The Ottoman Empire maintained its domination of the eastern Mediterranean islands with the exception of Malta, which remained independent under the Knights of Malta, until Napoleon's troops conquered it in 1798. (Ref. 38, 86)

Greece was still docile under the Ottomans but Greek sea-farers and traders became prosperous at the end of the century as blockade runners through Napoleon's overseas domains and through other waters. By the Treaty of Kuchuk Kainardji (see page 942) the Turks allowed Russian ships to sail on the Black Sea, but since they had no ships or seamen of their own in those waters, they accorded Greeks and other Christians the right to fly the Russian flag.

In 1711 Peter the Great of Russia vowed to free the Balkans from "the enemies of Christ". Both Moldavia (now a part of both Romania and the Soviet Union) and Wallachia pledged to help Peter, but only Moldavia actually supplied any troops and at the last minute Wallachia double-crossed the Russians so that Peter ended up pocketed with only 138,000 infantry, almost surrounded by 200,000 Turks and Tatars. The Russians surrendered, giving Azov and the Tagenrog harbor back to the sultan, abandoned their southern fleet and evacuated Poland. Russia did not give up any territory about the Baltic. Karl (Charles) XII of Sweden, who had just spent over three years in Moldavia, could now go back to Sweden. Meanwhile, Brancovo, the Hospodar of Wallachia, was beheaded by the Turks for his original thoughts of helping Czar Peter, even though in the end he had reneged. (Ref. 131)

As a result of a war of the Ottomans with Austria and Russia again in 1736 to 1739, northern Serbia and Belgrade were freed from Austrian domination. Again, in the First War of Catharine, Moldavia and Wallachia were both overrun by Russian troops and about 7 years later (17~1) by an Austrian-Russian Treaty the Austrians were to receive the whole western half of the Balkans. Af ter the Second War of Catharine, the Austrians gave up Belgrade in return for a strip of northern Bosnia, while Moldavia and Bessarabia were returned to Russia.

Maize from America had been grown in gardens in the Balkans under at least ten different names for many years, but it was not until this century that it began to be grown in the wide open fields, as in much of the rest of Europe. (Ref. 260)

Italy had a population of about 15,000,000, living under divided rule. The old noble families of Florence and Venice were shrinking and fresh blood had to be brought in. Titles were granted for money. (Ref. 292) The Habsburgs took over Tuscany in 1737 and except for Venetia, Genoa and Savoy, they soon controlled all of northern Italy. The Papal States and Kingdom of the Two Sicilies remained as previously, and the Genoese Republic remained independent but was constantly encroached on by Savoy, France and Austria. The forces which led to the revolution in France were also at work in Italy in the last of the century and when the French Revolution did break out, some Italian states tried to join in a coalition against France. As a result, Napoleon invaded the peninsula, crushed all resistance and once again Italy became a French dependency. At that time, General Napoleon was only a young army wizard, but that military conquest initiated his climb up the ladder of fame and power. The 1797 Treaty of Camp Formio, however, gave Venice to Austria1 and divided the rest of Italy into 5 republics: Cisalpine with Milan as capital; Liguria, with Genoa as capital; Roman, including Rome itself; Bologna; and Parthenopean, which included the entire southern third (except Sicily), with Naples as the capital. (Ref. 8, 213)

Naples, with perhaps 500,000 people, was the 4th largest city in Europe, although at the end of the century at least 100,000 were extremely poor, living like "filthy animals". (Ref. 260) All southern Italy had a feudal system, with powerful barons who were sovereigns on their own estates. In the Kingdom of Naples over 50% of the population were subject to feudal justice and in some provinces this was over 80%. As in the rest of Europe, food supplies in Italy frequently were short and unreliable. As an example, Florence experienced hunger in 111 years of the 400 leading up to 1791 and had had only 16 "very good" harvests in that same period. Maize, with its high yield, finally put an end to the recurrent famines in Venetia. All over Italy, soon the peasants ate maize and sold their wheat. Transportation and communications remained slow. With horses, coaches, ships and runners, messages could make at most 100 kilometers in 24 hours. (Ref. 260)

