In 1553 CE we’ll take a break from King/Emperor Charles of Spain and his bands of rapacious conquistadores (who continued their plundering and genociding, of course.) Attention turns to England and thence to some significant non-European empires. I suppose you might say the Ottoman Empire was at least partly European, though? Anyway, here we go: … Continue reading Key developments of 1553
Quite the year, 1552 CE! Conquistadores doing their thing, while back home in Europe their King/Emperor almost got captured by hostile forces. Ottomans, Portuguese, Ivan the Terrible, the dreadful Ming emperor. Imperial roiling as usual: In Chile, veteran conquistador Pedro Gutiérrez de Valdivia founded not one but two new settler towns, Valdivia and La Imperial. … Continue reading Key developments of 1552
It is still less than 60 years since 1492… but here we were in 1551 CE with the Spanish conquistadores taking new steps to consolidate their settler-colonial grip on the Americas. Things were also happening in the Mediterranean: In May, an order of Spain’s King/Emperor Charles established the “Royal and Pontifical University of the City … Continue reading Key developments of 1551
The year 1550 CE saw several world-historical things happening around the world. Before we dive deeper into one of these, here are the main bullet-points: Conquistadores doing their aggressive, expansionist thing in various parts of the Americas. Notably at Penco (halfway down today’s Chile) one conquistador force vanquished an army of several thousand indigenous Mapuche … Continue reading Key developments of 1550, & notes on Christianity and slavery
Here are notable developments in world history of 1549 CE: In March, the Portuguese established the first settler-“capital” in Brazil, Salvador da Baha. In July, something called Kett’s Rebellion broke out out in eastern England. This was an uprising against the policy of enclosures of previously common land, that mobilized 16,000 rioters who seized control … Continue reading Key developments of 1549
1548 CE was another quietish year in the story of the development of Western imperialism. No matter. It gave me the chance to learn more about the Ming Empire in China, by virtue of the fact that during this year a rather interesting Ming official carried out notable actions against “pirates” of Portuguese and other … Continue reading Key developments of 1548, & a dispatch from the Chinese coast
1547 CE saw the deaths of three key actors– or anyway, two key actors and a leading second-string player– in the drama of European proto-imperialism that we’ve been following in Project 500 Years thus far. They were: England’s King Henry VIII, Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés, and France’s King Francis I. We’ll come down to more … Continue reading Key developments of 1547
There were not many new developments of world-historical importance in 1546 CE. Just these: The Italian War of 1542-46 was ended with a peace signed in Ardre (northern France.) This had been the fighting– principally between the Habsburg/Spanish King/Emperor Charles V and King Francis I of France that had roiled much of western Europe, and … Continue reading Key developments of 1546
In 1545 CE, we’ll look quickly at some of the usual story-lines but then take a deeper dive into a Portuguese-controlled zone in West Africa. The usual story-lines: King Henry VIII of England was fighting both the Scots (who won a battle) and the French (whose short-lived capture of the Isle of Wight the English … Continue reading Key developments of 1545, & the Portuguese in West Africa
In 1544 CE, most of what was happening empire-wise in the world was sort of “same-old-same-old”. So beneath the bullet points here I’ll make a quick early assessment of what emerges for me as the bigger picture. First, the bullet-points: The King/Emperor Charles V of Spain stepped up his confrontation against France’s King Francis I, … Continue reading Key developments of 1544, & notes on empires, states, and nations
