18th century

Not to be confused with The Eighteenth Century (journal).
Millennium: 2nd millennium
Centuries: 17th century · 18th century · 19th century
Decades: 1700s 1710s 1720s 1730s 1740s
1750s 1760s 1770s 1780s 1790s
Categories: Births – Deaths
Establishments – Disestablishments

The 18th century lasted from 1701 to 1800 in the Gregorian calendar.

During the 18th century, the Enlightenment culminated in the French and American revolutions. Philosophy and science increased in prominence. Philosophers dreamed of a brighter age. This dream turned into a reality with the French Revolution, although it was later compromised by excess of the terror of Maximilien Robespierre. At first, the monarchies of Europe embraced Enlightenment ideals, but with the French Revolution they feared losing their power and joined wide coalitions with the counter-revolution.

The Ottoman Empire was undergoing a protracted decline, as it failed to keep up with the technological advances in Europe. The Tulip period symbolized a period of peace and reorientation towards European society, after victory against a burgeoning Russian Empire in the Pruth River Campaign. Throughout the century various reforms were introduced with limited success.

The 18th century also marked the end of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth as an independent state. The once powerful and vast kingdom, that was once able to conquer Moscow and defeat the great Ottoman armies, collapsed under numerous invasions. Its semi-democratic government system was not efficient enough to rival the neighbouring monarchies of Prussia, Russia and Austria who divided the Commonwealth territories among them, changing the landscape of Central European politics for the next hundred years.

Great Britain became a major power worldwide with the defeat of France in the Americas, in the 1760s and the conquest of large parts of India. However, Britain lost much of its North American colonies after the American Revolution, which was actively helped by the French. The industrial revolution started in Britain around the 1750s with the patenting of the steam engine. Despite its modest beginnings in the 18th century, it would radically change human society and the environment.

Western historians have occasionally defined the 18th century otherwise for the purposes of their work. For example, the "short" 18th century may be defined as 1715–1789, denoting the period of time between the death of Louis XIV of France and the start of the French Revolution with an emphasis on directly interconnected events.[1][2] To historians who expand the century to include larger historical movements, the "long" 18th century [3] may run from the Glorious Revolution of 1688 to the battle of Waterloo in 1815[4] or even later.[5]

Contents

Events

1700–1709

1710s

1720s

1730s

1740s

1750s

1760s

1770s

1780s

1790s

Significant people

World leaders, politicians, military

See also: Founding Fathers of the United States

Show business, theatre, entertainers

See also: Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, Haymarket Theatre, and Sichuan opera

Musicians, composers

Main articles: List of Classical era composers and List of Baroque composers

Visual artists, painters, sculptors, printmakers, architects

Main articles: History of painting, Rococo, and Neoclassicism

Writers, poets

Philosophers, theologians

Scientists, researchers

Pirates

Inventions, discoveries, introductions

Main articles: Timeline of historic inventions#18th century and Timeline_of_scientific_discoveries#18th_century

Literary and philosophical achievements

Musical works

Decades and years

References

  1. ^ Anderson, M. S. (1979). Historians and the Eighteenth-Century Europe, 1715–1789. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-822548-5. OCLC 185538307. 
  2. ^ Ribeiro, Aileen (2002). Dress in Eighteenth-Century Europe 1715-1789 (revised edition). Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-09151-9. OCLC 186413657. 
  3. ^ Baines, Paul (2004). The Long 18th Century. London: Arnold. ISBN 978-0-340-81372-0. 
  4. ^ Marshall, P. J. (Editor) (2001). The Oxford History of the British Empire: Volume II: The Eighteenth Century (Oxford History of the British Empire). Oxford University Press, USA. ISBN 978-0-19-924677-9. OCLC 174866045. , "Introduction" by P. J. Marshall, page 1
  5. ^ O'Gorman, Frank (1997). The Long Eighteenth Century: British Political and Social History 1688-1832 (The Arnold History of Britain Series). A Hodder Arnold Publication. ISBN 978-0-340-56751-7. OCLC 243883533. 
  6. ^ "War of the Spanish Succession, 1701-1714". Historyofwar.org. http://www.historyofwar.org/articles/wars_spanishsuccession.html. Retrieved 2009-04-25. 
  7. ^ Historic uk – heritage of britain accommodation guide (2007-05-03). "The history of Scotland – The Act of Union 1707". Historic-uk.com. http://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/Scotland-History/ActofUnion.htm. Retrieved 2009-04-25. 
  8. ^ "Welcome to Encyclopædia Britannica's Guide to History". Britannica.com. 1910-01-31. http://www.britannica.com/blackhistory/article-24160. Retrieved 2009-04-25. 
  9. ^ "Usman dan Fodio (Fulani leader)". Britannica.com. http://www.britannica.com/eb/topic-620352/Usman-dan-Fodio. Retrieved 2009-04-25. 
  10. ^ "List of Wars of the Crimean Tatars". Zum.de. http://www.zum.de/whkmla/military/russia/milxcrimeantatars.html. Retrieved 2009-04-25. 
  11. ^ "Len Milich: Anthropogenic Desertification vs 'Natural' Climate Trends". Ag.arizona.edu. 1997-08-10. http://ag.arizona.edu/~lmilich/desclim.html. Retrieved 2009-04-25. 
  12. ^ "A guide to Scottish clans". Unique-cottages.co.uk. Archived from the original on May 11, 2008. http://web.archive.org/web/20080511181304/http://www.unique-cottages.co.uk/unspoilt/20/clans. Retrieved 2009-04-25. 
  13. ^ "Saudi Arabia – The Saud Family and Wahhabi Islam". Countrystudies.us. http://countrystudies.us/saudi-arabia/7.htm. Retrieved 2009-04-25. 
  14. ^ "Sufism in the Caucasus". Islamicsupremecouncil.org. Archived from the original on February 23, 2009. http://web.archive.org/web/20090223235641/http://www.islamicsupremecouncil.org/bin/site/wrappers/spirituality-sufism_caucasus.html. Retrieved 2009-04-25. 
  15. ^ "Yellow Fever Attacks Philadelphia, 1793". EyeWitness to History. http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/yellowfever.htm. Retrieved 2007-06-22. 
  16. ^ Riedel S (2005). "Edward Jenner and the history of smallpox and vaccination". Proc (Bayl Univ Med Cent) 18 (1): 21–5. PMC 1200696. PMID 16200144. http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?tool=pmcentrez&artid=1200696. 
  17. ^ a b Porter, Roy (Editor) (2003). The Cambridge History of Science, Volume 4: The Eighteenth Century (The Cambridge History of Science). Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-57243-9. OCLC 123123201. , "The Philosopher's Beard: Women and Gender in Science" by Londra Schiebinger, pages 184–210
  18. ^ Encyclopædia Britannica's Great Inventions, Encyclopædia Britannica
  19. ^ Meggs, Philip B. A History of Graphic Design. (1998) John Wiley & Sons, Inc. p 146 ISBN 978-0-471-29198-5

Further reading