The islands bordering the Tyrrhenian Sea were in constant political turmoil throughout this century. In 1713 Spain ceded Sardinia (along with Naples) to Austria and Sicily to Savoy, but by 1720 the latter had exchanged Sicily for Sardinia. In 1732 Genoa recovered Corsica from insurgent forces, who had revolted two years previously, but French help was necessary to control the island. In the same spot local clans under Paoli again rebelled in 1755 against Genoese rule and established a democracy, but France bought the island from Genoa in 1768 and crushed Paoli, only to see him rise again in 1793. On the latter occasion he was defeated by Napoleon, himself a Corsican. In that same year, Sardinia tried to get autonomy within the combined kingdom of Piedmont-Sardina. Through this century Sardinia was a strong military state - the Prussia of Italy. Usually it was allied with Austria through Eugene of Savoy, a great military leader for the Habsburgs.

In spite of the turmoil, Italy continued to be a center for scientific and medical studies. Luigi Galvani started electro-physiology with electrical stimulation of nerves; Allessandro Volta developed a battery. Giovanni Morgagni, at the medical school at Padua for 56 years, is considered the "father" of pathological anatomy, describing the changes associated with such diseases as cirrhosis of the liver, kidney tuberculosis, syphilitic brain lesions and pneumonic consolidation of lungs. (Ref. 125)

After a long period of disorderly aftermath of the horrors of the Thirty Years War, the German-speaking people, with peace, stability and their natural strength, returned to add to the European civilization, particularly in music and Rococo style architecture. (Ref. 33) Germany was made up of 20,000,000 people divided into more than 300 practically independent states, each with its own sovereign prince, but all loosely subject to the head of the rather phantom Holy Roman Empire. The average east German village was still somewhat "servile" in 1750, however, and serfs still owed their masters heavy services and payments and they were not allowed to leave their estates in most German areas as late as 1788. (Ref. 213) In spite of considerable river traffic on the Rhine, Elbe and Oder rivers, overland transport still carried 5 times as much goods as waterways. It has been estimated that there were 40,000 horses used as dray animals, not including those on farms. (Ref. 292)

The story of this country f rom this time on was that of the power policies of two royal families - the Prussian Hohenzollerns, - represented by Frederick I, Frederick William I and Frederick 11 and their counter-parts, the Austrian Habsburgs. The complete power structure also involved Catherine II of Russia and to some extent, England. We shall try to clarify this situation by discussing some of the individual states, separately.

The Junker landlords of Prussia distinguished themselves by competent management and their quick adoption of improved agricultural techniques. (Ref. 8) On the political side, the Prussian Elector Frederick III2, son of the Great Elector, had himself crowned King Frederick I of Prussia in 1701, but his extravagancies merely hastened bankruptcy of the state. Some 300,000 deaths from plague in 1709 did not help the situation. (Ref. 222) Then came Frederick Wilhelm I (1713-1740), an austere king who hammered out a military power. At his death Prussia had the 4th largest army in Europe and strong financial resources. He was a friend and ally of Peter the Great of Russia, but in his personal life he was eccentric and unfortunate3. He suffered from a severe, combined form of porphoryhia, a genetic disease which can affect skin and visceral organs at times, along with great abdominal pain. He was subject to sudden, uncontrollable attacks of rage at which times he might even beat his own children. His eccentricities included hatred of everything French and he had a hobby of collecting giants from all over the world, some 1,200 of them, whom he formed into two battalions of grenadiers. On his death in 1740, his son Frederick II became king and initiated the Francophile tradition.

