The 1720s decade ran from January 1, 1720, to December 31, 1729. In Europe it was a decade of comparative peace following a lengthy period of near continuous warfare with treaties ending the War of the Quadruple Alliance and the Great Northern War. Both Britain and France saw major financial crashes at the beginning of the decade with the South Sea Bubble and the Mississippi Company respectively. Nonetheless it was a decade of stability in both countries under the leadership of Robert Walpole and Cardinal Fleury and the two nations, recently enemies, formed the Anglo-French Alliance.

Stylistically the decade was part of the Baroque era.

Events

1720

January–March

April–June

  • April 4 – The Riksdag of the Estates elects Frederick I new King of Sweden.
  • April 17Bajirao I appointed as the Peshwa of the Maratha Empire by Chhatrapati Shahu succeeding his father Peshwa Balaji Vishwanath.
  • May 3 – The coronation of King Frederick I of Sweden takes place in Stockholm, six weeks after his rule began.
  • May 20 – The Treaty of The Hague, signed between Spain and the Quadruple Alliance (Britain, France, the Netherlands and Austria) on February 17, goes into effect. Spain renounces its claims to the Italian possessions of the French throne, and Austria and the Duchy of Savoy trade Sicily for Sardinia.
  • May 25 – The British privateer Speedwell, captained by George Shelvocke, is wrecked on the uninhabited island of Más a Tierra, the same island where Alexander Selkirk was marooned for five years; the island off of the coast of Chile is later called Robinson Crusoe Island. The crew is marooned for five months but is able to build a boat from timbers salvaged from the wreck, and is able to escape the island on October 6.
  • June 1 – British silversmiths are once again allowed to use sterling silver after 24 years of being limited to a higher quality (but softer) Britannia silver.
  • June 11 – The British Parliament approves the Bubble Act (officially the Royal Exchange and London Assurance Corporation Act 1719), prohibiting the formation of joint-stock companies without prior approval by royal charter.
  • June 19 – At Burhanpur (in the modern-day Indian state of Madhya Pradesh), the Nizam-ul-Mulk of Hyderabad survives an attempted ambush by Mughal Empire forces dispatched by the Sayyid brothers (Syed Abdullah Khan and Syed Husain Ali Khan Barha) and goes on to establish a rival state in southern India.
  • June 25 – The "South Sea Bubble", the phenomenal growth of the South Sea Company, reaches its peak as South Sea stock is priced at £1,060 a share. By the end of September, as panic sales are made, the price falls to £150.

July–September

  • July 12 – Under the authority of the Bubble Act, the Lords Justices in Great Britain attempt to curb some of the excesses of the stock markets during the "South Sea Bubble". They dissolve a number of petitions for patents and charters, and abolish more than 80 joint-stock companies of dubious merit, but this has little effect on the creation of "Bubbles", ephemeral joint-stock companies created during the hysteria of the times.[2]
  • July 14 – (July 3 O.S.) The Treaty of Frederiksborg is signed between Denmark and Sweden, ending the Great Northern War.
  • July 27 – The Battle of Grengam takes place in the Ledsund strait between the island communities of Föglö and Lemland. It is the last major naval battle in the Great Northern War taking place in the Åland Islands, marking the end of Russian and Swedish offensive naval operations in Baltic waters.
  • August 14 – The Spanish Villasur expedition, which set out on June 16 from New Mexico, with the intention of checking French influence on the Great Plains of North America, ends in failure, as it is ambushed by a Pawnee and Otoe force.
  • September 30 – "South Sea Bubble": The English stock market crashes, with dropping prices for stock in the South Sea Company.[3]

October–December

Date unknown

1721

January–March

April–June

July –September

October –December

Date unknown

1722

January–March

April–June

July–September

July 26: Start of the Russo-Persian War.

October–December

Date unknown

1723

January–March

April–June

July–September

October–December

Date unknown

1724

January–March

April–June

July–September

October–December

Date unknown

1725

January–March

April–June

July–September

October–December

Date unknown

1726

January–March

April–June

July–September

October–December

Date unknown

1727

January–March

April–June

July–September

October–December

Date unknown

1728

January–March

April–June

July–September

October–December

Date unknown

1729

January–March

April–June

July–September

October–December

Date unknown

Births

1720

Charles Edward Stuart
  • "date unknown" – Jane Gomeldon, English writer, poet and adventurer (d. 1779)
  • "date unknown" – Sheikh Lamech, Persian banker and accountant (d. 1813)
  • "date unknown" – Madame de Beaumer, French editor and writer (d. 1766)

1721

Roger Sherman

1722

John Burgoyne
Christopher Smart
Samuel Adams

1723

Adam Smith

1724

Louise of Great Britain

1725

Giacomo Casanova
Maria Teresa Cybo-Malaspina, Duchess of Massa
Robert Clive

1726

James Hutton

1727

James Wolfe

1728

James Cook

1729

Gotthold Ephraim Lessing
Anders Chydenius
Catherine II of Russia

Deaths

1720

Joseph Dudley
John Rackham

1721

Marguerite Louise d'Orléans
Alexander Selkirk

1722

John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough
Kangxi Emperor

1723

Christopher Wren
Antonie van Leeuwenhoek

1724

Pope Innocent XIII
Saint Ludovico Sabbatini
Jack Sheppard

1725

Emperor Peter I of Russia
Jonathan Wild

1726

John Vanbrugh

1727

Isaac Newton
George I of Great Britain

1728

Cotton Mather

1729

Samuel Clarke

References