1717

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1711 1712 1713 1714 1715 1716 1717 1718 1719 1720

Contents:

political events
commerce
technology
education
art
theater, film
architecture, real estate
population

political events

The triple alliance formed January 4 by Britain, France, and the Dutch Republic forces the Old Pretender James III to leave France. James has intrigued with the Swedish king Karl (Charles) XII and the Spanish prime minister Cardinal Giulio Alberoni, 53.

Cardinal Alberoni sends a secret Spanish expeditionary force to seize Sardinia and raid Sicily while Eugene of Savoy is away fighting the Ottoman Turks (see 1718).

An Austrian army commanded by Eugene of Savoy takes Belgrade from the Turks (see Peace of Passarowitz, 1718).

Spain creates the viceroyalty of New Granada with its seat of power at Bogotá to reduce the viceroyalty of Peru to more manageable size (see 1529; 1539; 1776).

commerce

France nationalizes the private bank opened last year by Scottish monetary reformer John Law, which becomes the Banque Royale. It pays the debts of the regent Philippe d'Orléans, and it issues notes that the government accepts for taxes and other royal revenue. These notes are backed in principle by bullion in its vaults, but their value is in fact based largely on the gold alleged to exist in France's Louisiana territory. The regent and Parlement give Law a 25-year monopoly on trade in Louisiana and exploitation of the riches of the Mississippi Valley and New France (Canada) on condition that he send out at least 6,000 whites and 3,000 blacks to settle a vast territory that includes the Illinois country, which is rich in furs, as is New France. Law establishes the Compagnie d'Occident to encourage emigration to Louisiana and agrees to pay down some of France's huge national debt out of the company's profits, but investors are initially reluctant to buy shares in the new venture (see 1718).

technology

Ironmaster Abraham Darby dies at Madeley Court in his native Worcestershire March 8 at age 38 (approximate), having laid the foundations for the Industrial Revolution with his coke ovens and cast iron. His 6-year-old son and namesake will take over his business, and by 1758 will have cast more than 100 Newcomen steam-engine cylinders at Coalbrookdale (see transportation [iron bridge], 1781).

education

Prussia makes school attendance compulsory, but few families send their daughters to school.

art

Painting: Embarkation for the Isle of Cythera by Antoine Watteau, who is admitted at last to the French Academy at age 32.

theater, film

Theater: Actress Adrienne Lecouvreur, 25, gives her first performance at the Comédie-Française, appearing in the 1708 play Electra (Elèctre) by Prosper Jolyot, sieur de Crébillon. She attracts admirers who will soon include the author François Marie Arouet de Voltaire, 23, (Hermann-) Maurice, comte de Saxe, 21, and Charles Mordaunt, 3rd earl of Peterborough, 59 (see 1730).

architecture, real estate

London's St. Mary-Le-Strand is completed by Scottish architect James Gibbs, 35, after 3 years of construction.

population

A great emigration to the Pennsylvania colony begins among German Dunkers, Mennonites, and Moravians (see Schwenkfelders, 1734).

1711 1712 1713 1714 1715 1716 1717 1718 1719 1720


Mathematics

Abraham Sharp [b. Bradford, England, 1651, d. Bradford, 1742] finds the value of π to 72 places. See also 1706 Mathematics;1768 Mathematics.

Medicine & health

Lady Mary Wortley Montagu [b. London, 1689, d. London, April 29 or August 21, 1762] brings back to England the Turkish practice of inoculation and has her own two children vaccinated against smallpox. See also 1701 Medicine & health; 1721 Medicine & health.

Giovanni Lancisi suggests in De noxiis paludum effluviis ("on the noxious effluvia of marshes") that malaria can be transmitted by a mosquito. See also 1892 Medicine & health.


Essays and Philosophy

  • John Wise: A Vindication of the Government of New-England Churches. Wise continues the theme of his earlier writings on the resistance to authoritarianism in regulating the churches. Wise draws comparisons between civil governments--which prosper under democratic rule--and churches--which prosper under independent self-governance. Reissued in 1772, it is widely noted as a forerunner to writings that will sanction revolution and independence.

Sermons and Religious Writing

  • Joseph Sewall (1688-1769): "The Character and Blessedness of the Upright." After a Boston youth is killed in a duel, Sewall, a pastor of Boston's Old South Church, which became known as "Dr. Sewall's Meeting House," uses the occasion to catalog the sins to be avoided by Boston's impetuous youth.

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Years: 1714 1715 171617171718 1719 1720
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1717 in other calendars
Gregorian calendar 1717
MDCCXVII
Ab urbe condita 2470
Armenian calendar 1166
ԹՎ ՌՃԿԶ
Assyrian calendar 6467
Bahá'í calendar -127–-126
Bengali calendar 1124
Berber calendar 2667
British Regnal year Geo. 1 – 4 Geo. 1
Buddhist calendar 2261
Burmese calendar 1079
Byzantine calendar 7225–7226
Chinese calendar 丙申年十一月十九日
(4353/4413-11-19)
— to —
丁酉年十一月廿九日
(4354/4414-11-29)
Coptic calendar 1433–1434
Ethiopian calendar 1709–1710
Hebrew calendar 5477–5478
Hindu calendars
 - Vikram Samvat 1773–1774
 - Shaka Samvat 1639–1640
 - Kali Yuga 4818–4819
Holocene calendar 11717
Iranian calendar 1095–1096
Islamic calendar 1129–1130
Japanese calendar Kyōhō 2
(享保2年)
Korean calendar 4050
Minguo calendar 195 before ROC
民前195年
Thai solar calendar 2260


Year 1717 (MDCCXVII) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar and a common year starting on Monday of the 11-day slower Julian calendar.

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Mentioned in

Grand Lodge of England (parapsychology)
Garrick, David (British actor and theater manager)
Watteau, Jean Antoine (French painter)