1780
1771 1772 1773 1774 1775 1776 1777 1778 1779 1780
Mobile falls to the Spanish governor Bernardo de Galvez March 14 as British forces under Sir Henry Clinton prepare to besiege Charleston (see 1779). The South Carolina legislature gives Governor John Rutledge war powers "to do anything necessary for the public good" to defend the city "except the taking away of a citizen without legal trial"; the port city is the richest in America, its rice trade has created great fortunes, but it surrenders May 12 after holding out for more than 5 weeks, and the British take some 2,500 prisoners including General Benjamin Lincoln and Lachlan McIntosh (they will be exchanged for British prisoners in February 1782). It is the worst defeat for the Americans since the war began, and although Rutledge escapes to North Carolina and tries to rally forces to retake Charleston, his property is seized. Clinton moves north to blockade the French fleet, leaving General Charles Cornwallis, now 40, to continue the war in the South.
The former royal governor of the British North American Province of Massachusetts Bay Thomas Hutchinson dies at London June 3 at age 68.
General Nathaniel Greene turns back a British army June 23 at Springfield, New Jersey, thwarting a British move to reach Morristown. His force of 1,800 has faced about 5,000 Hessian advancing in two columns under the command of General Wilhelm von Knyphausen with cavalry and 20 cannon, but Greene deploys his men to good advantage, forcing the enemy to retreat (after burning and looting the town). The British lose 150 killed and wounded; Greene's casualties total 15 killed, 61 wounded.
A fleet of 10 ships carrying some 6,000 French troops arrives off Rhode Island July 10 under the command of the comte de Rochambeau, having left Brest May 1 (see 1779); he writes to General Washington the next day that he has come full of "submission" and "zeal," with orders from the king placing him and his army at Washington's disposal, but the British have blockaded the main French fleet in Narragansett Bay. Rochambeau sees no prospect for a victory over the British, he is loath to abandon the fleet, and although the marquis de Lafayette urges him in August to shake off his lethargy he will remain inactive for a year.
Charleston, South Carolina-born Continental Congress president Henry Laurens, 56, embarks for the Netherlands in August on a mission to negotiate a $10 million loan for the American cause. Captured by the British off Newfoundland, he is imprisoned in the Tower of London, and when papers found on his person turn out to contain a draft of a proposed Dutch-American treaty, Britain declares war on the Netherlands, whose merchants have been supplying the colonists with munitions (see 1781).
American forces under General Horatio Gates suffer a disastrous defeat August 16 at Camden, South Carolina, as redcoats under General Charles Cornwallis win the day. Gates has led a force of continentals and militia in an attack on the British against the advice of German soldier of fortune Johann Kalb, 59; he abandons his army and flees on a fast horse for 160 miles. Kalb commands the Continental Army's right wing, charges the enemy three times, and leads a final, desperate attempt before he falls; bleeding from 11 wounds, he dies at Camden August 19. Gates is blamed for the loss and relieved of his command.
British spy Major John André, 29, falls into American hands at Tarrytown, New York, September 23 with papers revealing a plot by Benedict Arnold to surrender West Point to General Sir Henry Clinton (the papers are actually found in the major's boots by three men, possibly brigands intent on robbing him; they order him to strip, find the papers, and the one man among them who can read recognizes their significance). Now 39 and a widower, Arnold has recently married the beautiful 20-year-old Philadelphia coquette Peggy Shippen, who has hysterics in her rooms at West Point when General Washington visits the fortress and learns of her husband's treachery; convinced that the American cause is doomed, Arnold escapes downriver from Dobb's Ferry to the British sloop Vulture that is waiting for André. Attempts to exchange André for Arnold come to naught, General Washington appoints a board of military officers to hear evidence against him, they find him guilty of espionage, and André is hanged October 2 despite pleas on his behalf by Washington's aide Alexander Hamilton, now 25.
The Battle of Kings Mountain October 7 marks a turning point in the war in the South. Major Patrick Ferguson of 1776 Ferguson Rifle fame commands a small army of North Carolina Loyalists and is the only British regular present; he had his right arm permanently crippled in the 1777 Battle of Brandywine, learned to write with his left hand, resumed active duty 1 year later, but was accidentally bayoneted through his good arm in March of this year and for 3 weeks rode with his reins in his teeth, propped up in his saddle by orderlies. He has warned the "Overmountainmen" to cease their rebellion or be hunted down and hanged, but he receives no reinforcements from General Cornwallis. Some 900 North Carolina backwoodsmen launch a surprise attack, they defeat his force of 900 Loyalist militiamen, Ferguson is killed at age 36, his followers soon surrender, some of them are hanged, others hacked at with swords on the march up country.
George Washington retires with his troops to winter quarters at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. The Delaware River north to Philadelphia is safe to British shipping by late November.
