Tupaia
c. 1725 – 1770 · 45 years · Raiatea · Oceania
A navigator-priest from Raiatea who sailed with Cook, drew a chart of 74 Pacific islands and interpreted for the Māori.
Wikipedia (English) · 18th century
Contemporaries around the world
Europe
- Voltaire — French Enlightenment writer, 31 years older
- Johann Sebastian Bach — German composer and organist, 40 years older
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe — German poet and thinker, 24 years younger
- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart — Austrian composer, 31 years younger
- Carl Linnaeus — Swedish naturalist, 18 years older
- Louis XV — king under whom France lost Canada, 15 years older
Eastern Europe & Russia
- Catherine the Great — Empress of Russia, 4 years younger
- Mikhail Lomonosov — Russian polymath, 14 years older
- Leonhard Euler — Swiss mathematician, 18 years older
- Alexander Suvorov — Russian generalissimo, 5 years younger
- Elizabeth — empress who founded Moscow University, 16 years older
- Peter III — emperor who freed the nobility from compulsory service, 3 years younger
Middle East
- Nader Shah — Shah of Iran and conqueror, 37 years older
- Ahmed III — sultan of the 'Tulip Era', 52 years older
- Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab — Islamic religious reformer, 22 years older
- Mustafa III — sultan who lost the war to Catherine II, 8 years older
- Abdul Hamid I — sultan of the Küçük Kaynarca peace and the loss of Crimea, born the same year
- Osman III — sultan who spent 50 years in the 'cage', 26 years older
Africa
- Usman dan Fodio — founder of the Sokoto Caliphate, 29 years younger
Asia
- Qianlong Emperor — Qing emperor of China, 14 years older
- Tokugawa Yoshimune — reforming shogun who allowed Western books, 41 years older
- Tipu Sultan — ruler of Mysore, 26 years younger
- Katsushika Hokusai — Japanese artist, 35 years younger
- Cao Xueqin — Chinese novelist, 10 years older
- Tokugawa Ieshige — ailing shogun whose speech only one courtier understood, 13 years older
Americas
- Benjamin Franklin — American scientist and statesman, 19 years older
- George Washington — first President of the United States, 7 years younger
- Túpac Amaru II — leader of an Andean uprising, 13 years younger
- Thomas Jefferson — third President of the United States, 18 years younger
- Toussaint Louverture — leader of the Haitian Revolution, 18 years younger
- Aleijadinho — Brazilian sculptor and architect, 5 years younger
Oceania
- James Cook — British navigator, 3 years younger
- Kamehameha I — first King of Hawaii, 33 years younger
- Arthur Phillip — first Governor of New South Wales, 13 years younger
The world in their lifetime
- 1747 Ahmad Shah Durrani founds the Afghan state — aged 22, Middle East
- 1755 Lisbon earthquake — aged 30, Europe
- 1756–1763 Seven Years' War — aged 31, Europe
- 1757 Battle of Plassey — aged 32, Asia
- c. 1760 Start of the Industrial Revolution — aged 35, Europe
- 1762 Accession of Catherine the Great — aged 37, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1764 Founding of the Hermitage — aged 39, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1768–1771 Cook's first voyage — aged 43, Oceania
- c. 1768 Extinction of Steller's sea cow — aged 43, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1769 Watt's steam engine — aged 44, Europe