At the end of the Great Northern War, which will be discussed again later, Prussia had acquired the city of Stettin and some Baltic islands. Having been raised as a warrior prince, Frederick II, later to be called Frederick the Great, hastened to put the Prussian war machine to work by invading Silesia and provoking war with the Habsburg Empire. (Ref. 131) He gained not only Silesia but after three wars with the Austrian Empress Maria Theresa, also gained a part of Poland. The Seven Years War (1756-1763), the last one with the Habsburgs, involved Prussia, Hanover and England on one side and France, Austria and Russia on the other. After initial- victories through Saxony and Bohemia, Frederick began to meet def eat and was pushed back so that at one time the Russians even occupied Berlin. In the f inal Peace of Hubertusburg, Saxony was restored to its pre-war size, Silesia was retained by Prussia and Frederick agreed to vote f or Maria Theresa's son Joseph for emperor when the occasion developed. Frederick estimated that that war alone cost him 853,000 troop casualties and 33,000 civilian deaths. (Ref. 222) Furthermore, he had developed a great fear of Russia and started a campaign of vilification while at the same time plotting that future relations with that country should be based on friendship. Thus, in 1770 he made an alliance with Catherine the Great. In the newly gained Silesia, the government combined with land owners to invest in mining, iron and textiles. In Prussia proper Berlin had 140,000 people by 1777. (Ref. 8) Imported techniques, including artificial drainage and canalization particularly, allowed considerable new land to be brought under cultivation and thus added wealth. (Ref. 279)

Frederick the Great actually hated the German language and thought that anything French was great. He had a long and close relationship with Voltaire, as fellow philosopher, poet and confidant. At one and the same time he had a great mind, while being a benevolent king and a great general. But he was also an untrustworthy ally and a power-mad monarch.

The advancement of Prussia as the dominant northern Germanic state did not occur by accident. Frederick William II came to the throne in 1786 and when France declared a new war on Austria in April of 1792 Prussia and most German states sided with the new Emperor Francis II. Austro-Prussian forces met severe defeat at Valmy, allowing the French to take the offensive on all fronts. Russia invaded Poland and in spite of the deterioration of the Prussian armies, in the resulting last partition of unfortunate Poland, Warsaw and environs with its 1,000,000 people fell to Prussia. In the Peace of Basel of 1795 Prussia recognized the legal status of the republican government of France, while the latter promised neutrality of the German states north of the Main. (Ref. 184)

But Prussia was not all militarism. In 1717 Frederick William I had made primary education compulsory and in 20 years he founded 1,700 schools. German universities became excellent, although German literature suffered some from lack of national consciousness and the influence of French among the aristocracy. German intellectuals remained cosmopolitan and considered nationalism as a "political monstrosity". The development of science and philosophy shared with powerful secularizing forces in weakening the influence of religion on German life. Art and architecture was not at its best, but music was supreme, with Handel and Bach. Bach's works are said to be the Reformation put to music and he is accepted as the "greatest musical poet that has ever existed". (Ref. 8) Christian Thomasius furthered the cause of the German language by lecturing at the university in German, rather than Latin. A literary revival was initiated near the end of the century as the works of the great Johann Wolfgang von Goethe began to appear. Frederick von Schiller contributed some fine dramas. Gottfried Leibniz, scientist and mathematician, founded the Academy of Sciences.

Map taken from Reference 97

Bavaria continued to be ruled by the Wittelsbach family. In 1777 the Elector of Bavaria, Joseph Maximilian, died childless and the nearest heir, another Wittelbach concluded a pact with Emperor Joseph of the Habsburgs whereby most of Palatinate and northern Bavaria went to Austria. Other Wittelbachs, along with Frederick II of Prussia, anxious to keep things in balance, protested Austria's aggrandizements and opened the War of the Bavarian Succession. In a year Bavaria had regained her territory. At the end of the century, however, Bavaria became the chief battlef ield of the Spanish War of Succession and Austrian troops devastated the land. In 1799 Elector Maximilian I united all Wittelsbach lands and allied himself with Napoleon, as a protection against Austria.

