🗽 Enlightenment and Revolution (1700–1800)
Great Britain is formed in 1707. Enlightenment writers publish the Encyclopédie, Candide, and The Social Contract, steam power and factories transform Britain's economy, and revolutions break out in America and France.
Every entry below comes from our timeline dataset (26 events in this era). 23 carry a source link we checked against the cited article.
ACT I
Old Regimes and New Ideas (1700–1760)
Kings and tsars rule while philosophers question everything.
1707
Act of Union: England and Scotland unite; Great Britain created.
Source: Wikipedia: Acts of Union 1707
1715
Louis XIV dies: Sun King's long reign ends; France dominant.
Source: Wikipedia: Louis XIV
1721
Peter the Great: Proclaimed Emperor of All Russia after victory over Sweden; he had founded St. Petersburg in 1703.
Source: Wikipedia: Russian Empire
1751
Encyclopedia published: Diderot's massive work spreads Enlightenment ideas.
Source: Wikipedia: Encyclopedie
1756
Seven Years' War: Global conflict; France loses North America.
Source: Wikipedia: Seven Years' War
1759
Voltaire's Candide: Satirical novel attacks tyranny and religious intolerance.
Source: Wikipedia: Candide
ACT II
Industry and Independence (1760–1783)
Steam engines in Britain; revolution in its American colonies.
1760s
Industrial Revolution: Steam, textiles, factories transform economy.
Source: Wikipedia: Industrial Revolution
1762
Rousseau's Social Contract: "Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains."
1765
Stamp Act: British tax on American colonies; resistance begins.
Source: Wikipedia: Stamp Act 1765
1769
Steam engine improved: Watt's design drives Industrial Revolution.
Source: Wikipedia: James Watt
1770
Boston Massacre: British soldiers kill colonists; tensions rise.
Source: Wikipedia: Boston Massacre
1773
Boston Tea Party: Colonists protest tax; dump tea in harbor.
Source: Wikipedia: Boston Tea Party
1775
American Revolution: War begins at Lexington and Concord.
1776
American Independence: Revolution & new republic.
1776
Adam Smith publishes The Wealth of Nations: Scottish economist Adam Smith argues for free markets and the division of labor, founding modern economics. Published the same year as American independence, the book shapes capitalism for centuries.
Source: Wikipedia: The Wealth of Nations
~1776
Age of Atlantic Revolutions: The American (1775–1783), French (1789), and Haitian (1791) revolutions form an interconnected Atlantic arc, each fueled by Enlightenment ideas of liberty but shaped by very different social forces.
Source: Wikipedia: Atlantic Revolutions
1781
Yorktown: British surrender; American victory secured.
Source: Wikipedia: Siege of Yorktown
ACT III
Constitutions and Revolution (1783–1800)
New constitutions, a revolution in France, and a coup that ends the century.
1783
Treaty of Paris: Britain recognizes American independence.
1787
US Constitution: Founding document drafted in Philadelphia.
1788
British colonize Australia: The First Fleet arrives at Botany Bay carrying more than 700 convicts, establishing a British penal colony. For Aboriginal Australians—whose civilization dates back 65,000+ years—colonization brings catastrophic violence, disease, dispossession, and the destruction of hundreds of language groups.
Source: Wikipedia: First Fleet
1789
French Revolution: Rights, republic, upheaval.
Source: Wikipedia: French Revolution
1790
Factory system emerges: Mass production transforms labor; Industrial age.
1791
US Bill of Rights: First ten amendments to US Constitution.
1793
Reign of Terror: Robespierre's radical phase; thousands executed.
Source: Wikipedia: Reign of Terror
1796
Jenner develops smallpox vaccine: Edward Jenner demonstrates that cowpox inoculation prevents smallpox, founding immunology. Vaccination would ultimately eradicate smallpox by 1980—the first human disease deliberately eliminated.
1799
Napoleon's coup: Consulate established; dictatorship begins.
Source: Wikipedia: Coup of 18 Brumaire
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