The 18th century lasted from 1701 to 1800 in the Gregorian Calendar.

To historians who expand the century to include larger historical movements, the "long" 18th century may run from the Glorius Revolutions of 1688 to the battle of waterloo in 1815 During the 18th century, the Enlightment culminated in the French,haitian and American Revolutions. Philosophy and science increased in prominence. Philosophers were dreaming about a better age without the Christia of earlier centuries. This dream turned into a reality with the French Revolution, although it was later compromised by excess of the terror of Maximile Robespeirre. At first, the monarchies of Europe embraced enlightenment ideals, but with the French revolution they feared losing their power and joined wide coalitions with the counter-revolution. Education Since 1808, the baccalaurat has been the symbolic national diploma, both crowning the successful completion of secondary education and providing a passport for entry into higher education. From the beginning of the twentieth century, France has also been developing State vocational education by "scholarizing apprenticeships", i.e. establishing vocational qualifications which can be attained at school: the CAP and the BEP (brevet d'enseignement professionnel, which sanctions the completion of adequate training within a range of technical skills required in a particular trade, industrial, commercial, administrative or social field).

1600s

1600: Charles I of England born to James VI of Scotland and Anne of Denmark. 1601: The Elizabethan Poor Law appoints parishes as administrators of poverty relief. 1601: Earl of Essex executed on a count of treason. 1601: Battle of Kinsale, one of the most important battles in Irish history, fought. 1602: Dutch East India Company founded. Its success contributes to the Dutch Golden Age. 1603: Elizabeth I of England dies and is succeeded by her cousin King James VI of Scotland, uniting the crowns of Scotland and England.

1603: Tokugawa Ieyasu seizes control of Japan and establishes the Tokugawa Shogunate which rules the country until 1868. 1603-23: After modernizing his army, Abbas I expands Persia by capturing territory from the Ottomans and the Portuguese. 1604: James I meets the Puritans at the Hampton Court Conference, but eventually demands that they accept all Thirty-Nine Articles. James I bans Jesuit Catholics.

1605: Gunpowder Plot failed in England. 1607: The London Company establishes the Jamestown Settlement in North America precipitating the British colonization of the Americas.

1608: Quebec City founded by Samuel de Champlain in New France (present-day Canada). 1609: Maximilian of Bavaria establishes the Catholic League.

1610s

1611: English and Scottish Protestant colonists settle in Ulster. 1612: Moscow freed from Polish invaders. 1612: Chilean Jesuit missionaries murdered by Indians. 1613: The Time of Troubles in Russia ends with the establishment of the House of Romanov which rules until 1917. 1614: James I of England dissolves the Addled Parliament for failing to pass legislation or new taxes. 1614: Cardinal Richelieu dissolves the States-General, thereby concentrating power in the hands of Louis XIII. 1615: The Mughal Empire grants extensive trading rights to the British East India Company. 1616: Dirk Hartog reaches western Australia and leaves behind the Hartog Plate. 1618: The Bohemian Revolt precipitates the Thirty Years' War which devastates Central Europe in the years 1618-48. Starting from a dispute over Protestant churches on Catholic land, the Protestant churches are torched or closed, leading to a protest in Prague. In the Second Defenestration of Prague two Catholic imperial governors are thrown out of the Bohemian Chancellery window, whereafter succesive regions enter the dispute for or against Emperor Matthias's sovereignty.

1618: The Manchus start invading China. The Manchu conquest was instrumental in toppling the Ming Dynasty. 1618: Sir Walter Raleigh beheaded for his attack on Spanish possession Trinidad. 1618: English colonists depart in the Gift of God for the Jamestown Settlement, Virginia.

1618: The Synod of Dort addresses five Protestant controversies. 1619: British North American colonies introduce slavery in expanding plantations. 1619: Spain starts financing Emperor Ferdinand II in his military conquests. 1619: Bohemian Protestants reject Emperor Ferdinand II as future sovereign and appoint Frederick V instead. 1620: Emperor Ferdinand II defeats the Bohemian rebels in the Battle of White Mountain. 1620: The Puritan Pilgrims arrive in the Mayflower at Plymouth Rock, Cape Cod.

1620s

1624-42: As chief minister, Cardinal Richelieu centralizes power in France. 1625: New Amsterdam founded by the Dutch West India Company in North America. 1626: St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican completed. 1627: Cardinal Richelieu lays siege to Protestant La Rochelle which eventually capitulates. 1629: Cardinal Richelieu allies with Swedish Protestant forces in the Thirty Years' War to counter Ferdinand II's expansion.

1630s

1632: Building of the Taj Mahal begins, a mausoleum for Mumtaz Mahal. 1637: The Dutch tulip mania bubble bursts. 1637: The Pequot War, the first of the American Indian Wars 1639-51: Wars of the Three Kingdoms, civil wars throughout Scotland, Ireland, and England.

1640s

1640-68: The Portuguese Restoration War led to the end of the Iberian Union. 1640: Torture is outlawed in England. 1641: The Tokugawa Shogunate institutes Sakoku- foreigners are expelled and no one is allowed to enter or leave Japan. 1642: Dutch explorer Abel Janszoon Tasman achieves the first recorded European sighting ofNew Zealand. 1642- 1649: Civil War in England; Charles I is beheaded by Cromwell 1644: The Manchu conquer China ending the Ming Dynasty. The subsequent Qing Dynastyrules until 1912. 1648: The Peace of Westphalia ends the Thirty Years' War and the Eighty Years' War and marks the ends of Spain and the Holy Roman Empire as major European powers.

1648-53: Fronde civil war in France. 1648-67: The Deluge wars leave Poland in ruins. 1648-69: The Ottoman Empire captures Crete from the Venetians after the Siege of Candia.

1650s

1652: Cape Town founded by the Dutch East India Company in South Africa. 1652: Anglo-Dutch Wars begin.

1655-61: The Northern Wars cement Sweden's rise as a Great Power.

1660s

1660: The Commonwealth of England ends and the monarchy is brought back during the English Restoration. 1660: Royal Society of London for the Improvement of Natural Knowledge founded. 1661: The reign of the Kangxi Emperor of China begins. 1662: Koxinga captures Taiwan from the Dutch and founds the Kingdom of Tungning which rules until 1683. 1663: France takes full political and military control over its colonial possessions in New France. 1664: British troops capture New Amsterdam and rename it New York. 1665: Portugal defeats the Kongo Empire. 1666: The Great Fire of London. 1667-99: The Great Turkish War halts the Ottoman Empire's expansion into Europe.

1670s

1670: The Hudson's Bay Company is founded in Canada. 1672-78: Franco-Dutch War 1674: Maratha Empire founded in India by Shivaji. 1676: Russia and the Ottoman Empire commence the Russo-Turkish Wars.

1680s

1682: Peter the Great becomes joint ruler of Russia (sole tsar in 1696). 1682: La Salle explores the length of the Mississippi River and claims Louisiana for France. 1683: China conquers the Kingdom of Tungning and annexes Taiwan. 1685: Edict of Fontainebleau outlaws Protestantism in France. 1687: Isaac Newton publishes Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica. 1688-89: After the Glorious Revolution, England becomes a constitutional monarchy and the Dutch Republic goes into decline.

1688-97: The Grand Alliance sought to stop French expansion during the Nine Years War. 1689: The Treaty of Nerchinsk established a border between Russia and China.

1690s

1692: Salem witch trials in Massachusetts. 1700-21: Russia supplants Sweden as the dominant Baltic power after the Great Northern War.