Table of Ranks
Rank by service, not birth: Peter I's 14 grades
Peter I's decree divided military, civil and court service into 14 grades: officials rose through them on merit, and reaching a certain rank conferred nobility. With amendments the Table stayed in force for almost two centuries, until 1917.
Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 18th century
Meanwhile around the world (±25 years)
Europe
- 1701–1714 War of the Spanish Succession — 21 years earlier
- 1707 England and Scotland unite — 15 years earlier
- 1740–1748 War of the Austrian Succession — 18 years later
Middle East
- 1722 Fall of Isfahan — same year
- 1736 Nader Shah takes the throne of Iran — 14 years later
- 1747 Ahmad Shah Durrani founds the Afghan state — 25 years later
Asia
- 1707 Death of Aurangzeb — 15 years earlier
Alive at the time
- Isaac Newton (aged 79)
- Kangxi Emperor (aged 68)
- Peter the Great (aged 50)
- Johann Sebastian Bach (aged 37)
- Voltaire (aged 28)
- Benjamin Franklin (aged 16)
- Mikhail Lomonosov (aged 11)
- Ahmed III (aged 49)
- Vitus Bering (aged 41)
- Tokugawa Yoshimune (aged 38)