It is interesting that in spite of some food shortages, the potato was slow to be adopted in middle Europe. In 1795 the poor of Munich refused to eat a supposedly scientific soup containing potatoes. (Ref. 211) At the end of the century there was one market in Bavaria for every 7,300 inhabitants. (Ref. 292)

The young Elector of Saxony, Augustus II, had also been elected King of Poland in 1697. In August of 1706, as part of the Great Northern War, the Swedish army crossed the Silesian frontier to march on Saxony itself, to permanently dispose of the Elector Augustus. The Saxon governing council, having already sacrificed 36,000 troops, 800 cannon and 8,000,000 lives in an effort to keep Augustus on the throne of Poland, wanted no more trouble and signed the Treaty of Altranstadt, which disavowed Augustus and agreed to supply the Swedish army during the coming winter and to turn over all Swedish "traitors" harbored in Saxony, a feature which finally resulted in the horrible death of the Livonian patriot, Patkul - first tortured on the wheel, then beheaded and quartered. While resting in Saxony in 1707 the Swedish King Karl XII was visited by John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough, who already had Louis XIV more or less "on the ropes" and then wanted to scout the Swedish king's intentions and get a look at his troops.

Elector Augustus II eventually did return to his people and then he and Karl XII got along well. Actually they were first cousins, as their mothers were sisters as Danish princesses. (Ref. 131)

In spite of all the warfare, Elector Augustus II continued the policies of his predecessors and collected fabulous works of art, so that Dresden eventually became known as Florence on the Elbe. His son and successor Augustus III carried on the same tradition. (Ref. 47) Dresden, Leipzig and Chemnitz specialized in porcelain, silk, armaments and textiles, but the first cotton spinning mill was not started until 1794. Only 5 of Saxony's 200 towns had over 10,000 people. The Swiss Albrecht von Haller, a disciple of the Dutch Boerhaaves settled in Saxony and helped to create the University of Goettingen. He became a great physician, physiologist, botanist and neurologist. (Ref. 8, 125)

Saxony served as a battleground for many of the Prussian campaigns and in the Second Silesian War of 1744 Frederick II took 80,000 men through Saxony to invade Bohemia.

Shortly thereafter Saxony joined an alliance with Austria, England and Holland against Prussia, again on the wrong side, so that at the Treaty of Dresden, Saxony was forced to pay Prussia 1,000,000 rix dollars. Once again in the Third Silesian War (the Seven Years War) Frederick invaded Saxony with 67,000 men and defeated the combined Austrians and Saxons, taking 18,000 of the latter as prisoners. At the final peace, however, the original status of Saxony was preserved. In the War of the Bavarian Succession (1778) Saxony even joined Prussia, with Prince Henry joining Frederick in another invasion of Bohemia, but no real battles with the Austrians developed. For the remainder of the century, Saxony continued to oppose the grandiose schemes of Emperor Joseph.

In this century Hanover, in northern Germany, had about as much power as Denmark, Prussia or Saxony. Its status was helped when George, the Elector of Hanover, became George I of England. He never did like the English, nor they him, although they would take any sovereign Protestant over a Catholic. George spent most of his time in Hanover and used the English navy and money to try to make Sweden negotiate peace with Denmark and the German states on the Baltic. (Ref. 131)

Like Bavaria, Baden and Wuerttenberg became battlefields at the end of the century as the French forces fought Austria. Throughout these years, although their princes had difficulty acknowledging it, these lesser states of Germany lost more and more power and influence. The Rhineland of west Germany became the first industrial area, with the first steam engine installed in a lead mine near Duesseldorf in the Duchy of Berg in 1751. (Ref. 8)

The population of England and Wales grew to over 9 million by the end of this century. (Ref. 279) With the death of King William in 1702, Mary's sister Anne reigned until 1714 in a time known as the Augustan Age of England, because of the literature of Pope, Swift, Addison and others. This was also the time when the Duke of Marlborough defeated a French army in part of the War of the Spanish Succession, in which England gained Gibralter, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland. Parliament became the supreme power in the state and on Anne's death, decided to pick a less competent monarch, choosing the Elector of Hanover, George I, who could speak no English and would not learn to do so. He spent most of his time in Hanover and there was no love shared between him and the English people. The Great Northern War was in progress and George I decided that Sweden must make peace with Denmark and the German states so that then they could drive Russia from the Baltic. After English money and the Royal Navy had induced a Swedish-Danish peace treaty on July 3, 1720, a large armada was sent into the Baltic, but never did actually engage in battle. The British involvement faded when the South Sea Company and its stock collapsed, as will be described in a later paragraph. It was at that time that Sir Robert Walpole, the Whig leader and the first prime minister and master politician, used adroit maneuvers to solve the financial crisis. (Ref. 131) The monarchy and the House of Commons both lost power at that time as the House of Lords ruled England.

