An alliance between the French and Spanish Bourbons is the first of what become known as the Family Compacts

Voltaire publishes a series of Philosophical Letters comparing the French unfavourably with England

In the Treaty of Vienna, France accepts the Pragmatic Sanction of Charles VI – the last of the European powers to do so

Spain, now an ally of France, joins in the war against Austria

France formally declares war on Britain half way through the War of the Austrian Succession

Bad weather causes the French to abandon a plan to invade Britain with the Scottish pretender Charles Edward Stuart

Maurice de Saxe, with a French army including an Irish brigade, defeats British, Austrian and Dutch forces at Fontenoy

Monsieur Passemont constructs in Paris a millennium clock which can record the date in any year up to AD 9999

A French official travels down the Ohio valley, placing markers to claim it for France

A great French undertaking by Denis Diderot, his 28-volume Encyclopédie, begins publication

French painter Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin returns to the subject matter that first took his interest, still life

French painter Jean-Honoré Fragonard wins the cherished Prix de Rome at the age of 20

Francesco Guardi, previously a painter of figures, begins to specialize in view of Venice, his native city

In what becomes known as the Diplomatic Revolution, two of Europe's long-standing rivals - France and Austria - sign a treaty of alliance

William Pitt the Elder becomes secretary of state and transforms the British war effort against France in America

Voltaire publishes Candide, a satire on optimism prompted by the Lisbon earthquake of 1755

Two books in this year, Émile and Du Contrat Social, prompt orders for the arrest of Jean-Jacques Rousseau

A treaty signed in Paris ends the Seven Years' War between Britain, France and Spain

In the treaty of Paris France cedes to Britain all its territory north of the Great Lakes and east of the Mississippi river, except the district of New Orleans

Pierre le Roy's chronometer, as accurate as Harrison's and cheaper to construct, is set to become the standard model

Corsica is sold to France by the republic of Genoa

A French artist, Jean Baptiste le Prince, discovers the aquatint technique in printmaking

French inventor Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot successfully tests a steam wagon, probably the first working mechanical vehicle

Figaro makes his first appearance on stage in Beaumarchais' The Barber of Seville

Talleyrand begins an extremely varied career by becoming an abbot at the age of twenty-one