1767 to 1773

Literature

Minna von Barnhelm. Gotthold Lessing. German. 1767. Play. When a soldier refuses to marry because of a question of honor, Minna schemes and wins him.

Society

1768. Treaties confirm cession of Cherokee and Iroquois territories to British Crown.

Literature

A Sentimental Journey. Laurence Sterne. British. 1768. Narrative. Attacks sentimentalism in his tour of France and Italy. Caricature of moralizing.

The Good Natur'd Man. Oliver Goldsmith. British. 1768. Play. Uncle tries to show extravagant Honeywood that his friends will abandon him if he loses his wealth.

Society

1769. Father Junipero Serra founds Mission of San Diego.

1769. Virginia's House of Burgesses rejects Parliament's right to tax British colonists.

1769. Blackstone's Commentaries: Better that ten guilty escape than that one innocent suffer.

1769. Great Famine of Bengal kills 10 million Indians. Worst famine in history.

1770. Boston Massacre.

1770. Britain's American colonies have estimated population of 2.2 million.

Literature

The Deserted Village. Oliver Goldsmith. British. 1770. Poetry. Rural depopulation in the latter 1700s because of luxury, foreign trade, enclosure, and the growth of London.

Society

1771. Speeches made in Britain's House of Commons ordered to be published.

1771. The Encyclopedia Britannica and the French Encyclopedie attempt to compile what is known.

Literature

The Man of Feeling. Henry Mackenzie. British. 1771. Novel. Episodic adventures of the bashful, sensitive, kind-hearted, sentimental hero.

The Expedition of Humphrey Clinker. Tobias Smollett. British. 1771. Epistolary Novel. Letters written by different characters with highly individual style, caricaturing themselves. Tour of England, Scotland. Correspondents express varied reactions to the same events, for example, the hot wells at Bath.

Society

1772. Samuel Adams and Joseph Warren organize Committee of Correspondence.

Literature

Emilia Galotti. Gotthold Lessing. German. 1772. Play. Middle-class woman unwittingly arouses the passion of a prince who has her bridegroom murdered. To save her honor, her father stabs her to death.

Society

1773. Virginia House of Burgesses appoints Committee of Correspondence. Keep colonies in touch.

1773. Boston Tea Party, December 16.

1773. Tea left to rot on docks of Charleston, New York and Philadelphia sends ships back to England.

1773. Jesuits dissolved.