18th century

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

• The Enlightenment
• Scientific discovery and early Industrial Revolution. See the History of Science and Technology.
• The Little Ice Age (1500-1850) reaches its peak around 1750.
• Union of the Parliaments of Scotland and England forms the Kingdom of Great Britain
• Around the world exploration by James Cook in 1770s.
• American Revolution leading to United States declaration of independence in 1776 and Constitution in 1789.
• First European settlement of Australia in 1788.
• French revolution 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)
• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (composer)
• Voltaire (French writer and philosopher)
• Denis Diderot (French writer and philosopher)
• Jean-Jacques Rousseau (French writer and philosopher)
• William Hogarth (painter and engraver)
• Thomas Gainsborough (painter)
• Sir Joshua Reynolds (painter)
• David Hume (philosopher)
• Immanuel Kant (philosopher)
• Leonhard Euler (mathematician)
• Benjamin Franklin (inventor and diplomat)
• Thomas Jefferson (American politician)
• Catherine the Great (Russian Tsarina)
• 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