Enlightenment

TEXTS	CONTEXTS
1664 Jean-Baptiste Poquelin Molière, Tartuffe.	1660 Civil War in England ends with Charles II’s ascension to the throne (the“Restoration”)
1665 François de La Rochefoucauld, Reflections. 1667 Publication of John Milton’s Paradise Lost.	1666 Isaac Newton uncovers laws of gravity London, already stricken by plague, is destroyed in the Great Fire and subsequently rebuilt in more orderly fashion.
1668–1694 Jean de La Fontaine, Fables.	1670 The London-based Hudson’s Bay Company is incorporated by royal charter to trade in North America.
1677 Jean Racine, Phaedra.
1678 Marie de la Vergne de La Fayette, The Princess of Clèves.
1690 John Locke, Essay Concerning Human Understanding.
1691 Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, Reply to Sor Filotea de la Cruz.
	1694 Bank of England is chartered, forerunner of modern national banks and treasury systems; London Stock Exchange follows in 1698.
1696 Judith Drake, An Essay in Defense of the Female Sex.
	1697 Russian czar Peter the Great visits Western Europe and England, resolves to Westernize Russia.
	1707 Kingdom of Great Britain formed by union of England and Scotland.
	1709 Up to 100,000 slaves a year cross the Atlantic, 20,000 to Britain’s Caribbean colonies alone.
1710 First British copyright law, transferring rights of property in a published work from publisher to author.
1717 Alexander Pope, The Rape of the Lock.
1719 Daniel Defoe publishes Robinson Crusoe, often called the first true novel in English.	1721 J. S. Bach, The Brandenburg Concertos.
1726 Jonathan Swift, Gulliver’s Travels.