There was a period of increased overseas expansion in America (Canada) and India as the result of England's participation and France's losses in the Seven Years War. Winston Churchill (Ref. 31) insists on calling this the First World War because there were sea battles with France in all parts of the globe, as well as land battles in Germany and in America. Although George II had taken over the throne in 1727 and was more active in British affairs than his father had been, England's leader was William Pitt the Elder, Secretary of State, who ran the war from his office in London. Although having initial losses in America to the combined forces of the French and their Indian allies, by 1759 the British navy had captured Guadeloupe, the richest island in the west Indies, the army of Amherst had taken Ticonderoga and Fort Niagra and the combined services had obtained the key fortress of Quebec. In another year, the French were out of North America. King George II died in 1760 and George III preferred the minister Bute over Pitt. France, seeing that Pitt was losing influence, made a new alliance with Spain, hoping to again have a chance in America. Upon Pitt's resignation, England declared war on Spain and further victories resulted, including the taking of Manila. At the Peace of Paris in 1763, British acquisitions were considerable, although the naval power of France had been left untouched and she retained bases in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. (Ref. 31)

At home important changes took place in agriculture, farming and transportation. Rural life in England up to about 1715 was very much as it had been for a thousand years, each household being a self -contained economic unit. But things changed as a factory system made England the workshop of the world and machines began to take the place of workers. The steam engine, invented by James Watts of Glasgow in 1760, was of new design, having the piston driven by live steam. That, with the use of coke in the steel industry and the development of steamships and railways, all had a part in the Industrial Revolution. Wood had up to that time been the major fuel, but by the end of the century only four of the original 69 great forests of England remained and there was great need of a newer and cheaper fuel. Coal was the answer and new mining methods could be developed which in turn led to better production of steel. Iron smelting was changed by Abraham Darby, who mixed sulfur with Shropshire valley coal, making coke and it was this that let England become the world's leading iron manufacturer after 1760. (Ref. 213) These changes had not come overnight. For example, a blast furnace built in Dolgyne in Wales in 1717 was not fired until 5 years later when enough charcoal had been accumulated for 361/2 weeks work. Newcommen invented the atmospheric steam engine in 1711, but only one was in operation in England 30 years later. Thousands of factors hindered progress. What would happen to the labor force when machines took over? (Ref. 260) In 1728 the first steel rolling mill was set up and in 1740 Benjamin Huntsman invented the crucible process for making high-grade steel. This union of coal and iron made the great machines of the Industrial Revolution possible. (Ref. 54) Similarly in textile production, there was John Kay's "flying shuttle" (1733) and Lewis Paul's spinning machine (1738) which in this era revolutionized that field. The Industrial Revolution began in England and occurred only in England in this century. In the reign of George III the structure of British economy and society in general underwent profound change, manifested first by the tremendous output of coal, pig-iron, engineering products and textiles, as already noted. But the economic growth was furthered by the fortunate availability of cheap water transport in inland waterways11 for the newly manufactured heavy, bulky goods and a shipping fleet of 658,000 tons, which was to triple within the next 50 years. (Ref. 213) McNeill (Ref. 279) reminds us of a fact of ten overlooked in that the iron and steel production in Great Britain was basically stimulated by the governments' need for naval cannon and other military hardware. In the decade after 1794 the British government purchased about 1/5 of the ironmasters' products12. In essentially the same period, the Royal Navy made two important technical advancements - copper sheathing for ships' bottoms and the use of short-barreled, large caliber guns called "carronades", which were extremely effective at short ranges. Another plus for England was that except for two minor revolts (Jacobite), she fought her 18th century wars abroad and left the homeland free for industrial development. Her foreign trade trebled between 1702 and 1772. (Ref. 8)

