Timeline: 18th Century Europe/North America

Philosophy
1710: Berkeley- A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge
1714: Leibniz - Monadology
1725: Vico - The New Science
1739: Hume - A Treatise of Human Nature
1748: Montesquieu - The Spirit of the Laws
1751: Diderot - Encyclopedie 
1755: Rousseau - Discourse on Inequality
1764: Voltaire - Philosophical Dictionary
1781: Kant - Critique of Pure Reason
1789: Bentham - Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation
1794: Fichte - Wissenschaftslehre

Classical Music
BAROQUE - ends 1750 with the death of Bach; CLASSIC - begins 1750
J. S. Bach (1685-1750)
Handel (1685-1759)
Haydn (1732-1809)
Mozart (1756-91)
Beethoven (1770-1827)

Visual Arts
Hogarth (1697-1764)
Goya (1746-1828)
David (1748-1825)
Blake (1757-1827)
Constable (1776-1828)

Literature
1700: Congreve - The Way of the World
1722: Defoe - Moll Flanders
1726: Swift - Gulliver's Travels
1732: Pope - Essay on Man
1749: Fielding - Tom Jones
1759: Voltaire - Candide
1761: Rousseau - Hêloïse
1774: Goethe - Sorrows of Young Werther
 1785: Schiller - Ode to Joy 
1789: Blake - Songs of Innocence 
1791: Sade - Justine
1798: Wordsworth & Coleridge - Lyrical Ballads

Social/Political/Political Economy: Theory
 1758: Quesnay - Tableau economique
1762: Rousseau - The Social Contract
1764: Beccaria - Essay on Crimes and Punishments
 1765-69: Blackstone - Commentaries on the Laws of England
1766: Turgot - Reflections on the Formation and Distribution of Wealth
1776: Gibbon - Decline & Fall of the Roman Empire (Vol. 1)
1776: Smith - The Wealth of Nations
 1790: Burke - Reflections on the Revolution in France
 1791: Paine - The Rights of Man
 1792: Wollstonecraft - A Vindication of the Rights of Women
1793: Godwin - Enquiry Concerning Political Justice
1798: Malthus - Essay on the Principle of Population  

Science & Technology
1704: Isaac Newton - Optics
 1705: Edmund Halley - accurately predicts return of comet in 1758 
1709: Coke used to produce iron
1714: Daniel Fahrenheit - invents mercury thermometer
1720: Lady Mary Wortley Montagu - introduces early immunization technique
1735: Linnaeus - Systema naturae
 1733: Kay invents the flying shuttle
1748: First blast furnace built
1749: Buffon - Histoire naturelle 
1751: Franklin - New Experiments and Observations on Electricity
 1759: Kasper Wolff - demonstrates specialized organs develop out of unspecialized tissue
1764: Hargreaves invents spinning jenny
1766: Cavendish isolates hydrogen
1769: Watt patents improved steam engine
1774: Priestley - discovers oxygen
1780: Luigi Galvani - observes connection between electricity and muscle movements
1783: 1st manned flight of hot air balloon
1785: James Hutton - Theory of Earth
1789: Antoine Lavoisier - Elements of Chemistry
1796: Edward Jenner develops smallpox vaccine

Social/Political/Political Economy: Practice
Various wars throughout the century
Six million slaves traded during 18th century
Enclosures intensify from 1750 forward
Industrial Cycles
    1st - 1780s to 1840s (textiles)
1702: 1st daily newspaper (London)
1709: 1st Copyright Act (Britain)
1712: Last execution in Britain for witchcraft
1723: Workhouses begin in Britain
1732: Oglethorpe founds Georgia for "poor debtors"
1755: Lisbon earthquake
1768: Cook's voyages to the Pacific
1773: Pugachev leads peasant uprising
1775: American Revolution
1789: French Revolution
1791: Bill of Rights ratified in U.S.
1792: Denmark prohibits slave trade
1799: Start of Napoleonic Wars

©Carl Mickelsen