1781
William Herschel discovers "Georgium Sidus" (Uranus).
1781 - 1782
Philippe d'Auvergne leads an unsuccessful expedition to accurately chart the island of Trinidade for possible settlement. The expedition is rescued in December 1782.
1783
The first hot air balloon flight by the Montgolfier brothers sparks a ballooning craze in Europe.
1784 - 1787
The Baseline Survey calculates the distance between Dover and Calais, an important step in cartographic science.
1785
The King George's Sound Company is formed to exploit the maritime fur trade.
1785 - 1788
Lapérouse explores the Pacific, intending to claim Australia for France, but arrives after a British colony has been established. He disappears after disembarking from Port Jackson (Sydney).
1785 - 1788
Nathanael Portlock leads a circumnavigation of the globe.
1786
British Prime Minister William Pitt (the younger) approves the establishment of a penal colony in Australia.
1786
The London Committee for the Abolition of Slavery is established.
1787
Captain Arthur Phillip and the first fleet sail from Spithead to found the Australian settlement at Port Jackson.
1787 - 1789
William Bligh leads his first (unsuccessful) breadfruit voyage on the Bounty, with the aim of transporting breadfruit plants to the Caribbean, in an attempt to establish the crop as a basis for slaves' diets. Following a mutiny, he is forced to navigate a small from Otaheite to Timor (a distance of 3618 miles). The mutineers, led by Fletcher Christian, establish a settlement on Pitcairn Island.
1787 - 1789
The Polish naturalist Anton Pantaleon Hove embarks upon an expedition to India.
1788
Joseph Banks founds the Association for Promoting the Discovery of the Interior parts of Africa (Alternatively known as the Africa Association).
1789
The French Revolution breaks out.
1789
Alexander Mackenzie of the North West Company descends the Grand River to the Arctic Ocean.
1789 - 1794
Malaspina charts the coast of South America from Brazil to Tierra del Fuego
1789 - 1794
Dionisio Alcalá Galiano leads an expedition to the west coast of North America, which circumnavigates Vancouver Island.
1790
Spanish ships capture British fur trading vessels at Nootka Sound, precipitating the Nootka Crisis.
1791 - 1795
An expedition led by George Vancouver explores the Northwest coast of North America.
1792
Sierra Leone falls under British control.
1792 - 1794
Lord MacCartney leads Britain's first unsuccessful diplomatic mission to China.
1792 - 1793
Mackenzie completes the first crossing of North America.
1794 - 1797
Mungo Park explores the Senegal and Gambia rivers on behalf of the Africa Association.
1794
The French East India Company is wound up.
1795
The Royal Navy establishes the Hydrographic Office to chart the world's oceans.
1795
Britain captures the Cape Colony, which is subsequently returned to the Dutch in 1803.
1795
France occupies Santo Domingo.
1795 - 1800
Matthew Flinders explores the Australian coast aboard the Norfolk and the Resistance.
1796
The VOC declares bankruptcy.
1796
British forces occupy the coast of Sri Lanka.
1799
The Porpoise sails for Australia with George Suttor and his "garden", assembled by Banks to rectify the lack of Fruit trees in the colony. The vines form the foundation of the Australian wine industry.
1799 - 1804
Humboldt and Bonpland explore the Andes and Amazon, climbing Mount Chimborazo and discovering the north-flowing Humboldt current on the west coast of South America.
1800
Robert Fulton designs the Nautilus, the first successful submarine.
1800
The Great Trigonometrical Survey of India is founded.
1800
Alessandro Volta invents an electric battery.
1801 - 1803
Flinders completes the first circumnavigation of Australia aboard the Investigator, compiling accurate coastal charts.
1802
The Peace of Amiens temporarily ends the conflict between Britain and France.
1803
War resumes between France and a coalition of European Powers (Britain, the Holy Roman Empire, Russia, Naples, Sicily and Sweden.)
1803
Napoleon Bonaparte, First Consul of France, sells France's remaining American possessions to the United States.
1800 - 1803
An expedition led by Nicolas Baudin surveys the coast of New South Wales.
1803 - 1810
Matthew Flinders is forced to put in at Mauritius, and is imprisoned by the French for 7 years.
1803 - 1806
Adam Johann von Krusenstern leads the first Russian circumnavigation of the globe.
1804 - 1806
Meriwether Lewis and William Clark cross North America, following the Missouri River and traversing the Rocky Mountains.
1805
Nelson achieves a decisive victory against the French and Spanish fleets at Trafalgar.
1805 - 1806
Mungo Park leads a second expedition to chart the Niger, which ends in disaster.
1806
Britain re-occupies the Cape Colony after Napoleon invades the Netherlands.
1806
Napoleon issues an edict prohibiting British shipping from European ports.
1807
The Slave Trade Act abolishes the slave trade in the British Empire.
1808
Santo Domingo is returned to Spanish control.
1810
Mexico declares independence from Spain.
1810 - 1821
The Chilean War of Independence is fought.
1811
David Thompson of the North West Company navigates the Columbia River.
1811 - 1823
Venezuela declares independence from Spain, which is secured in 1823.
