| 1751–1772 | Encyclopedia is published in France |
| 1756–1763 | Seven Years' War is fought in Europe, India, and the American colonies |
| 1762 | Jean-Jacques Rousseau, The Social Contract |
| 1763 | Wilkes affair begins in Great Britain |
| 1764 | Voltaire, Philosophical Dictionary |
| 1771 | Louis XV of France fails to break power of French law courts |
| 1772 | First partition of Poland |
| 1773 | Pugachev rebellion of Russian peasants |
| 1775 | Flour War in France |
| 1776 | American Declaration of Independence from Great Britain; Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations |
| 1780 | Joseph II of Austria undertakes a wide-reaching reform program |
| 1781 | Immanuel Kant, The Critique of Pure Reason |
| 1784 | Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais, The Marriage of Figaro |
| 1785 | Catherine the Great's Charter of the Nobility grants nobles exclusive control over their serfs in exchange for subservience to the state |
| 1787 | Delegates from the states draft the U.S. Constitution |