1630 CE was not marked by any big developments in the history of Western takeover of the world. It did bring the first of three terrible famine years to Western India and a small success for the Dutch in Brazil. Famine first. Western India famine of 1630-32 I have a few sources on this but … Continue reading 1630: Famine in Gujarat, Dutch colonizing success in Brazil
1629 CE saw a deepening rift between England’s King Charles and the parliament. That made it a challenging year for the English investors and merchants who were trying to build a sustainable and above all profitable colonial presence in various distant continents but who now needed to navigate potentially perilous political shoals not only in … Continue reading 1629: English colonists navigate King-parliament rift; & news from East Asia.
In 1628 CE, a long-feared Chinese pirate, Zheng Zhilong first of all beat the Ming navy, then decided to become its admiral. In Sweden, a large crowd of citizens, along with most of the foreign ambassadors in Stockholm, watched from shore as King Gustavus Adolphus’s pet power-projection project, a 226-foot warship called Vasa, sank ignominiously … Continue reading 1628: A Chinese pirate turns admiral. Sweden’s navy humiliated. Constitional woes in England…
In 1627 CE, the usual kinds of colonial practices continued, of course, to be pursued around the world by the raiding/trading empires of Portugal, Spain, England, and Netherlands; and in Europe, the Thirty Years War continued to roil Central Europe while Spain and Netherlands continued to pursue their Eighty Years War. But today I’m going … Continue reading 1627: Succession in Mughal India
In 1626 we can start to see many enduring aspects of the takeover by European colonial projects of many parts of the world. In the Caribbean island of St. Kitts, English and French settlers joined hands to plan and commit a genocide of the indigenous Kalinago people. In North America, a Dutch trader paid in … Continue reading 1626: Genocide & strategic hamlets in Americas. Spanish on Formosa.
1625 CE was a year of transition in England, where King James I died in late March, and Netherlands, where Prince/Stadtholder Maurice of Nassau died in late April. Maurice’s role had been foundational to the emergence of a coherent, separate polity in Netherlands. In the months after these deaths, Dutch naval forces undertook serious assaults … Continue reading 1625: Successions in Netherlands, England. English investor acquires Barbados.
Lower down in today’s bulletin I’ll provide a quick overview of how, in 1624 CE, the four big European colonialisms– in chronological order, Portugal, Spain, England, and Netherlands– were roiling the world and what was happening in France that showed it to be on the brink of a big eruption of the same maladie de … Continue reading 1624: Four European colonialisms roil the world; France waits in wings
In 1623, by far the most important development in imperial geopolitics was a confrontation the officials of the Dutch East India Company (VOC) had in Amboyna (Ambon) in the Spice Islands with the handful of English East India Company (EIC) officials there. After a torture-based kangaroo-court trial of all the local EIC officials, the VOC … Continue reading 1623: Dutch beat English in East Indies showdown.
1622 CE was a huge year in geopolitics. A lot of what happened this year had to do with the very long-drawn-out deterioration of the Portuguese empire’s position on the fringes of the Indian Ocean. I’ll try to keep each entry here brief. Here’s the main Table of Contents. Scroll on down to what interests … Continue reading 1622: Powhatans strike back at ‘Jamestown’. Dutch take on China (& Portugal), without success. And much more.
The major geopolitical development in 1621 CE was the end of the Twelve Years Truce that Spain and the United Provinces of the Netherlands concluded at Antwerp in April 1609. The Dutch were ready to take advantage of the new freedom of action this afforded them on the world scene and launched a Dutch West … Continue reading 1621: Dutch erupt further onto world scene. Succession in Spain.
