbean. |
| 1672 | Forces of Louis XIV's France invade the United Dutch Provinces, touching off the "Dutch War." | | The future Peter the Great, czar of Russia, is born. | | Charles II issues the Royal Declaration of Indulgence in England, granting toleration to Catholics and Protestant Dissenters. The measure is opposed by Parliament, and the king is eventually forced to negate it. | | Simon Dezhnev, a Russian cosack and explorer who was the first to navigate the Bering Strait, dies. | | 1673 | In Japan, the Kabuki actor Sannjuro Ichikawa invents the Arigato style, which features the central character of masculine, superhuman war god. | | Father Marquette and Louis Joliet explore the Mississippi River in North America. | | The Mitsui family founds a banking and trading house in Japan. | | 1674 | Jan Sobieski is elected to serve as King John III of Poland after having waged successful battles against the Ottoman Empire. | | Father Marquette founds a mission on the banks of Lake Michigan at the site of the future city of Chicago. | | 1676 | The Danish Astronomer Ole Romer conducts the first measurements of the speed of light. | | Feodor III becomes czar of Russia. Sickly and childless, he will rule for the next six years largely from his bed. | | 1677 | In England, Elias Ashmole makes a gift of manuscripts and books to the University of Oxford that will become the Ashmolean Library, one of the world's great research institutions. | | The Dutch scientist Anton van Leuwenhoek observes human sperm under a microscope for the first time. |
| 1679 | In North America, the French priest Louis Hennepin discovers Niagara Falls while sailing on the Great Lakes. | | The French inventor Denis Papin creates the first "pressure cooker," a discovery that will be useful as later European scientists try to capture the power of steam. | | 1680 | King Sivaji, ruler of the Maratha kingdom in western India, dies after a life spent conducting wars against the Mogul rulers of the subcontinent. | | The first Portuguese governor is appointed to control the trading colony of Macau in China. | | 1681 | Charles II gives a grant of land to William Penn to develop as a colony; it will later become known as Pennsylvania, "Penn's Woods." | | France seizes the city of Strasbourg in Germany. | | 1682 | The Palace of Versailles outside Paris is officially named the home of France's government. | | Peter the Great and his brother Ivan V become co-rulers of Russia. | | Ihara Saikaku publishes The Life of An Amorous Man, a work that initiates a new genre of fiction that treats the concerns of commoners. | | 1683 | The city of Vienna is besieged by an enormous force of the Ottoman Empire. Three months later, the siege is broken when reinforcing Polish, German, and Austrian troops arrive, and sent the Ottoman forces packing. The victory marks a turning point in the war, as Austria begins to repel the Turks from Eastern Europe. | | 1684 | After the assassination of his chief minister, Hotta Masatoshi, the Shogun Sunayoshi's government flounders. Sunayoshi's impractical pronouncements and laws create grave hardships for the Japanese people. |
| China grants the English East India Company the right to establish a trading colony at Canton. | | 1685 | Louis XIV of France revokes his country's Edict of Nantes, forcing Protestant subjects to convert to Catholicism or go into exile. | | In Germany, a change of succession in the Rhineland Palatinate forces the conversion of this important territory from Calvinism to Catholicism. Just as in France, many German Calvinists will immigrate over the coming years to northern Germany, England, and North America. | | 1687 | Isaac Newton's Principia appears. It explains the concepts of gravity and centrifugal force, thus resolving the controversy that has long raged about Copernicus' heliocentric theory. | | The French explorer Robert La Salle is killed by his own men while searching for the source of the Mississippi River in North America. | | 1688 | The Catholic James II is forced from the English throne; one year later, Parliament will call his daughter Mary and her husband William from Holland to serve as co-regents in the so-called Glorious Revolution. | | Louis XIV declares war on Holland and invades the Holy Roman Empire, hoping to conquer the Rhineland for France. | | The one-time pirate turned English explorer William Dampier is the first European to discover Christmas Island in the Pacific. | | In Japan, the Genroku Era, a period of great achievement in the arts and popular culture, begins. | | 1690 | The Battle of the Boyne occurs in Ireland between supporters of James II, the deposed Stuart King, and his son-in-law, William III, who is now king of England. |
