18th century

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Centuries:	17th century - 18th century - 19th century
Decades:	1700s 1710s 1720s 1730s 1740s 1750s 1760s 1770s 1780s 1790s

As a means of recording the passage of time, the 18th century refers to the century that lasted from 1701 through 1800 in the Gregorian calendar.

European history scholars will sometimes specifically refer to the 18th century as 1715-1789, denoting the period of time between the death of Louis XIV of France and the start of the French Revolution.

1 Events
- 1.1 1700s
- 1.2 1710s
- 1.3 1720s
- 1.4 1730s
- 1.5 1740s
- 1.6 1750s
- 1.7 1760s
- 1.8 1770s
- 1.9 1780s
- 1.10 1790s
2 Significant people
3 Inventions, discoveries, introductions
4 Decades and years

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Events

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1730s

1733-38: War of the Polish Succession
1735-99: The Qianlong Emperor of China oversees a huge expansion in territory.
1736: Nadir Shah assumes title of Shah of Persia and founds the Afsharid dynasty. Rules until his death in 1747.
1739: Nadir Shah defeats the Mughals and sacks Delhi.

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1740s

Image:Frederick II of Prussia.jpg

1740: Frederick the Great crowned King of Prussia.
1740-48: War of the Austrian Succession
1741: Russians begin settling the Aleutian Islands.
1747: Ahmad Shah founds the Durrani Empire in modern day Afghanistan.

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1750s

1750: peak of the Little Ice Age
1755: The Lisbon earthquake
1756-63: Seven Years' War fought among European powers in various theaters around the world.
1757: Battle of Plassey signals the beginning of British rule in India.

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1760s

1760: George III becomes King of Britain.
1762-96: Reign of Catherine the Great of Russia.
1763-66: Pontiac's Rebellion in North America
1766-99: Anglo-Mysore Wars
1767: Burmese conquer the Ayutthaya kingdom.
1768: Gurkhas conquer Nepal.
1768-1774: Russo-Turkish War
1769: Spanish missionaries establish the first of 21 missions in California.

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1770s

1772-1795: The Partitions of Poland end the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and erase Poland from the map for 123 years.
1775-1782: First Anglo-Maratha War
1775-1783: American Revolutionary War
1779-1879: Cape Frontier Wars between British and Boer settlers and the Xhosas in South Africa

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1780s

1785-95: Northwest Indian War between the United States and Native Americans
1787: Freed slaves from London found Freetown in present-day Sierra Leone.
1788: First European settlement established in Australia at Sydney.
1789: George Washington elected President of the United States. Serves until 1797.
1789-99: The French Revolution

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1790s

Image:Taking of the Bastille.jpg

1791-1804: The Haitian Revolution
1792-1815: The Great French War starts as the French Revolutionary Wars which lead into the Napoleonic Wars.
1792: New York Stock & Exchange Board founded.
1793: Upper Canada bans slavery.
1795: Pinckney's Treaty between the United States and Spain grants the Mississippi Territory to the US.
1796: British eject Dutch from Ceylon.
1796-1804: White Lotus Rebellion in China.
1797: Napoleon's invasion and partition of the Republic of Venice ends over 1,000 years of independence for the Serene Republic.
1798: Irish Rebellion against British Rule
1798-1800: Quasi-War between the United States and France.
1799: Napoleon stages a coup d'état and becomes dictator of France.
1799: Dutch East India Company is dissolved.

