- Africa
Prazo estates along the Zambezi
The crown leases great estates, the prazos da coroa, to settlers along the Zambezi; their holders rule as semi-feudal lords with armies of slave-soldiers and a heavy stake in the slave trade.
Era: Prazos, the Gaza Empire and Conquest
Sources: Prazo · Wikipedia, Mozambique · Encyclopaedia Britannica, The History of Zambezia and Its Role in Mozambique's Colonial Economy · History Rise
- Africa
- Africa
France claims the Isle de France
France takes formal possession of the uninhabited island, renaming it Isle de France; colonisation begins under the French East India Company from 1721.
Era: Isle de France: Sugar & Slavery
Sources: Mauritius · Encyclopædia Britannica, Isle de France (Mauritius) · Wikipedia
- North America
Hans Egede reaches Greenland
The Dano-Norwegian missionary Hans Egede landed in Greenland seeking the lost Norse colonists, found only Inuit, and founded a mission and trading post at Godthåb (Nuuk), beginning the Danish recolonisation.
Era: Hans Egede and Two Centuries of Danish Rule
Sources: Hans Egede, Danish-Norwegian missionary · Encyclopædia Britannica, Greenland: History · Encyclopædia Britannica
- Asia
The Little Horde accepts Russian protection
Abu'l-Khayr Khan of the Little Horde swears allegiance to the Russian Empire for protection against the Dzungars; the Middle Horde follows in 1740 and part of the Great Horde in 1742, opening the steppe to Russian power.
Era: The Russian Conquest of the Steppe
Sources: History of Kazakhstan · Encyclopædia Britannica, Kazakhstan · Encyclopædia Britannica
- Africa
France claims and names the islands
Corneille Nicholas Morphey laid a stone of possession and named the archipelago after finance minister Jean Moreau de Séchelles; the main island was named Mahé.
Era: The French Claim and First Settlers
Sources: History of Seychelles · Wikipedia, The French History of the Seychelles · Kreol Magazine
- Asia
Battle of Plassey
Robert Clive's East India Company forces defeat Nawab Siraj-ud-Daulah after the betrayal of Mir Jafar, beginning British political control of Bengal and, in time, of India.
Era: British Conquest and Colonial Bengal
Sources: Battle of Plassey · Encyclopædia Britannica, Sirāj al-Dawlah · Encyclopædia Britannica
- Asia
Battle of Plassey
Robert Clive's East India Company forces defeat the Nawab of Bengal, marking the beginning of British political and military dominance in India.
Era: The East India Company and the British Raj
Sources: Battle of Plassey · Encyclopaedia Britannica, British raj · Encyclopaedia Britannica
- South America
French Port Louis founded
Louis-Antoine de Bougainville established the first settlement, Port Louis, on East Falkland, and named the islands the Malouines — origin of the Spanish Malvinas.
Era: Empty Shores and Competing Claims
Sources: Falkland Islands — History · Encyclopaedia Britannica, Louis-Antoine de Bougainville · Encyclopaedia Britannica
- South America
British Port Egmont established
A British expedition under Commodore John Byron claimed West Falkland in 1765, and Britain founded Port Egmont on Saunders Island the following year.
Era: Empty Shores and Competing Claims
Sources: Falkland Islands — History · Encyclopaedia Britannica, Our History · Falkland Islands Government
- Africa
Bissau founded as a fortified post
The Portuguese founded Bissau in 1765 as a military and slave-trading station; it grew into the region's main commercial centre and, in 1942, replaced Bolama as the colonial capital.
Era: The Rivers of Guinea and the Atlantic slave trade
Sources: Portuguese Guinea · Wikipedia, A Guide to the History of Recognition: Guinea-Bissau · U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian, Guinea-Bissau (country overview and history) · Encyclopaedia Britannica
- South America
Spain buys out the French and administers from Buenos Aires
Spain purchased the French settlement around 1767 and governed the islands from Buenos Aires; in 1770 it expelled the British from Port Egmont, restored after a 1771 settlement.
Era: Empty Shores and Competing Claims
Sources: Falkland Islands — History · Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Oceania
Bougainville sails through the group
The French navigator Louis-Antoine de Bougainville charted parts of the archipelago and showed that Quirós's 'southern continent' was a group of islands.
Era: European Contact and Naming
Sources: Vanuatu — History (Melanesian, Colonization, Independence) · Encyclopædia Britannica
- Oceania
James Cook charts the islands
James Cook sighted New Zealand and over 175 days circumnavigated and accurately charted both main islands aboard HMB Endeavour, fixing the country's outline for European maps.
