The wars of the 18th century reflected on the historical development of the whole world, whether it is the rise of a weak state or the fall of a strong state. One way or another, this time turned out to be eventful, and in the context of history it is necessary to have at least a rough idea of the conflicts that changed the world.
The Northern War (1700-1721)
The Northern War at the beginning of the 18th century was caused by the strengthening of Sweden, which by 1699 controlled almost the entire coast of the Baltic Sea. Such a sharp increase in power contributed to the creation of the Northern Union. His goal was to weaken the growing power of Sweden. At the time of its inception, the Northern Union included the following countries: Russia, Saxony and Denmark.
The ruler of Sweden at that time was Charles XII. The participants of the Northern Union made a typical mistake of the older generation - they underestimated the youth. Young Karl at that time was only 18 years old. The victory was planned to be easy due to the lack of general experience with Charles XII.
In fact, everything turned out exactly the opposite. With unexpected prudence and perseverance, Charles XII inflicted two crushing defeats on Denmark and Saxony. Due to colossal losses, they were forced to leave the Northern Union. Next in line was Russia. The defeat of the army of Peter I occurred in the Narva Fortress. This quick and devastating defeat of the Russian army will subsequently be called Narva confusion.
Having recovered from defeat, Peter I announced a new army gathering and led another campaign against Sweden. Charles XII decided to crush the defeated enemy in his own territory. This event is known as the Battle of Poltava, in which the Swedish monarch was defeated and forced to retreat. Thus began a new campaign of Peter I to Sweden.
The campaign against Sweden was quickly overshadowed by the entry of the Russian army surrounded by Turkish troops. The ratio of numbers was completely unsuccessful for Peter I: 180 thousand Turkish soldiers against 28 thousand Russian. True, the matter did not come to bloodshed. Everything was decided by a peace treaty on the terms of Turkey. The war between the two strong powers was beneficial to her from a political point of view.
The results of the Northern War
The further course of the 18th century Northern War was on the side of Peter I. Victories in naval and land battles forced Charles XII to make peace with Russia. According to the terms of the peace treaty, Russia received the Baltic states and part of Karelia, returning Finland to Sweden. As a result, the Northern War allowed Peter I to “open a window to Europe,” gaining access to the Baltic Sea.
The Seven Years War (1756-1763)
The reasons for the Seven Years' War of the 18th century in Europe was the rivalry of two leading states: England and France. The Germans volunteered to support the English crown. Saxony, Austria and Russia went over to the French side. In this composition, two coalitions began military operations. Officially, England declared war.
The combat initiative came from Prussia. Frederick II attacked Saxony without warning, inflicting a devastating defeat on the Germans. Since Saxony was a union state of Austria, the latter entered the war on the side of France. Also, Spain joined the Franco-Austrian coalition.
Arriving to the aid of Saxony, Russian troops defeated the army of Prussia, forced them to capitulate. Soon after, in 1757, Russian troops captured Koenigsberg. By decree of 1758, the lands of East Prussia went to Russia.
Subsequently, Russian troops won two battles: the Battle of Palzig (1759) and the Battle of Kunersdorf (1759). Then England captured Montreal (1760) and declared war on Spain (1762). The seven-year war ended with the signing of the Paris (England and Portugal - France and Spain) and the Hubertusburg (Austria and Saxony - Prussia) treaties.
The Seven Years' War
According to the results, the Anglo-Prussian coalition remained the winner. Prussia has become one of the strongest European states. England secured its title as the only "superpower". Russia ended the war without gain or loss, but on the other hand, it demonstrated its military forces to Europe.
The Great French Revolution (1789-1799)
The precondition of the civil war of the second half of the 18th century was the strong economic crisis in France. There was no crop, money to support the infrastructure was sorely lacking. The government began to oppress priests and aristocrats in order to restore economic balance. Needless to say, the privileged minority was not very happy about this.
To solve pressing problems, various meetings were convened. First, the General States, representatives of all classes who could not agree on anything, broke up due to inefficiency. After the Constituent Assembly was formed, which included everything except the aristocracy and the clergy, that is, the third estate.
The first significant date of the French Revolution is July 14, the day of the Bastille capture by angry citizens. After this, the king was forced to make concessions and actually transferred power to the Constituent Assembly. From that moment on, the king, already insignificant, was subjected to further “repressions,” until he was finally executed. The birth of a new Constitution has begun.
The crisis continued to rage. As it developed, more and more opposition cells arose in society. To combat the "traitors", a revolutionary tribunal was created , which carried out reprisals and trials of "counter-revolutionaries". Then things worsened exponentially.
This continued until a new Constitution was adopted in August 1795. By itself, it did not help, but, thanks to the failures in its implementation, new riot cells appeared. One of them was then headed by the famous general Napoleon Bonaparte.
The results of the Great French Revolution
As we know, the result of the entire revolution was the coming to power of Napoleon. On November 9, 1799, the future emperor, with the help of his accomplices, carried out a coup d'etat and seized power in the country. Now the ruling body was the Consulate, which consisted of three people: Napoleon and his two associates. Since the end of this civil war of the 18th century, a new page in the history of France began.