1750-1769 Sewing Machines, Comets, Canada & Hypnosis

This twenty year period covers the reign of George II who died in 1760 and was succeeded by his son George III. The longest period of relative world peace and safety was just 6 years from the outbreak of the 1756 Seven Years War.

In 1756 the Seven Years War broke out in both Europe and Canada, pitting Prussia, Hanover and Great Britain against France, Austria, Russia, Sweden and Saxony. By 1760 all Canada came under British control after the French surrender. 

In Europe, the war ended in 1763, no doubt aided by Catherine ousting her husband, Tsar Peter III, and setting herself up as Empress Catherine II in 1762.

The Seven Years War was followed in 1763–1766 by Pontiac's Rebellion; the 1766–1799 Anglo–Mysore Wars; the 1768–1774 Russo–Turkish War; and the 1768–1776 War of the Confederation of Bar in Poland.

During this period the Gregorian calendar was accepted in the British Isles (in 1752), and Halley predicted a comet in 1758.

Interesting ideas and inventions included the 1755 sewing machine invention by Charles Wiesenthal, the 1758 Carl Linnaeus of Sweden classification of humans as primates, the 1763 science of hypnosis founded by Anton Mesmer and the 1766 discovery of hydrogen by Cavendish.