1710s

1710s: events by year

Contents: 1710 1711 1712 1713 1714 1715 1716 1717 1718 1719

1710

January–June

• February 28 – Battle of Helsingborg: Fourteen thousand Danish invaders under Jørgen Rantzau are decisively defeated by an equally large Swedish army under Magnus Stenbock.
• April 10 – The world's first copyright legislation, Britain's Statute of Anne, becomes effective.
• June – Swiss and Palatine German Protestants under the leadership of Christoph von Graffenried travel to Bath County in the Province of Carolina. The settlers displace the native town of Chattoka and found New Bern, named for von Graffenried's hometown of Bern, Switzerland.
• June 8 – The Tuscarora nation sends a petition to the Province of Pennsylvania, protesting the seizure of their lands and enslavement of their people by citizens of the Province of Carolina.

Date unknown

• Estimation: Beijing becomes the largest city of the world, taking the lead from Istanbul.^[1]
• In Sweden, the Royal Society of Sciences in Uppsala is founded in as the Collegium curiosorum.
• St. Francis Abbey Brewery, Kilkenny, Ireland is founded by John Smithwick, the home of Smithwick's Ale.

1712

January–June

• February – Sweden temporarily adopts February 30 as a day to adjust the Swedish Calendar back to the Julian calendar.

July–December

• July 24
  • Battle of Denain: The French defeat a combined Dutch-Austrian force.
  • Battle of Villmergen: Reformed cantons of Switzerland defeat the Catholic cantons.
• December 9 – Battle of Gadebusch: Sweden defeats Denmark and Saxony.

Date unknown

Newcomen steam engine diagram

• The Treaty of Aargau is signed by Catholics and Protestants, introducing the Protestant faith into Switzerland.
• The first known working Newcomen steam engine is built by Thomas Newcomen with John Calley to pump water out of mines in the Black Country of England, the first practical device to harness the power of steam to produce mechanical work.^[2]
• After many years of settlement, the "Town on Queen Anne's Creek" is established as a courthouse for Chowan County, North Carolina. The town is renamed Edenton in 1720 and incorporated in 1722.
• The VOC Zuytdorp is wrecked off the coast of Western Australia.
• John Arbuthnot creates the character of John Bull to represent Britain.

1713

January–June

• January 17 – Tuscarora War: Colonel James Moore leads the Carolina militia out of Albermarle County, North Carolina in a second offensive against the Tuscarora. Heavy snows force the troops to take refuge in Fort Reading on the Pamlico River.
• February 4 – Tuscarora War: The Carolina militia under Colonel James Moore leaves Fort Reading to continue the campaign against the Tuscarora.
• February 25 – Frederick William I of Prussia begins his reign.
• March 1 – Tuscarora War: Colonel James Moore's Carolina militia lays siege to the Tuscaroran stronghold of Fort Neoheroka, located a few miles up Contentnea Creek from Fort Hancock.
• March 20 – Tuscarora War: Colonel James Moore's Carolina militia launches a major offensive against Fort Neoheroka.
• March 23 – Tuscarora War: Fort Neoheroka falls to the Carolina militia, effectively ending the Tuscarora nation's military strength. Two Tuscaroran allies, the Machapunga and Coree tribes, continue offensive actions against North Carolina.
• March 27 – First Treaty of Utrecht between Britain and Spain. Philip V accepted by Britain and Austria as King of Spain; Spain cedes Gibraltar and Minorca to Britain.^[3][4]
• April 11 – Second Treaty of Utrecht between Britain and France ends the War of the Spanish Succession.^[5] France cedes Newfoundland, Acadia, Hudson Bay and St Kitts to Britain.^[3]
• April 14 – First performance, in London, of Thomas Addison's libertarian play Cato, a Tragedy, which will be influential on both sides of the Atlantic.^[6]
• June 1 (approx.) – Tuscarora War: Colonel James Moore leads the Carolina militia into the Pamlico Peninsula to defeat the Machapunga and Coree tribes.
• June 23 – French residents of Acadia given one year to declare allegiance to Britain or leave Nova Scotia.

