| Year |
Austen |
Literary history |
Political history |
| 1780 |
|
- Publication of The Education of Humanity by Gotthold Ephraim Lessing
|
- 2–11 June – Gordon Riots in London, protesting the Catholic Relief Act
|
| 1781 |
|
- Publication of Schiller's drama The Robbers
- Publication of Immanuel Kant's philosophical treatise Critique of Pure Reason
|
- 19 October – Franco-American force defeats the British at the Battle of Yorktown, effectively ending the fighting in America during War of Independence
|
| 1782 |
- December – First amateur theatrical production at Steventon – Matilda
|
- Publication of Frances Burney's (pictured) novel Cecilia
- Posthumous publication of the first part of Rousseau's autobiographical Confessions
- Publication of Pierre Choderlos de Laclos's novel Les Liaisons dangereuses
|
|
| 1783 |
- Edward Austen adopted by Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Knight of Godmersham, Kent
- Spring – Jane Austen, Cassandra Austen, and Jane Cooper sent to live with Mrs. Cawley in Oxford to be educated
- Summer – Mrs. Cawley moves to Southampton and the girls fall ill
|
|
- 3 September – Treaty of Versailles signed, formally ending the American War of Independence
- December – William Pitt becomes Prime Minister of Great Britain
|
| 1784 |
- Amateur theatricals at Steventon continue – The Rivals
|
|
- Pitt's India Act gives the British Crown (rather than officers of the East India Company) the power to guide Indian politics
|
| 1785 |
- Spring – Austen and Cassandra attend Abbey School, Reading, Berkshire
|
- Publication of William Cowper's (pictured) poem The Task
|
|
| 1786 |
- Edward Austen takes the Grand Tour of the Continent (1786–90)
- April – Francis Austen enters the Royal Naval Academy at Portsmouth
- November – James Austen travels to the Continent
- December – Austen and Cassandra leave Abbey School
|
- Publication of Robert Burns's Poems Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect
|
- December – Shays' Rebellion in the United States (December 1786 – January 1787)
- Beginning of impeachment proceedings in British Parliament brought by Edmund Burke against Warren Hastings, Governor-General of India
|
| 1787 |
- Austen begins writing juvenilia (pictured)
- Autumn – James Austen returns from the Continent
- December – Amateur theatricals at Steventon continue – The Wonder
|
|
- 13 May – First fleet of convicts sails to penal colony in Australia from Britain
- 22 May – Committee for the Abolition of the Slave Trade is formed in Britain
|
| 1788 |
- January – Amateur theatricals continue at Steventon – The Chances
- March – Amateur theatrical continue at Steventon – Tom Thumb
- 1 July – Henry Austen matriculates at St. John's College, Oxford
- Summer – Mr. and Mrs. Austen take Jane and Cassandra to Kent and London
- 23 December – Francis Austen leaves the Royal Naval Academy and sails to the East Indies
- Winter – Amateur theatricals continue at Steventon – The Sultan and High Life Below Stairs
|
- 1 January – First edition of The Times is published
- Publication of Charlotte Smith's (pictured) novel Emmeline
|
- November – Beginning of the Regency Crisis, caused by George III's madness
|
| 1789 |
- Publication of the first issue of James Austen's periodical The Loiterer; issued weekly until March 1790
|
- 29 April – Publication of former slave Olaudah Equiano's autobiography The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano
- Publication of William Blake's poems Songs of Innocence
- Posthumous publication of the second part of Rousseau's autobiographical Confessions
|
- 14 July – Storming of the Bastille in Paris (pictured)
- 26 August – The French Assembly adopts the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen
- 5–6 October – "October days"; Parisian women, unable to buy bread, march to Versailles and bring the royal family back to Paris
- December – End of the Regency Crisis (George III recovers)
|