History
1721
General
Population: 680 Million*
- Entertainment: Writers include Pierre de Marivaux (comedy), Baron de Montesquieu (novel in letters), Nathaniel Bailey (English dictionary),
Johann Theodor Jablonski Danzig publishes first short encyclopedia
Music includes JS Bach "Brandenburg Concertos", Handel (serenata)
- Religion: Death of Pope Clement XI - Michele Angelo de Conti elected Pope Innocent XIII
- Deaths: Poet Matthew Prior, Sculptor Grinling Givvons, Artist Jean Antoine Watteau, Educator Elihu Yale, Pope Clement XI
Africa
- Mauritius: French take Mauritius from Dutch
Asia
- China: China suppresses Formosa revolt
Europe
- General: Treaty of Nystad - Russia takes Baltic provinces from Sweden - Latvia and Estonia
- German States: Georg Philipp Telemann arrives in Hamburg as director of music
Emigration problems in Prussia
Plague outbreak
- Great Britain: John Aislabie Chancellor of Exchequer sent to Tower of London for fraud relating to "South Sea Bubble"
Robert Walpole becomes chancellor of the Exchequer, then first and longest serving British prime minister until 1742
Regular postal service to colonies
Regular postal service between London and New England
England passes Calico Act, making cotton the most important industry
- Holy Roman Empire: Plague outbreak
- Russia: End of Great Northern War – Russia victorious and replaces Sweden as the dominant power in NE Europe
Peter I proclaimes Emperor of all Russians
General
- Communication: Regular postal service established between England and North American colonies
- Technology: Swiss immigrants introduced rifles into America
East
- Massachusetts: First smallpox inocculations in Boston and outbreak throughout Massachusetts