The 18th century: Enlightenment, steam and a new Saudi state

The 18th century is often called the Age of Enlightenment. Writers and scientists believed that reason, evidence and education could improve human life. The first great encyclopedias, including France's Encyclopédie from 1751 and the Encyclopaedia Britannica from 1768, gathered the world's knowledge for ordinary readers.

In the heart of Arabia, a historic state was born. In 1727, Imam Muhammad bin Saud founded the First Saudi State, with its capital at Diriyah, near today's Riyadh. Saudi Arabia celebrates this beginning every year on 22 February as Founding Day.

In Britain, new machines changed how goods were made. Thomas Newcomen's steam engine of 1712 pumped water from mines, and from the 1760s James Watt made steam engines far more efficient. The spinning jenny and water frame moved textile work into factories. This was the beginning of the Industrial Revolution.

Exploration and science advanced together. John Harrison's marine chronometers solved the problem of measuring longitude at sea, and James Cook charted the Pacific. Carl Linnaeus created the system still used to name living things.

The century ended with political change. The United States declared independence in 1776, and the French Revolution began in 1789. In 1796, Edward Jenner developed the first vaccine, against smallpox.