| The Ottoman sultan Suleiman II is killed in battle against Habsburg forces while trying to retake Hungary. | | 1692 | In colonial Massachusetts, the Salem Witch Trials begin, a generation after such persecutions have stopped in Europe. | | 1693 | The College of William and Mary, the second English institution of higher education to be established in North America, is founded at Williamsburg in Virginia. | | The Ottoman emperor Mehmed IV dies. He was responsible for waging a number of costly, and ultimately unsuccessful campaigns to extend Ottoman authority into Eastern Europe and the Eastern Mediterranean. | | The Academy of Hard-Working Fellows, an organization dedicated to scientific study, is founded in Slovenia. | | 1695 | Mustafa II becomes the sultan of the Ottoman Empire, beginning an eight-year reign that will end in his being deposed by his brother. | | 1696 | Peter the Great becomes the sole czar of Russia following the death of his brother, and co-regent Ivan V. Peter will embark on an ambitious plan of Westernization. | | John III of Poland dies after a generally successful reign in which he helped to reclaim some of the country's former glory through military successes. | | 1697 | The Ottoman emperor Mustafa II attempts to turn back the advance of the Austrian Habsburgs in Eastern Europe by trying to recapture Hungary. Two years later, he recognizes defeat when he cedes control over both Hungary and Transylvania to Austria. | | Spain conquers Tayassal, the last independent native state in Central America. | | 1698 | In Russia, Peter the Great imposes a tax on men who wear beards. |
| The English inventor Thomas Savery patents a steam engine capable of pumping water out of mines. | | Prince Constantin Brâncoveanu of Moldavia and Wallachia names the city of Bucarest his capital in what is now modern Romania. | | Arabs wrest control of the city of Mombasa, in what is now southeast Kenya, from the Portuguese. | | 1699 | The first French settlement is founded on the Mississippi River in North America at Biloxi. | | The Treaty of Karlowitz concludes hostilities between Austrian and Ottoman forces, bringing to an end Ottoman incursions into Eastern Europe. | | In India, the tenth Sikh master, Guru Gobind Singh, establishes the rite of Amrit, a baptism for followers of the religion, a radical sect that practices complete social equality among its members. | | After a gruesome 33-month siege, the Portuguese Fort Jesus at Mombasa is surrendered to the Sultan of Oman. Within the next two years, the Portuguese presence on the east coast of Africa will disappear. | | 1700 | The Great Northern War breaks out when Russia, Denmark, Poland, and Saxony declare war and invade Sweden. In the Battle of Narva in the same year, King Charles XII of Sweden will defeat the forces of Peter the Great of Russia. | | 1701 | The death of the Spanish king Charles II without an heir touches off the War of the Spanish Succession. One of the first truly international wars in which trade and merchant interests come to dominate, it eventually involves most major European powers, and is fought, not only in Europe, but in the North American colonies, too. | | The French colony of Detroit is founded in what is modern-day Michigan. |
| The Hanoverian Queen Anne succeeds to the throne of England, and Parliament passes the Act of Succession stipulated that the English monarch must be a Protestant. | | Yale College is founded at New Haven, Connecticut. | | 1702 | In Japan, 47 ronin, samurai warriors, commit suicide after avenging the unjustified ritual suicide forced upon their leader. The event will come to sum up the epitome of the samurai's code of bushido or loyalty. | | 1703 | In Russia, Peter the Great founds the city of St. Petersburg; his ambitions are to open up Russian life and culture to influences from Western Europe, and the city will eventually become one of the most beautiful in European Russia. | | In the Ottoman Empire, Ahmed III rises to power following the abdication of his brother, Mustafa. Ahmed cultivates good relations with England as a counter to the encircling threat that he feels from Russia. | | 1704 | Native Americans invade the settlement of Deerfield, Massachusetts, killing its inhabitants. | | In Japan, the Genroku Era, known for the brilliance of its popular culture, draws to a close. | | The British Duke of Marlborough wins the battle of Blenheim and seizes the Rock of Gibraltar from the Spanish. | | 1705 | The British astronomer William Halley predicts the return of the famous comet that has since that time born his name. | | 1706 | The American patriot and revolutionary Benjamin Franklin is born in Boston. | | The great philosopher Pierre Bayle, who was a source of inspiration for the subsequent Enlightenment, dies in exile from France at Rotterdam. |
