18th Century

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1700 Foundation of the Academy of Science in Berlin:
Liebniz elected President, thus marking the international nature of the Scientific Revolution.
1702 Death of King William III of England.
Succeeded by Queen Anne(till 1714)
1703 Birth of John Wesley founder of Methodism.

Isaac Newton elected President of Royal Society(Science in England).
1704 Death of John Locke.

J.S. Bach writes his first cantata.

Newton publishes his “Optics” emission theory of light.

Daniel Defoe in prison starts his weekly newspaper The Review.
1706 England on the march:
Marlborough conquers Spanish Netherlands.
1707 Handel in Venice. meeting with Scarlatti.
1709 Birth of Samuel Johnson. English literary critic.
1710 Leibniz pub Theodicee, (God created the best of all possible worlds, later parodied in Voltaire’s Candide).
1711 The Spectator in London. begun by Addison and Steele.
1712 Alexander Pope, The Rape of the Lock.

Birth of Jean-Jacques Rousseau (dies 1778).
1713 Birth of Denis Diderot. (d. 1784).
1714 Death of Queen Anne of England.
Succeeded by Hanoverian line, George I.
1715 Death of King Louis XIV of France succeeded by his great-grandson Louis XV under Regency of Duc d’Orleans (Louis XV reigns to 1774).
1716 Diario di Roma begin pub. in Italy. First Italian newspaper.
1717 Watteau paints “Embarkation for the Isle of Cythera.”
Captures perfectly the French aristocratic dream of 18thC naturalism.Inoculation against small pox introduced in London by Lady Mary Montagu.
1718 Voltaire imprisoned in the Bastille.

Foundation of Yale University in New Haven, Conn.
1719 Daniel Defoe, The Life and Strange Adventures of Robinson Crusoe. Based on true story in the newspapers. Usually credited as the first English novel. Had huge success. Man isolated in nature; does very well. Rousseau recommend it as the first novel a young boy should read. Coleridge praised its evocation of the “universal man” and Marx used it to demonstrate economic theory.
1721 J.S.Bach: Brandenberg Concertos.
1722 Daniel Defoe, The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous Moll Flanders. Autobiography of young woman left to grow up in England when her mother is shipped off to Virginia penal colony. First great success of “woman”s fiction.” Stories of success and failure of smart, tough young woman.
1724 Birth of Immanuel Kant. (d. 1804)
1725 Allan Ramsay, The Gentle Shepherd.
Evocation of the 18thC myth of the shepherd, the pastoral with its Scots songs, beautiful rural imagery.(same thing in paintings of Watteau).
1726 Jonathan Swift: Gulliver’s Travels.
1727 King George I dies.
Succeeded by his son George II (to 1760).Death of Isaac Newton.
1729 J.S. Bach: St Matthew Passion.
1732 Birth of George Washington. (d. 1799).
1733 Alexander Pope, Essay on Man.

Latin language abolished in the English courts.

First newspaper in New York: The New York Weekly.
1734 Mme. de Lambert in her “Avis d’une Mere a sa Fille” recommends university education for women.
1735 Birth of John Adams (dies July 4, 1826).

New York: John Peter Zenger printer publisher in NY acquitted of seditious libel in landmark case estab freedom of the press in the colonies.
1736 Venice: manufacture of glass begins in Murano.
1738 Voltaire introduces the ideas of Isaac Newton to France.
1740 Beginning of the reign of King Frederick II (Frederick the Great) in Prussia, transformation of small state of Prussia into one of most important states in Europe in which freedom of the press and freedom of religion is estab. by Frederick.
1741 Handel, Messiah, composed in 18 days.

Philadelphia: Benjamin Franklin founds The General Magazine.
1742 Henry Fielding: Joseph Andrews.
1743 Birth of Thomas Jefferson (dies July 4, 1826).

French explorers reach the Rocky Mountains. American vistas of pure nature carried back to France influence new school of nature as discussed by Rousseau.
1745 Death of Jonathan Swift. (b. 1667)
1747 Voltaire, Zadig.

Samuel Johnson: Plan of a Dictionary of the English Language.

Enlightenment: Age of Dictionaries and Encyclopedias.
1748 Samuel Richardson: Clarissa.
1749 Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, A Foundling.

One of biggest successes in the new world of the novel.
Dijon Academy announces a competition for an essay on whether the arts and sciences contribute to the moral progress of man. Rousseau decides to enter with an essay in the negative. Wins.
1751 Paris: Rousseau now one of most famous writers due to the discussions on the newspapers of his essay on the arts and sciences.