Era: European contact, missionaries, and the musket wars
Sources: European voyaging and discovery · NZ History (Manatū Taonga — Ministry for Culture and Heritage), European discovery of New Zealand · Te Ara — The Encyclopedia of New Zealand, New Zealand (country) · Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Asia
Capital established at Dili
The Portuguese move their administrative seat from Lifau in Oecusse to Dili on the north coast, which becomes the lasting capital of Portuguese Timor.
Era: Portuguese Timor and the Divided Island
Sources: East Timor · Encyclopaedia Britannica, Dili · Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Oceania
Cook charts and claims the east coast
Lieutenant James Cook charted the eastern coast of the continent aboard HMB Endeavour and claimed it for Britain as New South Wales, opening the way to British colonisation.
Era: European contact and the First Fleet
Sources: Defining Moments: Cook claims Australia · National Museum of Australia, Australia (country) · Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Oceania
Cook names the New Hebrides
On his second voyage James Cook surveyed and charted the islands, naming them the New Hebrides — a name they kept until independence in 1980.
Era: European Contact and Naming
Sources: Vanuatu — History (Melanesian, Colonization, Independence) · Encyclopædia Britannica, Who gave our former name — the 'New Hebrides' — and where did it originate from? · Vanuatu Daily Post
- Africa
Treaty of El Pardo cedes the islands to Spain
By the Treaty of El Pardo, Portugal ceded Fernando Pó, Annobón and commercial rights on the adjacent African coast to Spain, in exchange for recognition of Portuguese claims in South America; Spain sought a base for the slave trade.
Era: Fernão do Pó, the Portuguese, and the cession to Spain
Sources: Treaty of El Pardo (1778) · Wikipedia, History of Equatorial Guinea · Encyclopædia Britannica, History of Equatorial Guinea · Wikipedia, Equatorial Guinea · New World Encyclopedia
- Africa
The Argelejo expedition fails
A Spanish expedition under the Conde de Argelejo arrived to take possession but was broken by disease and disorder; Spain effectively abandoned the islands for decades, administering them on paper from its American viceroyalties.
Era: Fernão do Pó, the Portuguese, and the cession to Spain
Sources: History of Equatorial Guinea · Wikipedia, Treaty of El Pardo (1778) · Wikipedia
- North America
Spain cedes the Bahamas to Britain
Under the Treaty of Paris of 1783 Spain ceded the Bahamas to Britain, securing the colony's future under the Crown after years of contest and a brief Spanish occupation.
Era: Loyalists, slavery and emancipation
Sources: The Bahamas — British colonization (History) · Encyclopaedia Britannica, Bahamas: Local History and Genealogy — Research Guide · Library of Congress
- Asia
Penang, Singapore and the Straits Settlements
Britain founds Penang in 1786 and Singapore in 1819 and, with Malacca, combines them in 1826 as the Straits Settlements, the base for expanding British control over the peninsula.
Era: European Powers and the Making of British Malaya
Sources: Straits Settlements · Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Oceania
The First Fleet founds the penal colony
Captain Arthur Phillip's First Fleet established a British penal colony at Sydney Cove, beginning permanent European settlement and the dispossession of Aboriginal peoples of the Sydney region.
Era: European contact and the First Fleet
Sources: Defining Moments: Convict cargo and the First Fleet · National Museum of Australia, Australia (country) · Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Oceania
Bligh charts Fijian waters
Cast adrift after the Bounty mutiny, Captain William Bligh navigates his open boat between Fiji's main islands, through what is now Bligh Water.
Era: European Contact & the Rise of Cakobau
Sources: Fiji — History (Melanesian, Colonialism, Independence) · Encyclopædia Britannica
- Africa
The Sierra Leone Company chartered
After Granville Town's destruction, the abolitionist-backed Sierra Leone Company was chartered to revive and govern the colony as a base for legitimate commerce and Christian settlement.
Era: The Province of Freedom and the founding of Freetown
Sources: Sierra Leone (country overview and history) · Encyclopaedia Britannica, Freetown, Sierra Leone (1792– ) · BlackPast.org
Colonisation in the 18th century
Every event in the Terralore archive tagged colonisation — the establishment, administration and ending of colonial rule, narrowed to the 18th century — 24 of them, drawn from 18 nations, running from 1700 to 1791. Each entry keeps the sources it was verified against and links back to the chronicle it came from.
- Events
- 24
- Nations
- 18
- Earliest
- 1700
- Latest
- 1791
- Africa
- 8
- Oceania
- 6
- Asia
- 5
- South America
- 3
- North America
- 2
Every entry below is the same record, with the same sources, as the one on its nation’s chronicle.