July–December

• July 13 – The Treaty of Portsmouth brings an end to Queen Anne's War.
• September 1 – Tuscarora War: The Carolina militia led by Colonel James Moore returns to South Carolina after mixed success in the campaign against the Machapunga and Coree.

1714

January–June

• May 19 – Queen Anne of Great Britain refuses to allow members of the House of Hanover to settle in Britain during her lifetime.^[7]

July–December

August 1: George I, King of Great Britain, King of Ireland.

• July – The British Parliament votes "to offer a reward (£10,000 for any method capable of determining a ship's longitude within 1 degree; £15,000, within 40 minutes, and £20,000 within 1/2 a degree) "for such person or persons as shall discover the Longitude."
• July 27 – Battle of Gangut: The Russian Navy gains its first important victory.
• August 1 – George, elector of Hanover becomes King George I of Great Britain.
• September 9 – The Ottoman Empire declares war on Venice.
• September 11 – War of the Spanish Succession: Barcelona taken and Catalonia surrenders to Spanish and French Bourbon armies.

Date unknown

• Archbishop Tenison's School is established by Thomas Tenison in Croydon, south of London, England.
• The Duchy of Savoy and Piedmont becomes the Kingdom of Sardinia.
• Louis Juchereau de St. Denis establishes Fort St. Jean Baptiste at the site of present day Natchitoches, Louisiana (the first permanent European settlement in the Louisiana Territory, after Biloxi (1699) and Mobile, Alabama (1702) were separated).
• Worcester College, University of Oxford is founded (formerly Gloucester College, closed during the Dissolution of the Monasteries).
• Stockholm County founded
• Redirection of the river Kander (Switzerland) into the Lake Thun

1715

January–June

• February 11 – Tuscarora War: The Tuscarora and their allies sign a peace treaty with the Province of Carolina and agree to move to a reservation near Lake Mattamuskeet, effectively ending the Tuscarora War. Large numbers of Tuscarora subsequently move to New York.
• May 3 – A total solar eclipse is seen across southern England, Sweden and Finland (the last total eclipse visible in London, UK for almost 900 years).

July–December

• July 24 – A Spanish treasure fleet of 10 ships under General Don Juan Ubilla leaves Havana, Cuba for Spain. Seven days later, nine of them sink in a storm off the coast of Florida (some centuries later, treasure salvage is found from these wrecks).
• August 31 – Opening of Old Dock, Liverpool, England, the world's first enclosed commercial wet dock (Thomas Steers, engineer).
• September – The first of the major Jacobite Rebellions in Scotland against the rule of King George I breaks out. The Earl of Mar raises the standard of James Edward Stuart and marches on Edinburgh. James, the son of the deposed King James VII, arrives from France.
• September 1 – King Louis XIV of France dies after a reign of 72 years, leaving his throne to his great-grandson Louis XV, who will reign for 58 years. Regent for the new, 5-year-old monarch is Philippe d'Orléans, nephew of Louis XIV.
• November 13 – The indecisive Battle of Sheriffmuir during the Jacobite rising in Scotland.
• November 14 – Battle of Preston: Government forces defeat the Jacobite incursion at the conclusion of a five-day siege and action.
• November 28 – Application of Nueva Planta decrees in Majorca and the other Balearic Islands formerly under the Crown of Aragon bringing them under the laws of the Crown of Castile.
• December 24 – Swedish troops occupy Norway.

Date unknown

• The Province of Carolina goes to war with the Yamasee Native Americans.
• Karlsruhe Palace is built, resulting in the town of Karlsruhe growing up around it.
• The ancient right to evaluate royal decrees publicly before they are given the force of law by the high court of Paris (the Parlement) is restored.

