Last year, 1566, one main big thing of world-historical importance happened. This year, 1567 CE, lots of things happened! I shall try to bring order out of a degree of global chaos: In China, the Jiajing Emperor dies Uproar & uprising in the Spanish Netherlands Conquistadores found key settlements in Americas Many adventures for Mary … Continue reading Key developments of 1567 →

I’ll interrupt my normal procedure here of picking out a few bullet-points (or headlines) from the events of the year, to focus on a single theater of world affairs in which two big things happened simultaneously in 1566 CE. This was Szigetvár, a fortified city in the south of today’s Hungary, which was captured– after … Continue reading The key development of 1566 →

Lots going on in 1565 CE– and a slightly new format here. Headlines and even an index. Click away! Ottomans besiege Crusader-remnant Knights in Malta Spanish Conquistador forces a “Treaty” on Rajah in today’s Philippines Another Conquistador attacks French & indigenes in today’s Florida Portuguese & Japanese battle at Fukuda Bay Key Ming military planner … Continue reading Key developments of 1565 →

Back to the New World (and a couple other places) this year. Here were the main  developments of world-historical impact in 1564 CE: In Chile, the Mapuche continued their resistance to Spanish settler-colonialism though they continued to suffer grievously from Spanish violence. In March 1564, a conquistador captain called Lorenzo Bernal  fought a battle at … Continue reading Key developments of 1564 →

1562 was such a big year for this project. 1563 CE seems, by contrast, to be very quiet. I am certain that over here in the Americas, the Spanish and Portuguese settlers were continuing their genocidal activities and in London the Queen and various very rich dudes around her were planning their next investment in … Continue reading Key developments of 1563 →

Omg, 1562 CE, the year of the first instance of officially-backed English involvement in the trans-Atlantic trade in enslaved Africans. (A few other globally significant things happened, too.) Here goes: John Hawkins was a 30-year-old mariner from the southwest England port town of Plymouth, when this happened (per WP): “Hawkins received commission from Queen Elizabeth … Continue reading Key developments of 1562 →

The single most interesting development of 1561 CE was the renewed outbreak of an anti-colonial uprising in today’s Chile. But Suleiman the Magnificent was also getting on in years and his sons had been circling around for the succession… Anyway, read on! First Chile. 1561 saw the outbreak of the Second Great Mapuche Rebellion in … Continue reading Key developments of 1561 →

Well, lots of things happening in 1560 CE. Today’s survey will take us to many of that era’s empires! Here we go: Spain’s king Philip II had assembled a coalition of Christian naval powers with the goal of retaking Tripoli, in today’s Libya, from the Ottomans, who had captured it in 1551. The Christian fleet, … Continue reading Key developments of 1560 →

Here were the main developments of world-historical impact, in 1559 CE: England’s Queen Elizabeth I got crowned and immediately enacted two laws central to the Protestant supremacy there. These were the Act of Uniformity, which laid down the order of service in the Church of England and forced all subjects to go to church once … Continue reading Key developments of 1559 →

Not much happened in 1558 CE. Perhaps the fact that the global flu pandemic that had broken out the preceding year continued to rage throughout 1558 had something to do with that? (Above is a historic photo of the quarantine station built at Dubrovnik harbor in 1590, but Europeans and Ottomans had known a lot … Continue reading Key developments of 1558 →