| 1707 | The Act of Union joins Scotland and England into the United Kingdom. | | 1708 | In the Polish province of Masuria as much as one third of the population die in an outbreak of the bubonic plague. | | The city of Kandahar in modern Afghanistan is conquered by the Afghan leader Mir Wais. | | In China, Jesuit missionaries complete the first accurate map of the country. | | 1709 | Czar Peter the Great of Russia defeats Sweden at the Battle of Poltava, bringing the Scandinavian country's period of international greatness to an end. | | 1712 | Peter the Great moves his capital to his newly created city of St. Petersburg. | | 1713 | The Treaty of Utrecht ends the War of the Spanish Succession and the legitimacy of the Bourbon monarchy in Spain is upheld. Spain cedes the Netherlands to the control of the Austrian Habsburgs, while several New World colonies of France in Canada are transferred to Great Britain. | | 1714 | The Elector of Hanover ascends to the English throne as George I; during much of the Hanoverian period that follows the Whig party will control English Parliament, and will continue to advocate a thoroughly constitutional monarchy. | | Chikamatsu Monzaemon, known as Japan's Shakespeare, dies. | | France receives the island of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean from the Dutch. | | 1715 | King Louis XIV of France dies, ending a 72-year reign. He is succeeded by his grandson Louis XV. Philippe d'Orléans, the boy's uncle, serves as regent for the five-year old king. | | The future Peter II, the grandson of Peter the Great, is born in Russia. | | 1716 | The first dictionary of the Han form of the Chinese language appears under the title, The Kangxi Dictionary; it is named for the Qing Emperor Kangxi. |
| In Japan, the Kyoho reforms begin. These measures are designed to make the shogunate more financially responsible by accommodating commercial enterprises within a traditional Confucian ethic. | | 1717 | Portuguese colonists began to settle near the modern city of Montevideo in Uruguay. | | The future Marie-Theresa of Austria is born. | | 1718 | The Treaty of Passarowitz is signed between Austria, Venice, and the Ottoman Empire. Venice loses certain possessions in the eastern Mediterranean, while Turkey cedes parts of Bosnia and Serbia to Austria. | | In London, James Puckle receives a patent for the first machine gun. | | Blackbeard the pirate is killed in a naval battle with the English off the coast of colonial Virginia. | | 1719 | In England, the South Sea Company's stock climbs to new unprecedented heights. The company has been charged with developing trade with South America, and the price of its stock rises to hitherto unheard of heights. Within a few years, though, the South Sea bubble will have burst, and its shares will be worthless. | | In Paris, the Scottish financier John Law develops a similarly popular scheme for the development of the Mississippi territories. Law succeeds in enriching a number of Parisian aristocrats and members of the bourgeoisie before the city's investors sour on the plan. | | 1722 | Hyder Ali, an Islamic warrior who will prove to be the most successful challenger of British authority in India, is born. | | The French settlers begin to colonize Mauritius. |
