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The 18th Century

Can you guess these notable people, places, and things from the 18th century?
Quiz by Quizmaster
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Last updated: August 31, 2016
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First submittedMarch 30, 2014
Times taken38,121
Average score70.0%
Rating4.42
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Year
Description
Answer
1799
French troops uncover this relic, the key to deciphering Egyptian hieroglyphs
Rosetta Stone
1796
Edward Jenner invents a vaccine for this disease
Smallpox
1795
The British Navy discovers that this disease can be prevented by
drinking lemon juice
Scurvy
1793
This queen is beheaded by guillotine
Marie Antoinette
1791
This Austrian composer dies of fever at age 35
Wolfgang Amadeus
Mozart
1789
Rioters attack this notorious Parisian prison
Bastille
1788
This Scottish poet composes "Auld Lang Syne"
Robert Burns
1783
Man takes flight as the Montgolfier brothers demonstrate this invention
Hot Air Balloon
1778
This sea captain "discovers" Hawaii
James Cook
1776
This country declares independence from Great Britain
United States
1776
Adam Smith writes the first book about this "dismal science"
Economics
c. 1760s
This "Revolution" begins in Great Britain before spreading to the
rest of the world
Industrial Revolution
1756–1763
Great Britain, France, Austria, and other powers fight this world war
Seven Years' War
1759
This enlightened French philosopher publishes "Candide"
Voltaire
1732
This Philadelphia printer publishes "Poor Richard's Almanack"
for the first time
Benjamin Franklin
1719
Daniel Defoe writes this book, sometimes considered
the first English-language novel
Robinson Crusoe
1718
This pirate, born Edward Teach, is killed by the Royal Navy
Blackbeard
1717
The first Grand Lodge of this secret society is formed in London
Freemasonry
1703
Peter the Great founds this capital on the Gulf of Finland
St. Petersburg
1701
This militant German kingdom is formed under Frederick I
Prussia
+2
Level 57
May 31, 2014
Robert Burns is also commonly referred to as Robbie Burns.
+12
Level 73
May 31, 2014
And, uh, L'il Rob.
+9
Level 57
Jun 2, 2014
Lil' Burnsie
+9
Level 76
Mar 5, 2017
Bobby Burnz
+6
Level 83
May 31, 2014
Or indeed 'Rabbie Burns'.
+5
Level 45
Jun 1, 2014
Finished with 3:05 remaining. Got them all on my first guess except "Seven Years' War". (I wanted to call it the "French and Indian War". What can I say, I'm a product of the American public school system, it's a miracle that I know any history at all.)
+2
Level 84
Feb 13, 2017
Wow, isn't THAT the truth?!!
+2
Level 87
Feb 3, 2023
Everyone knows history starts with the founding of 'Merica! Everything before is technically known as pre-relevance.
+2
Level 51
Apr 2, 2023
It isn't that crazy that you'd know it as the French and Indian War. Countries have different names for the same things. You likely learned about it in an American History class, and the broader conflict isn't really relevant to American history, so of course you'd only learn about the part that happened in America.
+1
Level 31
Jun 2, 2014
can you please accept French and Indian war for the 7 years war
+1
Level 75
Mar 5, 2017
It was accepted for me.
+4
Level 78
Aug 21, 2020
To call it the French and Indian war is to ignore all the battles that took place in other theatres all over the world.
+1
Level 75
Aug 21, 2020
When I was in high school in the late 1960s that's what it was called in my US History textbook. I don't remember studying it at all in World History class. I'm not saying that was a good thing, but it's the way it was at the time.
+2
Level 75
Aug 21, 2020
After doing some more research, I think the issue is even muddier. To call it the Seven Years War leaves out the beginning of the conflict in North America. The French and Indian War began in 1754 in North America, named by British Colonists who'd already had a war named for King George. Native Americans fought on both sides. Two years later the Europeans extended the war to a much broader conflict in Europe. Most Americans look on the F & I War as a separate conflict, while most Europeans look at it as a part of the larger conflict but count the beginning of it as 1756 - which isn't really accurate, either. The F & I War pretty much ended with the capture of Montreal in 1760. According to Wikipedia, French Canadians call it the War of Conquest. Seven Years War fits the years and countries listed, but since the conflict began as the French & Indian War in North America in 1754 shouldn't that answer also be accepted? Thoughts anyone? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_and_Indian_War
+1
Level 57
Jul 9, 2014
Blackbeard wasn't born as Edward Teach. No one really knows his real last name (pirates took false names to avoid tarnishing the family name). Along with Blackbeard and Ed Teach, Edward Thatch is also a common name. Perhaps a more accurate clue would be "called" rather than "born".
