To fully study the life of George Washington it is important to also understand the world that he lived in.
When Washington was just a Boy
1740-1755
- At the age of eleven, George Washington inherited ten slaves from his father.
- Daniel Boone was learning to hunt in the backwoods
- John Hancock was practicing penmanship in the Boston Latin School
- John Adams was a Massachusetts farmer boy
- Benjamin Franklin was a printer in Philadelphia and was conducting experiments with electricity
- Vitus Bering, while exploring for Russia, crossed the strait from Asia to what would become present-day Alaska
- Junipero Serra, who would later found California, arrived in Mexico from Spain
- James Watt, who would later invent the steam engine, was an apprentice in his father's shop
- James Cook, who would later discover Australia, was setting sail for the first time
- German princess Catherine "The Great" went to Russia
- Johann Sebastian Bach died in 1750
- Maria Theresa became the queen of Austria and mother of many children
- Louis XV was king of France
- Voltaire was writing against injustice
- Frederick "The Great" became king of Prussia
- George II, though German-born, was King of England
- George III was just a boy
- Chien Lung, in 1736, began his sixty-year reign as Emperor of China
When Washington was a Soldier
1756-1763
- James Wolfe captured Quebec and England claimed Canada
- William Pitt gained an Empire for England by winning the war against France
- British Major General Robert Clive won power for England in India
- Pontiac, chief of the Ottawa, fought in vain to save his country for his people
- The Spinning Jenny was being thought out by James Hargreaves
- Pompeii had been discovered and was being unearthed
- Washington married Mrs. Martha Custis in 1759
- Thomas Jefferson was just sixteen
- Elizabeth of Russia, Maria Theresa, and Madame de Pompadour, the three most powerful women in Europe, plotted revenge on Frederick II
- Frederick II uncovered the plot that would begin the Seven Years War
- Voltaire was writing against war and hatred
- Goethe, the great German poet, was a schoolboy
- Catherine II was crowned Empress of Russia in 1761
- Ch'ien Lung forbade "barbarian" traders from Europe to enter China
- George III was crowned King of England in 1760
When Washington was a Farmer
1759-1775
- George Washington married Martha Dandridge Custis in 1759 and more than doubled the number of enslaved people under his control through "dower slaves" that Martha brought to the marriage.
- James Cook landed in Australia in 1770 and claimed it for England
- James Watt invented the steam engine in 1769
- Junipero Serra established the first Spanish mission in California in 1769
- The element oxygen was discovered by Joseph Priestley
- Daniel Boone lead pioneers westward over the mountains into Kentucky
- Napoleon Bonaparte was born in 1769
- Marquis de Lafayette was just a boy
- Mozart "the wonder boy" was giving concerts in Europe
- Francisco de Goya was learning to paint
- Alexander Hamilton was just a boy living in the West Indies
- Louis XVI became the King of France in 1774
- Poland was torn into pieces by Frederick "The Great" of Prussia, Maria Theresa of Austria, and Catherine II of Russia
- Marie Antoinette was sent by her mother, Maria Theresa, to marry Louis XVI
- Samuel Adams stirred up Massachusetts
- George III taxed his American colonies into Rebellion
- William Pitt upheld the colonies as Edmund Burke pleaded on their behalf
- Patrick Henry earned acclaim as the orator of Virginia
- Benjamin Franklin was in England until 1775 as a representative for the colonies
- The first shots of the Revolution were fired at Lexington on April 19, 1775
- Benjamin West was court painter and friend of George III
When Washington was Commander
1775-1783
- Thomas Paine riled up the colonies to declare independence
- Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence
- Pierre Beaumarchais sent secret supplies to America from France
- Betsy Ross of Philadelphia was busy making the new flag
- After signing the Declaration, Benjamin Franklin went to make friends for America in France and arranged a treaty with France in 1778
- Lafayette served without pay in the American army
- General John Burgoyne surrendered at Saratoga in 1777
- Louis XVI was forced by his ministers to join America against England
- John Adams went to Holland to borrow money
- Spain declared war on England and laid siege to Gibraltar
- James Cook, looking for a northwest passage, was killed by natives in Hawaii
- Catherine II opposed England with a League of Armed Neutrality
- John Paul Jones raised the Stars and Stripes for the first time on an American man-of-war
- Simon Bolivar, who would play a key role in Latin America's struggle for independence from Spain, was born July 24, 1783
- George Rogers Clark won forts in the northwest and gave America claim to the territory
- Cornwallis surrendered to Washington at Yorktown in 1781
- Benjamin Franklin, John Jay, Henry Laurens, and John Adams signed the Treaty of Paris with England in 1783
When Washington was a Citizen
1783-1789
- Canada was settled by Loyalists from the United States
- Man's first voyage into the air was made in a balloon after test flights taken by a rooster, a sheep, and duck
- Pierre Beaumarchais defied the King with his play "The Marriage of Figaro"
- Australia received its first shipload of English settlers
- Thomas Jefferson went to Paris to arrange trade deals with the newly formed United States
- Benjamin Franklin bade farewell to France and returned to America
- John Adams, accompanied by Abigail, went to England to represent the United States
- In France, Jean-Jacques Rousseau's ideas of simplicity became popular
- Marie Antoinette played a peasant at Hameau de la Reine while the real peasants were starving
- Frederick II of Prussia died alone in 1786
- Catherine II was called "The Great"
- Joseph II was named Emperor of Austria after his mother Maria Theresa died in 1780
- The Constitution of the United States was written in 1787
- James Madison, the "Father of the Constitution," did most of the writing and also recorded the meetings
- James Madison, John Jay, and Alexander Hamilton wrote articles on the Constitution, known as The Federalist Papers, and persuaded the states to ratify it
When Washington was President
1789-1797
- Vermont, Tennessee, and Kentucky became states
- Thomas Jefferson was the first Secretary of State
- John Adams was Vice President and would later serve as President
- Alexander Hamilton served as the first Secretary of the Treasury
- Dr. Edward Jenner discovered a new way to prevent smallpox by vaccinating patients with cowpox
- Washington laid the cornerstone for the new United States Capitol
- The cotton gin was invented by Eli Whitney
- Robert Fulton drew his first idea for a steamboat and wrote James Watt about an engine
- The Rosetta Stone, the key to Egypt's hieroglyphs, was unearthed
- Emperor Ch'ien Lung received England's first ambassador to China and replied to George III
- The fall of the Bastille opened the French Revolution on July 14, 1789
- Lafayette headed the National Guard and proposed the new colors of France
- Honoré Gabriel Riqueti, comte de Mirabeau, defended the rights of both the people and the King of France
- Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette were beheaded in 1793
- The Fugitive Slave Act of 1793 and the Slave Trade Act of 1794 were passed by the United States Congress.
- Jean-Paul Marat, Georges Jacques Danton, and Maximilien Robespierre were leaders in "The Reign of Terror"
- Thousands were put to death with the guillotine
- Napoleon Bonaparte was made the French general against Italy and came into power