1716

January–June

• January 16 – Application of Nueva Planta decrees to Catalonia, making it subject to the laws of the Crown of Castile, concluding the unification of Spain under Philip V.^[8]
• January 27 – The Tugaloo Massacre changes the course of the Yamasee War.
• February 10 – James Edward Stuart flees from Scotland to France with a handful of supporters following failure of the Jacobite Rebellion.
• February 24 – Execution of the Jacobite leaders James Radclyffe, 3rd Earl of Derwentwater and William Gordon, 6th Viscount of Kenmure.^[9]
• May – John Law founds the Banque de France.
• May 26 – Two regular companies of field artillery, each 100 men strong, are raised at Woolwich by Royal Warrant of King George I of Great Britain.
• May 28 – John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, suffers a paralytic stroke.

July–December

• July 5 – Prince Ernest Augustus is created Duke of York.
• July 8 – Battle of Dynekilen: The Swedish fleet is defeated by a Danish-Norwegian fleet.
• August 5 – Battle of Petrovaradin: 83,300 Austrian troops of Prince Eugene of Savoy defeat 150,000 Ottoman Turks under Damad Ali Pasha.
• August 24 – Charles VII, Holy Roman Emperor, returns from Italy.
• November 9 – Caroline of Ansbach, Princess of Wales, gives birth to a stillborn son.
• December 12 – Charles Townshend, 2nd Viscount Townshend, is demoted from his office as Secretary of State for the Northern Department in the British government and replaced by James Stanhope, 1st Earl Stanhope.

Date unknown

• Pirate Blackbeard (Edward Teach) raids shipping in the Caribbean.
• Natchez, one of the oldest towns on the Mississippi, is founded.
• The town of Crieff, Scotland, is burned to the ground by Jacobites returning from the Battle of Sheriffmuir.
• A fire in Wapping, England destroys 150 houses.
• Tsar Peter the Great of Russia studies with the physician Herman Boerhaave at Leiden University.
• The Kangxi Dictionary is published, laying the foundation of most references to Han characters studied today.

1717

January–June

• January 4 – The Netherlands, Britain & France sign the Triple Alliance.
• February 1 – The Silent Sejm, in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, marks the beginning of the Russian Empire's increasing influence and control over the Commonwealth.
• February 26–March 6 – What is now the northeastern United States is paralyzed by a series of blizzards that bury the region.
• March 2 – Dancer John Weaver performs in the first ballet in Britain shown in Drury Lane, The Loves of Mars and Venus.
• March 31 – Bishop Benjamin Hoadly, acting on the advice of King George, begins the Bangorian Controversy by saying that God favors churches with no government.
• April 26 – The Whydah Gally, flagship of "Black Sam" Bellamy, is wrecked in a storm off Wellfleet, Massachusetts. The Whydah sinks with a reputed four and a half tons of treasure on board, and all but 2 of her crew are lost, including Bellamy.
• June 24 – The Premier Grand Lodge of England, the 'Modern' and first Free-Masonic Grand Lodge (which later merges with the Ancient Grand Lodge of England in 1813 to form the United Grand Lodge of England), is founded in London, England.

July–December

• September – The first known Druid revival ceremony is held by John Toland at Primrose Hill, in London, at the Autumnal Equinox, to found the Mother Grove, what is later to become the Ancient Order of Druids (AOD).
• September 29 – A 7.4 magnitude earthquake strikes Antigua Guatemala, destroying much of the city and making authorities consider moving the capital of Guatemala to a different city.
• November – Crews on two ships commanded by Benjamin Hornigold and Edward Teach attack and capture the British-built French guineyman "Concorde" in the eastern Caribbean. Hornigold soon accepts a British amnesty for all pirates, but Teach rejects it and subsequently becomes known as Blackbeard.
• December – Blackbeard teams up with Stede Bonnet but later takes his ship and demotes Bonnet to guest. The Queen Anne's Revenge and Revenge take several ships as prizes in the Caribbean. Blackbeard eventually adds 2 more ships to his party and sails north to the North American coast.
• December 24–December 25 – A disastrous flood hits the North Sea coast between the Netherlands and Denmark; thousands die or lose their houses.

