Joseph II
1741 – 1790 · 49 years · Vienna · Europe
Reign: 1765 – 1790 (Holy Roman Empire & Austria)
Son of Maria Theresa, who after her death in 1780 unleashed a torrent of reforms: the Patent of Toleration (1781), the end of personal serfdom and the closure of hundreds of monasteries. Resistance was so fierce that he revoked much of it himself before he died.
Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 18th century
Portrait: Anton von Maron · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
Contemporaries around the world
Europe
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe — German poet and thinker, 8 years younger
- Voltaire — French Enlightenment writer, 47 years older
- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart — Austrian composer, 15 years younger
- Napoleon Bonaparte — Emperor of the French, 28 years younger
- Ludwig van Beethoven — German composer, 29 years younger
- Adam Smith — Scottish economist and philosopher, 18 years older
Eastern Europe & Russia
- Catherine the Great — Empress of Russia, 12 years older
- Mikhail Lomonosov — Russian polymath, 30 years older
- Alexander Suvorov — Russian generalissimo, 11 years older
- Mikhail Kutuzov — Russian field marshal, 4 years younger
- Leonhard Euler — Swiss mathematician, 34 years older
- Paul I — emperor who reformed the succession law, killed by conspirators, 13 years younger
Middle East
- Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab — Islamic religious reformer, 38 years older
- Abdul Hamid I — sultan of the Küçük Kaynarca peace and the loss of Crimea, 16 years older
- Mustafa III — sultan who lost the war to Catherine II, 24 years older
- Selim III — reforming Ottoman sultan, 20 years younger
- Osman III — sultan who spent 50 years in the 'cage', 42 years older
- Mahmud I — sultan who regained Belgrade by the 1739 peace, 45 years older
Africa
- Muhammad Ali of Egypt — ruler of Egypt, 28 years younger
- Usman dan Fodio — founder of the Sokoto Caliphate, 13 years younger
- Ranavalona I — Queen of Madagascar, 37 years younger
Asia
- Qianlong Emperor — Qing emperor of China, 30 years older
- Tipu Sultan — ruler of Mysore, 10 years younger
- Katsushika Hokusai — Japanese artist, 19 years younger
- Tokugawa Ienari — longest-serving shogun, for half a century, 32 years younger
- Tokugawa Yoshimune — reforming shogun who allowed Western books, 57 years older
- Tokugawa Ieharu — shogun of the Tanuma era and the Tenmei famine, 4 years older
Americas
- Benjamin Franklin — American scientist and statesman, 35 years older
- George Washington — first President of the United States, 9 years older
- Thomas Jefferson — third President of the United States, 2 years younger
- Toussaint Louverture — leader of the Haitian Revolution, 2 years younger
- Túpac Amaru II — leader of an Andean uprising, 3 years older
- Andrew Jackson — 7th US president, the Trail of Tears and the Jacksonian era, 26 years younger
Oceania
- James Cook — British navigator, 13 years older
- Kamehameha I — first King of Hawaii, 17 years younger
- Tupaia — Tahitian navigator and priest, 16 years older
- Arthur Phillip — first Governor of New South Wales, 3 years older
- Bennelong — Aboriginal intermediary, 23 years younger
- Hongi Hika — Ngāpuhi Māori chief, 31 years younger
The world in their lifetime
- 1747 Ahmad Shah Durrani founds the Afghan state — aged 6, Middle East
- 1755 Lisbon earthquake — aged 14, Europe
- 1756–1763 Seven Years' War — aged 15, Europe
- 1757 Battle of Plassey — aged 16, Asia
- c. 1760 Start of the Industrial Revolution — aged 19, Europe
- 1762 Accession of Catherine the Great — aged 21, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1764 Founding of the Hermitage — aged 23, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1768–1771 Cook's first voyage — aged 27, Oceania
- c. 1768 Extinction of Steller's sea cow — aged 27, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1769 Watt's steam engine — aged 28, Europe
- 1772–1795 Partitions of Poland — aged 31, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1776 US Declaration of Independence — aged 35, Americas
- 1783–1784 Laki eruption — aged 42, Europe
- 1783 Russian annexation of Crimea (1783) — aged 42, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1783 First manned balloon flight — aged 42, Europe
- 1787 US Constitution — aged 46, Americas
- 1788 First Fleet arrives in Australia — aged 47, Oceania
- 1789 Storming of the Bastille — aged 48, Europe
- 1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen — aged 48, Europe