Paris: publish the prospectus for the great Enlightenment project of the Encyclopedia (Denis Diderot editor-in-chief).
David Hume, Enquiry Concerning the Principals of Morals.
1755 Jean-Jacques Rousseau, publish in Paris his essay entered in the Dijon Academy competition of previous year on subject:
The Origins of Inequality among Men.
JJ says men in the state of nature are good; society makes them bad. One of the most influential works of the whole of the 18th century standing at the head of the whole Romantic Movement of the next 200 years.
1758 America: Geo Washington takes Fort Duquene (later named Pittsburgh) in the French and Indian War (in Europe called the Seven Years War).
1759 Voltaire:
Candide, called a philosophical novel.
1760 King George the II succeeded by his son George III.

James Macpherson publishes Ossian, Fragments of Ancient Poetry, Collected in the Highlands, a great literary fraud that had huge success as a collection of ancient Scottish poetry capturing the current mania for back to nature.

Laurence Sterne, Tristram Shandy.

Josiah Wedgwood founds his works at Etruria, Staffordshire, produce “china.”
1762 Rousseau: The Social Contract (concept of the “general will”).
1763 Peace of Paris ends the Seven Years War (French and Indian War in America) ends with the total triumph of England. France now driven out of America and the English colonies can now spread west with no opposition from European power. In Europe England supreme, English navy commands the seas, French navy negligible.
1764 Voltaire, Philosophical Dictionary.

Mozart, writes his first symphony.
1765 London: Parliament passes the Stamp Act.
1766 Fragonard, The Swing.
1767 Rousseau goes to England.

J. J. Winkelmann publishes his great work, Monumenti Antichi, on the Classical monuments of Italy, signaling Europe’s new fascination with the ancient world especially Rome and its history, as in Gibbon’s Decline and Fall of Rome. This mania for the ancient world is another aspect of the Romantic quest for other times and other places.
1768 First weekly numbers of the Encyclopedia Brittanica.
1770 Boston: The Boston Massacre

Future king of France marries Marie Antoinette, daughter of the Empress Maria Theresa of Austria.
1773 Boston: Boston Tea Party.
1774 Goethe, Sorrows of Young Werther,
first great international bestseller in world of fiction.
Death of King Louis XV:
succeeded by his son Louis XVI (wife Marie Antoniette).
1775 American Revolution begins: Paul Revere’s ride.
George Washington becomes Commander-in-Chief of the revolutionary armies.
1776 Declaration of Independence in America.

Edward Gibbon, Decline and Fall of Roman Empire.

Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations.
1778 Death of Rousseau.

Death of Voltaire.

Opening of La Scala opera house in Milan.
1781 publish Rousseau’s Confessions.
1783 Peace of Versailles signed that recognizes the Independence of the 13 Colonies. French helped Americans win. Much pro-American sentiment in Paris. Thomas Jefferson has been great hit there.

Birth of Stendhal.
1786 Robert Burns, Poems Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect.

Mozart, Marriage of Figaro.
1787 Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia: Writes the US Constitution.
1788 Parlement of Paris lists grievances. King Louis XVI

decides to call meeting of Estates General (the national congress) to be convened for May, 1789.
Birth of Byron.
1789 French Revolution.

New York: First national congress for US under new Constitution.
George Washington sworn in as first president of the United States.
1790 Edmund Burke, Reflections of the Revolution in France.

Mozart, Cosi Fan Tutte opera.
1791 King Louis XVI arrested.

US: Bill of Rights.
1792 Birth of Percy Bysshe Shelley (dies 1822).

Mary Wollstonecraft, Vindication of the Rights of Women.
1793 Execution of King Louis XVI of France.
Establish the Committee of Public Safety.
Danton as its head. Terror begins.
Marquis de Sade, La Philosophie dans le Boudoir.
Begin building the Capitol, Washington DC: Neo-Classic architecture.
1794 Execution of Robbespierre in Paris.

Thomas Paine, Age of Reason.
1795 Rise of Napoleon: Appointed Commander-in-chief in Italy.
1797 Napoleon and Josephine in Paris. rising power in revolution.
1799 Napoleon triumphant. Consular gov.
Birth of Balzac.
Beethoven, Symphony No. 1.
Rosetta stone found in Egypt making possible decipher Egyptian hieroglyphics.
1800 Napoleon estab as “First Consul:”
complete control now of military and civil. gov.