1811
Freycinet's map of Australia is published.
1813
Gregory Blaxland leads the first successful crossing of the Blue Mountains (by westerners) in New South Wales.
1814
The Cape Colony is ceded to Britain in return for a cash payment.
1814 - 1815
Napoleon is removed from power and exiled to Elba, only to escape and return to France. However, his 'Hundred Days' end in defeat at the Battle of Waterloo.
1816
An expedition led by Otto von Kotzebue reaches Cape Krusentern, Alaska.
1816
Allan Cunningham begins collecting plants for Joseph Banks in New South Wales.
1816 - 1826
Argentina declares independence from Spain, which is secured by 1826.
1817
Louis de Freycinet leads a circumnavigation of the world aboard the Uranie, recording a wealth of scientific data and specimens.
1817 - 1820
Johann Baptist von Spix and Carl Friedrich Philipp von Martius explore the Amazon and Negro rivers.
1818
John Ross leads an expedition to the Arctic, and records that Lancaster Sound is blocked by ice.
1818 - 1822
John Franklin attempts to complete the Northwest Passage overland, travelling via the Great Slave Lake.
1819 - 1820
An expedition under William Parry travels half of the distance from Greenland to the Bering Strait, reviving hopes that a Northwest Passage may exist.
1819 - 1821
An expedition led by Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen circumnavigates Antarctica.
1819 - 1820
An expedition led by William Bransfield sights Antarctica.
1821 - 1824
Ferdinand von Wrangel leads an expedition which explores the Siberian coastline, establishing that an open sea exists north of the Kolyma River. The expedition records a great deal of scientific and ethnographic data.
1821
Peru declares independence from Spain.
1821
Simon Bolivar assumes the Presidency of Gran Colombia, comprising Colombia, Ecuador, Panama, Venezuela and Northern Peru.
1821
The North West Company is incorporated into the Hudson's Bay Company.
1822
Brazil declares independence from Portugal.
1822
Nicéphore Niépce is believed to have created the world's first permanent photographic image.
1823
Benjamin Morrell claims to have sighted land, dubbed New South Greenland, in what is now known as the Weddell Sea.
1823
James Weddell enters Antarctic waters.
1824
George Byron, 7th Baron Byron, leads an expedition to the Pacific.
1824 - 1827
John Franklin and William Parry lead a search for the Northwest Passage.
1825 - 1828
Frederick William Beechey leads an expedition to the Pacific and the Bering Strait, accompanied by Edward Belcher as surveyor.
1826 - 1829
Jules Dumont d'Urville leads a circumnavigation of the globe aboard the Astrolabe (formerly La Coquille), which undertakes a number of scientific surveys and locates the site of La Pérouse's shipwreck.
1827
William Parry leads an unsuccessful attempt to reach the North Pole from Spitsbergen.
1828
Uruguay, occupied by Portuguese and later Brazilian forces since 1816, becomes an independent state under the Treaty of Montevideo.
1829
Britain claims the entire Australian continent as its territory.
1829 - 1833
John Ross leads a search for the Northwest Passage. Forced to abandon ship, his crew are rescued by the Isabella.
1829
William Parry establishes the location of the Magnetic North Pole.
1830
The July Revolution in France sees Charles X, King of France and Navarre, replaced by his cousin Louis Philippe, King of the French.
1830 - 1833
The Southern Ocean expedition under the command of Captain John Biscoe locates new sealing grounds, Adelaide Island and the Biscoe Islands, circumnavigating the Antarctic continent.
1831 - 1836
HMS Beagle carries out a second hydrographical survey of South America. The ship's supernumerary geologist, Charles Darwin, spends the voyage carrying out research which inspires his On the Origin of Species.
1831
Robert Brown discovers the cell nucleus.
1833
The East India Company's monopoly of trade with India is ended.
1833
The British Parliament passes the Abolition of Slavery Act.
1834
The Council of the Indies is abolished.
1835
Samuel Morse invents Morse Code.
1836 - 1837
Sir George Back leads an unsuccessful attempt to discover the Northwest Passage aboard HMS Terror, which is left icebound for 10 months.
1836 - 1842
HMS Sulphur, commanded by at first by Frederick Beechey, subsequently by Henry Kellet and Edward Belcher, surveys the western coasts of America and the harbour at Hong Kong. The vessel also participates in the war with China.
1836 - 1843
Sir John Franklin serves as Governor of Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania).
1837 - 1840
Dumont d'Urville leads a second circumnavigation of the globe aboard the Astrolabe.
1838 - 1842
Charles Wilkes leads United States Exploring Expedition, a scientific voyage which reaches a series of Pacific Islands and the Antarctic.
1839 - 1843
James Clark Ross leads an expedition which charts the Antarctic coastline, discovering the Ross Ice Shelf and Transantarctic Mountains. The expedition, considered to be the last major voyage of exploration made entirely under sail, infers the position of the Magnetic South Pole; Joseph Hooker, who accompanied the crew, makes a number of important botanical and zoological observations.
1839 - 1842
The First Opium War is fought between Britain and China.