Ahmad Shah Durrani founds the Afghan state
Tribal elders pick a 25-year-old shah — and Afghanistan is born
After Nader Shah's assassination, Pashtun chiefs met in a jirga near Kandahar and chose the young commander Ahmad Abdali as shah; he took the name Durrani, “pearl of pearls”. His realm stretched from Khorasan to Kashmir and the Punjab. Afghans honour him as Ahmad Shah Baba, the “father of the nation”.
Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 18th century
Meanwhile around the world (±25 years)
Europe
- 1755 Lisbon earthquake — 8 years later
- 1756–1763 Seven Years' War — 9 years later
- c. 1760 Start of the Industrial Revolution — 13 years later
- 1769 Watt's steam engine — 22 years later
Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1762 Accession of Catherine the Great — 15 years later
- 1764 Founding of the Hermitage — 17 years later
- c. 1768 Extinction of Steller's sea cow — 21 years later
- 1772–1795 Partitions of Poland — 25 years later
Asia
- 1757 Battle of Plassey — 10 years later
Oceania
- 1768–1771 Cook's first voyage — 21 years later
Alive at the time
- Johann Sebastian Bach (aged 62)
- Voltaire (aged 53)
- Benjamin Franklin (aged 41)
- Mikhail Lomonosov (aged 36)
- James Cook (aged 19)
- Catherine the Great (aged 18)
- George Washington (aged 15)
- Tokugawa Yoshimune (aged 63)
- Nader Shah (aged 59)
- Carl Linnaeus (aged 40)