| 1724 | The Treaty of Constantinople partitions Turkey, with Russia and the Ottoman Empire dividing the territory. | | 1725 | The first reported case of a European scalping Indians is recorded in the New Hampshire colony in North America. | | 1726 | Spain establishes the city of Montevideo in Uruguay in an effort to discourage Portuegese settlers from colonizing the region. | | 1727 | The Hanoverian King George I dies and is succeeded by his son, George II, who will rule until 1760. | | The Czarina Catherine I dies in Russia. | | The first coffee plantation is founded in Brazil. | | 1729 | Portuguese forces briefly occupy the city of Mombasa again before losing it to Arab forces. | | Diamonds are discovered in Brazil. | | 1730 | In Turkey, Mahmud I becomes sultan of the Ottoman Empire. His reign, which will last until 1754, will be marked by frequent wars with Russia over Persia. | | 1732 | James Oglethorpe establishes the colony of George in colonial North America with the intention of providing refuge to debtors. | | 1734 | After a long siege Russian troops succeed in taking possession of the port of Danzig on the Baltic. | | In colonial North America, the Great Awakening, a religious revival that had begun the previous year in the town of Northampton, Massachusetts, is spreading through the colonies. | | Frederick Augustus II, the Elector of Saxony, is named King of Poland with the support of Russian and Austrian troops that are in attendance. | | 1735 | Nadir Shah, the advisor to the Persian Safavid ruler, defeats forces of the Ottoman Empire and captures Tiflis, modern Tbilisi, in Georgia. |
| 1736 | Nadir Shah deposes the last of the Safavid rulers of Iran and installs himself as shah. | | The properties of rubber are discovered in Peru. | | 1739 | Nadir Shah of Iran invades India, capturing Delhi and Lahore and carting off vast treasures from the country. In the years that follow he extends Iran's boundaries to their largest extent. The Great Northern War breaks out when Russia, Denmark, Poland, and Saxony declare war and invade Sweden. In the Battle of Narva in the same year, King Charles XII of Sweden will defeat the forces of Peter the Great of Russia. | | 1740 | The War of the Austrian Succession begins when Maria Theresa becomes Empress of Austria. King Frederick II, refusing to recognize her claim to the throne, seizes Silesia, thus precipitating the eight-year war between Austria and Prussia. Within a year, all of Europe's most important powers will become involved in the conflict. | | 1743 | The English King George II defeats French forces at the Battle of Dettingen, a crucial engagement in the War of the Austrian Succession. | | 1745 | Francis I is elected Holy Roman Emperor through the offices of his wife, the Empress Maria Theresa of Austria. | | British forces of King George II defeat the French on Cape Breton Island and seize Fort Louisbourg. It will be returned to France at the conclusion of the War of the Austrian Succession in exchange for holdings France seized in Madras, India. | | 1746 | The brutal battle of Culloden ends the Jacobite Rebellions in Scotland. In the years that follow, England begins repressive measures to suppress the clan system in the Scottish highlands. | | In colonial North America, the College of New Jersey is founded by Presbyterians. |
| It will eventually become known as Princeton University. | | The Mazrui dynasty at Mombasa, in what is now modern Kenya, establishes its independence from the Sultan of Oman. | | 1748 | The Treaty of Aix-le-Chapelle concludes the War of the Austrian Succession. The provisions recognize Maria Theresa's right to her Austrian lands, but she is forced to cede certain Italian territories. Prussia is allowed to retain Silesia. | | 1753 | French settlers begin to move into the Ohio River Valley in North America. Their presence will help to produce the French and Indian War that begins one year later. | | 1755 | A massive earthquake strikes Lisbon, Portugal. | | In North America, General Braddock is unsuccessful in wresting Fort Duquesne near present-day Pittsburgh from the French. | | A massive smallpox epidemic in southern Africa almost completely obliterates the Khoisan people. | | 1756 | The Seven Years' War breaks out and eventually gives births to two alliances: Prussia, England, and Hanover waged war against France, Sweden, Russia, and Austria. It is sometimes called the first "world war," because it is fought extensively in Europe's colonial outposts as well as on the continent. | | The Nawab of Bengal seizes Calcutta from the British East India Company and imprisons 146 people in an airless room. By the next morning, most are said to be dead. The exploitation of the story throughout the English-speaking world is used in the coming years to portray Indians as base and tyrannical. | | Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is born in Salzburg, Austria. | | 1757 | Robert Clive commands forces of the British East India Company to victory over Nawab of Bengal at the Battle of Plassey. |
