| 1700s | Beginning of rapid development of plantations in Caribbean |
| 1703 | Peter the Great begins construction of St. Petersburg, founds first Russian newspaper |
| 1713–1714 | Peace of Utrecht treaties end War of Spanish Succession |
| 1714 | Elector of Hanover becomes King George I of England |
| 1715 | Death of Louis XIV |
| 1719 | Daniel Defoe publishes Robinson Crusoe |
| 1720 | Last outbreak of bubonic plague in western Europe |
| 1721 | Great Northern War ends; Montesquieu publishes Persian Letters anonymously in the Dutch Republic |
| 1733 | War of the Polish Succession; Voltaire's Letters Concerning the English Nation attacks French intolerance and narrow-mindedness |
| 1740–1748 | War of the Austrian Succession |
| 1741 | George Frideric Handel composes Messiah |
| 1748 | Montesquieu publishes The Spirit of Laws |