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Significant people

Maria Gaetana Agnesi (Italian mathematician and linguist)
Ueda Akinari (Japanese writer)
Queen Anne (British monarch)
Marie Antoinette (French royalty and symbol of anti-Revolutionary ire)
Benedict Arnold, considered a traitor by many people on both sides (United States and Britain) of the American Revolutionary War.
Feijoo, Spanish writer.
Johann Sebastian Bach (composer)
Pierre Beaumarchais (French writer)
Jeremy Bentham (English jurist, philosopher, and legal and social reformer)
Daniel Bernoulli (Swiss mathematician and physicist)
Napoleon Bonaparte (general and first consul of France)
François Boucher (French painter)
Edmund Burke (British statesman and philosopher who supported the American Revolution)
Robert Burns (Scottish poet)
Catherine the Great (Russian Tsaritsa)
Alexis Clairault (French mathematician)
James Cook (British navigator)
Jean le Rond d'Alembert (French mathematician, physicist, and encyclopedist)
Denis Diderot (French writer and philosopher)
Leonhard Euler (Swiss mathematician)
Jean-Honoré Fragonard (French painter)
Benjamin Franklin (American revolutionary, inventor, printer, and diplomat)
Frederick the Great (Prussian monarch)
Thomas Gainsborough (painter)
Carl Friedrich Gauss (German mathematician, physicist, and astronomer)
King George III (British monarch)
Christoph Willibald Gluck (German composer)
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (German writer)
Thomas Gray (British writer)
George Frideric Handel (German composer)
Alexander Hamilton (American revolutionary, lawyer, and statesman)
Joseph Haydn (Austrian composer)
William Hogarth (painter and engraver)
David Hume (philosopher)
Thomas Jefferson (American revolutionary, philosopher, and statesman)
Samuel Johnson (British writer and literary critic)
Immanuel Kant (philosopher)
Wolfgang von Kempelen (Hungarian scientist, pioneer in experimental phonetics)
Joseph Louis Lagrange (Italian mathematician and mathematical physicist)
Pierre Simon Laplace (French physicist and mathematician)
John Law (Scottish economist)
Antoine Lavoisier (French chemist)
Adrien-Marie Legendre (French mathematician)
Louis XIV of France (monarch)
Louis XV of France (monarch)
Louis XVI of France (monarch)
James Madison (American revolutionary, writer, and statesman)
Maria Theresa of Austria (Holy Roman Empress, Queen of Hungary and Bohemia)
Michikinikwa (Miami tribe chief and war leader)
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (composer)
Thomas Paine (British intellectual and philosopher who advocated for the American Revolution)
Tupac Amaru II (Peruvian revolutionary)
Philip II, Duke of Orléans (Regent of France)
Alexander Pope (British poet)
Francis II Rákóczi (prince of Hungary and Transylvania, leader of the Hungarian freedom war)
Jean-Philippe Rameau (French composer and music theorist)
Sir Joshua Reynolds (painter)
Maximilien Robespierre (French Revolutionary leader and dictator)
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (French writer and philosopher)
Friedrich Schiller (German writer)
John Small, Sr (Hambledon cricketer; the first great batsman)
Adam Smith (Scottish economist and philosopher)
Laurence Sterne (British writer)
Edward "Lumpy" Stevens (Surrey cricketer; the first great bowler)
Jonathan Swift (Anglo-Irish satirist)
Tecumseh (Revolutionary)
Pedro Rodríguez de Campomanes, Spanish politician and economist.
Voltaire (French writer and philosopher)
George Washington (American revolutionary general and first president)
John Wesley (Founder of Methodism, Anglican clergyman, English reformer, scholar, theologian and writer)
William Pitt (British Prime Minister)

See Founding Fathers of the United States

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Inventions, discoveries, introductions

Main articles: Timeline of invention#18th_century and Timeline of scientific discoveries#1700s

Industrial Revolution begins
The Encyclopédie by the Encyclopedists
The English Dictionary by Samuel Johnson
Economics by Adam Smith
Rosetta stone discovered by Napoleon's troops.
Vitus Bering discovered Alaska.
James Cook mapped the boundaries of the Pacific Ocean and discovered many Pacific Islands.
Wahhabism by Muhammad ibn Abd al Wahhab

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Decades and years

1690s	1690	1691	1692	1693	1694	1695	1696	1697	1698	1699
1700s	1700	1701	1702	1703	1704	1705	1706	1707	1708	1709
1710s	1710	1711	1712	1713	1714	1715	1716	1717	1718	1719
1720s	1720	1721	1722	1723	1724	1725	1726	1727	1728	1729
1730s	1730	1731	1732	1733	1734	1735	1736	1737	1738	1739
1740s	1740	1741	1742	1743	1744	1745	1746	1747	1748	1749
1750s	1750	1751	1752	1753	1754	1755	1756	1757	1758	1759
1760s	1760	1761	1762	1763	1764	1765	1766	1767	1768	1769
1770s	1770	1771	1772	1773	1774	1775	1776	1777	1778	1779
1780s	1780	1781	1782	1783	1784	1785	1786	1787	1788	1789
1790s	1790	1791	1792	1793	1794	1795	1796	1797	1798	1799
1800s	1800	1801	1802	1803	1804	1805	1806	1807	1808	1809