| Frederick the Great of Prussia defeats French and Austrian forces at the Battle of Rossbach during the Seven Years' War that pits Austria and France against Prussia and England. | | 1759 | The British General Wolfe captures the French Canadian cities of Montreal and Quebec during the French and Indian War. Later in the same year, he and his French adversary, General Montcalm, will die as a result of wounds they received in battle. | | The first life insurance company is established in Philadelphia in North America. | | 1760 | King George III begins a sixty-year reign in England with decisive victories over the French and Austrians in the Seven Years' War. | | 1761 | The British capture Pondicherry in India from the French, continuing their rise to power in the subcontinent. | | 1762 | The Empress Go-Sakuramachi rises to power in Japan. She will be the last empress to rule in the country, abdicating in favor of her nephew in 1771. | | In Russia, the German-born Catherine the Great assumes control of the government; although her reign will be marked by notorious sexual scandals, it will see the unprecedented flowering of Russian learning and culture as well. | | 1766 | Britain's Parliament repeals the Stamp Act in the American colonies, after colonists, incited in part by Benjamin Franklin's propaganda against the act, protest and "tar and feather" the Crown's officials. | | Burmese forces invade the Ayutthaya kingdom in modern Thailand, laying waste to its capital. | | The Treaty of Paris cedes all of French Canada to Great Britain, a development that will permanently cripple the country's efforts to colonize in North America. |
| 1767 | Catherine the Great convenes the Legislation Commission in Russia to reform the country's legal codes. | | 1768 | Captain Cook sets sails for the South Pacific, eventually exploring New Zealand and parts of Australia. | | 1769 | A massive famine wreaks devastation on the population of the Indian state of Bengal. | | 1770 | British troops kill five American colonists in the Boston Massacre, an event that will enflame already brittle relationships between England and Massachusetts settlers. | | Marie-Antoinette of Austria marries the Dauphin Louis, the heir to the throne of France, at Versailles. | | Captain James Cook lays claim to eastern Australia as a colony for the British. | | 1771 | The Swedish pharmacist Karl Wilhelm Scheele discovers oxygen. His discovery is confirmed three years later by another experiment conducted by Joseph Priestley in England. | | 1773 | A rebellion of cossacks in the Russian army is brutally suppressed. | | The British Parliament passes the Tea Act, granting the East India Company the exclusive right to export tea to the North American colonies, a measure that soon irritates colonists. | | The Mamluk Sultan Ali Bey, who successfully challenged the power of the Ottoman Turks and who established his own sultanate in Egypt for a time, dies in Cairo after losing his power. | | 1774 | The First Continental Congress is convened at Philadelphia to discuss worsening relations with Great Britain. | | The British East India Company appoints Warren Hastings the first Governor General of India. | | Peasant revolts break out in many parts of Russia and, as the revolutionaries march toward Moscow, they are brutally crushed by government troops. |
| 1776 | The Declaration of Independence is signed by the Continental Congress in Philadelphia; in the next few months open warfare breaks out in the colonies. | | The Spanish Franciscan Father Palou founds a mission at what will later become San Francisco, California. | | The British economist Adam Smith publishes his The Wealth of Nations, a work arguing against government intervention in the economy. | | 1778 | The English explorer Captain James Cook explores several of the Hawaiian Islands, naming them the Sandwich Islands. | | In France, the Enlightenment thinker Voltaire dies. | | 1779 | The world's first iron bridge is constructed across the Severn River in England. | | Boer settlers clash with the Xhosa in what is today South Africa. | | 1780 | Francis Scott Key, who will grow up to write the words to the "Star-Spangled Banner," is born. | | Empress Maria Theresa dies in Austria and is succeeded by her son Joseph II, who desires to reform Austrian society along the lines advocated by Enlightenment thinkers. | | 1781 | Los Angeles is founded as "El Pueblo de Nuestra Senora La Reina de Los Angeles de Porciuncula (City of the Queen of the Angels) by 44 Spanish settlers. | | General Cornwallis surrenders his English forces after the Battle of Yorktown in Virginia. | | 1783 | The Treaty of Versailles draws an end to hostilities between the British and Americans. Britain recognizes the independence of its thirteen colonies, and many European countries soon grant diplomatic recognition. |