+2
Level 88
Jul 10, 2015
Not to be too US-centric, but Americans learn of the Seven Years War as the French and Indian War. (Sadly, most Americans forget that the war was a much broader war.) Nonetheless, French and Indian War should be accepted.
+1
Level ∞
Aug 31, 2016
Okay
+3
Level 82
Mar 5, 2017
I'm American and I learned about the 7 Years War, which the French and Indian War was but a smaller component of fought in North America.
+6
Level 82
Mar 5, 2017
I don't think French and Indian War should be accepted, personally.
+1
Level 78
Oct 19, 2022
To make it fairer, perhaps F&I War could be incorporated into the question? Although it might be long and cumbersome.
+6
Level 75
Mar 5, 2017
Well, as a Canadian - the part of North America where that war mattered a hell of a lot more - we always refer to it as the Seven-Years War. It was fought in Europe, North America, the Caribbean, and India, at least. To use a name for a provincial skirmish to represent the whole thing doesn't really make sense. Meantime, isn't it a shame that nothing was done by (or happened to) non-White people during the whole 18th Century? I guess I would've thought, for example, that Haitians defeating their slave masters, Spain, Britain, and beginning their defeat of France might've been almost as important as beheading a queen. But I guess not. Slavery wasn't that big a deal.
+3
Level 37
Sep 21, 2019
Actually Haiti gained its independence in the 19th Century (1803). And why there were many slave uprisings during the 18th Century (i. e. in the Dutch Colony of Curacao in 1795), they were, unfortunately unsuccessful, thus only meaningful to the descendants of those rebels.
+3
Level 82
Jun 19, 2020
Isn't it a shame that you see everything through the lens of this bogus concept of "race?"
+3
Level 81
Aug 22, 2020
It's certainly a shame that the slave traders and slave owners saw things through that lens
+1
Level 82
Aug 22, 2020
probably not everything, not to the extent that tshalla does. But yes it is a shame, and I don't see why anyone today would want to enable the legacy of those slave traders to live on by reinforcing and making real their worldview through repeatedly and obsessively referencing it as if it were valid and true.
+6
Level 58
Feb 26, 2017
Tried 100 Years War, tried 30 Years War...missed the dates. 1763 minus 1756 = 7 years war. D'oh!
+1
Level 52
Mar 5, 2017
Please accept pox.
+5
Level 75
Mar 5, 2017
Would that be smallpox, chicken pox, cowpox or "the" pox (syphilis)?
+1
Level 43
Mar 6, 2017
Balls.. I put Mary Antoinette
+6
Level 60
Mar 6, 2017
I was typing Boo-urns.
+2
Level 41
Mar 6, 2017
On the Adam Smith question, specify if you want us to state the book or the science
+4
Level 82
Oct 23, 2018
It looks quite clear to me
+4
Level 60
Oct 12, 2017
could Economy be accepted instead of economics ?
+1
Level 48
Oct 28, 2018
never heard of the 7 years war.... have i missed a question somewhere as i have no idea how America and India got involved
+1
Level 63
Aug 21, 2020
Can you accept "Economy" for "Economics"?
+1
Level 59
Aug 24, 2020
Why? They are not the same. And it's not as though it takes much to change economy to economics when your first attempt fails.
+1
Level 60
Mar 13, 2021
The 19th Question is wrong, In 1703 St. Petersburg was controlled by Sweden. Russia only got St. Petersburg in 1721, nearly 2 decades later.
+2
Level ∞
Jan 14, 2023
False. Russia controlled it, built a city there, and even moved their capital all before 1721. What you are referring to is the date of the legal settlement.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Petersburg

+1
Level 52
May 29, 2022
for the adam smith thing shouldnt it be mercantilism or capitalism?
+2
Level ∞
Jan 14, 2023
No
+1
Level 65
Mar 31, 2023
These quizzes are always very Eurocentric smh