Early Modern
Boston Massacre (1770): The Shooting on King Street
Five civilians were killed; troops were withdrawn from the town, and at trial Captain Preston and six soldiers were acquitted while two were convicted of manslaughter.
Era · c. 1500 – 1800
Early Modern
Voyages of exploration, the Reformation and the age of revolutions that reshaped Europe and the wider world.
Early Modern
Tay Son Rebellion (1771-1802): The Brothers Who Reunited Vietnam
The Tay Son overthrew the Nguyen and Trinh lords and the Le dynasty and repelled Siam and the Qing, but were defeated in 1802 by Nguyen Phuc Anh, founder of the Nguyen dynasty.
Early Modern
Cromford Mill (1771): Richard Arkwright and the Factory System
Arkwright's Cromford Mill became the first successful water-powered cotton spinning mill and a model for factories in Britain, Europe and America.
Early Modern
Moscow Plague Riot (1771): Epidemic and Revolt in Russia
The riot was crushed by troops; Grigory Orlov's commission restored order and the epidemic faded with the winter cold.
Early Modern
James Cook's Second Voyage (1772-1775): The Antarctic Circle
Cook circled the globe at high southern latitudes, showing that no habitable southern continent existed, and proved the chronometer could find longitude at sea.
Early Modern
Partitions of Poland (1772-1795): A Country Erased from the Map
The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was divided completely among Russia, Prussia and Austria and ceased to exist as a state until 1918.
Early Modern
Somerset v Stewart (1772): Lord Mansfield's Slavery Ruling
James Somerset was discharged; the court held that a master could not forcibly remove an enslaved person from England to be sold abroad.
Early Modern
Siku Quanshu (1773): The Qianlong Emperor's Complete Library
The largest collection of Chinese writings ever compiled was copied by hand in seven sets, while thousands of works deemed offensive to the Qing were suppressed.
Early Modern
Pugachev's Rebellion (1773-1775): Russia's Great Peasant Revolt
The rebellion was crushed; Pugachev was betrayed by his own followers and executed in Moscow in January 1775.
Early Modern
Boston Tea Party (1773): The Protest That Led to Revolution
342 chests of East India Company tea were destroyed, and Parliament answered with the Coercive Acts of 1774.
Early Modern
Treaty of Kucuk Kaynarca (1774): Russia Gains the Black Sea
The Ottoman Empire lost its control of Crimea and the northern Black Sea coast, and Russia gained trade, navigation and diplomatic rights inside the empire.
Early Modern
First Continental Congress (1774): The Colonies Unite in Protest
Twelve colonies agreed a joint statement of rights, a boycott of British trade and a petition to George III, and resolved to meet again in May 1775.