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The Treaty of Karlowitz concluded January 26 between Austria, Poland, and the Ottoman Turks ends a 17-year struggle and marks the first defeat of Muslim power in years (see Battle of Szlankamen, 1691; Battle of Zenta, 1697). Despite reverses on the Iberian peninsula in the 15th century, the Muslims have been enlarging their territorial conquests since the 7th century, but the Ottoman grand vizier Amca-zade Hüsein agrees to give up all of Hungary except for the Bánat of Temesvár to Austria, which also obtains Transylvania, Croatia, and Slovenia. Poland regains Podolia and the Turkish part of the Ukraine; Venice receives the Morea and most of Dalmatia.
Liechtenstein's ruling prince Johann Adam I, 42, expands his principality by purchasing Schellenberg (see 1608). A grandson of the first prince, he will purchase Vaduz in 1712 and die that year, ending the hereditary line that began with Karl I (see 1719).
Denmark's Kristian V dies in a hunting accident at Copenhagen August 25 at age 53. He is succeeded by his son, 28, who will reign until 1730 as Frederik IV. Denmark and Russia sign a mutual defense pact against Sweden in July. The two join with Saxony in an offensive alliance against Sweden. All three covet Swedish territory. Denmark wants to recover her Skane provinces, and although Sweden's army is probably the best in Europe, her young king Karl (Charles) XII is considered weak. The Treaty of Preobrazhenskoe signed in November provides for the partition of the Swedish Empire among Denmark, Russia, Poland, and Saxony (whose elector August is also king of Poland), but Czar Peter's chief military adviser Patrick Gordon dies at Moscow November 29 at age 64 (see Great Northern War, 1700).
A Sikh military brotherhood that will be called the Khalsa is founded by Sikh Guru Gobind Singh, 33, who is a linguist and poet as well as a military leader.
The 11-year-old prince Jai Singh ascends the throne of the Amber state to begin a 44-year reign as Sawai Jai Singh II in which he will expand his minor districts of Amber, Dosa, and Baswa to make them a powerful kingdom.
William Dampier sets sail January 14 in the superannuated 290-ton ship Roebuck on the first Pacific expedition to be fitted out by the Admiralty (see 1697). Commissioned a captain by the Admiralty and given a fractious crew too small to operate the vessel, Dampier reaches western Australia July 31, uses the late Abel Tasman's charts to explore the west coast of Australia in August, finds it disappointing, re-provisions at Timor, proceeds along the north coast of New Guinea, and discovers a large island that he names New Britain (it will later prove to be three adjoining islands) and is the first European to land on it (see 1606; 1700; Cook, 1770).
French-Canadian explorer Pierre Lemoyne, 38, sieur d'Iberville, pioneers settlement of the North American Gulf Coast with his brother Jean Baptiste Lemoyne, 19, sieur de Bienville. They land on Dauphin island at the mouth of Mobile Bay on their way to establish French colonies for Louis XIV in the Mississippi Delta (see Mobile, 1702).
Cahokia is founded by French priests of the Seminary of Foreign Missions. It is the first permanent settlement in the Illinois wilderness (see 1675; 1717).
The Virginia colony moves its capital to Middle Plantation (Williamsburg). A fire last year drove the colonists out of Jamestown, and the 66-year-old settlement at Middle Plantation will remain the Virginia capital of Williamsburg until 1779 (see College of William and Mary, 1693).
Disease ravages the Darien colony of the Company of Scotland trading to Africa and the Indies. William Paterson loses his wife and child, is reduced by illness to looking "more like a skeleton than a man," and is carried weak and protesting aboard ship in June (see 1698). The hapless survivors embark in three ships for home and reach England after a stormy passage in December. Two shiploads of reinforcements that left England in May and four that left in August come to grief when they encounter superior Spanish forces at Darien. The Spanish oblige them to capitulate, and few of the Scotsmen will ever reach home.
The Woolens Act passed by Parliament under pressure from the English wool lobby forbids any American colony to export wool, wool yarn, or wool cloth "to any place whatsoever." The act causes certain hardship on rural New Englanders. But while nearly every New England family keeps sheep and has a spinning wheel, few Americans are eager to enter the woolen manufacturing industry.
Yellow fever epidemics kill 150 at Charleston (Charlestown) and 220 at Philadelphia.
The Massachusetts Bay colony passes a law designed to prevent the spread of infectious diseases.
Theater: Xerxes by Colley Cibber in February at London's Drury Lane Theatre; The Constant Couple, or A Trip to Jubilee by Irish playwright George Farquhar, 22, in November at the Drury Lane Theatre; The Tragical History of King Richard III by Cibber in December at the Drury Lane Theatre (adaptation of the 1592 Shakespeare play).
Playwright Jean Racine dies at Port-Royal April 21 at age 59 and is buried there by fellow Jansenists.
Stockholm's Drottningholm Palace is completed in French Renaissance style to provide a summer residence for the royal family on the island of Lovo in Lake Malar.
English bread prices reach a level twice what they were in 1693 as poor crops continue to create shortages.
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