1671 1672 1673 1674 1675 1676 1677 1678 1679 1680
Contents: political eventshuman rights, social justice commerce science medicine education literature art theater, film food availability |
The Treaty of Westminster February 9 ends the 2-year war between England and the Dutch. It returns New York and Delaware to England (see 1673), freeing the English to expand their trade and grow prosperous while Europe becomes embroiled in depleting warfare. Parliament has cut off funds, forcing Charles II to cease hostilities. George Villiers, 2nd duke of Buckingham, denounces Charles's chief minister Henry Bennet, 1st earl of Arlington (he was given his earldom 2 years ago), who is thought to have taken bribes from the Dutch and is impeached on charges of embezzlement, "betrayal of trust," and promoting Roman Catholicism. Exonerated, Arlington resigns as secretary of state September 11 and accepts the lucrative position of lord chancellor. Buckingham is dismissed from the government.
French troops devastate the Palatinate. Spain and the Holy Roman Empire join with the Dutch in a coalition to frustrate the ambitions of Louis XIV.
Poland's nobility elects Jan Sobieski king in May, choosing him in preference to a candidate favored by the Hapsburgs (see 1673). The army commander-in-chief has intimidated other contenders by arriving at Warsaw with 6,000 veterans of his triumph against the Turks last year and will reign until 1796 as Jan III Sobieski, initially with a pro-French policy that favors a settlement of the war with Constantinople. The Ottoman grand vizier Fazl Ahmed Köprülü invades the Ukraine during the summer in order to block Russian intervention in the area (see 1675).
A Maratha dynasty that will rule in India until 1818 is founded June 6 at Raigarh, where the onetime bandit raider Shivaji crowns himself with great ceremony to begin a reign that will continue until his death in 1680 (see 1667). He will thwart the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb's hope of taking over the entire subcontinent by making alliances with the sultans of Bijapur and Golconda, employing many Muslims and permitting freedom to Christians as well as Muslims even though both have a history of imposing their beliefs on Hindus by force.
General Wu Sangui (Wu San-kuei) advances into central China with a view to establishing his new Zhou (Chou) dynasty at Beijing (Peking) (see 1673), but the Manchus hold his son hostage. Wu holds up his march, and although a revolt by the Chahar Mongol chief Burni diverts imperial forces, Wu's delay gives the vigorous young Qing (Ch'ing) emperor Kangxi (K'ang-hsi) time to prepare for an offensive in the south (see 1676).
Efforts by the 10-year-old French East India Company (Compagnie des Indes Orientales) to colonize Madagascar end with a massacre of nearly all French settlers by the ethnic group Antanosy, with whom they have established cordial relations (see 1626). Survivors take refuge on the nearby island of Bourbon (later Réunion), France will not try again for nearly a century, and Madagascar meanwhile will become a source of slaves and a favored sanctuary for pirates, who will use it to resupply themselves for predatory attacks on shipping in the Arabian and Red seas (see 1797). The company will establish ports on Bourbon and on Ile-de-France (later Mauritius) (see commerce [Bengal], 1688).
The French crown takes over the Caribbean islands of Martinique and Guadeloupe, making Guadeloupe the dependency of Martinique that it will remain until 1775 (see 1635; Martinique, 1664). The Pacte Colonial establishes principles for the administrators at Paris, who will operate under the precept, "The mother country founds and maintains the colonies; the colonies enrich the mother country." Sugar plantations will make the colonies prosper with help from African slaves imported to the French Antilles by the 10-year-old Compagnie du Sénégal (see Labat, 1703).
English Puritan scholar Richard Baxter, 59, denounces slave hunters as "enemies of mankind," but he does not object to plantation slavery itself so long as the slaves are well treated.
English Quakers purchase the New Jersey colony interests of Lord John Berkeley (see 1665).
Delft microscopist Antonie van Leeuwenhoek, 41, observes "very little animalcules" (or infusoria) using the first of more than 400 simple microscopes that he will produce. Chamberlain since 1660 to the city's sheriff, Leeuwenhoek has sufficient income to devote considerable time and attention to his avocation of grinding lenses and using them to study tiny objects which he has isolated from ponds, rainwater, well water, and other sources (see medicine, 1675).
Statistician John Graunt dies at his native London April 18 at age 53.
Oxford physician Thomas Willis, now 53, establishes that the urine of diabetics is "wonderfully sweet as it were imbued with Honey or Sugar," but while he distinguishes diabetes mellitus from other forms of the disease he suggests that it is a disease of the blood. Physician to England's Charles II, Willis helped found the Royal Society in 1662 (see 1788; Brunner, 1683). He blocks the vagus nerve in a live dog and establishes the nerve's influence on the lungs and heart. Willis also publishes works on the brain and nervous system (see Cannon, 1912).
Ergotism strikes French peasants at Gatinais in a severe outbreak (see 1597; 1722).
"Essay to Revive the Ancient Education of Gentlewomen In Religion, Manners, Arts, and Tongues—With an Answer to the Objections against This Way of Education" by English educator Basua (or Bathshua) Makin (née Pell), 67, calls for an inclusive course of studies for girls. Daughter of a Sussex rector and onetime tutor to the children of the late Charles I, Makin knew some Latin, Greek, Hebrew, French, and Italian by age 9; she has been corresponding in Greek of late with the Dutch scholar Anna van Schurman; and although she demanded 12 years ago that young women be permitted to study not only painting and poetry but also grammar, rhetoric, logic, mathematics, physics, geography, history, and languages (especially Greek and Latin), she has modified that demand.
The Great Historical Dictionary, or Anthology of Sacred and Secular History (Le grand Dictionnaire historique ou Mélange curieux de l'histoire sacré et profane) published at Lyons has been compiled by clergyman Louis Moréri, 31. Its focus is on biographical and historical articles, it will be translated into German, Italian, and Spanish as well as English, and it will appear in 20 editions by 1759 (see Chambers, 1728; Diderot, 1751).
Historian-statesman Edward Hyde, 1st earl of Clarendon, dies in exile at Rouen December 9 at age 65.
Poetry: "L'Art poétique" by Nicolas Boileau-Despréaux is a treatise in verse expounding classical standards. The work establishes Boileau as the leading neoclassical critic of his time and his mock epic "Le Lutrin" popularizes that genre.
Poet John Milton dies of gout at his native London November 8 age 65.
Painting: A Man Reading a Letter to a Woman by Pieter de Hooch. Philippe de Champaigne dies at Paris August 12 at age 72.
Theater: Iphigénia (Iphigénie) by Jean Racine 8/18 at Versailles and late in the year at the Hôtel de Bourgogne, Paris; Surenas (Surena) by Pierre Corneille 10/11 at the Hôtel de Bourgogne.
Composer Giacomo Carissimi dies at Rome January 12 at age 68, having gained widespread fame for his secular cantatas and his 16 oratorios on Old Testament subjects—"substitute operas" performed during the Lenten season, when operas are forbidden.
Japan has a terrible famine. Food prices rise sharply, and there is great hunger among the masses of people.
1671 1672 1673 1674 1675 1676 1677 1678 1679 1680