British forces in the Pacific go to war with the Dutch, who wind up losing some of their possessions in the East Indies and much of their power to control the spice trade (see 1743; spice trade, 1760). Having failed to subjugate the sultan of Ternate, the Dutch have concentrated their efforts upon growing clove trees at Amboina, some 300 miles to the south, while destroying as many wild clove trees as possible in the northern Moluccas in order to keep the sultan from flooding the market with low-priced cloves; they have stationed troops along the coast of Amboina and patrolled its waters with ships to prevent theft of the island's clove trees. The British have blockaded Dutch East Indian ports, and its new inability to control prices of cloves, nutmegs, mace, and pepper is ruinous to the Dutch East India Company. The right to search ships at sea is at stake in the conflict, which soon ends with the Dutch losing much of their power in that part of the world (see 1796).
A second Mysore War breaks out in India in September as Mysore's Muslim ruler Haidar Ali allies himself with the Marathas and retaliates against an attack by the British-supported nawab of Arcot. He attacks the British-held Carnatic coast while the Marathas lay siege to the East India Company headquarters city Madras as the First Maratha War drags on (see 1779). British troops relieve the siege and the Marathas withdraw (see 1781).
Maria Theresa of Austria, Hungary, and Bohemia dies of smallpox at Vienna November 28 at age 63, leaving her son Josef free to rule alone (he visited Russia's Catherine the Great in April against his mother's wishes).
Peruvian revolutionary Tupac Amaru II arrests the Spanish provincial administrator (corregidor) Antonio Arriaga and executes him on charges of cruelty. A descendant of the last Inca ruler, Tupac was originally named José Gabriel Condorcanqui and has received a formal Jesuit education but has identified himself with the native tribespeople of the Tinta region in southern Peru; he gains support from some of the Creoles (American-born Spaniards) throughout southern Peru and what later will be parts of Bolivia and Argentina, but they withdraw their support when it becomes clear that Tupac means to lead a rebellion against Spanish rule and will use violence to gain independence (see 1781).
Spanish colonial authorities in the viceroyalty of New Granada impose new tobacco and polling taxes, provoking a revolt that will be called the Communero Rebellion. Insurgents led by Manuela Beltrán at Socorro gain reinforcements from other towns north of Bogotá and demand not only the cancellation of the taxes but also a wide range of reforms that include land redistribution, an increase in the number of Creoles (locally born Spaniards) appointed to administrative positions, and a reduction in labor tributes for Native Americans and mestizos (see 1781).
British forces in Georgia and the Carolinas promise freedom to slaves who come across to their lines, putting them to work at heavy labor in organized Black Pioneer brigades, but many of the blacks succumb to smallpox. Slaveholders unite to retain their chattels.
The Holy Roman Emperor Josef II orders an end to serfdom in Bohemia and Hungary, completing work begun by his late mother, Maria Theresa (see 1782).
French authorities make 3,700 seizures of contraband salt and arrest 2,300 men on the roads for trying to evade the Gabelle (see commerce, 1680). Police also arrest 1,800 women and 6,000 children and confiscate 1,100 horses and 50 carts. Judges hand down 2,000 prison sentences, and 300 people are sent to the galleys for life.
Massachusetts adopts a constitution that deprives women of their voting rights (see New York, 1777; New Hampshire, 1784).
Explorer Jonathan Carver dies at London January 31 at age 69.
Nashville, Tennessee, has its beginnings in a fort that North Carolina pioneer James Robertson builds on the Cumberland River. The fort will take the name Nashville in 1784.
Philadelphia merchant Joseph Hewes dies at Philadelphia November 10 at age 49 while serving in the Continental Congress, having signed the Declaration of Independence 3 years ago.
The American Academy of Arts and Sciences is founded at Boston.
Of 21,000 children born in Paris, 17,000 are sent to the country to be wet-nursed, 3,000 placed in nursery homes, 700 wet-nursed at home, and only 700 suckled by their own mothers, who risk the scorn of society.
London dancer Emma Hart (née Emily Lyon), 19, is billed as the "goddess of health" and directs the sensuous revels at a Temple of Health opened by English saddler's son James Graham with incense burners, flame-breathing dragons, lascivious paintings, and a Celestial Bed erected on 40 glass pillars with numerous electrical devices intended to rejuvenate the impotent and permit the childless to conceive. Having visited Philadelphia and heard about Benjamin Franklin's experiments with electricity, Graham has obtained backing from Giorgiana, duchess of Devonshire. Emma and her mother (who called herself Mrs. Cadogan) came to London from their native Cheshire a year or two ago, Emma became mistress to Sir Harry Fetherstonehaugh in Sussex, someone impregnated her, Sir Harry suspected one of his guests of being the father, the guest introduced her to his rich uncle Sir William Hamilton, who offered to pay the nephew's debts in exchange for Emma, and he will take her and her mother to Naples, where she will become a close friend of Queen Maria Caroline.
