| Term | Description | Dates |
| Robert Jenkins | English captain; lost his ear to the Spaniards in the West Indies; | 1731 |
| War of the Austrian Succession | Prussian siezure of Silesia initiated it; France got involved and pulled Britain and Spain into it as well; | 1740-1748 |
| Maria Theresa | preserved the Habsburg Empire as a major political power; won loyalty and support from subjects; granted privilages to the nobles; | (r. 1740-1780) |
| Diplomatic Revolution | French and Indian War lead up to this; | 1756 |
| The Seven Years' War | Initiated by Frederick II's invasion of Saxony; ended with the Treaty of Hubertusburg | (1756-1763) |
| Marquis Cesare Beccaria | Italian aristocrat; philosophe; "On Crimes and Punishments" | 1738-1794 |
| physiocrats | one of a school of political economists who followed Quesnay in holding that an inherent natural order properly governed society, regarding land as the basis of wealth and taxation, and advocating a laissez-faire economy. | n/a |
| François Quesney and Pierre Dupont de Nemours | leading spokespeople of the physiocrats | (1694-1774) and (1739-1817), respectively |
| Adam Smith | "Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations" important economic figure; professor at Glasgow University; believed in economic liberty; | 1723-1790 |
