HISTORICAL BACKGROUND AND TIMELINE

Voltaire lived during a time of social, scientific and philosophical upheaval around the world, and he was a major observer of and commentator on the events of his time. Below is a summary of the world history of this time.

France at the time of Voltaire's birth was an absolute monarchy with a wealthy court and poverty for most of the rest of the people. Indeed, four-fifths of the population was very poor, and only one-fourth of the men and even fewer of the women could read. A small middle class was just strugling to emerge. It was a police state: the police regulated and controlled food supplies, public health, street lighting, fire prevention and industry as well as maintaining public order. In Paris and there was one legal official for each 85 citizens and the criminal code was cruel, unjust and deadly. Morals were under control of the Roman Catholic Church which controlled every aspect of life from baptism to deciding who could be buried in Paris (Voltaire could not). All his life Voltaire fought the eighteenth century evils which led to the French Revolution. While some people had started to believe that the evil conditions of the past had been largely corrected, Voltaire continued to point out it was not.

1643: Accession of Louis XIV
1687: Isaac Newton's Principia Mathematica
1694: Birth of François Marie Arouet (Voltaire)
1704: Voltaire enters Jesuit College Louis-le-Grand
1706: Birth of Benjamin Franklin 1710: Leibnitz introduces his concept "the best of all possible worlds"
1715: Death of Louis XIV and accession of Louis XV. Voltaire was at the funeral.
1718: Voltaire in the Bastille
1726-29: Voltaire in England
1733: Alexander Pope: Essay on Man
1740: Accession of Frederick II of Prussia
1750-1763: "Seven Years War"
1755: Lisbon earthquake
1756: Voltaire writes his poem on the earthquake of Lisbon
1757-59: Candide
1762: Accession of Catherine the Great of Russia
1763: Treaty of Paris: France cedes Canada, Mississippi and India to Britain
1774: Accession of Louis XVI
1775: Start of American Revolution
1776: Declaration of Independence
1778: Benjamin Franklin meets Voltaire. Death of Voltaire
1789: George Washington inaugurated as President, fall of the Bastille and start of French Revolution
1793: Execution of Louis XVI

Return to Candide Home Page

Revised August 2008
Please credit Lyric Opera San Diego when using this material.