Fall of Ayutthaya
Burma burns Siam's capital; power shifts to Bangkok
%20map%20-%20EN%20-%20001.jpg?width=640)
After a long siege, the Burmese army took and burned Ayutthaya, capital of Siam and one of Asia's richest cities. The kingdom was soon restored by Taksin, and in 1782 the capital moved to Bangkok.
Wikipedia (English) · 18th century
Meanwhile around the world (±25 years)
Europe
- 1755 Lisbon earthquake — 12 years earlier
- 1756–1763 Seven Years' War — 11 years earlier
- c. 1760 Start of the Industrial Revolution — 7 years earlier
- 1769 Watt's steam engine — 2 years later
- 1789 Storming of the Bastille — 22 years later
Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1762 Accession of Catherine the Great — 5 years earlier
- 1764 Founding of the Hermitage — 3 years earlier
- c. 1768 Extinction of Steller's sea cow — 1 year later
- 1772–1795 Partitions of Poland — 5 years later
- 1783 Russian annexation of Crimea (1783) — 16 years later
Middle East
- 1747 Ahmad Shah Durrani founds the Afghan state — 20 years earlier
Americas
- 1776 US Declaration of Independence — 9 years later
- 1787 US Constitution — 20 years later
- 1791–1804 Haitian Revolution — 24 years later
Oceania
- 1768–1771 Cook's first voyage — 1 year later
- 1788 First Fleet arrives in Australia — 21 years later
Alive at the time
- Voltaire (aged 73)
- Benjamin Franklin (aged 61)
- James Cook (aged 39)
- Catherine the Great (aged 38)
- George Washington (aged 35)
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (aged 18)
- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (aged 11)
- Carl Linnaeus (aged 60)
- Leonhard Euler (aged 60)
- Louis XV (aged 57)