1741 1742 1743 1744 1745 1746 1747 1748 1749 1750
Contents: political eventsexploration, colonization commerce science medicine religion literature art music crime architecture, real estate environment |
The Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle signed October 18 halts the War of the Austrian Succession after 8 years (and King George's War after 4½), but the peace is really no more than a truce (see 1755; 1756). A Royal Navy expedition under the command of Rear Admiral Edward Boscawen has laid siege to Pondicherry in August. Sickness among his men and the approach of the monsoons have forced him to give up the siege. Mme. de Pompadour's menstrual difficulties and repeated miscarriages are the talk of Paris, but she has participated in the negotiations leading up to the peace treaty, which gains nothing for France and in fact requires that French sea defenses at Dunquerque be dismantled and that the Young Pretender Bonny Prince Charlie be expelled. The House of Hanover retains the succession in its German states and in Britain; the Pragmatic Sanction of 1720 is sustained in Austria; Silesia is given to Prussia, which has become a great power; and there is a reciprocal restoration of conquests. France regains Nova Scotia's Louisburg from Britain but gives up territory she has taken in the Lowlands and surrenders control of Madras in India to Rear Admiral Boscawen (see 1754).
India's indolent Mughal emperor Mohammed Shah defeats the Afghan ruler Ahmad Shah Durrani at Sirhind in March but dies at Delhi April 6 at age 45 after a 29-year reign devoted chiefly to self-indulgence. He is succeeded by his imbecilic son Ahmad Shah Bahadur Mujahid-ud-din Abu Nasr, 22, who will reign only until 1754, dominated completely by his mother, Udham Bai, and the eunuch who superintends the imperial harem (see 1750).
American colonists cross the Allegheny Divide and move into western lands (see George III, 1763).
"The only principle of life propagated among the young people is to get money," writes Scottish-born colonist Cadwallader Colden, 60, "and men are only esteemed according to what they are worth—that is, the money they are possessed of."
Benjamin Franklin at Philadelphia becomes a silent partner in the printing firm Franklin and Hall, which in the next 18 years will give him an annual profit averaging nearly £500 and permit him to increase his investments in real estate and in partnerships or working arrangements with printers at New York, in the Carolinas, and in the West Indies.
Introductio in analysin ininitorum by Leonhard Euler systematizes calculus, emphasizes the study of functions, classifies differential equations, and treats trigonometric functions and equations of curves without reference to diagrams (see Lagrange, 1761).
Observations upon the Generation, Composition, and Decomposition of Animal and Vegetable Substances by English naturalist John Tuberville Needham, 35, gives "proof" of spontaneous generation. Needham says he has found flasks of broth teeming with "little animals" after having boiled them and sealed them, but his experimental techniques have been faulty (see Redi, 1668; Maupertuis, 1751; Pasteur, 1860).
Abbé Jean Antoine Nollet discovers osmosis. He has been the first professor of physics at the College of Navarre in Paris.
Analytical Institutions by Maria Agnesi (see 1738) proposes new methods for algebra, geometry, and differential and integral calculus. Using its author's skill with languages (she speaks Latin, Greek, French, and other languages as well as Italian), it correlates the work of many writers and mathematicians and will be the standard mathematical text for half a century. The book establishes Agnesi's reputation, and the empress Maria Theresa sends her a casket of jewels in recognition of her scholarship.
Mathematician Johann Bernoulli dies at his native Basel January 1 at age 80; Leyden jar discoverer E. Georg von Kleist at Köslin, Pomerania, December 11 at age 48.
Fielding Ould in Ireland prescribes opiates for women undergoing difficult labor (see 1742). He is the first to advise episiotomy when it looks like the perineum is about to tear, but he regards cesarean section as a "detestable, barbarous, illegal piece of humanity." "Account of the Sore Throat Attended with Ulcers" by London physician John Fothergill, 36, gives the first description of diphtheria. The disease is called diphtheria—from the Greek word for leather—because of the tough, yellowish-gray membrane formed in the throats of victims; it causes inflammation of the heart and nervous system and is a leading killer of children (see Krebs, 1883).
The Saxon government rescinds the banishment it imposed in 1736 on Moravian Church leader Nikolaus, graf von Zinzendorf (see 1740). Zinzendorf returned from America 6 years ago, and his Church of the Unity of the Brethren will receive formal government recognition in 1751, but opposition to the count's theology has grown, especially at Herrnhaag, as its preoccupation with Christ's wounds have taken on allegedly erotic overtones and the antirational, emotional, and sensual elements of his beliefs have become more intense.
Nonfiction: The Spirit of the Laws (De l'esprit des lois) by the baron de Montesquieu pioneers sociology and the comparative study of civilizations by showing the interrelation of economical, geographical, political, religious, and social forces in history, a revolutionary concept that makes Montesquieu's most important work a bestseller. "Commerce," he writes, "is a cure for the most destructive prejudices."
Fiction: The Adventures of Roderick Random by Scottish physician Tobias (George) Smollett, 27, enjoys such success that Smollett will give up his London practice and devote himself to writing. "Some folks are wise and some otherwise," says Smollett in his anonymously-published picaresque novel (he sailed at age 20 as a surgeon's mate to Cartagena and last year married a Jamaican heiress); Clarissa, or the History of a Young Lady by Samuel Richardson, whose seven-volume novel will establish his lasting reputation and that of his heroine, Clarissa Harlowe, who resists her father's pressure to marry a rich, ugly man, disregards the advice of a friend who tells her, "Marry first, and love will come after," elopes from a country house with her lover, Lovelace, despite his libertine past, and comes to grief.
Poetry: The Castle of Indolence by James Thomson, who has modeled his work on that of Edmund Spenser.
Poet James Thomson dies at Richmond, Surrey, August 27 at age 47, having written in his poem Autumn, "Loveliness/ Needs not the foreign aid of ornament./ But is, when unadorned, adorned the most."
Painting: Calais Gate by William Hogarth.
The Royal Danish Ballet has its beginnings in a troupe established as the resident company of Copenhagen's Royal Theater.
Novelist-playwright Henry Fielding is appointed justice of the peace for Bow Street, Westminster, London, and organizes the Bow Street Runners to pursue the pickpockets and other miscreants who make the city rife with crime.
"New Map of Rome Dedicated to Cardinal Alessandro Albani" ("Nuova Pianta di Roma . . . ") by Italian architect Giovanni Battista Nolli, 47, shows a network of medieval and baroque streets along with monuments drawn by Venetian-born etcher-architect Giovanni Battista Piranesi, 27, who arrived at Rome 8 years ago. Prepared for purposes of tax assessment, Nolli's map shows how much nontaxable "public" property has encroached on private property.
Architect-interior designer-landscape gardener-painter William Kent dies at London April 12 at age 62 (approximate), having pioneered the "informal" English garden.
1741 1742 1743 1744 1745 1746 1747 1748 1749 1750
