Qianlong Emperor
1711 – 1799 · 88 years · Beijing · Asia
Presided over the Qing Empire at its largest and richest; a lavish patron of the arts who rebuffed Britain's Macartney embassy.
Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 18th century
Portrait: Unidentified painter · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
Contemporaries around the world
Europe
- Voltaire — French Enlightenment writer, 17 years older
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe — German poet and thinker, 38 years younger
- Johann Sebastian Bach — German composer and organist, 26 years older
- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart — Austrian composer, 45 years younger
- Napoleon Bonaparte — Emperor of the French, 58 years younger
- Ludwig van Beethoven — German composer, 59 years younger
Eastern Europe & Russia
- Catherine the Great — Empress of Russia, 18 years younger
- Mikhail Lomonosov — Russian polymath, born the same year
- Peter the Great — first Emperor of Russia, 39 years older
- Leonhard Euler — Swiss mathematician, 4 years older
- Alexander Suvorov — Russian generalissimo, 19 years younger
- Mikhail Kutuzov — Russian field marshal, 34 years younger
Middle East
- Nader Shah — Shah of Iran and conqueror, 23 years older
- Ahmed III — sultan of the 'Tulip Era', 38 years older
- Mahmud II — sultan who destroyed the Janissaries, 74 years younger
- Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab — Islamic religious reformer, 8 years older
- Abdul Hamid I — sultan of the Küçük Kaynarca peace and the loss of Crimea, 14 years younger
- Mustafa III — sultan who lost the war to Catherine II, 6 years younger
Africa
- Muhammad Ali of Egypt — ruler of Egypt, 58 years younger
- Shaka — King of the Zulu, 76 years younger
- Usman dan Fodio — founder of the Sokoto Caliphate, 43 years younger
- Ranavalona I — Queen of Madagascar, 67 years younger
- Moulay Ismail — Sultan of Morocco, 66 years older
- Moshoeshoe I — founder of Lesotho, 75 years younger
Asia
- Kangxi Emperor — Qing emperor of China, 57 years older
- Tipu Sultan — ruler of Mysore, 40 years younger
- Tokugawa Yoshimune — reforming shogun who allowed Western books, 27 years older
- Katsushika Hokusai — Japanese artist, 49 years younger
- Tokugawa Ienari — longest-serving shogun, for half a century, 62 years younger
- Tokugawa Ieshige — ailing shogun whose speech only one courtier understood, 1 year younger
Americas
- Benjamin Franklin — American scientist and statesman, 5 years older
- George Washington — first President of the United States, 21 years younger
- Simón Bolívar — liberator of South America, 72 years younger
- Thomas Jefferson — third President of the United States, 32 years younger
- Toussaint Louverture — leader of the Haitian Revolution, 32 years younger
- Túpac Amaru II — leader of an Andean uprising, 27 years younger
Oceania
- James Cook — British navigator, 17 years younger
- Tupaia — Tahitian navigator and priest, 14 years younger
- Kamehameha I — first King of Hawaii, 47 years younger
- Arthur Phillip — first Governor of New South Wales, 27 years younger
- Bennelong — Aboriginal intermediary, 53 years younger
- Hongi Hika — Ngāpuhi Māori chief, 61 years younger
The world in their lifetime
- 1721 Proclamation of the Russian Empire — aged 10, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1747 Ahmad Shah Durrani founds the Afghan state — aged 36, Middle East
- 1755 Lisbon earthquake — aged 44, Europe
- 1756–1763 Seven Years' War — aged 45, Europe
- 1757 Battle of Plassey — aged 46, Asia
- c. 1760 Start of the Industrial Revolution — aged 49, Europe
- 1762 Accession of Catherine the Great — aged 51, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1764 Founding of the Hermitage — aged 53, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1768–1771 Cook's first voyage — aged 57, Oceania
- c. 1768 Extinction of Steller's sea cow — aged 57, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1769 Watt's steam engine — aged 58, Europe
- 1772–1795 Partitions of Poland — aged 61, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1776 US Declaration of Independence — aged 65, Americas
- 1783–1784 Laki eruption — aged 72, Europe
- 1783 Russian annexation of Crimea (1783) — aged 72, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1783 First manned balloon flight — aged 72, Europe
- 1787 US Constitution — aged 76, Americas
- 1788 First Fleet arrives in Australia — aged 77, Oceania
- 1789 Storming of the Bastille — aged 78, Europe
- 1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen — aged 78, Europe
- 1791–1804 Haitian Revolution — aged 80, Americas
- 1796 Jenner's first vaccination — aged 85, Europe
- 1798 Battle of the Pyramids — aged 87, Africa