Perhaps the most fundamental difference between social patterns of Britain and the continent was the greater prestige and autonomy which merchants and financiers enjoyed in the former. The interpenetration of the landed nobility and the merchant class in England resulted in availability of large amounts of capital and a remarkable economic growth. Toleration of religious nonconformity also helped. The liberties of Englishmen, expressed in chronic effervescence of parliamentary (and extraneous) debate, confirmed by economic and imperial success, contrasted the deferential obedience demanded by European monarchs. (Ref. 213)

One must not assume, however, that there were no troubles. England created two societies, remote from each other. The first was the society made up of modest country gentlemen and the other was the urban conglomerate, with plenty of animal spirits and not much civilization. (Ref. 33) With somewhere between 750,000 and 860,000 inhabitants London was the largest city in Europe13 but a considerable part of the population was packed into slums filthy with garbage and offal, breeding a hundred diseases. In some sections nearly 50% lived by charity, theft or prostitution. 64% of the children died before reaching 10 years of age. There was not a single bathing establishment in London, even in 1800. Education was very spotty and the great majority of Englishmen could not read or write. Drinking and gambling were rampant with the typical London man consuming a quart of beer or ale a day. 5 1/2 million gallons of gin were consumed in Britain in 1735. Soldiers were all given alcohol before battle and became habitual drinkers. An English military doctor of 1763 even felt that wine and alcohol helped to suppress certain diseases and were indispensable for the good health of the troops. In spite of that, improved farming machinery and methods such as fallowing led to improved diets and then to a population increase. (Ref. 140) In the 1770s some 8,000,000 pounds14 of tea were consumed in England and by the end of the century the English were consuming 2 pounds per person, per annum. Catsup (or ketchup) came to England via India from Chinese immigrants to Southeast Asia. The word comes from the Siamese Kachiap. (Ref. 211)

On the government level piracy was still tolerated and the slave trade by English ships still flourished. And even as now, the lawmakers of England had been so eager to protect the individual from the state that many worried that they were failing to protect society from the individual. The machinery of enforcement broke down before the spread and organization of crime. As in France, a stock exchange in London was established at the turn of the century and again, as in France, there was a market crash in 1720, as the South Sea Company went into bankruptcy.

In some degree history does repeat itself. Just as today labor fears the increase in automation, so in the 18th century the development of machines led to serious labor reactions. We have mentioned John Kay's invention of the "flying shuttle" which doubled the weaving output and increased quality, but now we must add that angry mobs broke up his house and he died in poverty, in France. Similarly, James Hargreaves of the spinning jenny fame, had his house sacked, his first machine burned and he also had to flee. (Ref. 213) Still another phenomenon appeared that remains with us today - bitter arguments over the mounting national debt. The entire economic system depended on the "credit-worthiness" of the state and it could continue to exist only if Parliament created new sources of revenue earmarked for regular payment of the interest on the debt. As a result certain people, land-owners particularly, had high taxes levied, while others, money lenders, renters, and business men, whose incomes were not taxed, gained whenever the state borrowed more money and the interest rate was raised. Braudel (Ref. 292) says that this latter group actually promoted the 1739 war with Spain.

As to philosophy and religion, Britain preceded continental Europe both in the collapse of the old feudal system and the near collapse of the Christian religion. The Established Church was rent by all varieties of dissenting sects and perhaps hit hardest of all by the campaign of the Deists to reduce Christianity to a belief in God and immortality only.

Thomas Woolston, Matthew Tendal, Conyers Middleton and others wrote, spoke and ridiculed. The upper classes were predominately counter-religious and the lower classes in great part had no religion at all, even though there were state penalties for being absent from church, a statute seldom enforced. Not more than 5 or 6 members of the House of Commons went to church. The Anglican clergy seldom mentioned heaven or hell and stressed social virtues rather than other-worldliness. In this setting flowered Methodism, founded by John and Charles Wesley, with a few friends, especially George Whitefield, as they organized a little group of 15 students and teachers at Oxford, resolved to practice Christianity with "Methodical" thoroughness. All were devout Anglicans and most became Anglican clergy. On a trip to Georgia as a missionary, John was impressed by the piety and creed of some Moravian Brothers and soon adopted some of their intensity and ideas. In the next few years, Whitefield's and John Wesley's emotional oratory and preaching and Charles' hymns took over lower class England for Methodism. They preached essentially the old Puritan Creed with the message of sin and repentance, a faith based on fear, not love, but they gave an ethical code that shared in the moral rehabilitation of England in the 2nd half of the century. By the time of John Wesley's death there were 79,000 followers in England and 40,000 in the United States. By 1957 there were 40,000,000 Methodists all over the world. Methodism placed all hopes on faith in the great conflict between reason and faith. (Ref. 54) By the end of the 18th century there were 20,000 Jews in London, hated and given little or no opportunities. (Ref. 260)

