1725

1725 was a year in the 18th century characterized by political transition and continued global exchange. The most consequential event occurred in Russia, where the death of Tsar Peter the Great on February 8, 1725 (Old Style) led to the accession of Catherine I as empress, inaugurating a transitional era that preserved much of Peter’s administrative framework while easing direct autocratic pressure.

Across Europe, monarchies pursued stability and reform. In France, Louis XV’s government, led by the chief minister Cardinal André-Hercule de Fleury, emphasized peacetime governance and economic development, with culture in the late Baroque and early Rococo flourishing. In Britain, the Walpole administration continued a policy of prudent government and mercantile expansion, often described as the Whig settlement.

In East Asia, the Qing dynasty under the Yongzheng Emperor continued administrative consolidation and fiscal reform, strengthening central authority after the 1722 accession.

The year also sits within the broader currents of the Enlightenment, as scientists, philosophers, and academies continued to circulate ideas across Europe and beyond, promoting empirical inquiry and reformist thinking, even as no single defining discovery is tied to a specific date in 1725.