Date unknown

• Voltaire is sentenced to the Bastille for a year because of his satirical writings.
• Spain unites its South American colonies as New Granada.
• Montevideo, Uruguay, is founded by the Portuguese.
• A rift between George I of Great Britain and his son the Prince of Wales leads to the latter being thrown out of the royal household.
• Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, wife of the British ambassador to Istanbul, has her son inoculated.
• Casa de Contratacion or Board of Trade is set up in Cádiz.
• Marc Weyl's family settled in America
• Maharaja Pamheiba of Manipur is converted to Hinduism by Shantidas Goswami, and decrees Hinduism the official religion of Manipur.

1718

January–June

• January – France declares war on Spain, leading to the 2-year War of the Quadruple Alliance.
• January 19 – Lady Mary Wortley Montagu gives birth to a daughter.

December 10: Flag of Stede Bonnet.

• May – Blackbeard leads 400 sailors in 4 ships to blockade the port of Charleston, South Carolina. The Queen Anne's Revenge and Adventure are both lost at Beaufort Inlet, North Carolina, 1 week later. Blackbeard allows Stede Bonnet to once again command the Revenge, which is renamed the Royal James. Bonnet rescues 25 sailors abandoned by Blackbeard on a sandbar and continues his life of piracy.
• May 7 – New Orleans, Louisiana, is founded.
• June – Blackbeard and Bonnet take refuge in Bath, North Carolina, where Governor Charles Eden pardons them and their crew.

July–December

May 7: New Orleans.

• July 21 – The Treaty of Passarowitz is signed.
• October – Stede Bonnet and his crew are captured near the mouth of the Cape Fear River and taken to Charleston, South Carolina, where they are tried for piracy. All but four of Bonnet's crew are found guilty and sentenced to death.
• October 24 – Stede Bonnet escapes from prison.
• November 8 – 22 of Stede Bonnet's pirate crew are hanged at Charleston.
• November 22 – Citing violations of the amnesty agreement with Blackbeard, Virginia Governor Alexander Spottswood sends a Royal Navy contingent to North Carolina, where they battle Blackbeard and his crew in Ocracoke Inlet. Blackbeard is killed in action after receiving 5 musketball wounds and 20 sword lacerations.

Dec. 6: Queen Eleonora.

• December 6 – After the death of Charles XII on November 30, Ulrika Eleonora becomes Queen of Sweden.
• December 10 – Stede Bonnet is hanged at Charleston after being recaptured.
• December 17 – Austria, Great Britain, and France declare war on Spain, launching the War of the Quadruple Alliance.

Date unknown

• The Funj warrior aristocracy deposes the reigning mek and places one of their own ranks on the throne of Sennar (History of Sudan).
• The white potato reaches New England from England.
• Austria completes its conquest of Hungary, formerly a part of the Ottoman Empire.

1719

January–June

• January 23 – The Principality of Liechtenstein is created within the Holy Roman Empire.
• February 20 – The first Treaty of Stockholm is signed.
• April 19 – In Louisiana (New France), Bienville's brother Serigny arrives on a French man-of-war, bringing news that war was declared between France and Spain (from December 1718).
• April 25 – Daniel Defoe publishes Robinson Crusoe.
• April – French army under James FitzJames, 1st Duke of Berwick invades the Basque provinces of Spain.
• May 14 – In Louisiana (New France), at war with Spain, Bienville, from Mobile, captures Pensacola, but Pensacola is later recaptured by the Spanish, and again re-taken by Bienville.^[10]
• June 4 – Battle of Osel Island: A Russian naval force defeats the Swedish fleet.
• June 10 – Battle of Glen Shiel: British forces defeat the Jacobites and their Spanish allies.
• June 20 – Austrians are defeated in the Battle of Francavilla.

July–December

• December 22 – Andrew Bradford publishes the American Weekly Mercury, Pennsylvania's first newspaper.

Date unknown

• Prussia conducts Europe's first systematic census.
• Miners in Falun, Sweden find the apparently petrified body of Fet-Mats Israelsson in an unused part of the copper mine.
• Raine's Foundation School, Bethnal Green, opens in Wapping (opened by Henry Raine).

Significant people

Births

Deaths

References