Physician John Fothergill dies at London December 26 at age 68, having pioneered knowledge of diphtheria and been the first to relate angina pectoris to coronary atherosclerosis (a buildup of fats in the arteries). He has promoted cultivation of coffee bushes in the West Indies.
New England has a "dark day" May 19. Religious people believe the end of the world is at hand.
The Gordon "No Popery" Riots disrupt London from July 2 to 8 as Lord George Gordon, 29, heads a mob of 50,000 that marches from St. George's Fields to the houses of Parliament with petitions to repeal a 1778 act relieving Roman Catholics of certain prejudicial disadvantages. The mob destroys Catholic chapels, breaks open prisons, and attacks the Bank of England. A court acquits Gordon of treason, but he will be excommunicated in 1787 and will embrace Judaism before dying a debtor in Newgate prison in 1793.
London's first Sunday newspapers appear March 26 as the British Gazette and the Sunday Monitor begin publication.
Switzerland's Zürcher Zeiting (later the Neue Zürcher Zeitung) begins publication Wednesdays and Saturdays. Printed by the Zürich firm Orell, Gessner, Füssli and Company, it announces in its first issue, "It will not be possible for us, as so many other papers do, to report the news before it happens." The four-page paper will change its name in 1821 and go on to become the nation's leading daily.
Steel pen points begin to replace quill feathers.
Jurist Sir William Blackstone dies at his native London February 14 at age 56; physician-traveler-author John Bell at his native Antermony, Stirlingshire, July 1 at age 89; woman of letters Marie de Vichy-Chamrond, marquise du Deffand, at Paris September 23 at age 83, having continued to entertain at her salon despite the loss of her eyesight some 25 years ago. Her correspondence with Horace Walpole, now 63, has demonstrated an eloquence of style that has flowered in recent years rather than declining.
Painting: Christ on the Cross by Francisco de Goya; Mary Robinson as Perdita by Sir Joshua Reynolds; Death of Chatham by John Singleton Copley.
Theater: The Belle's Stratagem by Hannah Cowley at London's Haymarket Theatre. It will survive as her most successful comedy.
First performances: Symphony No. 34 in C major by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, in July at Salzburg; Symphony No. 75 in D major by Joseph Haydn at Schloss Esterházy.
The first modern pianoforte is built at Paris by Sébastien Erard, 28 (see Cristofori, 1709).
Spanish dancer Sebastiano Carezo invents the bolero.
The Hudson River freezes over at New York, enabling British forces to cross on the ice with heavy gear that includes cannon. Blockhouses are erected on the ice to prevent Americans from crossing the river in the coldest winter ever recorded on the North American continent.
Britain enjoys something of an agrarian revolution as better seed, more scientific crop rotation, more efficient tools, and improved livestock increase productivity (see Bakewell, 1769; Coke, 1772). But the yield of European agriculture remains little more than five or six times the original seed, on average, and agricultural methods on the Continent are still largely medieval. A third or more of the land is left fallow (partly because of a manure shortage), the land is communally cultivated, and most livestock is still killed every fall (see 1730).
Lazzaro Spallanzani employs artificial insemination for the first time (with dogs) (see 1779).
Congress appeals to the states November 4 to contribute quotas of flour, hay, and pork to support the Continental armies.
James Watt designs a steam-operated flour mill, but water wheels continue to power mills of all kinds (see 1774).
Delaware storekeeper Oliver Evans, 25, devises an automated flour mill. A crippled man who has seen millers toil up long flights of stairs with heavy bags of grain to be dumped into chutes that flow into millstones, Evans invents a water-driven vertical conveyor belt that carries hoisting buckets, and he combines this with a horizontal conveyor that moves grain, meal, and flour from place to place on the ground (see 1787).
English sugar consumption reaches 12 pounds per year per capita, up from four in 1700, as Britons increase coffee and tea consumption (see 1872).
The Dutch East India Company imports 450,000 porcelain tea sets, 40,000 chocolate sets, and 24,000 coffee sets, all from China.
China manufacturer William Cookworthy dies at Plymouth, Devonshire, October 17 at age 75, having found the only domestic sources of kaolin and petuntse required to produce porcelain.
Laird's Applejack is introduced by Scobeyville, New Jersey, Continental Army soldier and brandy distiller Robert Laird for sale at the Colt's Neck Inn opened by a Scottish-born ancestor in 1717. His descendants will continue the enterprise into the 21st century.
Irish distiller John Jameson begins making a whisky that will be popular for centuries.
Urbanization advances in western Europe. France has more than a dozen towns of 30,000 or more, but 85 percent of the population is in villages of 2,000 or less. Nine Italian and Spanish cities have over 40,000 inhabitants each, but no Bohemian town except Prague has more than 10,000. Warsaw has fewer than 30,000, and all the towns in Hungary put together have no more than 356,000, while Paris has nearly 700,000 and London well over that.
1771 1772 1773 1774 1775 1776 1777 1778 1779 1780