Literature and music continued to flourish. In addition to the early century writers mentioned at the beginning of this section, there were Henry Fielding, who wrote the well known Tom Jones in 1730, Thomas Gray, known particularly for his "Elegy in a Country Courtyard", the caustic Samuel Johnson, and the transplanted Scottish philosopher and historian, David Hume. We should not omit mention of Handel's music15.

The first medical school in London was founded by William Hunter, interested primarily in dentistry and obstetrics. His delivery of various members of the royal family helped to raise obstetrics from its medieval obscurity. William's brother, John Hunter, was even more famous as a surgeon and was a student of two other famous surgeons, William Cheselden and Percival Pott. John Hunter developed a method of closing off an aneurysm, thus preventing the necessity for amputation of limbs of thousands of soldiers and civilians. The surgeons finally achieved equality with their traditional rivals, the physicians. Most prominent among the latter was William Heberden, who described angina pectoris and nodules of osteoarthritis of the fingers, which still bear his name. The most important drug development was digitalis, used for "dropsy" by William Withering in 1785. James Lind, a British naval surgeon, proved the efficacy of fresh lemons and oranges in curing scurvy in 1753, but the Admiralty did not act until 1795 and even then used cheap, West Indies' limes (rather than the Mediterranean variety), and these lacked the necessary Vitamin C. Thus, scurvy outbreaks continued on British ships for another 100 years, although the mortality rate did decrease. (Ref. 125, 211)

In spite of the medical advances small-pox remained widespread and highly virulent, with mortality ranging from 15 to 30%. Throughout this century there were only 9 years in which small-pox deaths in London did not exceed 1,000 and in 1759 they reached 3,296. One-third of the inhabitants of England bore pit marks of that disease. The idea of inoculation by pus from a true small-pox lesion was brought from Turkey by Lady Mary Wortley Montagu and was used for a short time, but was then dropped as too dangerous. It was at the end of the century in 1798 that Edward Jenner published his famous paper on the use of cow-pox for vaccination. Typhus fever occurred sporadically in mild epidemics. Scarlet fever increased in incidence and by 1750 one out of every 30 cases died. A severe epidemic of that occurred in 1777-1778. In spite of all this, life expectancy of 35 years in England was much better than the overall world expectancy of 25 to 30 years. (Ref. 214, 140, 125, 213)

The War of American Independence was precipitated by the poor policies of ministers such as Grenville and Charles Townshend, but George III's responsibility for the final breach is not to be denied. (Ref. 31) Simple in tastes and unpretentious in manner, his mind was still Hanoverian, with an inveterate obstinacy and stubbornness. He could not understand those who feared the consequences of a policy of coercion. Edmund Burke, Secretary to the Marquis of Rockingham, brought the Whig party to stand for conciliation of the colonies as well as relaxation of restraints on the trade of his native Ireland, but the king was not convinced and after 13 months he got rid of Rockingham's government. William Pitt, now ill, went along with the king and Townshend returned to power, with the final result being war. As it progressed the British General Burgoyne's defeat in October of 1777 at Saratoga influenced France, supposedly neutral up until that time, to ally itself with the colonists. The French brought their intact navy up to the line and started a war of revenge against Britain to overcome the sting of the recent Seven Years War. (Ref. 31) The revolt of the colonies had shattered England's complacency and the word "reform" was in the air. William Pitt the Younger came to power at age 24 in 1783 and in the next 10 years he tried mightily to stay clear of Europe's upheavals, while he improved the financial, administrative and supply organization of the Royal Navy.

