The 1770s: a new nation and a new economics

In 1770, Captain James Cook reached the east coast of Australia and charted it for the first time by Europeans. His voyages greatly expanded knowledge of the Pacific.

Tensions between Britain and its American colonies grew into war in 1775. On 4 July 1776, the Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence, largely written by Thomas Jefferson, which declared the thirteen colonies to be a new nation, the United States of America.

In March 1776, the Scottish thinker Adam Smith published An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations. He explained how markets, trade and the division of labour create wealth. It is often seen as the founding text of modern economics.

James Watt went into partnership with the Birmingham manufacturer Matthew Boulton. In 1776, their first commercial steam engines began work, and Boulton and Watt engines soon spread across British industry.

In 1779, the world's first major bridge made of cast iron opened over the River Severn in Shropshire. The town around it is still called Ironbridge, and the area is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site.