The 1700s: a new capital, a united Britain and the piano

In 1703, Tsar Peter the Great founded St Petersburg on the marshy banks of the Neva River. He wanted a modern port facing Europe, and he later made the new city Russia's capital, which it remained for about two centuries.

On 1 May 1707, the Acts of Union joined the kingdoms of England and Scotland into a single state, the Kingdom of Great Britain, with one parliament in London.

In 1709, at Coalbrookdale in Shropshire, Abraham Darby succeeded in smelting iron using coke made from coal instead of charcoal from wood. Iron could now be made more cheaply and in larger quantities, which later fed the Industrial Revolution.

Music gained a new instrument. Around 1700, Bartolomeo Cristofori, who looked after instruments for the Medici family in Florence, built a keyboard that could play both soft and loud. He called it the 'gravicembalo col piano e forte', from which we get the name piano.

Much of northern Europe was at war. The Great Northern War, which began in 1700, set Russia against Sweden and would last until 1721, ending with Russia as a major European power.