The death of the widowed King William left the crowns of both England and Scotland to his sister-in-law Anne. Under some duress by restrictive trade decrees against Scotland, in 1707 a treaty was concluded producing a formal union of the two countries, with a common parliament. But the English continued to harass the Scots.

A Scots proposal to build roads into the Highlands to exploit their great timber resources was rejected by the English, as they continued to import wood from America. English coal could be exported duty free to Ireland, but not to Scotland. Poverty remained endemic but cultivation of the potato on the Stirling plain after 1739 and an increase in the breeding of black cattle began to offer hope for recovery. In the Highlands a warrior society still existed, tribal at the bottom, almost feudal at the top, all using their ancient Gaelic language and existing on the black cattle economy.

The Act of Union joining the two countries did not prevent an occasional resurgence of Scottish national pride and attempts at forcing a new Stuart king on to the throne of Britain. Bonnie Prince Charlie, Catholic son of James III, spent his life trying, with interval help from France and various Scot clans, and he even invaded England with an army of about 10,000 in 1745 - the Jacobite Rebellion. It all came to naught and after the Highlanders' defeat at Culloden, Gaelic Scotland was broken, as the clans were dissolved, the bagpipe banned in war and the kilt outlawed. At the end of that f inal battle, the English killed all the wounded on the field, shot and hung fugitives and burned houses. Many Celtic Scots emigrated to Nova Scotia (New Scotland). (Ref. 194) In spite of that bloodbath, it is amazing that trade, industry and arts made a rapid and substantial recovery. At the end of the century the economy was helped as iron foundries started up, with contracts from the British navy. (Ref. 279)

Every parish in Scotland tried to set up a school for its children and 4 universities offered the best education in the British Isles. Another student of Boerhaave of Leiden (see page 969), Alexander Monro, returned to his native Scotland to give new life to the ancient University of Edinburgh, which became the center of medical instruction for the English speaking world. (Ref. 125) This century has been called the era of "Scottish Enlightenment", with the philosophers David Hume and Thomas Reid, historian William Robertson, political economist Adam Smith, novelist Sir Walter Scott, who was born and educated in Edinburgh, and finally Robert Burns (1759-1796), who wrote some in English, but whose poems in Scottish have brought him everlasting fame. (Ref. 170)

Ireland had a far different situation from Scotland. As a result of repeated victories by English armies over native revolts, a code of laws had been set up that chained the Irish in body and soul. (Ref. 54) The landowners were almost all Protestants, most of them actually living in England and those who resided locally isolated themselves from the hostility of their surroundings with drink, quarreling, dueling and gambling. The Established (Anglican) Church in Ireland included only about 1/7 of the people, but was supported by tithes from the peasantry, almost all Catholics. The latter were excluded from public office, from all professions except medicine, could purchase no land or hold any valuable lease. Emigration continued with about 8,000 Irish going to America each year in the 8th decade. (Ref. 260)

At the end of the century in 1798 a revolt broke out again in the country, which was put down by Lord Cornwallis, in spite of French assistance to the Irish. (Ref. 110) The

British leaders then decided to make Ireland- a part of the United Kingdom. An Act of Union was passed in 1800, which made all of the British Isles a single entity of Great Britain. The social pattern in Ireland resembled that of eastern Europe and the southern American colonies, in having a privileged body of landowners, who shared European civilization and a culturally deprived, psychologically alienated mass of agricultural laborers. (Ref. 139) One helpful feature at the century end was a rise in grain prices in England, which made the Irish potato culture more profitable and necessary. (Ref. 140)

Coming from England, the potato reached Scandinavia in this century. (Ref. 8)

The 18th century European surge in population did not put as much strain on the food supply system in eastern Europe as it did in the west, where easily used land had already been under cultivation for some time. In the east there was still much untilled expanse which could be converted to crops without costly capital improvements. As men became more abundant it was also easier for Poland and Russia16 to recruit more soldiers. Russia, as a state on the margin of Europe, like Great Britain, was able to increase control of resources more rapidly than was possible in the more crowded center of Europe. (Ref. 279)