1690
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Contents: political eventshuman rights, social justice exploration, colonization commerce religion communications, media literature art theater, film music marine resources agriculture |
The Battle of Beachy Head in the English Channel off Sussex June 30 ends in victory for Admirals Château-Renault and de Tourville over an Anglo-Dutch fleet commanded by Admiral Arthur Herbert, 43, earl of Torrington, who will be acquitted by a court martial of charges that he held back. Tourville's triumph creates a panic at London, but he does not follow up on his success (see 1689; La Hogue, 1692).
The Battle of Fleurus ends in victory for Louis XIV's marshal François Henri de Montmorency-Bouteville, 62, duc de Luxembourg, over the prince of Waldeck.
The Battle of the Boyne July 1 completes the Protestant conquest of Ireland as England's William III ("Dutch William") defeats the Catholic pretender James II and his French supporters. James flees back to France; Dublin and Waterford fall to the Protestant English; but Limerick resists and the Irish Jacobite Patrick Sarsfield, earl of Lucan, forces William to lift his siege of Limerick.
Spain and Savoy join the League of Augsburg against France's Louis XIV.
Ottoman forces drive the Austrians out of Bulgaria, Serbia, and Transylvania, retake Belgrade, and force the Serbs to flee into southern Hungary (see 1389; Treaty of Passarowitz, 1718).
New France's governor-general Louis de Buade, comte de Palluau et de Frontenac, sends three war parties in January to attack English frontier settlements at Schectady, Fort Loyal, and Salmon Falls, all of which are destroyed with heavy loss of life (see 1689). Frontenac's main target—Boston—escapes unscathed, but when English forces under the command of Sir William Phips, 38, retaliate with an attack on Quebec, Frontenac rallies a stout resistance and repels the invaders in what will be remembered as the first French and Indian War.
Former New York mayor Nicholas Bayard is imprisoned by Jacob Leisler's followers early in the year (see 1689). Opponents of Leisler meet at the King's Arms tavern in Cedar Street, but the first intercolonial congress in America is summoned in May at the initiative of Lieutenant Governor Leisler to address issues of defending the colonies against possible attacks by the French and Indians (see 1691).
Slaves on Jamaican sugar estates reach an estimated total of 40,000 (see 1789; 1820).
Calcutta is founded August 24 by most accounts, although an investigation in 2002 will reveal references to a Bengali settlement at the mouth of the Ganges dating to the 15th century. English merchant Job Charnock came out to India in 1655 or 1656, later joined the East India Company, married a Hindu man's widow after taking her from a funeral pyre, has been the company's chief agent at Huglí, and when that port comes under siege moves its goods and servants in light vessels 27 miles down the river to a swampy area, paying 1,200 rupees to acquire three villages (see politics, 1686). Charnock will die at the city in early January 1693 (see politics, 1756; environment [earthquake], 1737).
Commodity futures trading has its beginnings in Japan, where feudal lords sell rice for future delivery in a market called cho-ai-mai. The contracts protect them in the event of bad weather or wars (European merchants as early as the 12th century signed contracts called lettres de faires at trade fairs, promising future delivery of various items that they sold).
The Massachusetts Bay Colony issues the first paper money in America February 3 and uses it to pay soldiers fighting against Quebec (see Leyden, 1574; John Law, 1705).
The "Apostle to the Indians" John Eliot dies at Roxbury, Massachusetts, May 21 at age 85.
A paper mill put up at Germantown in the Pennsylvania colony is the first in America. Mennonite clergyman William Rittenhouse, 46, has been in Pennsylvania for 2 years and has organized a paper manufacturing company (see Robert, 1798).
Public Occurrences Both Foreign and Domestick appears September 25 at Boston, but English authorities have forbidden publication of anything without authority from the crown and suppress printer Benjamin Harris's newspaper after one day, destroying all undistributed copies (see 1704).
Nonfiction: Two Treatises of Civil Government by philosopher John Locke presents a theory of limited monarchy, a social contract that will greatly influence the future course of monarchical government: "The liberty of man in society is to be under no other legislative power but that established by consent in the commonwealth, nor under the domination of any will, or restraint of any law, but what that legislative shall enact according to the trust put in it." Locke has written the treatises in justification of the Glorious Revolution of 1688-1689, which was precipitated in large part by James II's threat of attack on laws, property, and the Protestant religion. Government must protect "life, liberty, and property" if it is to be legitimate, Locke says; "The great and chief end of men . . . putting themselves under government, is the preservation of their property." Any government must govern by "declared and reasoned laws," and it has no right to take a man's property without his consent. A supporter of slavery, Locke includes slaves as property to be protected (see human rights [Jefferson], 1776); "An Essay Concerning Human Understanding" by John Locke tries to resolve the question of what human understanding is and is not capable of dealing with. His essay is the fruit of 17 years' effort.
Painting: The Mill by Meindert Hobbema. Painter-designer Charles Le Brun dies at his native Paris February 12 at age 70, having for 3 decades supervised the creation of government-commissioned paintings, sculptures, and decorative objects to create a homogeneous French style of academic and propagandistic art; David Teniers the Younger dies at Brussels April 25 at 79.
Theater: Amphitryon, or The Two Socia's by John Dryden in October at London's Drury Lane Theatre.
Composer Giovanni Legrenzi dies at Venice May 27 at age 63 (approximate), having written about 19 operas plus numerous masses, motets, oratorios, sonatas, and other pieces.
Nantucket colonists launch an offshore whaling industry (see 1659). They had hoped to support themselves by agriculture and sheepherding, but the proliferation of farms and the growing size of livestock herds have combined to make the future of those enterprises doubtful; having watched the native Wampanoag hunt whales offshore from the south end of the island each year from fall to spring, they have learned the habits of right whales (so called because they are the "right" whales to kill) and sent to the mainland for Cape Cod shipwright-whaler Ichabod Paddock, who has set up watch towers and instructed the islanders (see 1712).
Dutch mariners smuggle coffee plants out of the Arab port of Mocha. They plant some in their Java colony and send others to the botanical gardens at Amsterdam (see 1713).
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