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1698 CE

This year falls in the Early modern period (c. 1500–1800). European ships link the Americas, Africa, Europe and Asia into one trading world, and the conquest of the Americas and the Atlantic slave trade follow. Large land empires, among them the Ottoman, Safavid, Mughal and Qing, rule much of Asia, while printing and the Scientific Revolution change how knowledge spreads in Europe.

Within fifteen years

Philosopher · Early modern period · FranceVoltaire1694–1778French writer, wit, and campaigner against religious persecution, the most famous voice of the Enlightenment. Exiled, imprisoned in the Bastille, and celebrated across Europe, he made toleration a cause. He lived 1694 to 1778.

Philosopher · Early modern period · FranceMontesquieu1689–1755French nobleman and judge whose Spirit of the Laws of 1748 taught that liberty survives only when power checks power. His separation of powers shaped the American Constitution. He lived 1689 to 1755.

Country · United KingdomUnited Kingdom1707–The United Kingdom joins England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. The Acts of Union of 1707 joined England and Scotland into Great Britain. It built the largest empire in history and remains a parliamentary constitutional monarchy.

Philosopher · Early modern period · ScotlandDavid Hume1711–1776Scottish thinker who pushed empiricism to skepticism: causation is habit, the self is a bundle of perceptions, and reason is the slave of the passions. His Treatise fell dead born from the press; the Enquiries made him famous. He lived 1711 to 1776.

Philosopher · Early modern period · IrelandGeorge Berkeley1685–1753Irish thinker and Anglican Bishop of Cloyne who argued that to be is to be perceived: matter does not exist apart from minds. His immaterialism was meant to defend religion against skepticism. He lived 1685 to 1753.

Ruler · Early modern period · ChinaQianlong Emperor1711–1799Emperor of Qing China from 1735 to 1796, born Hongli in 1711, grandson of Kangxi. His reign marked the height of Qing power, with the Ten Great Campaigns extending Chinese rule into Central Asia. He abdicated after sixty years so as not to reign longer than his grandfather, and died in 1799.

Ruler · Early modern period · GermanyFrederick the Great1712–1786King of Prussia from 1740 to 1786, born in 1712, who made a middling German state into a great power. He seized Silesia from Austria on his accession and held it through the Seven Years' War against Austria, France and Russia. A flute playing friend of Voltaire, he practiced enlightened absolutism at home.

Philosopher · Early modern period · SwitzerlandJean-Jacques Rousseau1712–1778Genevan born thinker who lived in France and argued that civilization corrupts natural man. His Social Contract of 1762 made the general will the source of legitimate rule. He lived 1712 to 1778, quarreling with nearly every friend he had.