What we are seeing in Afghanistan today, in almost real time, is the implosion and final collapse of the imperial project the US launched there in 2001. As with the final US collapse in Vietnam in 1975 or indeed the generally slightly more orderly withdrawal of British troops from India or so many former outposts … Continue reading The hubris of the long-distance empire
I’ve been writing my longform article about the role Portugal made in pioneering the concept, practice, and justifying ideologies of Western empire-building in the past six centuries. (Stay tuned for news on that.) But I’ve been doing a bit of supplementary reading and I came across this quote, from the Preface of A.R. Disney’s A … Continue reading Empires and ‘absent-mindedness’
It’s just over a month since a family emergency called me away from the work I had been doing, posting a daily-per-year bulletin here to track the world-historical developments of each of the 500 years since 1520 CE. Such family-crisis interruptions can be very disorienting. But I’ve reached an age/stage in my life where I’ve … Continue reading Project 500 Yrs: A clearer focus, a new strategy
Hi everyone. Last Thursday, June 24, I published the 176th daily bulletin in this project, which covered the year 1695 CE. I had anyway been planning a pause when I reached 1700 CE, but a family emergency called me away from my work so I put the project’s daily bulletins on hold as of last … Continue reading Project 500 Years: Communique #4
The biggest news of 1695 CE was the capture by a small English pirate flotilla in the Bab al-Mandeb strait of a heavily laden Mughal treasure ship returning to Surat from the Hajj. This event, which seems to have been very well documented from several points of view, including a fairly authoritative Indian one, illustrates … Continue reading 1695: Sketchy English pirate loots Mughal treasure ship, rapes & abuses passengers.
There were several significant developments in 1694 CE. I shall look first at a couple of developments from southern Europe and the Mediterranean. Then we’ll go to England where 1694 saw the establishment of the Bank of England, the death of Queen Mary, and a couple other developments. Then we’ll go to Brazil, where the … Continue reading 1694: Brazil destroys large maroon community. English slavetrader documents his work. Some news from Europe.
1693 CE is a good year to look at the position of Louis XIV’s France both in Europe and in the worldwide battle the West European countries were waging as they built their global empires. Another smaller event of the year that I’ll note in passing was a schism that occurred in the world of … Continue reading 1693: Europe’s war of all against France continues. Dutch take Pondicherry from France. Etc.
So here we are, at 200 years after the fateful “contact” year of 1492 CE and all around the world there are developments that help illustrate the changes the coming of Western imperialism has made to the lives of hundreds of millions of people. So much to write about today! I’ll keep the biggest story … Continue reading 1692: Many developments worldwide on 200th anniversary of 1492!
In 1691 CE, The Spanish and Portuguese conquistadores, adventurers, and– especially– the various Catholic religious orders continued to pursue their various genocidal settler-colonial projects in the Americas and the East Indies. English, Dutch, French, and Spanish plantation owners in the Caribbean continued to import and exploit enslaved laborers to generate their hyper-profits for investors back … Continue reading 1691: Spanish Inquisition leads pogrom in Mallorca.
Lots happening in 1690 CE! All the above-listed items, plus the founding of Barclays Bank (which merits a short notice here, for reasons that will become clear.) First, let’s go to India. EIC grovels to Aurangzeb, founds Calcutta In yesterday’s post, I noted that the intervention of the local Muslim navy that Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb … Continue reading 1690: EIC grovels to Aurangzeb, founds Calcutta.French Navy grabs a surprise win. Spanish Texas founded.
