18th Century Timelines
Episode Eight: Century of the
Furnace (1700-1800)
http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/1999
/millennium/learning/timelines/
18th Century World Context
The eighteenth century was the
"century of the furnace" in a dual
sense: the furnace of protoindustrial technology glowed
brightly in China, India, and the
West, and the furnace of political
revolution set off sparks as well.
New ways of thinking strengthened
and disrupted Europe, while the
American Revolution strained ties
across the Atlantic between Europe
and the colonies. India textile
exports thrived, with thousands of
workers mass-producing cotton, tea,
and silk.
However, by the middle of the
century, the British East India
company began its conquest of
India-Britain was beginning to
claim these riches. China, also
confident about its economic
prosperity, colonized new territories
to the north and west.
Science and the Agricultural
Revolution
By the eighteenth century, Sir Isaac
Newton's treatise on the theory of
gravity (published in England in 1687)
had firmly established the scientific
method of investigation. Newton
altered the way Europeans thought
about their world.
Europeans developed a passion for
theorizing, measuring, quantifying, and
categorizing evidence about their
physical world through observation.
This scientific spirit also manifested
itself in agriculture. American plants
like potatoes and maize were
transplanted to Europe, Africa, and
Asia.
Besides keeping peasants from starving,
new crops stimulated new farming
methods. English and Dutch farmers
systematically collected seeds from
productive plants, experimented with
fertilizer, developed new farming tools,
and kept extensive records of results.
Mentions of agricultural experiments
appeared in the correspondence of
"farmers" as diverse as George
Washington and Catherine the Great.
Population and Migrations
The immediate consequence of these
agricultural improvements was more
food for more people. Populations
expanded. In the New World, African
slave trade increased while the rate of
American Indian deaths from
infectious diseases began to stabilize.
In Europe, nations fought global wars
for control of the seas.
England's loss of the 13 American
colonies would be balanced by its
victories in the Napoleonic wars during
the following century. European
immigrants moved to frontier lands in
Canada, the United States, the Russian
steppes, and Australia
Transportation and Capitalism
Farming surpluses generated a need
for roads and canals to transport
increasing amounts of goods to
market. Peasants returned from local
and regional markets with money and
with orders for more goods. Merchants
provided women with wool to spin and
weave at home.
Profits from these cottage industries
created new wealth. As villages grew
to towns and then cities, the story of
urban migrations began. A prosperous
new class emerged. In 1776, Adam
Smith published the Wealth of
Nations, the classic study of
capitalism and its principles.
A New National Identity
1776 was also the year the Continental
Congress approved Thomas Jefferson's
Declaration of Independence. The
belief that mankind could establish a
rational political order developed out
of the ideas of the Enlightenment.
The revolutionary notion that
governments are established to protect
the life, liberty, and property of its
citizens originated in the writings of
Locke, Rousseau, and Voltaire. These
radical ideas became the cornerstone of
revolutions in North America, France,
Haiti, and Latin America.
The strength of the nation state was
grounded in a contractual agreement
between the government and its
people. Citizens no longer identified
themselves by town or region-they
had a national identity.
Power of Steam
And 1776 was the year James Watt
began selling steam engines.
Entrepreneurs now had a portable,
inexpensive source of power for
manufacturing and transport. This
development was to have global
consequences over the last two
centuries of the millennium.
Important Dates and Developments
from the 18th Century
1722 – Bach’s The Well-Tempered
Clavier
1769 – Industrial Revolution Begins
1776 – U.S. Declaration of
Independence
1787 - U.S. Constitution
1789 – French Revolution Begins
1791 – U.S. Bill of Rights
1796 – Smallpox Vaccine Develops
Eighteenth Century
Richard Arkwright 1732 – 1792
His 1769 invention of a water-powered
spinning frame meant that all-cotton
cloth could for the first time be made in
England.
But because his creation had to be
housed in a large room with a water
supply at the ready, Richard Arkwright
inadvertently became the founder of
the modern factory system, a system in
which specialized workers, using
specialized machinery, work together
in one place -- very quickly.
John Harrison 1693 – 1776
John Harrison invented the marine
chronometer, a device that allowed
seamen to calculate longitude. In the
1760s the chronometer's reliability was
established, and in 1775 Capt. James
Cook used one to chart the South Sea
Islands, a feat achieved with the aid,
he wrote, of "our never failing guide,
the Watch."
Thomas Jefferson 1743 – 1826
A lawyer by trade, a pioneer of
American architecture, a president who
encourage westward expansion, a
slave owner who opposed slavery,
Thomas Jefferson embodied many of
the aspirations -- and some of the
contradictions -- of a newborn nation.
It was a self-evident truth, wrote the
33-year-old Virginian, "that all Men
are created equal." Natural law, the
right to "Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit
of Happiness," became the New World
blueprint. It remains an alluring goal
for democracies around the world.
Immanuel Kant 1724 – 1804
His entire life was spent in Königsberg,
East Prussia. But Immanuel Kant made
up for his lack of adventure by traveling
far in his mind. In Critique of Pure
Reason he examined the nature and
limits of human knowledge. He
established the direction of modern
philosophy.
Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier 1743 – 1794
The founder of modern chemistry,
Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier demonstrated
that combustion results when a burning
substance combines with oxygen, and
stated the law of the conservation of
matter: The weight of the products of
combustion equals the weight of the
original materials.
The French chemist clarified the
distinction between elements and
compounds and was instrumental in
devising the modern system of
chemical nomenclature. He also had
a career as a tax collector, for which
he was guillotined during the French
Revolution.
Carolus Linnaeus 1707 – 1778
He developed the modern botanical
classification system. The Swedish
physician, writing in Latin as Linnaeus,
devised a system of naming the genus
and species of plants -- and, later,
animals. His nomenclature was adopted
by naturalists worldwide in his time and
is evident everywhere in ours.
18th Century Video Segments
Lapland – Attempts to Measure the Shape of
the Earth
Portugal – Lisbon built as a symbol of the
Enlightenment
U.S./France – Revolutions
India – Beginning of the British Empire
China – Opens Up Trade
Concepts from the European
Enlightenment
The main components of Enlightenment
thought are as follows:
The universe is fundamentally
rational, that is, it can be understood
through the use of reason alone;
Truth can be arrived at through
empirical observation, the use of
reason, and systematic doubt;
Human experience is the
foundation of human
understanding of truth; authority
is not to be preferred over
experience;
All human life, both social and
individual, can be understood in
the same way the natural world
can be understood; once
understood, human life, both
social and individual, can be
manipulated or engineered in the
same way the natural world can be
manipulated or engineered;
Human history is largely a
history of progress;
Human beings can be improved
through education and the
development of their rational
facilities;
Religious doctrines have no
place in the understanding of the
physical and human worlds;
18th Century Legacies
The scientific revolution led to more investigation, new discoveries, and new technologies.
Europeans had developed a system that generated further inventions. This system was a precursor
to research and development programs employed by modern governments and multinational
corporations in the twentieth century.
Changes in agriculture had the immediate effect of improving peasants' lives. Population numbers
expanded world-wide.
European settlers to new lands established enclaves that maintained strong links with European
nations into the twentieth century.
Based on the ideals of the Enlightenment, revolutions in the U.S., France, Haiti, and Latin America
transformed societies into modern nation-states and subjects into citizens.
Citizens developed a national identity: they served in their nation's army, and supported the state
through a national system of tax collection.
This era marked the beginning of the industrial revolution, which would radically change people's
lives.