| Russia annexes the Crimea and begins to develop a major port there at Sevastopol. One year later the Ottoman Turks will recognize Russian sovereignty in the region. | | 1784 | American patriot Benjamin Franklin invents bifocals. | | In Japan, a famine rages that may produce as many as 300,000 deaths. | | Revolution in Transylvania prompts the Austrian emperor Joseph II to suspend the Hungarian constitution in the region. | | Ann Lee, a leader in the American Shaker movement, dies. | | In England, John Wesley draws up a charter for Methodist churches. | | 1785 | The United States adopts the dollar as its monetary unit, becoming the first state to use a decimal coinage in history. | | In France, the exposing of the Affair of the Necklace, a scheme hatched by several con men and women, tarnishes the reputation of Queen Marie-Antoinette. | | 1787 | Delegates meet at Philadelphia to fashion a new constitution for the United States. | | Catherine the Great of Russia declares war on the Ottoman Empire. | | 1788 | The British name New South Wales a penal colony and begin deportations of convicted felons there. | | The English King George III suffers from one of two bouts with insanity brought on by porphyria, an enzymatic disorder. The second will begin in 1811 and last until his death in 1820. | | Fire ravages the French settlement of New Orleans, destroying more than 850 buildings. | | 1789 | The storming of the Bastille begins a militant phase of the French Revolution in Paris. |
| 1790 | The National Assembly of France passes the Civil Constitution of the Clergy, abolishing centuries-old clerical privileges and tax exemptions and subjecting priests, monks, and nuns to the same laws as lay people. When thousands of the clergy refuse to swear allegiance to the national government in the years that follow, many are persecuted and even executed. | | 1791 | The United States Mint is established. | | Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart dies in Vienna. | | The Metric System is developed in France and replaces the medieval systems of weights and measures long used in the country. | | 1792 | Russia is rebuffed when it tries to establish trade relations with Japan. | | 1793 | The radical Jacobins unleash the Reign of Terror against "counter-revolutionaries" in Paris. | | King Louis XVI is sentenced to death by a one-vote majority in the National Convention. The deciding vote is cast by the aristocrat, Philippe d'Orléans, now known as the revolutionary Philippe d'Egalité, Philip Equality. Ten months later, Louis' wife and France's queen, Marie-Antoinette, will follow her husband to the guillotine. |
| 1794 | Eli Whitney receives a United States patent for his invention of the cotton gin. | | In France, Maximilien Robespierre falls from grace as a leader of the revolution. After inspiring the executions of 17,000 Frenchmen and women during the terror, he himself is put to death. | | 1795 | Conservatives in the National Convention seize control over the course of developments in the Revolution in France; eventually, they establish the government of the Directorate, which brings a retreat from the bloodletting of previous years. | | Russia, Austria, and Prussia partition Poland and annex its territories into their own states. | | British forces seize the Cape Colony in Africa from the Dutch. | | The Scottish explorer Mungo Park sets out to discover the source of the Niger River in Africa. | | 1799 | Napoleon Bonaparte effectively stages a coup against the French government of the Directorate. As a result, he will eventually rise over the coming years to the position of Emperor of the French. | | The fourth Qing Emperor Qianlong dies in China three years after abdicating in favor of his son. |
Chronology of World Events By Philip M. Soergel
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Chronology of World Events from Arts and Humanities Through the Eras. ©2005-2006 Thomson Gale, a part of the Thomson Corporation. All rights reserved.
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